Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-10-21
A French Dinner.

First comes the soup. No dinner is worthy
the name without soup. 1t is, of course,
placed first to moderate too hearty appetite
for solids. 1t is the cheapest, the most cas-
ilv made, the most refreshing dish of all.
EvAry imaginable animal that walks, swlms,
or flies, and every fruit of the earth may be
employed IN its pre- paratlon. Fragments and
remnants of all aorts enter into its economy,
and it only appears greasy and unattractive
by matte ntion. Yet soup is little known and
little used by the masses. The poor man
prefers beer and the countryman pork, sim
ply because they have never tasted or learned
how to make good soup. Then fish, what an
endless and delicious variety our lakes and
immense seaboard offer! 1t makes an easy
transition from fluid to solids, and is so cheap
that no table should be without it at least
three DAYS in the week. We approach now
the large piece of meat, the hearty dish tor
which the stomach has been prepared by art
full DELAY. The Fre"ch call it the piece de
resistance, which expresses the idea Of the
first formidable obstacle to hunger. In the
country or family cooking this is generally
the soup meat. garnished with vegetables.
In more formal households all sorts of joints
and saddles are used as the taste suggests.
Following is the prescribed order the en-
tries come next. The dinner has now assumed
rAlHtr suDSldutlHl propDTtiOHs, ANU uotHlHS
but small tasteful dishes to tickle the palate
| and engage the imagination would 90 down.
Here the French cook fairly revels in the
science and ingenuity Of his art. 1t is here
that he employees all those sauces and comb
nations which he has named after great war
riors and statesmen. The entree consumes
waste, and IA in Itself a most cheap and use
tul adjunct to any dinner, and is also most
convenient dish tor breakfast and lunch.
There is nothing left now but wild game as a
proper finale to such feast. Nothing that
has gone before can detract from its specific
and delicious flavor. The American CONT
nent lavishes it upon her people in variety
and protusion, but the French have learned
to cook it, so as to preserve its juice and del
Icacy, better than any native.
| Such then, is general sketch of a com
plete French dinner. 1t may not look like
cooking for the poor as for the rich; but If
we have taken the whole scheme or system as
model to elucdate the general principles of
economy, health and variety, we will find it
an easy enough matter now to apply our
knowledge to the modest needs of any house
| hold. Thousands of families might commence
tomorrow to try the simple soup and soup
meat as prepared bv the French, and find
themselves subsisting on better food for less
money than they supposed possible. Or let
us reduce the dinner in another way. Let the
soup in some form always remain, except in
warm weather. Omit fish three or four days;
drop the game entirely. Let the large piece
of meat be the soup meat on certain days Of
the week, and on other days provide different
material which has accumulated for SOUP
and roast the meat. And vary all this with
plenty of vegetables; but always model the
dishes to the French methods. This is French
living. be the dishes two or a dozen.