Trim the bottom of a large pineapple so that it will stand upright. Cut off the top, but do not throw it away. With a sharp knife dig out the inside of the fruit, taking care that the knife does not penetrate the sides or walls of the pineapple. Put this hollowed case and the top into the refrigerator until needed. Pick the inside of the pineapple into tiny bits, and mix with it a cupful of red raspberries. Sweeten abundantly with granulated sugar, and turn the fruit into a glass, or a china jar, with a closely fitting cover. Put on the lid and bury the jar in the ice for several hours. Just before time to serve it, remove from the ice, fill the hollowed shell with the fruit mixture, replace the top on the pineapple and send to table.
Pineapple and strawberries
Cut off the top of a pineapple, and pare away the bottom so that it will stand upright and firm on the plate; scoop out the pulp, discarding the core; mix the pulp with strawberries cut in halves, the juice of an orange and sugar to taste. Return the mixture to the shell and chill thoroughly. Garnish the dish with leaves from the crown.
Strawberries
If large and ripe, do not cap them, but pass whole, with powdered sugar that each eater may help himself. Holding the stem as a handle, he dips the fruit in the sugar and nibbles it daintily.
Orange baskets
In halving large sweet oranges leave a strip of rind on one side that may serve as a handle to the other. Dig out the pulp from under and around the “handle,” leaving that in the lower “basket” intact. Set the baskets in ice until you are ready to serve. Tie a bow of narrow ribbon to each handle before sending to table. Eat with orange spoons.
ICE CREAM AND ICES
Freezers that speedily congeal the contents of their grinding depths may be bought so cheaply, our housekeeper will find that in the long run it is economy to buy a patent freezer and make her ices at home.
In freezing creams of all sorts, and water, or fruit ices, the process is greatly simplified by having the ice crushed fine. Many cooks who are new to the business, do not recognize this fact. In consequence, they learn that to freeze cream takes very much longer than they were led to imagine from the circular advertising “the most rapid freezer ever put upon the market.” While this circular may to a certain extent exaggerate the facts, do not condemn the new machine until you have pounded or shaved your ice very fine. A machine for shaving ice facilitates this process. Lacking this, put the ice into a strong bag and pound it fine with a wooden mallet.