MANIOC

or Bitter Manioc, or Ca ava, a large, woody, tropical plant botanically known as Manihot utili ima, whose roots furnish ca ava-starch. It is variously known in the West Indies and South Wy: Re a) America as manioc, mandioca, ca ava, and a f ca ada (as well as by various other titles), Py s a and as ‘‘ubi tan ah’’ in Java and the Malay aol® > xa a...#,| Peninsula, the principal United States sources. Ya "ie gai The roots range in diameter from one and a half \ PROB 2, fae | to eight inches, and in length from eighteen oo F inches to four feet, growing in clusters which &: average from five to ten pounds each and often Alt; reach thirty pounds and upwards. # |: Ca ava-stareh, or flour, or ‘‘Brazilian ar-; ‘ rowroot,’’ is utilized industrially in many ways i, i —in the manufacture of compre ed yeast; as SS: a sizing material; in the textile industries; for d ® glazing twine; and as a Jaundry starch—but its — —— chief interest to the average person is as the The manioc-plant product from which taproca is made (see Tapioca), The root is an important native food in several tropical countries. In South America, a meal obtained by drying and grating is baked im thin cakes which are both nutritious and agreeable in flavor. An interesting fact is that no water is = | added to the meal, sufficient adhesion being secured by 7 ’ the softening of the starch — o particles in baking. o% The raw roots generally contain hydrocyanic acid— | <i ant the quantity in some varies y ——r 2% ties, seasons, and regions ~y" is sufficient to be fatally poi- J «© sonous—but this is readily x di ipated and rendered ae harmle by cooking the root TRE"MIM GET To i or a Co. or its meal, or by sun drying, Manioe roots or is commercially expre ed with the juice. The juice gives Ca areep (which see). The root, cut in cubes, and put up in sirup, is occasionally seen in fancy grocery stores in this country. It is a rather pleasing preserye, resembling preserved chestnuts. Both the bitter manioe of this article and the nearly related sweet ca ava (J. dulcis, var. Aipi,) are cultivated to a limited extent in Florida and other southern states. ‘. MANNA, a sweetish substance obtained from the manna-ash (Fraxinus ornus), native to the mountainous parts of southern Europe, by making small incisions in the bark of the trunk and permitting the oozing juice to harden. It is also exuded to some extent without human aid as the result of the punctures of a cicada. Its eluef component, known as mannite, is the same that furnishes the sweetne of celery and of some seaweeds. The commercial product comes almost entirely from Sicily, the best quality being known as ‘‘flake manna.’’ Its principal use is as a mild laxative for children. There are many other ‘‘mannas.’’ That which tallies best with the manna of the Bible is a substance found on the small branehes of the tamarisk shrub of the Sinai Peninsula, Arabia, Persia, and elsewhere. During June and July it exudes in honey-like drops which harden into a semblance of grain during the cold of the night and early morning. It is sweet but it contains no mannite..\ popular Persian confection is made by kneading this manna and wheat-flour into a thick paste. The ordinary modern commercial manna-bread is made of rvye-flour, honey, and sugar, sprinkled with poppy-seed or coriander-seed, ete. The name ‘manna’? has also been apphed to numerous special food preparations. MAPLE-SIRUP and MAPLE-SUGAR, tle evaporated sap of several varieties of the maple-tree, native to North America. The two most important are the Rock maple, distinguished by its very hight grey, almost white bark, and the Black maple, le dense in growth and with black bark. Both of them are handseme, vigorous trees, fifty to sixty feet in average height, large specimens exceeding 100 feet. Between seventeen and eighteen nullion trees are annually tapped in the United States. The principal producing states are Vermont, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The sugar industry is everywhere losing ground, but the sirup output is increasing in both Vermont and New York. The ‘‘sugar groves’’ are either natural forests in which the maples predominate or man-set plantations. In the former, human a istance 1s confined to the elimination of old trees and over-numerous saplings. The sap is collected by tapping about three feet from the ground. The tap-hole is bored from one to two inches deep with a three-eighths inch, or slightly larger, hit; the spout is driven into this, and a sap-bucket is hung on the spout. It is the wood immediately under the bark which gives the sap, the largest amount coming from the ring made by the growth of the tree during the preceding year. The gathering season commences during the latter half of February, or the first part of March, just as the winter is breaking up and the general rule is thawing days and frosty nights. It ends when the trees begin to bud, for at that time the sap undergoes a change and the sugar content decreases. 28 The percentage of sugar commonly varies from 1% to 4% (up occasionally to so high as 10%). It is affected by many cireumstances—the variety of the tree, its virility, its location, the soil, the climate, and the character of the season. There are generally three or four ‘‘runs’’ during a good season, the first being usually the _ sweetest, averaging from 3% to 4% of sugar. This first sap is water-white and transparent—it consists of almost pure sucrose and water. Each succeeding run is usually le sweet and le clear. The quantity of sap depends to a great extent on the growth of the tree during the preceding summer and the weather conditions during the tapping season. The average net product is about three pints of sirup to the tree. After its receipt at the boiling-house, the sap is (or should be) immediately evaporated to the desired consistence—stopping the cooking early if sirup is the final result desired and continuing it longer if sugar is to be made. The evaporators vary in size according to local requirements. An evaporator three feet wide by ten feet long will handle the product from three hundred trees. The color and flavor of both sirup and sugar depend largely upon the methods of collection and evaporation. If the sap-buckets have been kept clean and the sap has been promptly colleeted and is then evaporated quickly and carefully with modern equipment, the sirup will be light yellow and the sugar yellowish-brown and firm, and both will be delicate in flavor, Under other conditions, they are liable to be dark and coarser to the palate, and the sugar may, further, be mushy. It must be added that a good many people prefer the coarser flavor! Maple sap sirup is the sap reduced to sirup consistence as noted above. Maple sugar sirup is a solution of maple-sugar. “Maple sirup’’ may be either of these. ‘‘Hard’’ and ‘‘soft,’’? as descriptive of the sugar, are self-explanatory. Pieces of the latter type quickly di olve in the mouth. ‘‘Tub’’ sugar is a soft sugar run into cans or tubs. ‘‘Grain,’’ or ‘‘stirred,’’ sugar, is a different product, resembling ordinary commercial brown sugar, thongh being (as a rule) rather more lumpy. It is made by frequent stirring during cooling and crystallization. ‘*Maple-sugar cream,’’ or ‘‘maple butter,’’ is obtained by especially rapid cooling after the nece ary concentration. It is smooth, thick, and very mild-flavored, much enjoved by children on bread and butter, etc., and useful in layer-cake making. As part of its sirup separates on standing, it should be well mixed before using. Maple-sirup should be stored in a dry, cool place of even temperature. Freezing temperature should he avoided, as it tends to crystallization. Maple-sugar is best stored in a dry, warm place of even temperature..A moist atmosphere is partieularly detrimental, softening it and often producing moldine . Maple-sugar making now, and maple-sugar making as it used to he, are very different things. The industry has gained in facility and efficiency, but it has lost In picturesquene . The old-style camp with its primitive plant is no more. The kettle has long heen superseded, and the trough has become a ma of crumbling decay. The sap was collected then in troughs, each about three feet long, hollowed out of sections of poplars, and was conveyed to the kettles in barrels, from which it was transferred by scoops. There were five or more kettles, from ten to thirty gallons in capacity, and each was filled with sap and kept at the boiling point, the larger kettles being filled from the smaller as evaporation reduced the contents. When the sap was sufficiently reduced, the hot sirup was dipped out and pa ed through a flannel strainer into uncovered tubs, from which it was again poured into a Jarge, thick-bottomed kettle for the proce of ‘‘sugaring off,’? some milk and the whites of several] eggs being added to it. Thus prepared, it was placed over a slow fire, and kept below the boiling point for a while (the scum being removed from time to time), presently becoming temptingly translucent. It was then exposed to a greater heat and gently boiled, the evaporation gradually bringing it to the point of granulation. Then the sugar-maker became all watchfulne , and it fared ill with those who distracted him, for if the golden liquid seething in the kettle boiled the least bit too much, if would become too dry, and if it boiled too little, it would be ‘‘sogey.’’ le tested it constantly, plucking threads of it from his: - a.. lied, — * oe Eee — - —: and trailing them around in cups of cold water. While the threads vielded waxily to the touch, the sugar was not yet ripe; but as soon as one broke crisp between his fingers, the moment had come to take the kettle off the fire. As the sugar cooled, it crystallized round the sides, and gradually the whole ma , under a vigorous stirring, became granular. In that way was maple-sugar made years ago, and when the sap flowed profusely the operations were continued through the night and the fires cast strange shadows in the woods. But to-day everything is ‘‘improved.’’ In place of the hut of logs is a permanent boiling-house, furnished with many elaborate devices to prevent waste and deterioration. The sap collections are made with letter-collection regularity and if the grove is on a hill and the boiling-house is in a hollow, the sap is emptied into a ‘‘flume,’’ down which it flows into a large reservoir within the building. A scoop or ladle is as anachronistic as a javelin!: To the average consumer of this twentieth century, maple-sugar is a confection, a delicacy. In early colonial times it was in many sections the chief, and often the only, sugar of the family table.