CHAPTER XII.
STEWED FRUITS AND FRUIT ICES.
There are few articles of diet more wholesome than fruit, in every shape, provided it is _fresh_.

It is a great mistake, however, to suppose that fruit, when too stale to be eaten as it is, is yet good enough for stewing.
We often hear, especially in summer weather, of persons being made ill from eating fruit.

Probably in every case the injury results, not from eating fruit as fruit, but from eating it when it is too stale to be served as an article of food at all.

There is an immense amount of injury done to this country by the importation of rotten plums, more especially from Germany, and it is to be regretted that more stringent laws are not made to prevent the importation of all kinds of food hurtful to health.
We will suppose that in every recipe we are about to give the fruit is at any rate fresh; we do not say ripe, because there are many instances in which fruit not ripe enough to be eaten raw is exceedingly wholesome when stewed properly and sweetened.

As an instance we may mention green gooseberries and hard greengages, which, though quite uneatable in their natural state, yet make delicious fruit pies or dishes of stewed fruit.