Shelled raw Virginia peanuts may be ordered by the 5-pound bag ＄1.75, through Direct Shipping, 32 Bedford Street. These are peanuts for those who like to do their own roasting, peanuts for folks from Florida and Georgia who know raw goobers boiled or baked make mighty fine cating. In Southern states, peanut boilings are as common as cane boilings. Peanuts are gathered just before they mature, washed, then boiled in their hulls in very salty water. The nuts cook gelatinous, with a full peanut sweetness.
Iridescence after iridescence is in the case of glacéed fruits and nuts seen at Henri's, the French confiseur, at 15 East 52nd Street. Meaty halves of nuts, and in variety—almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans—are stuck together with almond paste, and the whole glacéed in a casing as thin as one layer of lacquer. There's crackling like thin glass when the teeth break through. The price, ＄2.50 a pound for 26 to 30 pieces. In the case adjoining are the sugar fondants in flower shapes—white daisies with golden hearts, pansy faces, yellow orange lilies with pale blue tongues. Any color you wish, madam, price ＄2 a pound.
It is the dark breads of Continental type that bring customers from everywhere to the Daylight Bakery, 607 Tenth Avenue. More kinds of dark breads are there than we have ever seen in one place: sweet rye, sour rye, Konnis brot, pumpernickel, light pumpernickel, Vollkorn brot, and farmer's bread, called Bauern brot. The last bread, in tremendous demand, is made with 100 per cent rye flour, without yeast. It is sour bread without being too sour, the texture firm and moist. It is kneaded long and slowly by a technique that the baker claims is the secret of its quality. Sample the Westphalian pumpernickel, 100 per cent whole rye grain, very chewy, but not so stiff and dry as the average variety. This is made by the same kneading method as Bauern brot, but is baked less than two hours, while Bauern brot spends sixteen hours in the oven.
Its name is Apiphene. It comes from the Southwest and is as much a funny honey as ever we have seen. You take it by chews, about three chews a day, and chew as with chewing gum. After ten minutes' jaw work the honey has melted away. The ailments it promises to benefit reach from us to you—covering colds, hay fever, asthma, to mention a few. The stuff is the comb and comb-wax, a natural product of bees which sip the nectar of desert plants in the Southwest. Nothing is added, nothing taken away, price ＄2.50 for 4 ounces, or enough chews, three times a day, to last you almost a week. The honey is sold by Hetty's Honey House, 671 Lexington Avenue.
After a year of talking. Louisiana has let Canada heat her to the eastern muskrat market. The province of Quebec sends cooked, boned muskrat packed in its own broth, to sell at Gristede's Bon Voyage Shop, 12 Vanderbilt Avenue, for 89 cents a half-pound tin—not so expensive, for this is solid meat. Did you ever dress muskrats? They are a fine network of bones. It's a pleasure for once to dip up the dark-red, gamy flesh without first applying knife and fork in a boning technique.
Louisiana keeps promising quick-frozen muskrats—but we haven't seen the critters. To get back to that half-pound tin of what is prettily dubbed marsh rabbit, however, what shall we do with it? Turn the meat into a heat-proof casserole, add one-half cup red wine, a bit of grated nutmeg, black pepper, and a pinch of oregano (Mexican sage). Now cook in boiling salted water four washed, unpeeled Jerusalem artichokes and one pound washed, unpeeled celery root, cut in two pieces. When the vegetables are tender but still firm, drain them (saving the water for soup), peel, and cut in small cubes. Season, and add to the muskrat in the casserole. Cover with pastry, and bake. That's pie for two. A purée made of boiled, sieved parsnips, half-and-half with mashed potatoes, is a good thing with this.
A new chopped chicken giblet sauce is the acquisition of Maison Glass, 15 East 47th Street, a “carriage trade” item, the 14-ounce tin 95 cents. It's a sauce ready to use, nothing to add, for the seasoning is perfection. The giblets are cooked tender, held together by the sauce, nicely spiced, onion scented. Heat the contents of the tin, and pour over rice or noodles, or dip into nests of fluffy mashed potatoes. Giblets are beloved by the mushroom; add an equal volume of fresh mushrooms briefly sautéed, finely cut, the tin will serve six. Now add a little more seasoning, if you so desire.
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