The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 4

[19-+] See the 2d, 3d, and 4th pages of Sir WM. TEMPLE'S _Essay on the Cure of the Gout by Moxa_.

[20-*] "He that would have a _clear head_, must have a _clean stomach_."--Dr. CHEYNE _on Health_, 8vo. 1724, p. 34.

"It is sufficiently manifest how much uncomfortable feelings of the bowels affect the nervous system, and how immediately and completely the general disorder is relieved by an alvine evacuation."--p. 53.

"We cannot reasonably expect tranquillity of the nervous system, while there is disorder of the digestive organs. As we can perceive no permanent source of strength but from the digestion of our food, it becomes important on this account that we should attend to its quant.i.ty, quality, and the periods of taking it, with a view to ensure its proper digestion."--ABERNETHY'S _Sur. Obs._ 8vo. 1817, p. 65.

[20-+] "If science can really contribute to the happiness of mankind, it must be in this department; the real comfort of the majority of men in this country is sought for at their own fireside; how desirable does it then become to give every inducement to be at home, by directing all the means of philosophy to increase domestic happiness!"--SYLVESTER'S _Philosophy of Domestic Economy_, 4to. 1819, p. 17.

[20-++] The best books of cookery have been written by physicians.--Sir KENELME DIGBY--Sir THEODORE MAYERNE.--See the last quarter of page 304 of vol. x. of the _Phil. Trans._ for 1675.--Professor BRADLEY--Dr.

HILL--Dr. LE COINTE--Dr. HUNTER, &c.

"To understand the THEORY OF COOKERY, we must attend to the action of heat upon the various const.i.tuents of alimentary substances as applied directly and indirectly through the medium of some fluid, in the former way as exemplified." In the processes of ROASTING and BOILING, the chief const.i.tuents of animal substances undergo the following changes--the _fibrine_ is corrugated, the _alb.u.men_ coagulated, the _gelatine_ and _osmazome_ rendered more soluble in water, the _fat_ liquefied, and the _water_ evaporated.

"If the heat exceed a certain degree, the surface becomes first brown, and then scorched. In consequence of these changes, the muscular fibre becomes opaque, shorter, firmer, and drier; the tendons less opaque, softer, and gluey; the fat is either melted out, or rendered semi-transparent. Animal fluids become more transparent: the alb.u.men is coagulated and separated, and they dissolve gelatine and osmazome.

"Lastly, and what is the most important change, and the immediate object of all cookery, the meat loses the vapid nauseous smell and taste peculiar to its raw state, and it becomes savoury and grateful.

"Heat applied through the intervention of boiling oil, or melted fat, as in FRYING, produces nearly the same changes; as the heat is sufficient to evaporate the water, and to induce a degree of scorching.

"But when water is the medium through which heat is applied--as in BOILING, STEWING, and BAKING, the effects are somewhat different, as the heat never exceeds 212, which is not sufficient to commence the process of browning or decomposition, and the soluble const.i.tuents are removed by being dissolved in the water, forming soup or broth; or, if the direct contact of the water be prevented, they are dissolved in the juices of the meat, and separate in the form of gravy."

Vide Supplement to _Encyclop. Brit. Edin._ vol. iv. p. 344, the article "FOOD," to which we refer our reader as the most scientific paper on the subject we have seen.

[21-*] "Health, beauty, strength, and spirits, and I might add all the faculties of the mind, depend upon the organs of the body; when these are in good order, the thinking part is most alert and active, the contrary when they are disturbed or diseased."--Dr. CADOGAN _on Nursing Children_, 8vo. 1757, p. 5.

[22-*] "We have some good families in England of the name of _Cook_ or _c.o.ke_. I know not what they may think; but they may depend upon it, they all originally sprang from real and professional cooks; and they need not be ashamed of their extraction, any more than the _Parkers, Butlers, &c._"--Dr. PEGGE'S _Forme of Cury_, p. 162.

[22-+] It is said, there are SEVEN _chances against even the most simple dish being presented to the mouth in absolute perfection_; for instance, A LEG OF MUTTON.

1st.--The mutton must be _good_. 2d.--Must have been kept a _good_ time.

3d.--Must be roasted at a _good_ fire. 4th.--By a _good_ cook. 5th.--Who must be in _good_ temper. 6th.--With all this felicitous combination you must have _good_ luck; and, 7th.--_Good_ appet.i.te.--The meat, and the mouths which are to eat it, must be ready for action at the same moment.

[23-*] To guard against "_la gourmandise_" of the second table, "provide each of your servants with a large pair of spectacles of the highest magnifying power, and never permit them to sit down to any meal without wearing them; they are as necessary, and as useful in a kitchen as pots and kettles: they will make a _lark_ look as large as a FOWL, a _goose_ as big as a SWAN, a leg of mutton as large as a hind quarter of beef; a twopenny loaf as large as a quartern;" and as philosophers a.s.sure you that pain even is only imaginary, we may justly believe the same of hunger; and if a servant who eats no more than one pound of food, imagines, by the aid of these gla.s.ses, that he has eaten three pounds, his hunger will be as fully satisfied--and the addition to your optician's account, will soon be overpaid by the subtraction from your butcher's and baker's.

[25-*] Much real reformation might be effected, and most grateful services obtained, if families which consist wholly of females, would take servants recommended from the MAGDALEN--PENITENTIARY--or GUARDIAN--who seek to be restored to virtuous society.

"_Female servants_ who pursue an honest course, have to travel, in their peculiar orbit, through a more powerfully resisting medium than perhaps any other cla.s.s of people in civilized life; they should be treated with something like Christian kindness: for want of this, a fault which might at the time have been easily amended has become the source of interminable sorrow."

"By the clemency and benevolent interference of two mistresses known to the writer, two servants have become happy wives, who, had they been in some situations, would have been literally outcasts."

A most laudable SOCIETY for the ENCOURAGEMENT of FEMALE SERVANTS, by a gratuitous registry, and by rewards, was inst.i.tuted in 1813; plans of which may be had _gratis_ at the Society's House, No. 10, Hatton Garden.

The above is an extract from the REV. H. G. WATKINS'S _Hints to Heads of Families_, a work well deserving the attentive consideration of inexperienced housekeepers.

[26-*] The greatest care should be taken by the man of fashion, that his cook's health be preserved: one hundredth part of the attention usually bestowed on his dog, or his horse, will suffice to regulate her animal system.

"Cleanliness, and a proper ventilation to carry off smoke and steam, should be particularly attended to in the construction of a kitchen; the grand scene of action, the fire-place, should be placed where it may receive plenty of light; hitherto the contrary has prevailed, and the poor cook is continually basted with her own perspiration."--_A. C., Jun._

"The most experienced artists in cookery cannot be certain of their work without tasting: they must be incessantly tasting. The spoon of a good cook is continually pa.s.sing from the stewpan to his tongue; nothing but frequent tasting his sauces, ragouts, &c. can discover to him what progress they have made, or enable him to season a soup with any certainty of success; his palate, therefore, must be in the highest state of excitability, that the least fault may be perceived in an instant.

"But, alas! the constant empyreumatic fumes of the stoves, the necessity of frequent drinking, and often of bad beer, to moisten a parched throat; in short, every thing around him conspires quickly to vitiate the organs of taste; the palate becomes blunted; its quickness of feeling and delicacy, on which the sensibility of the organs of taste depends, grows daily more obtuse; and in a short time the gustatory nerve becomes quite unexcitable.

"IF YOU FIND YOUR COOK NEGLECT HIS BUSINESS--that his _ragouts_ are too highly spiced or salted, and his cookery has too much of the '_haut gout_,' you may be sure that _his index of taste_ wants regulating; his palate has lost its sensibility, and it is high time to call in the a.s.sistance of the apothecary.

"'_Purger souvent_' is the grand maxim in all kitchens where _le Maitre d'Hotel_ has any regard for the reputation of his table. _Les Bons Hommes de Bouche_ submit to the operation without a murmur; to bind others, it should be made the first condition in hiring them. Those who refuse, prove they were not born to become masters of their art; and their indifference to fame will rank them, as they deserve, among those slaves who pa.s.s their lives in as much obscurity as their own stewpans."

To the preceding observations from the "_Almanach des Gourmands_," we may add, that the _Mouthician_ will have a still better chance of success, if he can prevail on his master to observe the same _regime_ which he orders for his cook; or, instead of endeavouring to awaken an idle appet.i.te by reading the index to a cookery book, or an additional use of the pepper-box and salt-cellar, rather seek it from abstinence or exercise;--the philosophical _gourmand_ will consider that the edge of our appet.i.te is generally keen, in proportion to the activity of our other habits; let him attentively peruse our "PEPTIC PRECEPTS," &c.

which briefly explain the art of refreshing the gustatory nerves, and of invigorating the whole system. See in the following chapter on INVITATIONS TO DINNER--A recipe to make FORTY PERISTALTIC PERSUADERS.

[27-*] "She must be quick and strong of sight; her hearing most acute, that she may be sensible when the contents of her vessels bubble, although they be closely covered, and that she may be alarmed before the pot boils over; her auditory nerve ought to discriminate (when several saucepans are in operation at the same time) the simmering of one, the ebullition of another, and the full-toned wabbling of a third.

"It is imperiously requisite that her organ of smell be highly susceptible of the various effluvia, that her nose may distinguish the perfection of aromatic ingredients, and that in animal substances it shall evince a suspicious accuracy between tenderness and putrefaction; above all, her olfactories should be tremblingly alive to mustiness and empyreuma.

"It is from the exquisite sensibility of her palate, that we admire and judge of the cook; from the alliance between the olfactory and sapid organs, it will be seen that their perfection is indispensable."--_A.

C., Jun._

[28-*] A facetious _gourmand_ suggests that the old story of "lighting a candle to the devil," probably arose from this adage--and was an offering presented to his infernal majesty by some epicure who was in want of a cook.

[29-*] "A gentlewoman being at table, abroad or at home, must observe to keep her body straight, and lean not by any means with her elbows, nor by ravenous gesture discover a voracious appet.i.te: talk not when you have _meat_ in your _mouth_; and do not smack like _a pig_, nor venture to eat _spoonmeat_ so hot that the tears stand in your eyes, which is as unseemly as the _gentlewoman_ who pretended to have as little a _stomach_ as she had a _mouth_, and therefore would not swallow her _pease_ by spoonfuls; but took them one by one, and cut them in two before she would eat them. It is very uncomely to drink so large a _draught_ that your _breath_ is almost gone--and are forced to blow strongly to recover yourself--throwing down your _liquor_ as into a _funnel_ is an action fitter for a juggler than a _gentlewoman_: thus much for your observations in general; if I am defective as to particulars, your own _prudence, discretion, and curious observations_ will supply."

"In CARVING at your own _table_, distribute the best pieces first, and it will appear very comely and decent to use a _fork_; so touch no piece of _meat_ without it."

"_Mem._ The English are indebted to TOM CORYAT for introducing THE FORK, for which they called him _Furcifer_."--See his _Crudities_, vol. i. p.

106.--Edit. 1776, 8vo.

[30-*] "Almost all arts and sciences are more or less enc.u.mbered with vulgar errors and prejudices, which avarice and ignorance have unfortunately sufficient influence to preserve, by help (or hindrance) of mysterious, undefinable, and not seldom unintelligible, technical terms--Anglice, nicknames--which, instead of enlightening the subject it is professedly pretended they were invented to illuminate, serve but to shroud it in almost impenetrable obscurity; and, in general, so extravagantly fond are the professors of an art of keeping up all the pomp, circ.u.mstance, and mystery of it, and of preserving the acc.u.mulated prejudices of ages past undiminished, that one might fairly suppose those who have had the courage and perseverance to overcome these obstacles, and penetrate the veil of science, were delighted with placing difficulties in the way of those who may attempt to follow them, on purpose to deter them from the pursuit, and that they cannot bear others should climb the hill of knowledge by a readier road than they themselves did: and such is _l'esprit de corps_, that as their predecessors supported themselves by serving it out _gradatim et stillatim_, and retailing with a sparing hand the information they so hardly obtained, they find it convenient to follow their example: and, willing to do as they have been done by, leave and bequeath the inheritance undiminished to those who may succeed them."--See p. 10 of Dr. KITCHINER _on Telescopes_, 12mo. 1825, printed for Whittaker, Ave Maria Lane.

[32-*] "In the present language of cookery, there has been a woful departure from the simplicity of our ancestors,--such a farrago of unappropriate and unmeaning terms, many corrupted from the French, others disguised from the Italian, some misapplied from the German, while many are a disgrace to the English. What can any person suppose to be the meaning of _a shoulder of lamb in epigram_, unless it were a poor dish, for a pennyless poet? _Aspect of fish_, would appear calculated for an astrologer; and _shoulder of mutton surprised_, designed for a sheep-stealer."--_A. C., Jun._

[33-*] See note to No. 59 how to plump the liver of a goose.

[33-+] "It is a curious ill.u.s.tration of the _de gustibus non eat disputandum_, that the ancients considered the _swan_ as a high delicacy, and abstained from the flesh of the _goose_ as impure and indigestible."--MOUBRAY _on Poultry_, p. 36.

INVITATIONS TO DINNER

In "the affairs of the mouth" the strictest punctuality is indispensable; the GASTRONOMER ought to be as accurate an observer of time, as the ASTRONOMER. The least delay produces fatal and irreparable misfortunes.

Almost all other ceremonies and civil duties may be put off for several hours without much inconvenience, and all may be postponed without absolute danger. A little delay may try the patience of those who are waiting; but the act itself will be equally perfect and equally valid.

Procrastination sometimes is rather advantageous than prejudicial. It gives time for reflection, and may prevent our taking a step which would have made us miserable for life; the delay of a courier has prevented the conclusion of a convention, the signing of which might have occasioned the ruin of a nation.

If, from affairs the most important, we descend to our pleasures and amus.e.m.e.nts, we shall find new arguments in support of our a.s.sertions.

The putting off of a rendezvous, or a ball, &c. will make them the more delightful. To _hope_ is to _enjoy_.

"Man never is, but always to be blest."