National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1884-02-04
FROM "MERRIE ENGLAND"
A Hungry Wanderer Who Finds Her Roast
Beef q DelusiOn
And Her Juicy Mutton Chops a Taste
less Mockey,
With Some Dissertations on British Cookery, Good
and Bad.
American Advantages in Food and Cost
OF Living.

SDecfdL Letter.
BRISTOL, ENGLAND, Jan. 10.-Disappont-
ment awaits the American who hopes to
crafty his palate in the tight little ISLE"
The roast beef Of Old England is wicked
delusion, her Southdown mutton is an over
fat fraud, her Devonshire cream is product
of art, not nature, and her Yorkshire pud-
ding is a batter sponge to sop up gravy with.
The stall-fed and corn-fed roasts of tho mid
die states come before us with sigh. Would
they could literally come! We remember
them, rich and juicy, their glorious sanguin-
sry hue tempered and shaded with brown,
and interspersed with minute pearly globules
of white fat. We are thankful for the mere
remembrance of their excellence and for
their impersonality, for alas the latter quail
ity is absent here. The butcher buys one COW
from one old farmer, another from another,
q calf from some poor old widow perhaps
and a porker from some Irish vagrant
who, when he sells his pig, is sell
ing his dearest love. Tho man of
beef himself oiiiciates at the sacrifcial altar
1t would be all right if this were tho last of
it, but he has the habit of commencing cut
by as it were introducing IL to you and re-
marking in sentimental tone, HI bought
that beast of the Widow Thompson. She
were that lovely and prime hit were sight
to behold" And you find yourself wonder
ing over your dinner whether the widow
missed her COW and why she sold it, and
whether her children cried over it, and you
think Of simple Susan and her lamb in "Maria
Edgeworth," and you feel very like q canni-
bal, and your dinner is spoiled. The next
time you want q roast you think you'll try o
larger shop, where conflicting memories will
not be aroused in the butchers breast by each
nil haf ann WI NIL oh ah
you have before gazed on with admiration
and respect, for its insignia is q tremendous
royal coat of arms, with legend underneath
to the effect that Mr.. Rawhide is butler
to the queen and royal family. You wonder
how her royal majesty 100 milos off at Wind
sor, manages for a sudden chop when she has
unexpected callers at luncheon time, and you
think it must be inconvenient for the butcher
sometimes to deliver so far. But you gather
your courage, walk in, and humbly state your
desire. Finding butcher like any other
butcher you venture to inquire why he dis
tinguishes his shop with so royal q sign, and
he points you to framed paper on the wall
bearing the signature and seal of the lord
chamberlain appointing him to his onerous
position and he informs you that he was on
one occasion at Christmas tide the purchaser
of the queens prize OK, and that it is GUS
tomary for the purchaser to send the loin to
her majesty, who thereupon acknowledges
the courtesy as ABOVE. fou are enlightened,
but your beef is no better.
Then you try mutton, aud you are sure at
least of the celebrated Chop" You are sur
prsed when your butcher gives you collec-
tion of thick, heavy fat ribs, among which
at luncheon you search in vain for that little
round piece you have been accustomed to
cut out at home. Next time you ask him to
trim them and 30 give you that delicate little
mouthful on the end of a polished bono,
which has pleased you so much in times past
but he don't know what you mean, and can't
and won't learn, either.
And perhaps you think of Devonshire cream,
and you imagine the green pastures Of Devon
transmitting their luxurious richness through
the distended udders of their sleek. red cows.
Then you try aud get some, and you find an
artificial product midway between the
meringue on cream pie and adessert known
to you in the past as Spanish cream. You
bewail your disappointment to an English
lady friend, and she gets some of the cream
and evolves therefrom delicious mixture
which she calls junket, and which quite re-
comedies you to the Devonshire cream. In.
quiry develops the fact that almost any rich
milk will make this celebrated cream by sub.
jecting to heat pan of it which has stood at
least twenty-iour hours. After cooling the
cream should be removed. None will form II
the pan be touched during the whole process
consequently it is necessary to leave the pan
On LuG olONC huu ullcE buo uTB mas DecU
built. Junket is made with warm milk and
rennet. Alter it is set" put on your block
of Devonshire cream, and your nutmeg, anC
pour brandy over it. It's toothsome, as you
will find.
Your English cook will rob you of tn,
under crust of your pie and insist on calling
it q tart, and she has actually been known t,
organize one out of rhubarb and raspberrie
mixed. This is no fable evolved from tn,
writer's inner consciousness, but fact
huge, glazing fact which he once bravely
faced. Ignorant Of the contents of that in
nocent appearing pie, he playfully and ex
pectantly dipped into its depths. Its juicy
insides gave no sign of its fell composition
One desperate bite told the tale, and the cool
was mildly punished by perpetual Danish
ment.
The English cook never heard of ho
bread; corn meal is to her unintelligible
buckwheat cakes and watfles are unfathom
able mysteries; cracked wheat and ca
meal she has just heard of under tn,
name OF american cereals" L
will be observed that her weakness lie
among the breakfast dishes. When dinner
time comes she comes out better, and on Ger
tain dishes she is way up and beyond he
transatlantic sister from Ireland. Her kid
ney pudding, her beefsteak pies her eel pie
are intaglios; her stewed tripe is a cameo; he
trussed fowl, roasted before the fire, is lam
and spreading its warmth through each ant
every dinner, and the game that follows ant
the fish that precedes are worthy settings to-
this jewel of bird
AS the domestic cook is good at MAXI
certain things, so the large manufacturer wor
thily upholds his reputation in certain lines
A pork pie from the factory" at Melton Now
bray is highly esteemed, and can be bough
nowhere in England fresh from home. Batl
is celebrated for its buns, and SO is Banbury
A traveller from Exeter to London on tn,
Great Western railroad is as much expected
to buy Il Banbury bun at Swinton as he is hi
ticket.
parcels post was established on tho frs
of this month by the postal authorities, ant
on much more liberal principles than ours
Anything can be sent if properly packed. A
stunning" big chicken pie can be sent from
London to Lands End for IL cents, and thert
is no fear that any postmaster will lift tn,
crust to see If n dainty billet.doux does no
perchance lie nestled in the gravy,
Our American associations of certain days
with certain dishes, has its origin in England
Here the pancake liourishes on Shrove Tues
day, the roast veal at midlent, the rice pud
ding on Whit Sunday, tho roast goose a
Michaelmas, and the roast beef and plum pud
enth of this month in celebrating the solemn
festival of eating the last plum pudding il
the hOnse of the make of last Christmas.
was the twenty-second of its line and was M
degenerate scion. Midlent brings in south
west England curious dish called "irmity,'
composed of pounded wheat boiled will