INDEX

(Names of varieties in this index, if accepted names, appear in Roman type; synonyms in italics.)

FOOTNOTES

[1] Kirschwasser as a commercial article is made chiefly on the upper Rhine from the wild black Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium). In its manufacture, fruit—flesh and kernels—is mashed into a pulp which is allowed to ferment. By distillation from this fermented pulp a colorless liqueur is obtained.

[2] Maraschino is a liqueur, or cordial, made from the fruit and leaves of the small, sour, black Marasca cherry. The product comes chiefly from Zara, the capital of the Austrian province of Dalmatia, where it has been made and exported for over 200 years. Such accounts of the process of making maraschino as have become public seem to agree that the liqueur is a distillation of a compote made from the fruit and young leaves. When ripe the cherries are picked early in the morning and sent at once to the distillery where the stones are extracted by machinery. The leaves are cut, pressed and added to the fruit with sugar and alcohol. This mixture is allowed to ferment for six months or thereabouts and from it is then distilled maraschino. It is then stored in cellars for three years before being placed on the markets. In both Europe and America there are many imitations of the maraschino liqueur in which neither fruit nor foliage of the Marasca nor any other cherry has any part.

According to the Dalmatians all attempts to improve the Marasca cherry by culture have failed. They say, too, that it will not thrive elsewhere than in Dalmatia. Under culture, the fruits and leaves lose their distinctive aroma and taste as they do on any but the native soil of the variety. The poorer, sparser and more rocky the ferruginous soil, the wilder the tree, the smaller and sourer the cherries, the better the maraschino liqueur—so the present makers say.

Since considerable quantities of cherries are put up in America in maraschino, or its imitation, and the manufacture of such products is a growing industry, the following ruling by the Board of Food and Drug Inspection of the United States Department of Agriculture, taken from Food Inspection Decision 141, is of interest to growers, canners and users of cherries:

"In considering the products prepared from the large light-colored cherry of the Napoleon Bigarreau, or Royal Anne type, which are artificially colored and flavored and put up in a sugar sirup, flavored with various materials, the Board has reached the conclusion that this product is not properly entitled to be called 'Maraschino Cherries,' or 'Cherries in Maraschino.' If, however, these cherries are packed in a sirup, flavored with maraschino alone, it is the opinion of the Board that they would not be misbranded, if labeled 'Cherries, Maraschino Flavor,' or 'Maraschino Flavored Cherries.' If these cherries are packed in maraschino liqueur there would be no objection to the phrase 'Cherries in Maraschino.' When these artificially colored cherries are put up in a sirup flavored in imitation of maraschino, even though the flavoring may consist in part of maraschino, it would not be proper to use the word 'Maraschino' in connection with the product unless preceded by the word 'Imitation.' They may, however, be labeled to show that they are a preserved cherry, artificially colored and flavored.