Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-04-18
RESTAURANT SECRETS.
Pnrisfans Use Artificial Humbones
and Stamped CockscOmbs.

| ana Stamped COckscOmbs.
| From the London Globe
We often hear people who have paid
| twenty-five minute visits 10 Paris talk. of
| the beauties of Partisan cuisine. Here are
few of them. Just as the ParisIans, like
the cockney coffee house keepers, have found
| out how to make coffee without coffee
| SO have also the Partisan restaura tours
| found out how to make bouillon, or beef
tea, without beef. At the gargotes, the
lowest class of Paris restaurants, a species
| of very ingenious fraud has now been COM
| non for over half a century and maybe
n ore. 1t consists in passing off warm wa
ter. colored and favored with burned onions
and caramel, and into which some little
grease bubbles have been injected, as soup.
/ 1t is true that bones which have been
twice stewed, first by the larger restaurants
and secondly by the inferior class of trait
| eErs, and cast away as done with, are
stewed in this water for the third time, in
| order that it may be impregnated, if pos
s!ble, with some particle of animal SUBJ
stance; but as This operation fails to i'm
! Fart to 1t those little greasy bubbles which
| the french term eyes and for which the
ShreWd freGuenterS of these establishments
| invariably look, in order to satisfy them
| selves that the broth they drink has been
actually made frCm meat, a clever cook got
| over the difficulty by blowing a spoonful
| Of fish Oil, which, falling into the rauldron
| or soup turean, formed the eyes so dear to
| epicures of a certain type The system was
found to answer SO perfectly that an en-
| ploye aux yeux de bouillon, as the individ-
! tai who performs this operation IS termed
| Is now an Indispensable necessity at all
sargotiers in large way of business
Parisians of a certain class are inoriinate
eaters Of ham: in fact, almost as many
| hams are eaten in Paris as could b. fur
nished by all the pigs killed throughout
| the whole of France, even allowing for
both shoulder and leg being cured in ac-
ccrdance with French practice. The de-
mand used-and may be noH-to be SUD-
Piled In this wise. The dealers in cooked
hams bought up the old hambones at a
couple of sous apiece, and ingeniously in
serted them into pieces of picked pork
which they trimmed into shape and coat
ed with grated bread 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
| 10 quit them again the following day. Ney-
ertheless, the supply could hardly keep
| pace with the demand Only fancy the in
convenience of having to wait for your
| ham until your neighbor's servant took
| back the hambone which the charcutier
iehed upon receiving yesterday! 1t was to
obVlate such state Of things that an in
senlous individual conceived the idea of
manufacturing hambones wholesale and
| ere long he drove thriving trade at ten
sous dozen; since which time the stock
Oh mans has augmented and the delicacv
mas become less difficult of attainment.
Much IN the same way. another ingenious
individual, knowing the immense consumD-
ton of cockscombs in Paris for ragouts
coqullles of cockscombs and vol-au-vents
and seeing the high prices the said cocks
combs commanded, owing to the limited
supply, set to work 10 minister to the de-
mand, and duly established himself as a
manufacturer of cockscombs. So extensive
fro dc dow 49,
It necessary 20 set up a small steam en-
/ gne. He was great enthusiast and was
accustomed to pride himself upon the ar
tifciai cockscombs which emanated from
ms ateHer being greatly 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 well as in Paris
aye. and in New York and New Orleans
we Durposely use the present tense for a
time. He takes the palate of a bullock
cow, calf, sheep or goat-either will do
though he prefers the first After having
blanched 1t in boiling water, he macerates
1t, and detaches the flesh of the palatic
vault without in the slightest degree de-
ranging 1t, and then places 1t under
stamping machine, which punches ont
those produced by nature, yet sufficiently
resembling them to deceive the connois-
seur5 Still, there is a way of detecting
the artificial production-the cockscombs of
clumsy nature have papil,ae on both sides,
whereas those of art have them only on
one Counterfeit cocksconhs are sold as
low as four sous the dozen in Paris to
pouiterers, keepers of restaurants pastry
cooks, etc, and at six sous to cooks in pri-
vate families.
Apropos of cur subject, this man in his
intercourse with poulterers, got to learn
that when they did not sell their turk eys
off at once. they were obliged to lower the
price about one-fifth every subsequent day
bird remained on hand, and SO frequently
had to submit to a loss, although the tur-
key 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 it's death, as
sumed more and more grayish tone as
time went on. This was quite sufficient fo:
our man of genius. The shrewd manufac-
turer of cockscombs fastened home, and
set to work to compound a varnish which
should defy the attacks of time, and rem
der turkeys legs ever fresh and youthful
In couple of days he returned triumphant
to the market and furnished the best proof
of his success by deceving the dealers
themselves. Trials were next made upon
the public, and turkeys with vanished
legs were offered to the cunningest cooks
who, deceived by appearances, made their
purchases without demanding the custom
airy abatement and the conservat ton of
the brilliant luster of turkeys legs became
| from that time forward a regular trade;
which certainly says little for the honesty
| Of the poulterers, less for the judgmen
| OF the cooks, and least Of all for the as
gourmets.