Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1898-09-01

Nhen you have examined the con-
stitution of the German cuisine. Won
are tempted to grow loquacious. You
are conscious of having discovered that
the psychology Of a nation cannot be
constructed upon a mere analysis of its
made dishes. Your estimate of BrilIat-
Savarin sinks. He could not tell you
what you ere, even from all the menus
of your lifetime. Freiligrath's phiIo-
sophie conclusion that imam is what
he eats" you straightway qualify as
true only when referring to cannibaI-
ism. And you will aver that only in
the case of paleolithic man can you
construct man from tine crumbs that
fall from his dinner table. And this
yea will want to prove, and c>ise-
quentiy will grow talkative with pre-
senting Of much evidence.
And yet, in your sane moments, you
will have a sneaking affection for the
statement that German is a German
because he eats what he eats. As a gen
eral rule he may be said to eat five
times a day. But his hunger is con-
Etsntly being stilled.
He starts early in the day with cup
roll. This keeps him going till =
o'clock, when he demGlishes slice of
buttered rye bread spread with slices
of hard boiled egg, raw chopped beef or
cheese. This he washes down with
glass of ale, thus shilling his inner man
till dinner time. Dinner takes place to-
ward l o'clock and consists of soup
generally nourishing), plate of meat,
ho,-
prunes or apricots), occasionally cheese,
seldom sweets, rarely a green vegetable.
Three hours later coffee is taken,
served with a piece OF cake or thick
bread and butter. This is the hour pre-
ciCus 70 the gossip and the busybody,
the time for spreading scandal. Toward
s o'clock the appetite again asserts
itself The hour of the ubiquitous sau-
sages has arrived. Their name is legion,
and they share the honors with slices
of ham, smoked goose breast, pieces of
raw picked herring and il summer
hard boiled eggs and potato salad.
Such is the German method of spread
ing the meals over the day. Of course
there are exceptions. Many families
have two ample meals IA day. but the
bulk of the population eats mostly but
tered bread and snacks In justice TO
Germany one must say that the fare in
many . home will compare favorably
with that of many an American family.
In the German restaurant the cuisine
is on the whole monotonous and the
food singularly insipid- All meats seem
to have tue same flavor, all are served
with the same heavy, viscous sauces,
and invariably escorted with the same
soaplike potatoes. Stodgincss and heavi-
ness are the great blots on the German
fare. The element of variety, too, seems
considered superfiuous
In the concrete the subject is almost
too painful to face, the difficulty being
to steer clear of ordinations denoting
positive offensiveness. Some of the
kickshaws which figure regularly upon
the German table are reputed to be most
sustaining. They certainly are intense
ly and ostentatICuSly wonder inspiring.
One preparation Is everywhere met
with under tine name (more or less pho
Dctically spelled) of becfsteak Ia tar
tare. Its basis is raw chopped beef;
this, spread out into "a pat Of elliptical
shape, is crowned with the raw yolk of
an egg, raw finely chopped onion IS
sprinkled over it, garniture of CHER
kins is added, and the whole is eaten
with much gustO and no worse conse-
ouences than a durable thirst.
In many of the dishes you discover
all the humor, feeling and imagination
of a Wagnerian composition. You find
the resolute desire to build up harmony
upon discoTd. OF this nature may be
considered the traditional menu OF New
Years eve, carp. pancake and punch.
These three, brought into immediate
juxtaposition and consumed in plethoric
quantities, generally have the desired
effect-that of inducing a hysterical
good humor.
For stodginess nothing beats the IA
vorite dish, panache. It consists of
picked pork. sour cabbage and a pureo
OF split peas boiled down 70 the con-
sistency OF stiff dough. Experiments on
this mass produce deplorable capers and |
cause one 20 Grunt mournfully. y va
riety Of this diet Is found III Berlin. |
You substitute boiled balls of dough |
and indifferent prunes for the peas and |
and you have the dish popu- |
larly termed 1.-THE Silesian kingdom of |
heaven" Cold eels, imbedded in a |
gIutinous substance, figure
IN all worknen's taverns, while roast /
goose is do rigueur for all solemnities.
A dainty which we have recently |
met with in Berlin recalled Darwin's
remark that hardly any experiment is /
50 absurd as not TO be worth trying.
It consisted of finely powdered horse
radish served up with frozen whipped
cream.
One may sum up ones Judgment by
saying of German cooking what the art
critic said of nature, 1T has infinite
Not the least of these
is its ambition TO discover victims that
survive its charms only in the form
that the walls of Jericho survived the
trumpet blast of acknowledgement
Protected Carrier Pigeons.
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