Essays; Political, Economical, and Philosophical Part 20

A bushel of Indian Corn of the growth of New England was found to weigh 61 lb.; but we will suppose it to weigh at a medium only 60 lb. per bushel; and we will also suppose that to each bushel of Corn when ground there is 9 lb. of bran, which is surely a very large allowance, and 1 lb. of waste in grinding and sifting;-- this will leave 50 lb. of flour for each bushel of the Corn; and as it will cost, in time of peace, only 3s. 10d. or 46 pence, this gives for each pound of flour 46/50 of a penny, or 3 3/4 farthings very nearly.

If the price of the Indian Corn per bushel be taken at 4s. 10d.

what it ought to cost at this time in London, without any bounty on importation being brought into the account,--the price of the flour will be 4s. 10d equal to 58 pence for 50 lb. in weight, or 1 1/6 penny the pound, which is less than one third of the present price of wheat flour. Rice, which is certainly not more nourishing than Indian Corn, costs 4 1/2 pence the pound.

If 1/13 of the value of Indian Corn be added to defray the expence of grinding it, the price of the flour will not even then be greater in London than one penny the pound in time of peace, and about one penny farthing at the present high price of that grain in North America. Hence it appears, that in stating the mean price in London of the flour of Indian Corn at one penny farthing, I have rather rated it too high than too low.

With regard to the expense of importing it, there may be, and doubtless there are frequently other expences besides those of freight and insurance; but, on the other hand, a very considerable part of the expences attending the importation of it may be reimbursed by the profits arising from the sale of the barrels in which it is imported, as I have been informed by a person who imports it every year, and always avails himself of that advantage.

One circ.u.mstance much in favour of the introduction of Indian Corn into common use in this country is the facility with which it may be had in any quant.i.ty. It grows in all quarters of the globe, and almost in every climate; and in hot countries two or three crops of it may be raised from the same ground in the course of a year.--It succeeds equally well in the cold regions of Canada;--in the temperate climes of the United States of America;--and in the burning heats of the tropics; and it might be had from Africa and Asia as well as from America. And were it even true,--what I never can be persuaded to believe,--that it would be impossible to introduce it as an article of Food in this country, it might at least be used as fodder for cattle, whose aversion to it, I will venture to say, would not be found to be UNCONQUERABLE.

Oats now cost near two pence the pound in this country.

Indian Corn, which would cost but a little more than half as much, would certainly be much more nourishing, even for horses, as well as for horned cattle;--and as for hogs and poultry, they ought never to be fed with any other grain. Those who have tasted the pork and the poultry fatted on Indian Corn will readily give their a.s.sent to this opinion.

CHAPTER. VII.

Receipts for preparing various Kinds of cheap Food.

Of MACCARONI.

Of POTATOES.

Approved receipts for boiling potatoes.

Of potatoe puddings.

Of potatoe dumplings.

Of boiled potatoes with a sauce.

Of potatoe salad.

Of BARLEY Is much more nutritious than wheat.

Barley meal, a good subst.i.tute for pearl barley, for making soups.

General directions for preparing cheap soups.

Receipt for the cheapest soup that can be made.

Of SAMP Method of preparing it Is an excellent Subst.i.tute for Bread.

Of brown Soup.

Of RYE BREAD.

When I began writing the foregoing Chapter of this Essay, I had hopes of being able to procure satisfactory information respecting the manner in which the maccaroni eaten by the Poor in Italy, and particularly in the kingdom of Naples, is prepared;-- but though I have taken much pains in making these inquiries, my success in them has not been such as I could have wished:-- The process, I have often been told, is very simple; and from the very low price at which maccaroni is sold, ready cooked, to the Lazzaroni in the streets of Naples, it cannot be expensive.

--There is a better kind of maccaroni which is prepared and sold by the nuns in some of the convents in Italy, which is much dearer; but this sort would in any country be too expensive to be used as Food for the Poor.--It is however not dearer than many kinds of Food used by the Poor in this country; and as it is very palatable and wholesome, and may be used in a variety of ways, a receipt for preparing it may perhaps not be unacceptable to many of my readers.

A Receipt for making that Kind of Maccaroni called in Italy TAGLIATI.

Take any number of fresh-laid eggs and break them into a bowl or tray, beat them up with a spoon, but not to a froth,--add of the finest wheat flour as much as is necessary to form a dough of the consistence of paste.--Work this paste well with a rolling-pin;-- roll it out into very thin leaves;--lay ten or twelve of these leaves one upon the other, and with a sharp knife cut them into very fine threads.--These threads (which, if the ma.s.s is of a proper consistency, will not adhere to each other) are to be laid on a clean board, or on paper, and dried in the air.

This maccaroni, (or cut paste as it is called in Germany, where it is in great repute,) may be eaten in various ways; but the most common way of using it is to eat it with milk instead of bread, and with chicken broth, and other broths and soups, with which it is boiled. With proper care it may be kept good for many months. It is sometimes fried in b.u.t.ter, and in this way of cooking it, it forms a most excellent dish indeed; inferior, I believe, to no dish of flour that can be made. It is not, however, a very cheap dish, as eggs and b.u.t.ter are both expensive articles in most countries.

An inferiour kind of cut paste is sometimes prepared by the Poor in Germany, which is made simply of water and wheat flour, and this has more resemblance to common maccaroni than that just described; and might, in many cases, be used instead of it. I do not think, however, that it can be kept long without spoiling; whereas maccaroni, as is well known, may be kept good for a great length of time.--Though I have not been able to get any satisfactory information relative to the process of making maccaroni, yet I have made some experiments to ascertain the expense of cooking it, and of the cost of the cheese necessary for giving it a relish.

Half a pound of maccaroni, which was purchased at an Italian shop in London, and which cost ten pence[20], was boiled till it was sufficiently done, namely, about one hour and an half, when, being taken out of the boiling water and weighed, it was found to weigh thirty-one ounces and an half, or one pound fifteen ounces and an half. The quant.i.ty of cheese employed to give a relish to this dish of boiled maccaroni, (and which was grated over it after it was put into the dish,) was one ounce, and cost two farthings.

Maccaroni is considered as very cheap Food in those countries where it is prepared in the greatest perfection, and where it is in common use among the lower cla.s.ses of society; and as wheat, of which grain it is always made, is a staple commodity in this country, it would certainly be worth while to take some trouble to introduce the manufacture of it, particularly as it is already become an article of luxury upon the tables of the rich, and as great quant.i.ties of it are annually imported and sold here at a most exorbitant price[21]:--But maccaroni is by no means the cheapest Food that can be provided for feeding the Poor, in this island;--nor do I believe it is so in any country.--Polenta, or Indian Corn, of which so much has already been said,-- and Potatoes, of which too much cannot be said,--are both much better adapted, in all respects, for that purpose.--Maccaroni would however, I am persuaded, could it be prepared in this country, be much less expensive than many kinds of Food now commonly used by our Poor; and consequently might be of considerable use to them.

With regard to Potatoes they are now so generally known and their usefulness is so universally acknowledged, that it would be a waste of time to attempt to recommend them.--I shall therefore content myself with merely giving receipts for a few cheap dishes in which they are employed as a princ.i.p.al ingredient.

Though there is no article used as Food of which a greater variety of well-tasted and wholesome dishes may be prepared than of potatoes, yet it seems to be the unanimous opinion of those who are most acquainted with these useful vegetables, that the best way of cooking them is to boil them simply, and with their skins on, in water.--But the manner of boiling them is by no means a matter of indifference.--This process is better understood in Ireland, where by much the greater part of the inhabitants live almost entirely on this Food, than any where else.

This is what might have been expected;--but those who have never considered with attention the extreme slowness of the progress of national improvements, WHERE n.o.bODY TAKES PAINS TO ACCELERATE THEM, will doubtless be surprised when they are told that in most parts of England, though the use of potatoes all over the country has for so many years been general, yet, to this hour, few, comparatively, who eat them, know how to dress them properly.-- The inhabitants of those countries which lie on the sea-coast opposite to Ireland have adopted the Irish method of boiling potatoes; but it is more than probable that a century at least would have been required for those improvements to have made their way through the island, had not the present alarms on account of a scarcity of grain roused the public, and fixed their attention upon a subject too long neglected in this enlightened country.

The introduction of improvements tending to increase the comforts and innocent enjoyments of that numerous and useful cla.s.s of mankind who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, is an object not more interesting to a benevolent mind than it is important in the eyes of an enlightened statesman.

There are, without doubt, GREAT MEN who will smile at seeing these observations connected with a subject so humble and obscure as the boiling of potatoes, but GOOD MEN will feel that the subject is not unworthy of their attention.

The following directions for boiling potatoes, which I have copied from a late Report of the Board of Agriculture, I can recommend from my own experience:

On the boiling of Potatoes so as to be eat as Bread.

There is nothing that would tend more to promote the consumption of potatoes than to have the proper mode of preparing them as Food generally known.--In London, this is little attended to; whereas in Lancashire and Ireland the boiling of potatoes is brought to very great perfection indeed. When prepared in the following manner, if the quality of the root is good, they may be eat as bread, a practice not unusual in Ireland.--The potatoes should be, as much as possible, of the same size, and the large and small ones boiled separately.--They must be washed clean, and, without paring or sc.r.a.ping, put in a pot with cold water, not sufficient to cover them, as they will produce themselves, before they boil, a considerable quant.i.ty of fluid.--They do not admit being put into a vessel of boiling water like greens.-- If the potatoes are tolerably large, it will be necessary, as soon as they begin to boil, to throw in some cold water, and occasionally to repeat it, till the potatoes are boiled to the heart, (which will take from half an hour to an hour and a quarter, according to their size,) they will otherwise crack, and burst to pieces on the outside, whilst the inside will be nearly in a crude state, and consequently very unpalatable and unwholesome.--During the boiling, throwing in a little salt occasionally is found a great improvement, and it is certain that the slower they are cooked the better.--When boiled, pour off the water, and evaporate the moisture, by replacing the vessel in which the potatoes were boiled once more over the fire.

--This makes them remarkably dry and mealy.--They should be brought to the table with the skins on, and eat with a little salt, as bread.--Nothing but experience can satisfy any one how superior the potatoe is, thus prepared, if the sort is good and meally.-- Some prefer roasting potatoes; but the mode above detailed, extracted partly from the interesting paper of Samuel Hayes, Esquire, of Avondale, in Ireland, (Report on the Culture of Potatoes, P. 103.), and partly from the Lancashire reprinted Report (p.63.), and other communications to the Board, is at least equal, if not superior.--Some have tried boiling potatoes in steam, thinking by that process that they must imbibe less water.--But immersion in water causes the discharge of a certain substance, which the steam alone is incapable of doing, and by retaining which, the flavour of the root is injured, and they afterwards become dry by being put over the fire a second time without water.--With a little b.u.t.ter, or milk, of fish, they make an excellent mess.

These directions are so clear, that it is hardly possible to mistake them; and those who follow them exactly will find their potatoes surprisingly improved, and will be convinced that the manner of boiling them is a matter of much greater importance than has. .h.i.therto been imagined.

Were this method of boiling potatoes generally known in countries where these vegetables are only beginning to make their way into common use,-- as in Bavaria, for instance,--I have no doubt but it would contribute more than any thing else to their speedy introduction.

The following account of an experiment, lately made in one of the parishes of this metropolis (London), was communicated to me by a friend, who has permitted me to publish it.--It will serve to show,--what I am most anxious to make appear,-- that the prejudices of the Poor in regard to their Food ARE NOT UNCONQUERABLE February 25th, 1796.

The parish officers of Saint Olaves, Southwark, desirous of contributing their aid towards lessening the consumption of wheat, resolved on the following succedaneum for their customary suet puddings, which they give to their Poor for dinner one day in the week; which was ordered as follows:

L. s. d.

200 lb. potatoes boiled, and skinned and mashed ... ... 0 8 0 2 gallons of milk ... ... ... 0 2 4 12 lb. of suet, at 4 1/2 ... 0 4 6 1 peck of flour ... ... ... 0 4 0 Baking ... ... ... ... ... 0 1 8 --------- Expense 1 0 6 --------- Their ordinary suet pudding had been made thus:

2 bushels of flour ... ... ... 1 12 0 12 lb. suet ... ... ... ... 0 4 6 Baking ... ... ... ... ... 0 1 8 --------- Expense 1 18 2 Cost of the ingredients for the potatoes suet pudding ... ... 1 0 6 --------- Difference 0 17 8 ---------

This was the dinner provided for 200 persons, who gave a decided perference to the cheapest of these preparations, and with it to be continued.

The following baked potatoe-puddings were prepared in the hotel where I lodge, and were tasted by a number of persons, who found them in general very palatable.

Baked Potatoe-puddings.

No. I.

12 ounces of potatoes, boiled, skinned, and mashed; 1 ounce of suet; 1 ounce (or 1/16 of a pint) of milk, and 1 ounce of Gloucester cheese.

-- Total 15 ounces,--mixed with as much boiling water as was necessary to bring it to a due consistence, and then baked in an earthen pan.

No. II.

12 ounces of mashed potatoes as before; 1 ounces of milk, and 1 ounce of suet, with a sufficient quant.i.ty of salt.--Mixed up with boiling water, and baked in a pan.

No. III.

12 ounces of mashed potatoes; 1 ounce of suet; 1 ounce of red herrings pounded fine in a mortar.--Mixed--baked, etc. as before.

No. IV.