Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1858-07-20
Cookery as an Art.

| feriDg for domestic service know very little O.
| bout the culinary art, and it can hardly be ex
pected that the youthful mistress of family will
be a proficient in q business requiring incessant
and long continued practice. Now we do not
see why the profession of cook should not be
studied like other scientific professions by well
educated persons. Brewing and distilling are
superintended by men acquainted with the prin-
ciples of chemistry why should not the same at
tainments be in requisiton for the preparation
of solid sustenance4 The best works on cook
cry have been written by medical men; why is
the reducing of their theories to practice left to
the utterly ignorant, and to the stupidity that
always accompanies ignorance9 Let US look at
some opinions on the subject entitled to defer
ence.
Liebig, in his work on "The Chemistry Of
Food" says:-"Among all the arts known to
man, there is none that enjoys juster appreci-
at on, and the products of which are more uni
versally admired, than that concerned in the
preparation of our food. Led by an instinct
which has almost reached the dignity of con-
scious knowledge, and by the sense of taste
which protects health, the experienced cook,
with respect to the choice, admixture and prep
aration of food, has made acquisitions surpass-
ing all that chemical and physiological science
has done in regard to the doctrine or theory of
nutrition"
81 do not yet despair" says another writer,
''of seeing the day when the culinary science,
like Others, will have its qualified protessors.'-
"The art of cookery" another observes, sis the
analeptic part of the art of Physic." DR.. Man
deville says, physicians should be good cooks
at least in theory"
DR.. Arbuthnot says 1.-THE choice and meas
ure of the materials of which our body is com
posed-of what we take daily by pounds, is at
least of as much Importance as what we take
seldom and only by grains and spoonfulls."-
Count Rumford remarks-"In what art or sol
ence, can improvements be made that would
more powerfully contribute to increase the COM
forts and enjoy ments of mankind" A quaint
writer says truly-"The stomach is every mans
master" and Armstrong attributes to the good
cook the useful Knowledge
"How best the ickle fabric to support
Ofmortal mau in healthtul body how
A healthful mind the longest to maintain"
To prevent disease, Is surely better than to
cure them The French enjoy happy equilib-
rum of spirits more constantly than any other
nation. DR.. Kitchiner says it is because their
elastic stomachs, unimpaired by any spirituous
liquors. digest vigorously the TODD they render
easily asslnilated by cooking it sufficiently; do.
ing half the work of digestion by 1re and
water.
'sThe tender morsels on the palate melt,
And all the force of cookery is felt"
The cardinal virtues OF cookery are Cleanli
ness, Frugality, Nourishment, and Palateable-
hess.
The term "gourmand" or "epicure", says a
distinguished writer on the subject, is not sy-
nonymous with 'glutton," who eats as long as
he can sit, like the great eater OF Kent, whom
Fuller places among his worthless, telling us "he
ate thirty dozen pigeons at one meal, at another
fourscore rabbits, and eighteen yards Of black
pudding-London measure l"-nor does the term
epicure suit fastidous appetite only excited by
dainties, such as the brains OF peacocks or par
rots, the tongues of thrushes or nightngales, DC.
II means one who has good taste, and good sense
enough TO relish food cooked according to SCI
entitc principles; 50 prepared that the palate DO
not offended, and that it be rendered easy of di-
gestion. Thus the temperate nan is the great
est epicure tor the perfection OF enjoyment de.
pends on the perfection OF the faculties OF mind
anG body.
The philosopher Descartes, when q cavilling
MARQUIS said, "What-do you philosophers eat
dainties 2"-replied, "Do you think Providence
made good things only for fools !"
Boswell says DR.. johnson had nice discern
ment in the science OF cookery, aud talked OF
good eating with uncommon satisfaction.
Boileau says the Norman Oonqueror, William,
bestowed portions OF land on his tayorite chiet
cook. The Doomsday Book records grant to
Robert Argyllon for the service OF making in
an earthen pot, in the kitchen of our lord the
king, a mess called de la groute-a kind OF plum
lporridge--on the day of the coronation. The
dish was served to King George ~. at his
coronation.
The luxury of different ages has furnished
many curiosities in cookery. Among the an
clients porpoise and wild boar were highly
esteemed, and the swan was dish OF state
The crane was dainty in William the Conquer
er's time and seals, curlews, bitterns, herons,
and the peacock, this last-"the food OF lovers
and the meat Of lords"-were fashionable at ba-
ronial entertainments. The peacock was stuffed
with spices and sweet herbs, roasted, and serv-
ed whole; after it was dressed, being covered
with the skin aud feathers, the tail spread, and
| the beak and comb gilt. Some were covered
with Leaf gold. These birds adorned English ta
bles till the beginning OF the seventeenth centu.
ry. The pie, full of living birds, was fayorite
dish, and common joke at old English feasts
The dwarf, Jeffrey Hudson, was served up in o
cold pie about 1880, before King Charles, at the
Duke OF Buckinghams table. The baron o.
beef was tavorite of old English hospitality
Anthony OF Guevera, chronicler to Charles v.
says he saw at teast-"a horse roasted, q ca
in gely, lyzard in hot broth, troggs fried, &C."
The Roman sauces described by Celus Apcius
celebrated Roman epicure, who wrote curl
GUS cookery book in Latin, and invented souE
made of the livers Of u peculiar fish, which some
times sold at the rate OF sixty dollars the pound
would be hardly more palatable to US than the
black broth of the Spartans, which caused the
citizens OF Sybaris to wonder no longer why the
Spartans were So fearless OF death. Yet one o.
Tie receipts of Appicus required the death ol
three or four dozen animals.
The EsqulnauX eat raw flesh, and melted fa
is delicacy among Arctic natives. Many o
the Northern Indians eat the intestines an(
blood. Tartars teed on dogs, and some of thu
natives of Australia, New Holland, and othe
countries, were wont to regale themselves upor
ants and worms, while mice was an African del
icacy. Norwegians mixed powdered bark o
trees with meal to bake in cakes
La Chapelle's Nouveau Ouisinier, published
in l74S, mentions the cooking of turkey in tht
shape of a foot ball, or a hedge hog; shoulde
of mutton in that of u beehive; an entree o
pigeons in the form of spider or a frog. Sucl
whim sical harle.quinade has now become oil
fashioned, though the taste for decoration re
mains. 1t may thus be seen that in all ages th
Importance of cookery, as an art, has been ao
knowledged by the highest authority.
|
GRASS WIDOWS IN INDIANA.-A correspondent
of the Dayton Journal, who has been travellin,
out in the Wabash regions of Hoosierdom, dis
covered one popularity in every town he tarriet
in:
Speaking of grass reminds me Of the fact tina