CUCUMBER DELUSIONS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 15, 12 October 1918, Page 3

CUCUMBER DELUSIONS

Some delusions die particularly hard —and one of. these is the "indigestibility" of the cucumber-.- This-prejudice is perhaps'the more difficult to combat since it is supported by no less a one than Pliny. "They lie undigested in men's stomachs '.until the next day." quoth he; yet trying them cooked, ho recanted so far as to admit their blamelessness ''when served with an admixture of olivo oil."

Now I take, it that Pliny's cook (like ninety out of a hundred English cooks) sliced her cucumber some time bifore serving, let .the water "drain,'' and throw this most essential aid to digestion away! Yet in lands where this fruit is most highly prized the ohemical value of that very water when it has or.ce entered the stom'ach is well known; it is therefore above all things desirablo that not a drop of this natural juice ie waste'd. Take away the \iater and the digostive organs are called upon to do increased work in battling with the toughening fibres. _

Abroad, housewives r.isort to an infallible method in order to have fresh cucumbers—without a hothouse—until Christmas and even later. It is the simplest thing in the world, tco. Choose your fruit perfect as to shape and condition, being careful, to select such as still have a good end cf. stalk adhering. AVash and dry them thoroughly, and carefully paint t u em over with white of egg to exclude the air, then suspend each singly, by a' string attached to the stalk, from the ceiling of some dry yet-airy apartment. All you then have to do before use is to peel the cucumber in the ordinary way, and its condition > nmid winter snows will still be that of the..cool and fresh cucumber of sweltering summer! —A.8., in the "Daily Mail."