CHICORY

‘There are two chief divisions of the food uses of plants of the chicory (Cichorium) genus: (1) the preparation of the roots as chicory, the coffee addition; (2) the consumption of the leaves and roots as vegetables, and the leaves also in salads. They are considered below under separate subheads. Chicory, the coffee addition. For this purpose, cultivation is of large-rooted varieties of C. intybus. The best known are the Brunswick, with deeply cut leaves of spreading habit; the somewhat similar Palingkop; and the Magdeburg, with undivided, erect leaves. In manufacture, their roots—which attain a length of ten to fourteen inches with a diameter of about two inches below the neck—are sliced and kiln-dried, then roasted with a little oil and ground into different sizes, down to ‘‘fine pulverized.”’ When raw, the root is white and fleshy, but the roasted product resembles roasted coffee. It contains neither ecaffein nor tannin, but it has a bitter principle and a volatile oil, and the roasting brings out an aroma and develops a sugar content. Added to coffee in the proportion of an ounce to the pound, it makes it ‘‘go further’’ by deepening the color and adding to the ‘‘hody”’ of the beverage. Roasted chicory is lighly absorbent of moisture, and should therefore be always kept in closed bottles or canisters. (See also reference in the article on Corres.) Chicory, endive, and escarole, as vegetables and salads. For a correct understanding of this group one must familiarize himself with two species of the chicory genus under general cuit i vat i on—C. intybus (the species described under the preceding subhead), native to Europe, styled Chicory by botanists and lexicographers; and C. endiria, styled Endive, native to the Hast Indies (or perhaps, as some believe, to Egypt). The Coimmon variety of Chicory has become naturalized and runs wild throughout the eastern United States as a tall, strong-rooted, hardy, and persistent perennial weed, often six feet tall, with bare-looking top and attractive, large, light blue flowers. Fmndives are more tender plants, annual or biennial, found only under cultivation. The two titles of ‘Chicory’? and ‘‘Endive’’ as to-day employed to designate the eut plants when sold for vegetables and salads, constitute, however, a complete reversal by colloquial and market usage of the foregoing definitions. Be a Pe RA Mice. c| Batavian), tight, blanched ony I Ba a8 ke Pe heads, is of the Chicory ieory’’ (curly endive)—greatly reduce beard’’). The salad ‘‘chicory’’ is grown both for summer and winter markets, usually blanched more or le in cultivation. It is fairly well liked here for eating raw, but few Americans know that it is also an especially well-flavored cooked vegetable. Escarole—the leaves generally twisted and waved and with thick, white midribs —is more highly considered as a winter than a summer salad but it is raised for both seasons, its natural ten- "r _ dency to blanched centers Oye off 7 being accentuated by gari re. v 2 - deners.: oo a For Barbe de Capucin, plants are taken 0 up before frost. The leaves are then trimmed j off about one-half inch above the neck, and ' the roots are replanted in a moderately 1 / q\ warm, dark cellar, set horizontally in sloping it ': ‘>, j beds of moderately moist soil, the necks of 1): ( the plants clear of the soil. In three or four 4". f weeks the first erop of delicate white leaves, Vv six to ten inches long, are ready for gatheriy ing, to be followed by another—perhaps several—crops. \} j For ‘‘endive’’it is nece ary to have roots } \ with a diameter of from 114 to two inches \: below the neck and carefully selected for singlene of both root and head, and good breadth of leaves. The leaves are then cut off about 114 inches abové the neck, and the roots eut down to nine or ten inches in length and ‘ cleaned by pinching out any secondary shoots: that appear on the sides. The roots thus pre- Sardice? Guage easenedin) pared are set in a trench sixteen to eighteen inches deep, the trench then filled with finely powdered soil, and manure piled on top. In a month’s time —before the heads have made their way up to the manure— the plants are dug up and the newly developed white heads are cut off with a piece of the root-neck attached. ‘‘Hindive’’ consists, typically, of a number of thick, creamy-white leaves from four to six inches in length and one to two inches in width, pre ed close together and generally tapering to a point. It is eaten both raw and cooked. For salad purposes it should be very crisp as otherwise it is liable to be too bitter. By more general cultivation of the several varieties of C. intybus we could considerably increase the diversity of vegetables and salads. The ordinary Common chicory is in other countries widely grown for its young garden leaves, eaten both green and blanched, chiefly in salads, but also as greens. Those around its base resemble dandelion leaves. It is of very easy culture—it may be sown thick so that the leaves crowd each other, and eut with a knife or sickle as needed—the plants supplying several cuttings during the season. If to be used as greens, the leaves should be boiled in two waters to remove their bitterne . Specially developed types, other than the large-rooted varieties already referred to, include Red Italian, Broad-leaved, and Curled-leaved, Red Italian is distinguished by the variegations on its leaves, which on blanching appear in bright red, making a very showy salad-plant. Broad-leaved resembles Esearole, or Broad-leaved endive. Curled-leaved—finely eut, slashed, and ecurled—resembles Curly endive. All types and varieties of endive and chicory require quick growth, or toughne and bitterne may be the penalty. Young chicory roots are pleasing as a vegetable dish, prepared in any way emploved for other root vegetables, but they are poor in nutritive value as their carbohydrate content is chiefly of the only slightly a imilable inulin. CHILI (Chilies), a general name adopted from the Mexican for the pods of several species of small-fruited, specially pungent Capsicums (which see) put up, both ripe and unripe, as a separate pickle or added to ‘‘mixed pickles.’? They are largely consumed in hot countries. The two Mexican dishes containing them whieh are best known here are CuiL1 con carne (see following) and chicken tamale (see Tamatr). The word is also used as a group name for many articles highly seasoned. either with whole capsicums or cayenne pepper. See also references under Cayenne pepper in the article on PEppEr.