Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-11-16

gentleman had usually from one to three dishes
on the table when there were no visitors and
from four to six when there was company"
The yeoman's everyday diet he does not tell
us about. But at Christmas he had Drawn
pudding and souse with mustard, beef. NUT
ton and pork, shred pies, goose, pig. capon,
turkey. veal, cheese, apples, &C., with good
drink and blazing fire in the hall The farm
er's ball Of fare varied according to the season.
In Lent, red herrings and salt fish; at Easter.
veal and bacon: at Martinmas, salted beef; at
midsummer, fresh beef, peas and salad; at
Michaelmas. fresh herrings and fat mutton;
at All Saints, pork and peas and fish. and at
Christmas the same dainties as our yeoman.
with good cheer and pastime."
ROYAL FEAsTs.
There were. of course, at the tables Of wealth
and royalty certain superb feasts At Henry Tvs
marriage, III 1903, there were six courses. But
they reversed the modern order, three courses
OF soild meat with no preface of soup coming
nrst followed by three courses OF fish and
sweets. Eighteen years later at Henry Va
coronation three mixed courses were served,
and among the sculpturesque dishes were
pelican sitting on her nest with her young. and
an image of st. Catherine holding a hook and
disputIug with the doctors. And this is the
way they served peacock four hundred years
ago: The bird was first skinned, and the
feathers, tail. head and neck having been LAID
on table and sprlnklea with cummin the body
was roasted glazed with raw egg-yolk, and
after being lett to cool was sewn back again
INTO the skin, and brought to the table
the last course. In 1866, at the enforcement
OF Archbishop Neville, no fewer than lU4 pea
cocks were dressed.
writer whom I cannot identify describes
some of the swell dinners" as he terms them,
OF the middle ages. At "a dinner after the
funeral OF Ai0recht " of Bavaria, III 1902 at
the royal palace in Munich, the show dishes
represented the seven ages ofthe world The
first figure represented Adam and Eve in the
garden. the tree of knowledge, the snake and
the apple. CONNECTIONS of sugar and almonds
were on this to be eaten. The second was
made of boiled pigs head Then followed
boiled meat with capons, fowl and smoked fish.
fourth introduced Noah's ark surrounded
with waters baked in sugar. Hot salmon and
Cravings composed the fifth course. The
next dish brought on the table was garnished
cabbage The seventh dish represented
AOrdh"ms sacrifice, Including town made
out of sugar and almonds.' The eighth WAS
highly transparent jelly displaying within
pichled fish, The ninth was fresh cooked and
picked grouse" And there were twenty-three
In ALL including tableaux of David staying
Goiiah. the tower of Babel and other scrip
tural scenes. The fifteenth a leg of NUT
ton, which had been preceded by d bird pie.
"A facetlous historian here remarks that the
company was just beginning to get hungry"
and yet after this came bear pie, fish, game,
&c. The next to :hc last course represented
coming late i'll the evening. was cake in the
shape OF an oven, from which when 1t WAS cut
open flew forth living birds"
The last named feature is not the only proof
We have that the nursery chime 30 familiar has
a historical foundation:
"SiuG song Of sixpcnce.
bag full OF rye,
Forr and twenty black birds
Baked in pie;
" hen the pie opened
The birds began to slug
Was not that dainty dish
To set before king!"
In work entitled "Epuario or the italian
Banquet" a receipt is found ITO make pie
that the birds may be alive in it and fly out
when it is cut up
AN IMPROVEMENT IN ENGLISH COOKERY
In the seventeenth century English cookery
began to improve and took hints from the con-
tinental nations. Travel increased, and tour
lists brought home receipts like the following:
ITO make Portugal dish" To make Vir-
gilman DISH" "a Persian DISH" "A Spanish
olo," &c. The following also were probably
by travellers: TO make the Lady Abergay-
enry cheese" and Lord Conway receipt for
amber puddings," TO make a posset the earl
of Arundels way" When the fame of foreign
dishes was well established French and Italian
cooks came to England and entered service.
But the opposition to French cookery was
heard from more than one voice. Mr. Hazlitt
says Charles Lamb in more modern times did
| not like it. The critics of the time said it dis
guised the real flavor of the meat. 1t might
do for hot climate, but lit is here" says the
anthor of Antiquities Culinariac," "the art
of spelling good meat"
Addison says that living in the days of Queen
Ann was plain and plentiful dinner was
only two courses. 1.-Two plain Dishes" he says
with two or three good-natured, cheerful in
genious friends would make me more pleased
and vain than all that pomp and luxury can
oestow. Dinner then, as later, was tho main
meal. Nilsson says: THE English eat great
deal at dinner; they rest q while and to it again
till they have quite stuff d their paunch. Then
supper is moderate; gluttons at noon and
abstinent at night. heard that they were
great flesh eaters and found it true" Many
people in England, he says, 'never eat any
bread, while they chew meat by whole mouth
fuls. Their vegetables fairly swim in grease"
Deep potatiOns were common everywhere
You see SO late as in Dickens novels how
good cheer in eating and drinking is really an
English inheritance. The English pudding
came down from two or more centuries ago
and it was made, says Nilsson, fifty different
ways" but always with meats and sweets. And
he describes it 200 years ago as most excellent.
ITO come In pudding time" is as much as to say
to come in the most lucky moments in the
world. Blood buildings and marrow buildings
abounded. poet Of the day says:
"Biood stuff d in skins is British Christian foodm
Mr.. John Ashton says in his "Social Life in
the Reign OF Queen Anne" that milk was pro-
duced from COWS kept in London and was car
ried round by women or milkmaids," who
chalked on doors their charge. Milch-asses
also went round. Their milk was greatly liked
and was thought medicinal. Its price was So.
3D. per quart. 1t would probably bear good
deal Of watering.
ANCIENT COOK BOOKS
Some Of the ancient cook books that pos
sess are very curious. The two before me that
are most noted are Patrick Lambs and Mrs.
Glasses, 1.-THE Art Of Cookery made Plain and
Easy; which far exceeds everything of the kind
yet published" This last book is famous for
certain alleged remark not to be found in it
that in which she is credited with saying that
you must first catch your hare before you
cook it" Mrs. Glasse is both voluminous and
amusing, In her preface she SAYS the purpose
OF her book is ''to improve the servants and
save the ladies great deal of trouble" She
has heard Of French cook ''that used six
pounds of butter to fry twelve eggs in, when
everybody knows Chat understands cooking)
that half pound is full enough, or more than
need be used but then it would not be French"
She gives a receipt for stewing peas and lettuce
together. But the book is not by any means a
bad one. In her receipt giving "a certain cure of
the bite OF mad dog" the patient is to be bled to
the extent of or ounces and take prepara-
ton of hverwort and black pepper in half
pint Of warm cows milk. The patient must
then Ego sinto a cold spring or river every
morning, fasting for a month. After this he
must go in three times week for fortnight
longer" If he survived all this it is not at all