COOK THE TRUFFLES WITH LEEKS, SALT, PEPPER, CHOPPED CORIANDER, THE VERY BEST WINE AND A LITTLE OIL.
[1] Wanting in Tor.
This, to our notion of eating truffles, is the best formula, save ℞ Nos. [315] and [316].
XVII
TARO, DASHEEN IN COLOCASIO
[322] COLOCASIUM [1] TARO, DASHEEN COLOCASIUM
FOR THE COLOCASIUM (WHICH IS REALLY THE COLOCASIA PLANT, ALSO CALLED “EGYPTIAN BEAN”) USE [2] PEPPER, CUMIN, RUE, HONEY, OR BROTH, AND A LITTLE OIL; WHEN DONE BIND WITH ROUX [3] COLOCASIUM IS THE ROOT OF THE EGYPTIAN BEAN WHICH IS USED EXCLUSIVELY [4].
[1] Cf. notes to ℞ Nos. [74], [172], [216], [244]; also the copious explanations by Humelberg, fol. III.
[2] Tor. who is trying hard to explain the colocasium. His name, “Egyptian Bean” may be due to the mealiness and bean-like texture of the colocasium tuber; otherwise there is no resemblance to a bean, except, perhaps, the seed pod which is not used for food. This simile has led other commentators to believe that the colocasium in reality was a bean.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has in recent years imported various specimens of that taro species (belonging to the colocasia), and the plants are now successfully being farmed in the southern parts of the United States, with fair prospects of becoming an important article of daily diet. The Department has favored us repeatedly with samples of the taro, or dasheen, (Colocasium Antiquorum) and we have made many different experiments with this agreeable, delightful and important “new” vegetable. It can be prepared in every way like a potato, and possesses advantages over the potato as far as value of nutrition, flavor, culture and keeping qualities are concerned. As a commercial article, it is not any more expensive than any good kind of potato. It grows where the potato will not thrive, and vice versa. It thus saves much in freight to parts where the potato does not grow.