Morning journal and courier., 1888-09-17

merits of the meat or the best of all sauces which you yourself supplied made it seem so dainty; but there are strange meats which remain joy forever to those who have learned how to compound them. Of course the chances are quite the other way.
 On the whole, populer cookery has a strong likeness to popular poetry; it is full af good ideas imperfectly worked out. Who can say, for example what mostarda might
 become if the fruits were treated with 8 little
 more care and dspersonal consideration before they were placed in the mustard! As it is, there is hint of new flavor about 1t which
 human ingenuity has not hitherto brought fully out. Ripe grapes piekled in vinegar. though their merits are well known in southern Russia, have never received due recognition in England. But these are deli- cacies rather than food. The fishermen all along the coast from Gaeta to Naples have
 various ways of cooking fish which gre un-, known in the great hotels. Many of them are interesting, and might be attractive but
 for the predominating flavor of garlic.
 Fresh gardines, crisply fried in oil, are quite
 admirable eating, but the fishermen have
 discovered more excellent way of dealing
 with them. They place them in shallow
 tin, embed them in breadcrumbs, add few
 savory herbs, pour g little good o1ive-on,
 and squeeze a lemon or two over them, and then bake them over @ sharp fire. The re-
 salt is unexpected, but not disagreeable.
 In some towns and villages of northern Italy
 small birds are treated with the same ap-
 preciative kindness. They are roasted on spit before 6 sharp fire, and then laid in pickle for day or two, and served cold. Of course it is wicked to kill little birds but the man who sends such @ dish away when he is hungry, and it is the only animal food that can be procured, must be gifted either with conscience that is exceedingly sensitive or palate that is rather dull.
 No one will suggest that there iH anything common or unclean in such food as has been mentioned; it does not even border on i'm propriety, but may be freely enjoyed by men turns to unusual materials, national preju- dice asserts itself, and the ground becomes unsafe. In central and considerable part of northern Germany, the man who eats rabbit becomes social outcast; in England many respectable citizens indulge shameless ly in this mild form of dissipation. The Neapolitan poor are not as rule dainty, but, while delighting in sea-urchin, they look down with scorR upon the Calsbrese, because they eat seaslugs, which, if properly cooked, are not very nasty. Nay, even in our own country there was 8 time when persons scoffed at frogs; now most Englishmen who have been to Paris know that, if properly treated, they add new zest to dinner, if not to life. The old prejudice against snails still continues, yet there are at least two edible kinds which are worthy of all respect. They must be kept and fed cleanly, preferably on vine leaves, for some time before being used, but when this had been done, both sorts add peculiar and agreeable flavor to several clear soups, and one of them, when boiled, chopped small, and allowed to cool, greatly improves any green salad. Do not let the nasty reader imagine that they have any resemblance to the common, we dare not say familiar, peri-winkle, for nobody with any sense of self-respect could ever be- come familiar with so coarse creature. The edible land-snails are-at least, in gas- tronomic respects-the aristoeracy of their race.
 Hedgehog is good, at least for 8 change, and it used to be well cooked in small tavern in the Ghetto of Rome, to which ! artists frequently resorted when their spirits were high and their funds low. According te an aged south Italian sportsman, they should be killed in the woods and immedi- ately skinned, then allowed to hang for a ! few hours, and, after being trussed with their own quills, be roasted before sharp \ fire. The stufhng should be made of their 1 own fat, finely chopped with breadcrumbs | and such seasoning as suits the cooks taste. Of course no one with 8 sense of deoeney would think of eating hedgehog which had been employed for months in hunting black ! beetles in cellar and was only slaughtered because he showed signs of failing strength.
 
 of civilization is against them in every way, ! though in few north Italian towns they are | considered delicacies, and those who have \ eaten of them declare that they are superior | to cells, as they are less rich and have 8 more ! delicate flavor. One would not like to give l an opinion without some practical expsri- | ence, and no one can be expected to travel to | the neighborheod of Genoa in the early au- ! tumn for the mere purpose of eating stewed k serpent.
 Many other animals occupy 8 similarly dubious position. Jays and crows are said
 to make excellent soup, even when they are well stricken in years, though their flesh I is otherwise worthless. But why do we accept the calf and reject the foal? Why do we regard bears paws dainty and roast ed cat as 8 crimel Tastes, of course differ, but this is not matter of taste, but of ima9- ination. There are persons who cannot eat duck and green peas, and others who are unfortunate enough to find no charms in oysters or caviare-they are to be pitied, not blamed. But why do we taboo certain forms of food which are both savory and wholesome without giving them triali An ignorant, and therefore unprejudiced, for eigner would probably think that nation which eats pig would eat anything; yet we do not abjure our ham and bacon. In this mat ter wide tolerance is the truest wisdom, and the words which the author of the "Four B's, wrote of relics may also be applied to
 dishes, at least by the wanderer, without inn
 propriety:
 But where you doubt the truth not knowing Believing the best, good may be growing Believing the best. no harm at the least, Believing the worst no good at the best. Still, everything has it's limits. The late MT. Darwin seems to have objected to aged owl, and we respectfully but firmly draw the line at dog and cat, which some of the peasants in Upper Carniola consider delicious, and which they occasionally buy, though they usually steal them. There may be some
 thing in puppy sewed in milk with onion and pearl barley, or kitten nicely baked: we have no wish to prejudice the question, but something must be left for our descendants to do beside admiring the poets whom we have neglected, which will, of course, be their chief occupation. This is one of the problems we are perfectly content to leave to them.
 There are, however, some dishes which are entirely unholy, because they are repugnsnt to every unpolluted taste and digestion, The |sblack pudding of our fairy tales is still pop ular among all classes in Germany, though 1t is repulsive to most Englishmen. There is, however, one form of it which is so nasty as to border very closely on wickedness. In this case, the terrible mess is sweetened with sugar and favored with cloves and cinna- mon. It is much affected by the peasants of some districts, and is eaten both warm and cold.
 Terrible are the eggs poaohed in oil with garlic and covered over with strong grated cheese, in which the south Italian poor de- light on high days and holidays; but in this case the smell is sufficient warning. A favorite meal among the lower middle classes of Berlin consists of a kind of stew made of pears and potatoes in equal proportions, boiled in broth in which shreds of the meat
 have been left. Fresh beef is occasionally used, but salt pork is greatly preferred. Whether this compound is injurious or not it is difficult to say, as no inducements will persuade man with an unvitiated taste to
 swallow the second spoonful. Cheese dump
 nngs, as eaten in many parts of the Alps, are not so immediately repulsive; but their
 effects are great and long enduring. Goats
 cheese is finely powdered, wrapped up
 tightly in heavy dough, and boiled in
 water, after which the whole is dsluged
 with scalding fat. Far darker atrocities re-
 main behind; but it is better to draw veil
 over the deeper iniouities of the popular