Essays; Political, Economical, and Philosophical Part 21

12 ounces of mashed potatoes; 1 ounce of suet, and 1 ounce of hung beef grated fine with a grater.--Mixed and baked as before.

These puddings when baked weighed from 11 to 12 ounces each.-- They were all liked by those who tasted them, but No I and No 3 seemed to meet with the most general approbation.

Receipt for a very cheap Potatoe-dumplin.

Take any quant.i.ty of potatoes, half boiled;--skin or pare them, and grate them to a coa.r.s.e powder with a grater;--mix them up with a very small quant.i.ty of flour, 1/16, for instance, of the weight of the potatoes, or even less;--add a seasoning of salt, pepper, and sweet herbs;--mix up the whole with boiling water to a proper consistency, and form the ma.s.s into dumplins of the size of a large apple.-- Roll the dumplins, when formed, in flour, to prevent the water from penetrating them, and put them into boiling water, and boil them till they rise to the surface of the water, and swim, when they will be found to be sufficiently done.

These dumplins may be made very savoury by mixing with them a small quant.i.ty of grated hung beef, or of pounded red herring.

Fried bread may likewise be mixed with them, and this without any other addition, except a seasoning of salt, forms an excellent dish.

Upon the same principles upon which these dumplins are prepared large boiled bag-puddings may be made; and for feeding the Poor in a public establishment, where great numbers are to be fed, puddings, as these is less trouble in preparing them, are always to be preferred to dumplins.

It would swell this Essay, (which has already exceeded the limits a.s.signed to it,) to the size of a large volume, were I to give receipts for all the good dishes that may be prepared with potatoes.--There is however one method of preparing potatoes much in use in many parts of Germany, which appears to me to deserve being particularly mentioned and recommended;--it is as follows:

A Receipt for preparing boiled Potatoes with a Sauce.

The potatoes being properly boiled, and skinned, are cut into slices, and put into a dish, and a sauce, similar to that commonly used with a fricaseed chicken, is poured over them.

This makes an excellent and a very wholesome dish, but more calculated, it is true, for the tables of the opulent than for the Poor.--Good sauces might however be composed for this dish which would not be expensive.--Common milk-porridge, made rather thicker than usual, with wheat flour, and well salted, would not be a bad sauce for it.

Potatoe Salad.

A dish in high repute in some parts of Germany, and which deserves to be particularly recommended, is a salad of potatoes.

The potatoes being properly boiled and skinned, are cut into thin slices, and the same sauce which is commonly used for salads of lettuce is poured over them; some mix anchovies with this sauce, which gives it a very agreeable relish, and with potatoes it is remarkably palatable.

Boiled potatoes cut in slices and fried in b.u.t.ter, or in lard, and seasoned with salt and pepper, is likewise a very palatable and wholesome dish.

Of Barley.

I have more than once mentioned the extraordinary nutritive powers of this grain, and the use of it in feeding the Poor cannot be too strongly recommended.--It is now beginning to be much used in this country, mixed with wheat flour, for making bread; but is not, I am persuaded, in bread, but in soups, that Barley can be employed to the greatest advantage.--It is astonishing how much water a small quant.i.ty of Barley-meal will thicken, and change to the consistency of a jelly; and, if my suspicions with regard to the part which water acts in nutrition are founded, this will enable us to account, not only for the nutritive quality of Barley, but also for the same quality in a still higher degree which sago and salope are known to possess.-- Sago and Salope thicken, and change to the consistency of a jelly, (and as I suppose, prepare for decomposition,) a greater quant.i.ty of water than Barley, and both sago and salope are known to be nutritious in a very extraordinary degree.

Barley will thicken and change to a jelly much more water than any other grain with which we are acquainted, rice even not excepted;--and I have found reason to conclude from the result of innumerable experiments, which in the course of several years have been made under my direction in the public kitchen of the House of Industry at Munich, that for making soups, Barley is by far the best grain that can be employed.

Were I called upon to give an opinion in regard to the comparative nutritiousness of Barley-meal and wheat flour, WHEN USED IN SOUPS I should not hesitate to say that I think the former at least three or four times as nutritious as the latter.

Scotch broth is known to be one of the most nourishing dishes in common use; and there is no doubt but it owes its extraordinary nutritive quality to the Scotch (or Pearl) Barley, which is always used in preparing it.--If the Barley be omitted, the broth will be found to be poor and washy, and will afford little nourishment;--but any of the other ingredients may be retrenched;-- even the meat;-- without impairing very sensibly the nutritive quality of the Food.--Its flavour and palatableness may be impaired by such retrenchments; but if the water be well thickened with the Barley, the Food will still be very nourishing.

In preparing the soup used in feeding the Poor in the House of Industry at Munich, Pearl Barley has. .h.i.therto been used; but I have found, by some experiments I have lately made in London, that Pearl Barley is by no means necessary, as common Barley-meal will answer, to all intents and purposes, just as well.--In one respect it answers better, for it does not require half so much boiling.

In comparing cheap soups for feeding the Poor, the following short and plain directions will be found to be useful:

General Directions for preparing cheap Soup.

First, Each portion of Soup should consist of one pint and a quarter, which, if the Soup be rich, will afford a good meal to a grown person.--Such a portion will in general weigh about one pound and a quarter, or twenty ounces Avoirdupois.

Secondly, The basis of each portion of Soup should consist of one ounce and a quarter of Barley-meal, boiled with ONE PINT AND A QUARTER OF WATER till the whole be reduced to the uniform consistency of a thick jelly.--All other additions to the Soup do little else than to serve to make it more palatable; or by rendering a long mastication necessary, to increase and prolong the pleasure of eating;--both these objects are however of very great importance, and too much attention cannot be paid to them; but both of them may, with proper management, be attained without much expence.

Were I asked to give a Receipt for the cheapest Food which (in my opinion) it would be possible to provide in this country, it would be the following:

Receipt for a very cheap Soup.

Take of water eight gallons, and mixing with it 5 lb. of Barley-meal, boil it to the consistency of a thick jelly.--Season it with salt, pepper, vinegar, sweet herbs, and four red herrings, pounded in a mortar.--Instead of bread, add to it 5 lb. of Indian Corn made into Samp, and stirring it together with a ladle, serve it up immediately in portions of 20 ounces.

Samp, which is here recommended, is a dish said to have been invented by the savages of North America, who have no Corn-mills.

--It is Indian Corn deprived of its external coat by soaking it ten or twelve hours in a lixivium of water and wood-ashes.-- This coat, or husk, being separated from the kernel, rises to the surface of the water, while the grain, which is specifically heavier than water, remains at the bottom of the vessel; which grain, thus deprived of its hard coat of armour, is boiled, or rather simmered for a great length of time, two days for instance, in a kettle of water placed near the fire.--When sufficiently cooked, the kernels will be found to be swelled to a great size and burst open, and this Food, which is uncommonly sweet and nourishing, may be used in a great variety of ways; but the best way of using it is to mix it with milk, and with soups, and broths, as a subst.i.tute for bread. It is even better than bread for these purposes, for besides being quite as palatable as the very best bread, as it is less liable than bread to grow too soft when mixed with these liquids, without being disagreeably hard, it requires more mastication, and consequently tends more to increase and prolong the pleasure of eating.

The Soup which may be prepared with the quant.i.ties of ingredients mentioned in the foregoing Receipt will be sufficient for 64 portions, and the cost of these ingredients will be as follows:

Pence.

For 5 lb. of Barley-meal, at 1 1/2 pence, the ]

Barley being reckoned at the present ]

very high price of it in this country, viz ]... 7 1/2 5s. 6d. per bushel ]

5 lb. of Indian Corn, at 1 1/4 pence the pound ... 6 1/4 4 red herrings ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3 Vinegar... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 Salt ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1 Pepper and sweet herbs ... ... ... ... ... 2 ------- Total 20 3/4 -------

This sum, (20 3/4 pence,) divided by 64, the number of portions of Soup, gives something less than ONE THIRD OF A PENNY for the cost of each portion.--But at the medium price of Barley in Great Britain, and of Indian Corn as it may be afforded here, I am persuaded that this Soup may be provided at one farthing the portion of 20 ounces.

There is another kind of Soup in great repute among the poor people, and indeed among the opulent farmers, in Germany, which would not come much higher.--This is what is called burnt Soup, or as I should rather call it, brown Soup, and it is prepared in the following manner:

Receipt for making BROWN SOUP.

Take a small piece of b.u.t.ter and put it over the fire in a clean frying-pan made of iron (not copper, for that metal used for this purpose would be poisonous);-- put to it a few spoonfuls of wheat or rye meal;--stir the whole about briskly with a broad wooden spoon, or rather knife, with a broad and thin edge, till the b.u.t.ter has disappeared, and the meal is uniformly of a deep brown colour; great care being taken, by stirring it continually, to prevent the meal from being burned to the pan.

A very small quant.i.ty of this roasted meal, (perhaps half an ounce in weight would be sufficient,) being put into a sauce-pan and boiled with a pint and a quarter of water, forms a portion of Soup, which, when seasoned with salt, pepper, and vinegar, and eaten with bread cut fine, and mixed with it at the moment when it is served up, makes a kind of Food by no means unpalatable; and which is said to be very wholesome.

As this Soup may be prepared in a very short time, an instant being sufficient for boiling it; and as the ingredients for making it are very cheap, and may be easily transported, this Food is much used in Bavaria by our wood-cutters, who go into the mountains far from any habitations to fell wood.-- Their provisions for a week, (the time they commonly remain in the mountains,) consist of a large loaf of rye bread (which, as it does not so soon grow dry and stale as wheaten bread, is always preferred to it); a linen bag containing a small quant.i.ty of roasted meal;--another small bag of salt;--and a small wooden box containing some pounded black pepper;--with a small frying-pan of hammered iron, about ten or eleven inches in diameter, which serves them both as an utensil for cooking, and as a dish for containing the victuals when cooked.--They sometimes, but not often, take with them a small bottle of vinegar;--but black-pepper is an ingredient in brown Soup which is never omitted.--Two table-spoonfuls of roasted meal is quite enough to make a good portion of Soup for one person; and the quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter necessary to be used in roasting this quant.i.ty of meal is very small, and will cost very little.--One ounce of b.u.t.ter would be sufficient for roasting eight ounces of meal; and if half an ounce of roasted meal is sufficient for making one portion of Soup, the b.u.t.ter will not amount to more than 1/10 of an ounce; and, at eight pence the pound, will cost only 1/32 of a penny, or 1/8 of a farthing.--The cost of the meal for a portion of this Soup is not much more considerable. If it be rye meal, (which is said to be quite as good for roasting as the finest wheat flour,) it will not cost, in this country, even now when grain is so dear, more than 1 1/2d. per pound;-- 1/2 an ounce, therefore, the quant.i.ty required for one portion of the Soup, would cost only 6/32 of a farthing;--and the meal and b.u.t.ter together no more than (1/8 + 6/32) = 10/32, or something less than 1/3 of a farthing.--If to this sum we add the cost of the ingredients used to season the Soup, namely, for salt, pepper and vinegar, allowing for them as much as the amount of the cost of the b.u.t.ter and the meal, or 1/3 of a farthing, this will give 2/3 of a farthing for the cost of the ingredients used in preparing one portion of this Soup; but as the bread which is eaten with it is an expensive article, this Food will not, upon the whole, be cheaper than the Soup just mentioned; and it is certainly neither so nourishing nor so wholesome.

Brown Soup might, however, on certain occasions, be found to be useful. As it is so soon cooked, and as the ingredients for making it are so easily prepared, preserved, and transported from place to place; it might be useful to travellers, and to soldiers on a march. And though it can hardly be supposed to be of itself very nourishing, yet it is possible it may render the bread eaten with it not only more nutritive, but also more wholesome;-- and it certainly renders it more savoury and palatable.--It is the common breakfast of the peasants in Bavaria; and it is infinitely preferable, in all respects, to that most pernicious wash, TEA, with which the lower cla.s.ses of the inhabitants of this island drench their stomachs, and ruin their const.i.tutions.

When tea is mixed with a sufficient quant.i.ty of sugar and good cream;--when it is taken with a large quant.i.ty of bread and b.u.t.ter, or with toast and boiled eggs;--and above all,--WHEN IT IS NOT DRANK TOO HOT, it is certainly less unwholesome; but a simple infusion of this drug, drank boiling hot, as the Poor usually take it, is certainly a poison which, though it is sometimes slow in its operation, never fails to produce very fatal effects, even in the strongest const.i.tution, where the free use of it is continued for a considerable length of time.

Of Rye Bread

The prejudice in this island against bread made of Rye, is the more extraordinary, as in many parts of the country no other kind of bread is used; and as the general use of it in many parts of Europe, for ages, has proved it to be perfectly wholesome.-- In those countries where it is in common use, many persons prefer it to bread made of the best wheat flour; and though wheaten bread is commonly preferred to it, yet I am persuaded that the general dislike of it, where it is not much in use, is more owing to its being BADLY PREPARED, or not well baked, than to any thing else.

As an account of some experiments upon baking Rye Bread, which were made under my immediate care and inspection in the bake-house of the House of Industry at Munich, may perhaps be of use to those who wish to known how good Rye Bread may be prepared; as also to such as are desirous of ascertaining, by similar experiments, what, in any given case, the profits of a baker really are; I shall publish an account in detail of these experiments, in the Appendix to this volume.

I cannot conclude this Essay, without once more recommending, in the most earnest manner, to the attention of the Public, and more especially to the attention of all those who are engaged in public affairs,--the subject which has here been attempted to be investigated. It is certainly of very great importance, in whatever light it is considered; and it is particularly so at the present moment: for however statesmen may differ in opinion with respect to the danger or expediency of making any alterations in the const.i.tution, or established forms of government, in times of popular commotion, no doubts can be entertained with respect to the policy of diminishing, as much as possible, at all times, --and more especially in times like the present,--the misery of the lower cla.s.ses of the people.

END OF THE THIRD ESSAY.

Footnotes for Essay III.

[1]

November 1795.

[2]

The preparation of water is, in many cases, an object of more importance than is generally imagined; particularly when it is made use of as a vehicle for conveying agreeable tastes.

In making punch, for instance, if the water used be previously boiled two or three hours with a handful of rice, the punch made from it will be incomparably better, than is to say, more full and luscious upon the palate, than when the water is not prepared.