The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-09-02 00:00:00

ON SAUCES.

IW AN AMATEUR GOURMAND.
Sauces forint not onry an essential addition to most meets,
but even make an important patt of them; they do not
I alone vary the taste and form in which they arc presented
to us, and in wart that relish which enables us to eat du:
times as much as we could without them, but they form
an attractive di coration, which may justly be compared to
the finishing touch of the painter or the toilette of a beauty.
The office of a good sauce is to flatter and excite the appe-
tite. If it be too mild it causes no sensation, and its objet
is not obtained ; and if it be too pungent, it excoriates, in-
stead of gently stimulating the reate, in which the eqjly-
ment of a real epicure consists, and which an experienced
and accotnplislsed.cook can alone produce. Mtzdieal men
indeed ',renounce that all sauces are to be avoided, because
they induce us to cat to repletion ; but what would they
make of fish under such a prohibition, which every
knows cannot be passed without sauce? Heide:, it would
qu:te undermine the whole.system of modern cookery, re-
duce us toa diet of plain Toast and boiled, and condemn us.
for the remainder of our lives, to the regimen of a family
joint. If we are not forced, however, to refrain from 'the
use of sauces till we see physicians refuse lobster with their
turbot, swallow venison without jelly, take beef-steaks
without oysters, or reject turtle and ragouts, we need be in
no dread of being speedily compelled to abstinence.
A foreign Ambassador, when its this country a few years
ago, shrewdly remarked, that the English had twenty re-
ligions and only one sauce; but the everlasting ineliel
butter, which then stied over our tables with undivided
sway, has since been stripped of a great portion of its au-
thority, and only. reigns in the majesty of uncontrolled do-
minion among a few 'obstinate" and pertinacious disciples
of the old regime. So great Meet! is the progress we have
'ately made in rubbing 'off our old-fashioned prejudices,
aid in adoptiog the more scientific and enlightened cookery
of our neighbours, that a detailed catalogue of savers, now
naturalized in spite of the Alien Bill, would of itself fill a
volume; for, according r) aii accurate computation, made
one or two years ago. the nomenclature of sauces was
founl to'comprehend ahont two hundred variciits,
and we are daily making important additions to the
number. • •

Our present enormous mass of publication could never
exist but that one half generates and supports the other.
throwing out fresh props as it enlarges itself, like the sacred
tree of India. One hook affords nourishment to fifty, or
five hundred magazines and reviews, from which, in due
time, some diligent gleaner collects materials for a new
work and a new host of Seviewers ; so that we keep fulfill-
ing the squirrel's circle, always going on and making a
mighty clatter in our little case, but never advancing. It
is so much easier to review books than to write them, to
detect faults than to avoid them, to compare than to in-
vent, that it is probable the critical system will continue
expending until it becomes a disease, a monstrous wen,
which the body of our literature may for a certain term
nourish and enlarge, but which nitiniately will, in the in-
tellectual, as in the human subject, finish by destroying
its supporter.
It is ridieelous to expect originality ; presumptuous to
claim it. iVhst ! has the world existed for six thousand
yesisrand are Simpkins or Jinkitis to bit upon a bright
thought which escaped the penetration of Socrates and
Plato, aid every individual of those innumerable genera-
tiers, whoo_e_uts v teefeermenting
,and, cogitating
'since thidays of Xelim I ow and then, indeed, we may
recover something that has been long lost, and of which we
cannot ascertain the original owner, but we are no more its
authors than we arc the corners of the shilling which we
may accidentally pick up at ('haring-cress. Lke old-
clothes-men, our minds can only dabble in what our prede-
cessors have worn and thrown away • our rarest originali-
ties have once been common-places, der novelties were anti-
quities to our ancestors. We learn something that time has
forgotten, and then demand a patent of invention and dis-
covery. The world is a round robin, ending where it be-
gins. Cities are built of the ruins of the ruins of cities,
one generation of human bodies fattens the earth for the
sustenance of the next, and their minds follow the same
course ; yet cities, bodi.e, and minds are pretty much
what they were three thousand years ago. Our mental
stature is as unchangeable as our corporeal. In the early
ages there were Titans in both, for men were measured
after death by their exploits when living ; and when the
sun of history and literature was only rising, a little hero
Cr a diminutive mind might cast a very long shadow, and
of course afford a very fallacious standard. In our nresent
meridian days we are reduced to our proper level, and it Is
nearly a permanent one. Time must laugh in his sleeve
when he sees us strutting in our borrowed plumes, pique-
ing ourselves upon our stale originalities, and fancying our- A princely, magnificent, and entirely spontaneons mark
,elver very blight-eyed, because we have lost sight of old of attention has recently been shown by the higle-at per-
hnowledge so long, that when we stumble upon it we mis- sonage in the State, to the comforts of the widow of one of
take it for new. the most distinguished Statesmen of modern times. This
Thrice happy the author who lived soon after the Caliph high personage having heard that the wife of his old ft iced
Omnar, when hooks were scarce, and nearly ail that cx- was not so easy in het circumstances as the widow of 53
isted were destroyed in the Alexandrian library! If any great a man should be, front his own private puree, and
critic presumed to twit him with plagiarism, he would with all the delicacy peculiar to his rank and situation
date him to prove his assertion, and in the impossibility of presented the Lady with a handsome and ample enmity.
compliance assist upon his recalling it. Commentators In the reign of James I. and his successor, acce:•dirg to
hare remarked that the reviewers of this period were more Burton, some of the aniurementa of our eitizers, and their
than usually foul-mouthed, arising probebly from the ladies particularly, were derived from monkeys and a di-
great number who had been thus compelled to cot their minutive breed of doge • and those of winter arree from
own words. Like the Gentiilastunte Bourgeois of Muliere, cards, tables and dice, shovel-beard, chess, the philoso-
who had been speaking prose all his life without dreaming i pher's game, small trunks, shuttleeack, billiards, tr. t.ric,
of his cleverness, every writer of this enviable period i masks, singing, dancing, Yule games, frolic', j:sts, ri'd'es,
became suddenly original without even suspecting the fact. ; catches, purposes, questions and commands, merry talc .; of
To whom was le to be traced? The books that might ; kniglite errant, Queens, lovers, lords, 'silica, giants,
convict him had warnied the Turkish baths, been con-I dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches, fairies, gcbli:l3, friars,
vetted into smoke and vapour, and ascended into the skies ; Re. " Some men's whole delight," he also adds, "is to
to rejoin their authors. No fear of his suffering the fate • take tobacco, and drink all day long in a tavern or alehouse,
of the modern, who pathetically complained that tiliak- Ito discourse, sing, roar, jest, talk of a cock and hull over a
speare had said all his good things before him. He stepped , pot, &c. or when three or four good companions meet. tell
down into a field of literature, unplucked, unplouglted, !old stories by the fire-side, or in the sun, as old folks
unttodden ; and whether he collected weeds, thistles, or I usually do, qua-apt ici meminere senaremembering
, afresh
flowers, every body was ready to exclaim, " 0 what a rare I and with pleasure, ancient matters, and such-like aeci-
posy !" Authors at that fortunate epoch were, like the dents as happened to them in their younger years."
followers of Columbus, invading the New World, who Weseteem MISSIONARY Mum xe.—On Monday
had nothing to do but to pick up the treasures beneath evening, at six o'clock, a very numerous and respectable
their feet, until the poorest soldier became welched^ en- I meeting took place at the Wesleyan Chapel, George-strivt,
riehed. The first literacy foragers soon robbed nature of Greenwich, in aid of the funds of the Wesleyan Si iesie
every thing site had to offer, and we must either pilfer i Society for Christianiziag and Civilising the heather. .
from them or pluck one another, unless we embrace the! floreign ('limes. The chair was taken by
easy alternative which wine have chosen—that of being !Esq. of Woolwich. After the business of the meeting had
unnatural. Though reason is exhausted, folly may still I been opened, much interesting information was cominuei-
be original— a hint which we moderns should most Sc-! cited by the following gentlemen, who were engaged to at-
riouely ',emend. Ile who wishes to confer a benefit upon' tend on this occasion, respecting the progress of I. hrt,:t:anity
the existing generation should discover some process for in Heathen countries :—The Rev. Mr. Hewlett, S 'cretary ;
accelerating oblivion. Instead of writing that they may the Rev. Mr. lnila, the Rev. Mr. Mason, the Rev. Mr.
be read, men read that they may write; and as the peruse Morley, the Rev. Mr. Fox, Missionary, from Ceylon ; and
ems have all seem to the same fountains, they seem to be; from several other gentlemen who addressed tfie meeting
perpetually drinking the same beverage through different 'in the course of the evening, which did not terminate till
diluters. Folks now-a-days write fasters than we can for- 1 nearly ten o'clock, when a liberal subscription was received
get; nay, there are some who even scribble more rapidly, at the doors in furtherance of the objects of the institution.
than we can read. To him who is fond of books a good An old women, of the name of Boswell, the wife of a pen-
memory is the wand of Sancho Panza's physician, which; sioner in Greenwich Hoepital. sent, inclosed in a bag, to
whisked away the taste of every thing that might beve the Chairman of the meeting, 960 farthinge, in aid of the
been most grateful to his palate. IVho has not often; Missionary cause, with a letter, expressing a wish that
wished to forget some former feast of reason that he might every pereen would contribute, as she had done, to the ut-
enjoy a new banquet? , Who has not often envied youth, I most extent in their power, when the (lark and benighted
Or even mature ignorance, when he secs them devouring! Heathen would then no longer have to lament the want of
for tho first time Ike Quixote or Gil Bias? Maglialpechi a knowledge of the power and omnipotence of God!
was not only conversant with the contents of every volume, Thieving of various kinds seems to be in active opera.,
in the immense library of which he was the guardian, but Lion in Launceston and its neighbourhood. On Friday
could indicate its exact position amid the numerous shelves. ! bight a slaughter-house was entered and robbed of tit
Reading was his sole delight, and yet lie was obliged to meat intended for the next day's market, and not only have
abandon it because he could meet • with nothing new," the orchards and garders suffered depredation, but the
and could no longer interest his head in that which h very cows have been milked in the fields.

Were we to enter into all the niceties of these, and
the manner of pretparirrg them, aro should find the topic so
inexhaustible and irresistible, that we must avoid entering
into the delectable maze, though we must give our readers
the useful caution to be very wary in forming the contesion
of sauces; for all family, matrimonial, illicit, political, com-
mercial, friendly, and equivocal connexions, arc not Ey half
so dangerous as an ill-placed connexion of sauces. The art,
indeed, of forming these is one of the greatest mysteries ie
science, and its acquirement is the very acme of the culi-
nary art. Its elements, however, are simple, ecnsistirg
chiefly of gravy or cream, and their object, like that of
other connexions, is to cement the union of vat huts and
often discOrdant qualities. As in a happy marria7,e, the
interests, the temper, and the wishes of each must mutually
yield to the other, in older to produce that harmony which
forms the basis of connubial happiness and of social order; an,
in a good ragout, the substance, the seasoning, and thy
sauce, should all be blended in that exquisite ernicord
which constitutes the foundation of good cookery, and of
all rational enjoyment. In the management of tl:ie, how-
ever, the generality of cooks are lamentably deficient ; for,
like many of their masters, they cheat us with fAlss ap-
pearar.cea, and give their sauces the semblance of richness
by the aid of mere colouring matter, while they, in fact,
pouts, neither flavour nor substance.

qxur.ary