There is a problem with bananas.
Their shelf-life is perilously short, and there are only so many banana cakes,
banana pancakes, banana puddings etc. that even the most enthusiastic
banana-lover can consume in a week. The preservation of bananas therefore
requires a concept shift towards banana products that have intrinsically good
keeping qualities. I have previously written about some of the energetic
efforts on the part of banana growers to popularise products such as ‘banana
figs’ and banana flour (here, and here) but there is another method that
provides some interesting and tasty opportunities.
My story starts with one of the
snippets in the Cook’s Scrap Book section of The Chicago Herald Cooking School: A
Professional Cook's Book for Household Use (1883), by Jessup Whitehead.
London is eating dried bananas and declares they are delicious.
They come from Jamaica, where the method has been patented. Fruit prepared
twelve months ago retains its flavour to a remarkable degree. The banana is cut
in half lengthwise and subjected to slow drying, which prevents fermentation
and decay. It is thought that these dried bananas are to open up a new and
important industry. They can be made into wine, eaten as they are, or cooked. –
Ex.
Dried bananas are common
at the street venders’ fruit stands in Chicago.
This paragraph is not credited or
dated, but the impression it gives that dried bananas were something of a
novelty in 1883, as the following piece shows. From the American Institute
Farmers’ Club, on April 20, 1852:-
The Secretary read the
following translations and papers prepared by himself;
IMPORTATION
OF DRIED BANANAS INTO ENGLAND.
[Revue Horticole, Paris, March, 1852.]
An interesting fact occurred at the
late World's Fair of London, that is, dried bananas from Mexico—the
observations of the distinguished botanist Lindley on the subject. In 1834
Colquhoun, of the Royal artillery, communicated to the Society of Arts of
London many specimens of bananas gathered on the warm plains of Mexico,
called Tierra Caliente, and
dried for keeping. The cities of Jalisco and Mechoacan do quite a business in
it. They gather the fruit when perfectly ripe and expose it to the sun on
bamboo riddles. When they begin to wrinkle they peal [sic] them, and then, in a
few days, the banana is dry. During the operation the bananas become covered
with a sugary effervescence like the figs of the South when dried in the same
way. The bananas are then baled or boxed up, either in their own leaves or
something else. They are pressed into packages of about an hundred pounds
weight. Thus prepared they are in the same condition as figs, dates, raisins of
commerce. On account of their sugary character they keep a considerable length
of time.
The specimen deposited in the
Crystal Palace was a portion of that which was presented by Colonel Colquhoun
in 1834, at which time the fruit was two years old. On examination by members
of the Society of Arts, it was found to be of a proper consistence, neither too
soft nor too dry, and a very agreeable peculiar taste, something between that of
date and fig without any trace of acidity. They have no seeds and so become
entire for consumption without any deduction. It was deposited in a Magazine of
Woolwich, where it remained until taken out for the exhibition in the Crystal
Palace; it is, therefore, now nineteen years old—an interesting circumstance
testing its great durability. This old fruit was subject to the examination of
the Horticultural Society of London, of the Society of Arts, Naturalists, and
of merchants, and pronounced to be in the same state as in 1834, except being
dryer. No acid—the same taste—no insect had touched them.
What dried fruit have we, says Dr.
Lindley, that can compare with this! Our raisins, figs, and dates would be
completely lost in so long a time as nineteen years; if not destroyed by time,
they certainly would be by insects.
This remarkable fact raises, says
Dr. Lindley, the very important question of extensive commerce in dried
bananas. British Guiana, Jamaica, &c., can produce unlimited
quantities. The amount of dried figs and raisins imported Into England in
1850, was nearly four millions pounds of figs, and nearly twenty-eight millions
pounds of raisins. This shows how great may be the quantity of bananas.
No plant that is cultivated yields
per acre any alimentary substance in such great quantity as banana. The potato
is by no means equal to it. We will quote the learned men (savans) who have
lived in or visited equatorial America—men whose knowledge and veracity are
incontestable. "In New Grenada, savs Mr. Humboldt, "they raise about
forty to fifty tons per acre. It is at any rate a very large crop, and can be
grown in quantities equal to any named, and its remarkable durability vastly
increases its commercial value,
keeping good many years.
So – nineteen years old and still
edible! It is not noted how the dried bananas were stored, but given the
alternative methods of the time, it is also most surprising that they had not
been attacked by insects or other notorious pantry predators.
The problem generated by the rapid
perishability of the banana in an era before technological advances in such
things as climate controlled storage and transport was accelerated in the face
of a banana glut. As I mentioned in my previous posts on banana flour, for
these reasons there was a great deal of interest in banana products in
Queensland in the late nineteenth century by protagonists in the burgeoning
banana industry. In The Queenslander
(Brisbane, Qld) of 30 May 1891, there was the following piece of
correspondence:
“We have received a sample of dried bananas prepared by
Messrs. Reynolds and Co. Eden Valley, Daintree River. … Indeed they remind one
somewhat of dried figs, and are said to be excellent, whether used without
preparation as dessert, stewed like prunes, or cut to the size of raisins and
and used in puddings.”
The same
newspaper, in its edition of 4 July, 1891 included a wonderful feature on how
to use dried bananas – which was no doubt particularly welcomed by housewives
in the Far North faced with a backyard glut and the ability to dry their own
bananas!
RECIPES FOR USING DRIED BANANAS.
(From the Queen of 23rd May.)
Bananas are now to be had as a
dried fruit, not as an expensive luxury, but at a price considerably less than the
fresh fruit. They have also an excellent flavour, for it should be remembered
that foreign fruit purchased at home can never have the same rich taste as
fruits fully ripened under a tropical sun; for all foreign fruit (bananas
particularly), when gathered abroad for transportation, are picked unripe and
green to outlive the voyage. These dried bananas make delicious puddings,
panckes, fritters, and compotes, prepared in the following manner:—
Pudding
(Baked). — Cut ½ lb. of dried bananas into thin slices, then place
them in a stewpan that will just hold them with only enough water to cover
them; add a little powdered cinnamon, ginger, and a small piece of lemon peel;
stew over a slow fire till quite soft (about thirty minutes), then sweeten with
fine white sugar and pass all through a hair sieve; add to it the yolks of four
eggs and the white of one, 2oz. of fresh butter, the juice of one lemon, and
beat all well together; line the inside of a pie dish with good puff paste, put
in the mixture, and bake half an hour.
Pudding
(Boiled) (Queensland recipe).— Take8oz. of dried bananas out in small
pieces, 6oz. of fine breadcrumbs, 4oz. caster sugar, 4oz. of beef suet chopped
fine, two eggs, and half a pint of milk; mix these ingredients, and beat them
with a wooden spoon for ten minutes. Boil in a mould or basin for four hours,
and serve plain or with sweet sauce.
Pancakes.—Cut
sufficient dried bananas into small pieces, stew them with a little white wine,
grated lemon peel and sugar to taste, and spread the mixture smoothly over
pancakes; roll them up, and serve with sifted sugar.
Compote.—Prepare a
thin syrup with half a pint of water and 6oz. of sugar, flavoured slightly with
lemon, and stew the dried banana gently in this for about thirty minutes;
remove the bananas when sufficiently done and lay them in a glass dish; strain
and reduce the syrup, and then pour it over the bananas, which may be served
either hot or cold. If the latter, garnish with a little stiff red currant jelly,
laid on the bananas.
Cream.—Take ½
lb. of dried bananas, slice them in thin pieces, and then gently stew in a pint
of good cream, with a little ginger; when tolerably thick, strain, add sugar to
taste, and flavour with rosewater.
