The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-10 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The Pantropheon ; or, History of Food, and its
Preparation. By A. Soyer. Simpkin, Marshall,
and Co.
According to the Athenians, there are three
kinds of appetite. Firstly, there is that which
comes from fasting—called the bold appetite. Se-
condly, there is that which requires to be encou-
raged—called the indolent appetite. Thirdly, there
is that which owes nothing to nature, but every-
thing to art (M. Soyer terms it tenderly " the child
of art," p. 255)--called the eclectic appetite. And,
behold ! we sit down to devour this delectable
volume with all theie three appetites strong
upon us simultaneously. Anomalous they may
seem to be, and yet this is true nevertheless. Incon-
gruous these three separate appetites may appear
in themselves, and yet they are here together. The
bold appetite is ours—because we have fasted long
from the writings of our immortal Alexis—those
most exquisite of literary confections—we have
hungered a considerable time since the golden mo-
ments when we were feasting on the milk and honey
of the beautiful truths stored up abundantly in the
" Modern Housewife, or Men,agere," and yet more
abundantly in the " Gastronomic Regenerator."
Virtually we have remained famishing ever since
our " dearest Eloise," and our " beloved Hortense"
brought to a close their most attractive and be-
witching correspondence. During the protracted
silence ich has ensued thereupon, we have yearned
hitherto, alas ! in vain, for that wine of love and
bread of friendship. Therefore it is that we dedi-
cate our energies with " a bold appetite " to the
devouring of the delicious wisdom conserved in the
l'antropheon. To this enviable task, moreover, we
bring the advantage of "an indolent appetite "
an appetite that provokes the magiric genius of
Alexis Soyer to the dainty and ingenious labour of
its reanimation and encouragement. Besides which
our incomparable author discovers in us the oppor-
tunity for demonstrating the magical influence
of his abilities, the opportunity afforded by the
Possession on our part of an " eclectic appetite"—
au appetite that says to the skilful cook, " Thou art
my Father !" That supreme and crowning attes-
tation of the triumph of the ambitious chef—of his
triumph at once over the indolence of fatigue and the
disgust of satiety. An occasion when, immediately
,Upon the appearance of some prodigy of science or of
look of the sacrificer brightens [it is not our lips
that speak, but those of the Diephobe of the
kitchen, the inspired priestess of Victua, thegoddess
of gastronomy!] "the desire revives, the smile re-
appears, the chest dilates, the magiric facies shines
forth with all its splendour." How writes Soyer,
of this ultimate victory of his art, this elevating
and unsurpassable consummation ? He says, p.
256, "In this supreme moment, he [the cook] re-
ceived among the ancients, a crown of flowers—sweet
and noble recompence of his arduous toil." In this
manner, too, thou also halt conquered, Alexis !
To thee are we indebted, as before remarked, for
the satisfaction of the bold appetite, for the irrita-
tion of the indolent appetite, for the creation of the
eclectic appetite--through the prodigies of science
and luxury submitted to us on the altar of thy
august PANTROPHEON. Wherefore, in imitation
of the classic gourmets of Attica, we send thee the
blooming and odorous garland, the crown of thy
deserts, a garland (as it should be) not of perishable
blossoms, but of asphodels and amaranths.
Reader—having ourselves partaken of the de-
lights of the literary banquet humanely provided
by Messrs. Simpkin and Marshall, in these degene-
rate days, when grapes are diseased, and potatoes
blighted—we would here commend thee with a
benison to the devouring of the " Pantropheon."
Not with the benison of Apemantus—
" So fall to. 't
Rich men sin, and I eat root."
Rather with an incitation to avidity such as might
have fallen from the tongue of Fonthill-Beckford,
that most refined of all modern sybarites. " A
Ristory of Food," by Alexis Soyer—a history of
fod and its preparation ! A history of the vine
by Bacchus—of corn by Ceres—of fruit by Pomona!
It amounts to that : particularly remembering that
infoa narrative extending back, as the very title-page
recdl.l3l3 us, to " the earliest ages of the world"—a
rd extending back, not, as Mr. Macaulay might
raptieunr til it is lost in the twilight of fable, but
e
until it is rendered obscure and hazy in the
qtiatray. of„ the boiled and roast of a barbarous anti-
PreParat' antropheon, a History of Food and its
fancies 01,.","--why, the words conjure up the fairy
scenes of *lac"'
•
CCIO, T • g.
en.lißin some of the elfin
revel and luxury depicted in the mazes of
the o.oi.
Perapsgeeus labyrinth of the Decameron. Rather,
, they summon into being for the actual
appreciationa of our senses, that ravishing vision of
repast of which Milton sang with such sonorous
eloquence—appropriately enough—at the very out-
set of "Paradise Regained :" a thy-dream in which
the poet beheld :
"A table richly spread, in regal mode,
With dishes piled, and meats of noblest sort
And savour ; beasts of chase, or fowl of game,
In pastry built, or from the spit, or boil'd,
Gris-amber-steam'd ; all fish from sea or shore,
Freshet or purling brook, of shell or fin,
And exquisitest name, for which was drained
Pontos and Lucrine bay, and Africk coast—
(Alas, how simple, to these cites compared,
Was that crude apple that diverted Eve !)
And at the stately side-board, by the wine,
That fragrant smell diffused, in order stood
Tall stripling youths rich clad, of fairer hue
Than Ganymede or Hylas ; distant more,
Under the trees now tripp'd, now solemn stood,
Nymphs of Diana's train, and Naiades
With fruits and flowers from Amalthea's horn,
And ladies of the Hesperides, that seem'd
Fairer than feigned of old, or fabled since.
*
And all the while harmonious airs were heard
Of chiming strings, or charming pipes ; and winds
Of gentlest gale Arabian odours fann'd
From their soft wings, and Flora's earliest smells.
Such was the splendour."
It is the description of " Pantropheon." A descrip-
tion more apposite than that of the saccharine con-
diments placed by the -delicate fancy of Keats by
the side of the sleeping lady in " The Eve of St.
Agnes :" delicates--
" Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd ;
With jellies soother than the creamy curd,
Aud lucent syrups, tinct with cinnamon ;
Manna and dates, in argosy transferred
From Fez ; and spiced dainties every one
From silken Samarcand to cedar'd Lebanon."
A provision such as this would, we doubt not, have
been disdained by M. Soyer as adapted only to
the exceedingly 7,7oung ladies who have emerged
from the stringed bondage of the pinafore, of whom
Byron said so wickedly in " Beppo"-
-
The nursery still lisps out in all they utter,
Besides they always smell of bread and butter."
Not for uneducated palates such as these has Alexis
?foyer written the inestimable pages of his " Pan-
tropheon." Not for such as these has he burnt the
d:Wight oil during the course of his profound re-
rohes—researches in the conduct of which he
Tight not less accurately than Miss Strickland have
quoted that suggestive couplet from Beaumont—
" The treasures of antiquity laid up
In old historic rolls I opened."
For •
111 this elaborate " History of Food" the letter'd
dre• y-las authenticated. his statements by many hun-
t 3 of references to ancient and modern writers of
aiottieuce, giving page and volume with minute preci-
La,ti alluding in his facile erudition to both Greek and
r„
val L`4O,SSiCS, to contemporary scribes and medice-
in un-::-Ieliasts. It might have been imagined that
and ertaking a task of such enormous magnitude
ca„, °,f such bewildering difficulty, the culinary
to they of even a Soyer might have been baffled as
aublitil'emanner of arrangement. But no—as this
solenThi work on eating and drinking—a work
of -Y " Dedicated by the author to the genius
„Gastronomy !"—a work the vignette of which is
offi
eireledgYr, of the -globe rolling through space, en.-
Nuix :-,Y* this inscription Deus Creator Terra
rAy, •f--•a work the frontispiece of which is a
„resent •
b, Presentation of the great chef himself surrounded
p rae aind, decanter, and game, and venison, and
find• ! !—in this laborious compilation we
con neither in manner nor in matter the slightest
fusionfield from
whatsoever. " Agriculture" is the broad
-trora which we set out on our' rovings through
the rea of Gastronomy.
mine into Thereupon we exa-
into the « Cereals," into the " Grinding of Corn,"
?neat Manipulation ivi-auipulation of Flour," into " Fru-
tables."mto " Grains and Seeds," into " Vege-
tranching off from this point in two
directions
Isr History, first of all, describes to us
egetables,
tdis4efvfeorrii:b(dlidbden by reminding us how beans
tollouncedy Pythagoras—how haricots were
Alexander the Great—how peas were
by Martial to be disagreeable—how
thexif°trileahreedend the chief ingredient in Esau's dearly-
purchasedge—and then conducts us into
abounding
bedsarden. Having traversed the
of nature
as of such delectable products
gent sorrei, th the fs.?,voury onion, and the bitterpun-
radish,, and the succu-
aromaticalle
ctsparag,,,, e
overpowered b
cc pla me come to the delicate and
s used in seasoning"—almost
fragrance cowirdthe conflicting odours from the
Then we cora thyme to the stench of asafoetida.
stone fruit, of
frsinacking our lips—to the fruit :
the opening
oiva
couit, and shell fruit. It is like
upon us ucopia—there come tumbling
such ins,-
peach and. ious profusion olive and cherry,
dropping fgn
among
the leaves (of " Pantro-
apple, and lemon, and f quince, and pear, and.
rant, strawberry °range, fig, raspberry, cur-
gooseberry) there 4, mulberry (not the glimpse of a
of coins rattli
almond and fling down lig such a hail-
faberta pidachio

chesnut, and pomegranate ! Insomuch are we
overwhelmed by the abundance, that we are almost
glad to escape to the meats—what though our
sympathies (mind, we don't say our habits !) go a
great waywith the vegetarians. Vegetarians !—can
such people remain in existence after all the allure-
ments of the cooks of modern times, of the me-
diEeval ages, of the days of antiquity? Let them
listen once seriously to the syren-voice of Soyer,
and their boards, we warrant them, will soon be
groaning under animal food in plenty. Not if they
hear him (p. 150) talking of the excellence of plump
young dog, or descanting upon the agreeable taste
of a tender and youthful ass. But let them once
lend an ear attentively to his record of the joints
carved from the kid, the pig, the ox, and the lamb,
and even in their eyes the kitchen garden and the
orchard, of themselves, will become little more no-
table than a fool's paradise. Yet more assuredly
will this be the case after a perusal of the chapters
relating respectively to " Poultry," from the capon
to the peacock ; to " Hunting," from the stag to
the elephant : to " Feathered Game," from the
pheasant to the woodcock; to "Fish," from sturgeon
to anchovy ; or to " Seasonings," from salt to
mushrooms. By the way; glancing through the
chapter relating to fish, how it is that M. Soyer
classes frogs among shell-fish we cannot, for the life
of us, conjecture. There is one other division of
" Pantropheon," not yet mentioned, which is espe-
cially entitled to consideration. It is that relating
to " Pastry"—a subject handled 'by the author
with loving tenderness, and treated by him from
first to last, may we not be permitted to say?—in
a manner honourable at once to his learning and
his sensibility. The solemnity of tone observable
at moments is something very fine, and cannot fail
to command the reader's admiration. Here, for
example, is the record penned by Alexis Soyer of
what may be termed