[22] TO PRESERVE FRESH FIGS, APPLES, PLUMS, PEARS AND CHERRIES _FICUM RECENTEM, MALA, PRUNA, PIRA, CERASIA UT DIU SERVES_
SELECT THEM ALL VERY CAREFULLY WITH THE STEMS ON [1] AND PLACE THEM IN HONEY SO THEY DO NOT TOUCH EACH OTHER.
[23] TO KEEP CITRON _CITRIA UT DIU DURENT_ [1]
PLACE THEM IN A GLASS [2] VESSEL WHICH IS SEALED WITH PLASTER AND SUSPENDED.
[1] Tor. _conditura malorum Medicorum quæ et citria dicuntur_. V. Not quite identified. Fruit coming from Asia Minor, Media or Persia, one of the many varieties of citrus fruit. Probably citron because of their size. Goll. Lemon-apples; Dann. lemons (oranges). List. _Scilicet mala, quæ Dioscorides Persica quoque & Medica, & citromala, Plinius item Assyria appellari dicit_.
[2] G.-V. _vas vitreum_; Tac. and Tor. _vas citrum_; V. a glass vessel could not be successfully sealed with plaster paris, and the experiment would fail; cf. note 3 to No. 21.
[24] TO KEEP MULBERRIES _MORA UT DIU DURENT_
MULBERRIES, IN ORDER TO KEEP THEM, MUST BE LAID INTO THEIR OWN JUICE MIXED WITH NEW WINE [boiled down to one half] IN A GLASS VESSEL AND MUST BE WATCHED ALL THE TIME [so that they do not spoil].
V. This and the foregoing formulæ illustrate the ancients' attempts at preserving foods, and they betray their ignorance of "processing" by heating them in hermetically sealed vessels, the principle of which was not discovered until 1810 by Appert which started the now gigantic industry of canning.
[25] TO KEEP POT HERBS [_H_]_OLERA UT DIU SERVENTUR_
PLACE SELECTED POT HERBS, NOT TOO MATURE, IN A PITCHED VESSEL.
[26] TO PRESERVE SORREL OR SOUR DOCK _LAPÆ _[1]_ UT DIU SERVENTUR_
TRIM AND CLEAN [the vegetable] PLACE THEM TOGETHER SPRINKLE MYRTLE BERRIES BETWEEN, COVER WITH HONEY AND VINEGAR.
ANOTHER WAY: PREPARE MUSTARD HONEY AND VINEGAR ALSO SALT AND COVER THEM WITH THE SAME.
[1] The kind of vegetable to be treated here has not been sufficiently identified. List. and G.-V. _rapæ_--turnips--from _rapus_, seldom _rapa_,--a rape, turnip, navew. Tac. and Tor. _Lapæ_ (_lapathum_), kind of sorrel, monk's rhubarb, dock. Tor. explaining at length: _conditura Rumicis quod lapathon Græci, Latini Lapam quoque dicunt_.
V. Tor. is correct, or nearly so. Turnips, in the first place, are not in need of any special method of preservation. They keep very well in a cool, well-ventilated place; in fact they would hardly keep very long if treated in the above manner. These directions are better applied to vegetables like dock or monk's rhubarb. Lister, taking Humelbergii word for it, accepts "turnips" as the only truth; but he has little occasion to assail Torinus as he does: _Torinus lapam legit, & nullibi temeritatem suam atque inscientiam magis ostendit._