I Compared It To Yorkshire Pudding; Charles Allen
Said It Was Like Mashed Potatoes And Milk.
It is generally about
the size of a melon, a little fibrous towards the centre, but
everywhere else quite smooth and puddingy, something in
consistence between yeast-dumplings and batter-pudding.
We
sometimes made curry or stew of it, or fried it in slices; but it
is no way so good as simply baked. It may be eaten sweet or
savory. With meat and gravy it is a vegetable superior to any I
know, either in temperate or tropical countries. With sugar,
milk, butter, or treacle, it is a delicious pudding, having a
very slight and delicate but characteristic flavour, which, like
that of good bread and potatoes, one never gets tired of. The
reason why it is comparatively scarce is that it is a fruit of
which the seeds are entirely aborted by cultivation, and the tree
can therefore only be propagated by cuttings. The seed-bearing
variety is common all over the tropics, and though the seeds are
very good eating, resembling chestnuts, the fruit is quite
worthless as a vegetable. Now that steam and Ward's cases render
the transport of young plants so easy, it is much to be wished
that the best varieties of this unequalled vegetable should be
introduced into our West India islands, and largely propagated
there. As the fruit will keep some time after being gathered, we
might then be able to obtain this tropical luxury in Covent
Garden Market.
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