No fruit can boast higher food value than prunes, for they contain large amounts of both protein and easily digestible sugar. They are also valuable as a laxative and the water in which they are stewed is for this reason frequently employed as a vehi cle for purgathe medicines.
It seems a pity that cheap humor and poor jokes should be laid so heavily on such excellent, serviceable fruit, which is always good, always in season and capable of use in a great diversity of ways—stewed alone, or with tart plums, orange, lemon, spices, etc.; in flies, puddings and cakes—but the reason for slandering them is, per haps, to be found in the wide ignorance concerning their proper preparation. The public is not so much to blame for this as would-be cooking teachers and writers. Nearly every writer tells you to "soak the prunes over night." This is wrong. Prunes that are soaked over night and then stewed, become soft, mushy and water-soaked the flesh disintegrates and the fruit loses both flavor and shape.
Instead of ruining the fruit by soaking it, rinse it in scalding water and wash thoroughly in cold water ; then strain through a colander and place it in a cooking ves sel (porcelain preferred), add as much water as fruit and set ou the back of the stove or range to simmer until tender. Do not boil. You will thus obtain stewed prunes that
are tender but firm in flesh, palatable and in every way deliCions.
No sugar is needed for good California prunes, but Oregon prunes are more tart and are generally improved•by about a tablespoonful for each pound of fruit.