Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-03-12
THE HOMERIC CUISINE.

THE HOMERIC CUISINE.
Ing Travellers and Lost His Eye-Other
Stories.
Translated from the Leipsiger Tagblatt for
the Sunday Globe.
Homer, this primeval ancestor Of poets,
although living thousand years before
Christ, had already some idea that eating
and drinking held body and soul together
and was not SO very inexperienced in
kitchen wisdom, even though the twenty
fifth edition of "Henrie the Davids' had
! not yet appeared. What one shall not
do: cook in many pots, Homer did. He
had particular pot for the gods, another
for the giants and many sorts for the
children of men. To his gods he dished
out ambrosia for hunger and nectar for
thirst. And both tasted famously, though
Homer himself could not say how. And
the gods did not disdain to come down to
earth and sit at table with mortals,
taking things as they were Homer
makes King Alklnous relate that the gods
came often and ate with him in his palace.
This we may allow, since the Alkinous
cuisine was unexceptional. But that the
Everlasting gods" sometimes visited the
Philippians, even the right black ones, and
were entertained some fourteen DAYS, THIS
whoever can, may believe. l, for my part,
would needs be very hungry before L
could partake of what the Kafirs and
Zulus prepare in their dirty kitchens.
And what did the giants eat From
| the ranks of these monsters Homer de-
scribed only the one-eyed Cyclops, and
| among these with especial preference
the noble Polyphernes. This monster
carried on an important milk and cheese
business. When he had driven his herd
! home. he poured out for his evening meal
some tubs of milk and added basket of
cheese. 1t was festive occasion, how
ever, for him when he CHANGED to find
stranded sailor; though he preferred two,
for his stomach was empty as the cask of
! the Danaiden. In this manner he led a
jolly life for some days, when he had
Ulysses and his companions sitting in his
cove like mice in trap. Each evening
he took two of the travellers, dashed them
against a corner post as one might kill
puppies, and swallowed them as cock does
rain worm. In order to wash down the
elbows and legs, which stuck in his
| throat, he poured after them SIX pals of
fresh milk, and then laid himself down
among his sheep and goats, and slept like
a badger. In the morning he rose with
fresh appetite, took the same portion and
ditto in the evening; and he would have
forwarded the Whole company into the
under world of his stomach in the same
manner had not Ulysses, having first
made him drunk, run lamp post into
his eye, and thus rescued himself from
the hand Of this gourmet.
In the kitchen of mortals it was neither
so fine as among the gods nor so coarse
grained as among the Cyclops. Every
thing which was prepared there ap-
breaches nearer our own taste. There
| were sensible beef, veal, mutton, and
pork roasts, and good home made bread
And who prepared the food in the
Homeric house? They did not carry the
wheat to mill on an ass, the servants
ground it between the stOnes--by hand
Is of these were increasingly active,in the
house Of Alkinous to prepare the needed
quantity, and to bake. Neither wife nor
daughters looked after the kitchen: these
sat mostly in the upper rooms at the spin
ming wheel or loom, or busted themselves
by the river about the bleaching and the
washing, as did the famous Princess Nau-
sicace. Therefore no wooer asked: VIII
my culture" cook to my taste? Every
one, princes and statesmen, understood
the kitchen requirements; happy timel
The noble wooer killed single handed
steer, sheep and swine, singed them, kin
died the fire and artistically arranged the
roast What did the Greeks not eat
in Homer's time? What dish was absent
from their menu? 1t is noticeable that
they ate no meat soups, neither at dinner
nor from cups at breakfast, neither did
they replace this by means of Liebig's
meat extract. In fact we read nowhere
in Homer that meat was boiled; it came
to the table only in form of roasts. Sau-
sage was also unknown. Likewise no
boiled vegetable, neither cabbage nor
sauerkraut, neither big beans nor little,
neither spinach, celery nor kohlrabi. The
few green things which came to table were
eaten in the form of salad and garlic,
and similar vegetables were especially
liked, and because Francis Drake was not
yet born the potatoes and with them
Thuringian dumplings were wanting.
Only the poor appear to have eaten fish;
for nowhere by the dinners of the great
was any preparation of fish mentioned,
not even once herrings. Game is scarce
ly mentioned although hunting was held
in great honor and the goddess Diana is
pictured as a passionate huntress, and
Orion celebrated as nimrod, and so it
may be supposed that here and there a
| juicy roast of game adorned the tables.
Of birds we hear nothing. Birdlime had
not been discovered and the idyllic field
hare was unknown 10 homer. Six humid
red years later it seems first to have Oc-
CURED to men that these little animals
were not to be despised. To many of us
the autumn would not seem so agreeable
were these little creatures not forthcom.
ing from the peasants. Butter was un-
known in Homeric houses. The house.
wife would have asked: "Butter, butter;
what is that?' Butter was quite un-
known to her Fortunate house.
wives to whom the high prices
of butter could not give the