East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1864-11-16
THE SCIENCE OF COOKERY.


1 ~ From the Rouni Table.
Install any experienced cook into 9
first class kitchen, surround him with
all the appliances Of the art; place a
his disposal larder stocked with the
choicest dainties Of the season, give
him plenty of understrappers and tel
him to do his best, and he will be sure
to produce for your delectation suit
able repast. But the cook, who is not
only an artist, but a. man of genus,
can do more than this I; he can resolve
the debris of the market into delicious
fare. 1t was in this necromancy Of
the cuisine that Soyer excelled, he
could tickle she palates of the poor at
cheap, as well as excite the blaze ap-
petites of princoly voluptuaries with
costly banquets. Before his time it
was thought that epicuroan enjoy
ments and economy wereincompatible.
He showed the world how to combine
them. When terrible mortality
the result Of bad cookery-prevailed
in the allied army before Sebastopol,
he took possession of the military
kitchens, and converted the coarse ra-
tions of the troops into wholesome,
palatable food. The doctors had pro-
nounced the camp epidemic beyond
their skill, but the great cook arrested
it, and restored the strength and
stamina Of the emaciated hosts. Va
tel, Beauvillier, Careme and Ude were
wonderful artists, but they exercised
their talents solely for the benefit Of
the privileged order. They had no
recipes for the middle and laboring
classes. Soyer, on the other hand,
was man of democratic instincts,
who believed in the right of labor to
live well.
Wanted, therefore, an American
Soyor, to teach the American million
how to turn cheap edibles into good
dinners. Tho time has gone by when
families in moderate circumstances
could afford to buy the choicest cuts
in the market. That golden age of
the republic cannot be renewed in our
day and generation, if ever. The
pre-ent war will saddle us with a ma
tional debt nearly e9ual to that of
England, and pension list OF ttcrmid-
able Dimensions, and rigid economy
will be matter Of necessity here, as
it is there, upon that portion of the
community upon which tho dead
weight of taxation, after sundry shirk-
ings and shiftings, always falls.
But although small tradesmen and
journeymen mechanics can no longer
breakfast on porter-house steaks, and
dine on sirloins and fatted capons,
they might, with the aid Of scientific
cookery, convert the coarser provisions
to which their altered circumstances
restrict them into haftar dishas than
they over ate during the palmiest days
of their prosperity. The man who
should teach them-or rather their
wives and daughters how to accom-
plish this object would bo great pub
lie benefactor. Soyer's Crimean re-
cipes for soups, stews and hashes,
would be worth ten times the price of
any book cxtant to hundreds of thou
sands of American families. They
have never been published, we believe,
but there are hundreds of scientific
men in the United States, who, if they
chose to turn their attention to the
economies of cookery, would give us
recipes equally valuable. Who will
essay the taskp 1t would be labor
Of love, and while profitable to the
people, would bring a rich pecuniary
return to the laborer.
1t would amaze the uninitiated to
see what can be done by thorough
artist of the Soyer school with the
unconsidered fragments that most of
us look upon as the refuse of the
butchers stalls. The price of neck
Of beef which the butcher tosses con-
temptuously into tho poor mans
basket, and which, cooked in the
ordinary way, might defy the fled
teeth of Thug to penetrate it, could
be transformed by the magic of art
into dish upon which even an
epicure would not disdain to dine
Take tho other terminus Of the ami
hal--its caudal appendage. Most
people suppose that its use ceases with
tho life of the ox-that K was intend
q solely to whisk awssyy the flies. =
But those who have tasted OK tail
soup, properly made, know that it is
richer and more nourishing than mock
turtle, and quite as delicious. 1t is
curious fact that, although everything
that was once considered waste mat
tor" by the manufacturer is now turn
ed to good account in one branch or
other of the mechanical arts, most Of
us regard with disgust the coarser
desjecta memJra of the shambles, under
a false impression that they are only
fit for dogs. The same nourishing
juice that pervade the loins of an OK
circulate through its neck and its legs.
The fiber is tougher, and there is less
fatty matter, that is all; and these are
defects which scientific cookery can in
a great degree remedy.
The almost universal method of
Treating tough meat is the worst that
could possibly be devised. tits pound
ed, and then overfried or overlooked.
BY these means the matrimonial prin-
ciple is first brayed out of the vessels
that contain it, so as to be easily en-
volved by heat, and then driven by
the action of fierce fire up the Chin
.ney. What remains is a dyspeptic
mass, little better than India-rubbor.
1t is strange that we should have
brought the principles of animal chem
istry to bear upon the manuring of
land and the fattcning Of stock, and
yet have neglected to apply them in
our kitchens. American cookery, as
a general thing, contravenes all the
conditions laid down by Liebig as de-
termining the comparative nourishing
qualities Of meats and vegetables. 1t
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