The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-01-04


resembles beef in color and
Nj is so tender as easily to be
torn apart by The hands. But whale
meat is not docile under culinary treat
ment. Gastronomcally, it has an indi-
viduality of its own, which will keep on
asserting itself, no matter how much
spice and pepper is put upon 1T. 1t Is a
wild, untamed steed. lpropounded it to
my guests in the guise of sausages,
but when the meal was over the
sausages were there still, 1t can't
be DONE Shark can. Sharks is n
sweat meat, much resembling that of
the swordfish, but no man will ever
eat whale, at least an old one.
The calves might conduct themselves
better in the frying pan. We had many
about us whose mothers we had killed,
but we never thought Of frying them.
When n whaler is trying out OIL she Is
blackened with the greasy SCOT arising
from the burning blubber scraps from
stem to stern. 1t falls like a storm of
black snowhakes. They sift into the
tiniest crevice. OF all this my cookery
got its full share. 1t tingcd my bread
and even my pies with funeral tinge of
blackness. The deck at such times was
covered with "horse pieces up to the
top of the bulwarks. "Horse pieces"
are chunks of blubber foot or SO in
length, that being one stage of their re-
duction to the size necessary for the try
pots. have introduced them here for
the purpose of rcmarking that on my
passage to and fro, from galley to cabin,
while engaged in laying the cloth and
arranging our services of gold plate and
Sevres wear, | had to Chamber, wade,
climb and sometimes, in my white neck
tie and swallowtail coat, actually crawl
over the greasy mass with the silver
tureen full of "consomme' or "soup
Julien" while held the gilt-cdged and
enamcled menu between my teeth.
Those were trying-ou times for mari
time head butler.
The cook socially does not rank high ut
sea. He stands very near the bottom
round of the ladder. He is the subject Of
many tests and low comparisons. This
should not be. The cook should rank
next or near to the captain. 1t is the cook
who prepares the material which shall
put mental and physical strength into
human bodies He is in fact, Il chemist,
who carries on the last external process
es with meat, flour and vegetables ncces-
sary to prepare them for their invisible
and still more wonderful treatment in
the laboratory which every man and wo-
man possesses-the whereby
these raw materials are converted not
only into blood, bone nerve, sinew and
muscle, but into thoughts. a good cook
may help materially to make good po-
etry. An indigestible beefsteak, fried
in grease to leather, may, in the stom-
ach Of IA general, lose "A battle ON which
shall depend the fate of nations. a good
cook might have won the battle. Of
course, he would receive no credit there
for, save the conviction in his own culin-
AIRY soul, that his heefsteak properly and
quickly broilcI was thus enabled to di-
gest itself properly in the stomach of the
general, and thereby transmit to and
through the generals organism that
amount Of nerve force and vigor, which,
acting upon the brain, caused all his in
telligence and talent to attain its maxi
mum, and thereby conquer his adver-
sary. That's what cook may do. This
would be far better and happier world
were there more really good cooks ON
land and sea. And when all cooks are
or
ciety to be proud Of
While whaling in Marguerite bay, we
"kedged' the Henry about one hundred
miles inland, where the whales abounded.
In so hedging 1t was necessary to stake
out at low water portions of the channel
daily, when it ran mere creek through
an expanse Of hard sand, sometimes a
mile from either shore. At high water,
all this would be covered To a depth of
six or seven feet. The Henry grounded
at each ebb, and often keeled over ut an
angle Of forty-five. From our bulwarks
it was often possible to jump on dry
ground. This keeling over process,
twice repeated every twenty-four hours,
was particularly hard on the cook, for
the inconvenience resulting from such a
forty-five degree angle of inclination ex-
tended to all things within his province.
My stove worked badly at the angle of
forty-five. The kettle could be but half
filled. and only boiled where the water
was shallowest inside. The cabin table
could only be set at an angle of forty