The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1849-08-25


but 10 surpass il a thousand-fold In benefit for
man; and II the death Of the potato have been
the means of awakening Us TO such an immeas
urably superior resource, We shall, In aooiuon
TO our sorrowful Irish reasons, have many JOY,
fol English, European, American and universal
reasons, 10 thank Heaven that the potato mas
been SO kind as to die
In the mean while, though extensively EN-
ployed In the British Islands within these three
years, Indian corn cannot yet De said to have
come into use; for only the bunged counterfeit
of il 10 hitherto in use; which may be well
called not the use Of Indian corn, but the abuse
of IL. Government did, indeed, on the nrst iaii
ure Of the potato, send abroad printed papers
about the cooking Of this article, Tor oehooi o.
the poor; and once, recoliect, there circulated
In all the newspapers, for some weeks, Promui-
gated by some "Psace Missionary" set o.
fiowery prophetic recipes for making Indian
meal into most psla!able puddings, with quarts
of cream" 'six eggs well whipt." &c-ingre-
dents out Of which the British female intellect
used to make tolersble puddings, even without
Indian meal, and by recipes Of its own! THOSE
recipes were circulated among the population
Of little or no value, now hnd, even as re-
cipes-but in the mean while there was this
fatal omission made, that no Indian meal on iaiT
| terms, and no good Indian meal on any terms
at all, was or is yet attainable among US TO Try
by any recipe. In tnat unfoftundto CoboiuOHb
| say, matters still remain.
The actual value Of Indian meal by retail, with
free demand, is about one penny per pound;
or with poor demand, as was inevitable at tirsl'
but need not have been necessary long, let us
say three halfpence a pound. The London
| shops, two years ago, on extensive inquiry
were not found TO yield any OF it under three
pence pound--the price Of good wheaton Hour;
somewhere between twice aud three times the
real cost Of Indian meal. But further, and
worse, all the Indian meal so Purchaseabie was
found to have a bitter, fusty taste in it, which,
| after multiplied experiments, was not eradica-
BILE by any cookery, though long continued
boiling In clear water did abate IL considerably.
| Our approved method OF cookery came al last to
| be, that Of making the meal with either hot or
cold water into "a thick batter, and boiling IL,
| tied up in a linen cloth set in a crockery
shape, for four or sometimes seven hours; which
| produced a thick MISUNDERSTANDING pudding,
such as one might have hoped would prove very
eligible for eating instead OF potatoes along with
meat. Hope, however, did not correspond TO
experience. This bandsome-looking pudding
combined readily with any kind Of sauce, sweet,
spicy, oleaginous; but except the old tang OF
bitterness, IL had little taste Of It's own; and
/ along with meat, sit COULD" like Charles OF
Sweoen's bread, ''be eatsn,' but was never
good, at best was barely endurable.
| Yet the Americans praised their Indian meal;
celebrated its sapid excellencies, and In maya
zine-noves, as We could see, "lyrically recog-
Missed" them. Where could the error le7 THIS
meal, of beautiful golden color, equally ground
into fine hard powder, and without speck or ad-
mixture Of any kind, seemed to the sight, TO the
/ feel and the smell, fautless; only to the taste
was there this ineradicabe final bitterness, hitch
in bad samples even made the throat smart; and,
| as the meal seemed otherwise tasteless, acquired
| for IL, from unpatriotic Knockers among US, the
name Of "soot-and-sawdust meal" American
| friends at last informed US that the meal was
fusty, spoiled; that Indian meal, especially in
warm weather, did not keep sweet above 4 few
weeks--that We ought to procure Indian corn,
and have II ground ourselves. Indian corn was
accordingly procured; with difficulty from the
eastern city regions; and with no better result,
nay with a worse. How old the corn might be
we, of course, knew only by testimony not be-
yond suspicion; perhaps it was corn Of the Sc
eond year in bond; but at all events the me al Of
/ il too was bitter; and the new evil was added Of
an intolerable mixture Of sand; which, on re-
| Election, We discovered to proceed from the Eng
fish millstones; the English millstones, too soft
| for this new substance, could not grind IL, could
only grind themselves and Il, and so produce a
mixture Of meal and sand. Scotland -sawdust
meal with the addition OF brayed flint; there
| was plainly no stanuing Of this. | had to take
farewell Of this Indian meal experiment.; my
| poor patriotic attempt to learn eating the new
| food Of mankind, had to terminate here. Nv
molendinary resources las you who read my
name will laughingly admit) were small; my in
| diyidual need Of meal was smsll-in sne, my
stock of patience ina was done.
This being the condition under which Indian
meal is hitherto known TO the British pOpula-
| lion, wonder they have little love for Il, no
wonder it has got bad name among them.-
''SOot-and-sawdust meal, with an admixture Of
brayed tint;" this is not a thing to fall in love
with; nothing but starvation can well reconcile
man to this. The starving Irish paupers, We
accordingly FIND, do but eat and curse; complain
loudly that their meal Is unwholesome; that it
is bad and bitter that IL is this and that; to ali
which there is little heed paid, and the Official
person has to answer with ashrug of the should
ers. In the unwholesomeness, except perhaps
for defect Of boiling, do not at all believe; but
as to the bitter knocked unpalatability my evil
dencs is complete.
Well, three days ago | received, direct from
the barn Of an American friend, as il was stow
ed there last autumn, a small barrel of Indian
corn in the natural state; large ears or cobs OF
the Indian corn. merely stript Of its loose leaves
On each ear, which 10 of obelisk shape, about
the size of large, thick runcated carrot, there
are perhaps about five hundred graf arranged
in close order in their eight columns; the color
golo yellow, or in some cases with a hecker of |
blood-red. These grains need TO be rubbed off, |
and ground by some rational miller, whose mill |
stones are hard enough for the work; that is all |
the secret Of preparing them. And here comes /
the important point This grain, / now for the /
hrst time hndsi srssf, among the sweetest; with 1
an excellent rich taste, something like that OF /
nuts; indeed, II seems TO me, perhaps from nov /
city in part, decidedly sweeter than wheat, or
any other grain have ever tasted. So that, Il
would appear, all our experiments hitherto on
Indian meal have been vtlatsd TO the heart by a
deadly original sin, or fundamental falsity to /
start with; as IL experimenting on Westphalian
ham, all the ham presented to us hitherto for
trial had benin a rancid state. The differ
ence between ham and rancid ham, M. Sover
wellknows, Is considerable! Tkis is the differ
ence, however, this highly considerable one, we
have had 10 encounter hitherto in all our exoe-
riences Of Indian meal. Ground by a reasoaa-
BILE miller, who grinds only It, and not his mill.
stones along with it, this grain, / can already
promise, Will make excellent, Clearly, whole
some, and Palatable eating; and be fit for the
COOKS art under all manner Of conditions; ready
to combine with whatever judicious co ndimsnt.
and reward well whatever wise treatment he aD-
plies to 1t; and, indeed, on the whole, should
say, more promising article could not well
be submitted to him, II his art is really useful
one. ...
These facts, in time of potato failures, an
prehension OF want, and occasional fits of wide
spread too authentic want and famine, when M. I
5oyer.has TO set about CO ncocting mirscuouslv {
cheap soup, and the government to make enor. | :
nous grants and rates-in- aid, seem to me Of {
decidedly comfortable kind-welI deserving '
PRACTICAL Investigation by the European Sov.r A