, 1888-10-10
SOME STRANGE DISHES.
HOW UNUSUAL MATERIALS ARE4PRE-
PARED FOR THE TABLE.

The Poor of Naples Delight in sea Urch-
Ins-Hcdgchog Cooked in a Roman Ia
vern-snails of Agreeable lavo-snakc
n DimcuIt Question.
On the whole, popular cookery has a
strong likeness to popular poetry-it is
full of good ideas imperfectly worked out.
Who can say. for example. what mos
tarda might become if the fruits were
treated with a little more care and per-
sonal consideration before they were
placed in the mustard7 AS it is. there is
a hint of a new flavor about it which
human ingenuity has not hitherto
brought fully out. Ripe grapes picked
in vinegar, though their merits are well
known in southern Russia, have never
received due recognition in Eng
land, but these are delicacies rather
than food. The fishermen all along
the coast from Gaeta to Naples have va,
rlous ways of cooking fish which are un
known in the great hotels. Many of them
are interesting and might be attractive
but for the predominating flavor of garlic.
Fresh sardines, crisply fried in oil, are
quite admirable eating, but the fisher.
men have discovered a more excellent
way of dealing with them. They place
them in q shallow tin, embed them in
bread crumbs, add q few savory herbs,
pour q little good olive oil, squeeze a
lemon or two over them. and then bake
them over a sharp fire. The result is IN
expected but not disagreeable. In some
towns and villages of Northern Italy
small birds are treated with the same APP
preciative kindness. They are roasted on
q spit before a sharp fire, and then laid in
pickle for a day or two and served cold.
UNUSUAL MATERIALS.
No one will suggest that there is any
thing common or unclean in such food as
has been mentioned; it does not even Dor
der on improperly, but may be freely en-
joyed by men of all sects and nations.
As soon as one turns to unusua materials
national prejudice ASSERTS itself and the
ground becomes unsafe. In central and
n considerable part of northern Germany
the man who eats q rabbit becomes u
social o~utcast; in England many re-
spectacle citizens indulge shamelessly
in this mild form of dissipation. The
Neapolitan poor are not as a rule dainty,
but while delighting in sea urchin they
look down with scorn upon the Calabrese
because they eat sea slugs, which, if prop
erly cooked, are not very nasty. Nay,
ever in our own country there was a time
when persons scoffed at frogs; now most
Englishmen who have been to Paris know
that, if properly treated, they add a 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 re-
spect. They must be kept and fed clearly,
preferably on vine leaves, for some time
before being used, but when this has been
lone both sorts add a peculiar and agree
able flavor to several clear soups, and one
of them when boiled, chopped small and
allowed 70 coo1 nrpaot1u iponrouac onu
green salad. Do not let the hasty reader
imagine that they have any resemblance
to the common periwinkle.
X A HEDGEHOG.
Hedgehog is good, at least for O change,
and it used to be well cooked in q small
tavern in the Ghetto of Rome, to which
artists frequently resorted when their
spirits were high and their funds low.
According to an aged South Italian sports
man, they should be killed in the woods
and Immediately skinned, and then al
lowed to hang for a few hours, and, after
being trussed with their own quilts, be
roasted before a sharp fire. The stuffng
should be made of their own fat, finely
chopped with breadcrumbs and such sea
soning as suits the cooks taste. OF course
no one with q sense of decency would
think of eating a hedgehog which had
been employed for months in hunting
black beetles in a cellar and was only
slaughtered because he showed signs of
falling strength.
Snakes are a difficult question. The
force of civilization is against them in
every way, though in a few north Italian
towns they are considered delicacies, and
those who nave eaten of them declare that
they are superior to cells, as they are lese
rich and ave q more delicate flavor. Ora
would not like to give an opinion without
some practical experience, and no one can
be expected to travel to the neighborhood
of Genoa in the early autumn for the
mere purpose of eating stewed serpent.
Many other animals occupy a similarly
dubious position. Jays and crows are
said to make excellent soup, even when
they are well stricken in years, though
their flesh is otherwise worthless. But
why do we accept the calf and reject the
foal2 Why do we regard bears paws as a
dainty and roasted cat as q crime2 Tastes.
of course, differ; but this is not a matter
of taste, but of imagination. There are
persons who canno 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.-London Saturday Review.