Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-14
From DeImonico's Cbef.


is one of the lost arts or if the ancients had
knowledge OF any fancy dishes now un-
known to us, which were superior to any
that our most accomplished masters of the
culinary art are able to concoct at the
present day. That this is not improbable we
cannot doubt when we consider how much
greater stimulus to the invention of new
and tempting dishes was constantly af-
forded the chefs of old by their employers.
There is no monarch millionaire of our
time who spends one-tenth as much upon
the menu of his table throughout an entire
year, as many Of the old Roman Emperors
expended upon single banquet. We read
that the Emperor Vittellius frequently
lavished upon one of his great feasts sums
that would amount to millions of our Amer
lean dollars. He had hundreds OF euisss-
ries who were constantly travelling through
his dominion in search of novelties in food
and drink. He annually expended upon
his table the enormous sum of 500, ,000, 900,
and would soon have eaten up the resources
of the entire Roman Empire if his glutton-
Gus career had not heen prematurely cut
short. He often sat down to 10, 900 differ
ent dishes at single meal. His bill of
5000 dishes OF various kinds of fowl, and one
dish called, from its enormous dimensions,
the Shield of Minerva, and composed of
such costly ingredients as the brains of
pheasants, woodcocks, the sounds of the
tsh called scarf, and the spawn of the
lamprey brought from the Carpathian Sea.
In comparison with such bill of fare the
most elaborate menus presented at our most
sumptuous modern feasts must pale their in
effectual fire and sink into utter inslgnii-
canoe. Fifty dollars a plate would now be
thought large sum to be expended on
dinner, but it would not have provided the
one-hundredth part OF single dish that
graced the entertainments of Vittellius, or
of such other sybaritic Roman Emperors as
Nero, Tiberius, Callgula, Heliogabalus and
many others. American millionaires Will
have so pay their cooks a great deal more
than $40, 600 year, as one of them is said
to do, before they can begin to approach
within the shadow of the epicurean magnifi-
cence of the monarchs of old.
In view of these facts we must conclude
that fancy cooking is to a certain extent a
lost art. That is. that many dishes that
once delighted the palate OF Emperors are
wholly unknown to us, and must ever re-
main so, though doubtless many OF these
culinary triumphs of the past would be,
like Katisha in the "Mikado," an acquired
taste to modern epicures. Fortunately we
still possess sufficient knowledge to get up a
very fair meal, and have the skill to con-
coct certain dishes at which not even q Wit
tellius or Caligula would vainly endeavor
to turn up his Roman nose. As an evidence
of this 1 append some recipes, to the con-
and study, and which think will be found
highly satisfactory:
ROASTED DUCKLING SAUCE.
Peel six sour apples cook them in little
watera then pass them through a sieve,
Add two ounces of scraped horseradish.
Let it get cold.
When ready to serve mix with double its
volume OF whipped cream with a little sugar In
Serve cold in sauce tureen.
The above is. a most excellent sauce to serve
with ducks and geese.
HASH LA SAM WARD.
Cut in pieces one-eighth of an inch square
some cold cooked tenderloin of beef, about one
pound being the right quantity.
Hash two shallots.
Cut In pieces an eighth of an inch square one
ounce of raw ham, two ounces of fresh mush-
rooms, two ounces of boiled potatoes
Fry the shallots In hot water, add the ham.
the mushrooms and potatoes
Fry altogether and then add two gills of
brown sauce, salt, pepper and little nutmeg.
Let the whole cook five minutes.
Then put the tenderloin in with 1t and let IL
get very hot without boiling. Dish up, sprinkle
a little hashed parsley over it and garnish the
plate with some toasted bread cut in fanciful
shapes.
EGG EN- CoCoTE.
For this there is needed peculiar vessel
called cocote.
FRY in hot butter one spoonful of onions. two
of hashed mushrooms. one of trufies, salt and
pepper.
Butter cocote.
Add the whole.
Break Two eggs in the cocote.
Pour little boiling butter on the eggs
Put the cocote in saucepan with water and
cook in the oven six or eight minutes.
c. RAUHoFFER.
Chef of Delmonico's, New York.