The St. Johns herald., 1896-09-19
CUISINE SECRETS.
TRICKS OF THE COOKS AND THE
 MARKETMEN OF PARIS

varnished Turkey Legs Are Some of the
 Parisian Receptions.
 We often hear people who have paid % minute visits to Paris talk of the beauties of Parisian cuisine. Here are | a few of them. Just as the Parisians.
 like the cockney coffeehouse keepers, have found out how to make coffee without coffee, so have also the Parisian restaurateurs found out how to make bouillon, or beef tea, without beef. At the gargotes, the lowest class of Paris restaurants, species of very ingenious fraud has now been common for over half century and maybe more It con- sists in passing off warm water, colored and favored with burned onions and caramel and into which some little grease bubbles have been injected, as soup It is true that bones which have been twice stewed, first by the larger restaurants and secondly by the inferior class of traiteurs and cast away as done with, are stewed in this water for the third time, in order that it may be i'm pregnated, if possible, with some parti- cle of animal substance; but, as this op- eration fails to impart to it those little greasy bubbles which the French term "eyes,'' and for which the shrewd ire quenters of these establishments invaria- ply look in order to satisfy themselves that the broth they drink has been act ually made from meat, a clever cook got over the difficulty by blowing a spoonful of fish oil, which, falling into the caldron or soup tureen, formed the eyes so dear to epicures
 Parisians of certain class are inordi- nate eaters of ham-in fact, almost as many hams are eaten in Paris as could be furnished by all the pigs killed throughout the whole of France, even allowing for both shoulder and leg be- ing cured in accordance with French practice. The demand used-and may be now-to be supplied in this wise. The dealers in cooked hams bought up the old ham bones at a couple of sous a piece and ingeniously inserted them into pieces of picked pork, which they trim med into shape and coated with grated crusts. In this way many bones did duty hundreds of times over, lasting, in fact, for years They would leave the dealers in the morning and frequently return to them the same night, to quit them again the following day. Nevertheless the supply could hardly keep pace with the demand Only fancy the inconven- fence of having to wait for your ham until your neighbours servant took back the ham bone which the charcutier re- lied upon receiving yesterday! It was to obyiate such 8 state of things that an ingenious individual conceived the idea of manufacturing ham bones wholesale, and ere long he drove a thriving trade at 10 sous a dozen, since which time the stock of hams has augmented and the delicacy has become less difficult of attainment. Much in the same way an other ingenious individual, knowing the immense consumption of cocks combs in Paris for ragouts, coquilles of cocks combs and vol-au-vents and seeing the high prices the said cocks combs con- manded owing to the limited supply, set to work to minister to the demand and duly established himself as man. ufacturcr of cocks combs. So extensive was the trade done by him that he found it necessary to set up 8 small steam engine. He was a great enthusiast and was accustomed to pride himself upon the artificial cocks combs which emanated from his atelier being great ly superior to the natural article.
 This is the way our artist went to work. AS the same method is largely worked at this day in London as we'll as ill Paris-ay, and ill New York and New Orleans-we purposely use the present tense for time. He takes the palate of bullock, COW, calf, sheep or goat-either will do, though he prefers tho first. After having blanched it in boiling water he macerates it and de- taches the flesh of the palatic vault without in the slightest degree derang- ing it and then places it under a stamp ing machine. which punches out cocks combs more perfect in shape than those produced by nature, yet sufficiently re- sembling them to deceive the connois- seurs. Still, there is way of detecting the artificial production-the cocks combs of clumsy nature have papillB on both sides, whereas those of art have them only on one Counterfeit cocks dozen in Paris to poulterers, keepers of restaurants, pastry cooks, etc., and at 6 sous to cooks ill private families.
 Apropos of our subject, this man, in his intercourse with poulterers, got to learn that when they did not sell their turkeys off at once they were obliged to lower the price about One-fifth every subsequent day or submit to loss, al- though the turkey might present the same appearance of freshness that it did when first killed And yet no cook could be deceived, and this solely because the birds legs, which were black and shiny on the day of its death, assumed a more and more grayish tone as time went on This was quite sufficient for our man of genius. The shrewd manufacturer of cocks combs hastened home and set to work to compound a varnish which should defy the attacks of time and render turkeys legs ever fresh and youthful In couple of days he return ed triumphant to the market and fur nished the best proof of his success by deceiving the dealers themselves. Trials were next made upon the public. and turkeys with vanished legs were offered to the cunningest cooks, who, deceived hv oDpoaropooc made thnir DurphoSoS without demanding the customary abatement, and the conservation of the brilliant luster of turkeys legs became