Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1904-06-16
WHIMS OF EPICURES
DISHES or FABULOUS COST AND
QUESTIONABLE TASTE.


still invite, we have at least escaped
from the Objectionable feature of cost
illness for its own sake which charac-
terized SO many OF the banquets OF a
century ago. AS we all very well know.
there is cookery and cookery, and the
best must need be expensive. But there
il an obvious distinction between the
regardless of expense principle and
the mere desire to stand sponsor to the
costliest dish or dinner, as such. that
money can pay for and the perverted
ingenuity Of cooks can achieve. The
first may be the legitimate ambition
Of Croesus intent upon social adj
vancement, but the second is u more
vulgar aim and one, indeed. that often
defeats its own ends.
According to Thackeray's philosophy,
"a man can only be hungry and eat
and be happy but there is clearly
great deal more in it than that. Be
tween such primitive canon of gas
tronomy and the well founded tastes
and preferences of the genuine con-
noisseur there is distinction as broad
as it is reasonable. Good, better, best,
apply as fully and inevitably to mat
tiers of the table as to any other de-
partment of life, and it must always
be difficult for those who have gradu-
ated in the higher schools Of the culi-
nary art net TO accept the very cordial
hn hn- Of II afrrcr fe
enough for the likes of u.s."
When the Count of Monte Christie
showed his guests how easy it was to
spend a thousand pounds on a dinner
for ten persons he gave them also an
insight into the rationale of the ex-
penditure. Among the dishes was q
sterlct brought alive from the Volga,
and the count then replies to the COM
ments it provoked: Il am like Nero-I
wish for the impossible. This fish,
which seems so excellent to you, is
very likely no better than carp or salm-
on, but it seemed impossible to procure
it, and here it is" There Is not even
originality in this, for it is only an
adaptation of the old Roman idea, and
the cost of Monte Christo's dinner has
often been exceeded by that of sim
gle dish.
History is silent as to the sum ex
pended upon the enormous entree call
ed by Vitellius. the 'shield of Minerva"
but as it was composed of an incredi-
BILE variety of the rarest and incest
kinds of meat its cost was certainly in
proportion to its size. Nor could a
dish of nightingales' tongues have been
made for trifie, though it could have
been worth very little when it was
made. The vast sums lavished upon
the feasts of the luxurious Romans
must be accepted with some hesita-
ton, and the 1000 said to have been
the daily amount expended by Vitel-
Illus upon his supper seems almost fab
ulous.
But then he, too, was devoured by a
desire to attain the impossible" and
employed n far reaching organization
in order to realize 1t. According to
Josephus, his food was Of the most
rare and exquisite nature, 1.-The deserts
Of Libya, the shores OF Spain, the wa
ters os the Carpathian sea. and even
the coasts and forests of Britain were
diligently searched for dainties to sup
ply his table, But even this 10
eclipsed by the story of single dish
provided for banquet given by He
liogabalus which is said to have cost
no less a sum than $1,000 OF English
money.
The waste and utter futility of such
lavish expenditure may be said, in
some sense, to have been counterbal-
anced by the idea of splendor and lux
urious opulence which 1t was thought
to express. But we find records of
dishes of quite inordinate cost much
nearer our own times for which no
such plea can be urged.
In his "City Madam" Massinger
scourges the extravagant method Of
preparing many dishes then In fashion
and ridicules their pies of carps'
tongues and their pheasants drenched
with ambergris." And he is especially
severe-perhaps such an incident had
actually occurred-upon ''the carcasses
of three fat wethers bruised fcr gravy
to make sauce for a single turkey"
This, of course, is simple barbarism
for which there can be no possible pal
liation. And, though it may be regard
ed as an exceptional instance of prince
ly magnificence, one instinctively
shrinks at the statement that at the
banquet given by Louis XIV. at Yer
sailles on the occasion of the marriage
of Mile. de Blois and the Prince de
Cont In 166S the ortolans alone cost
10000 francs.
Napoleon himself is reported to have
said that more fortunate treaties,
more happy arrangements and recon
citations were due to the cook of his
Chancellor Cambaceres than to the
crowds of diplomatic nonentities who
thronged the antechambers Of the TUT
leries." That cook could scarcely COM
plain of his raw material" for on q
certain occasion a large trout arrived
from Geneva, consigned to the chan
cellor's kitchen, the cost OF which was
verified by the Cour des Complies as
amounting to 6,OO0 francs.
But as an instance of cost for costs
sake no better example can be given
than that of Soyer's famous hundred
guinea dish," so much talked Of In the
Aaiddle Of the last century. This, OF
course, was a made dish," which re-
quired as q mere preliminary the sum
of f34. the cost of five turtles heads,
with a part of the fins and green fat.
The next requirement was over 400
birds of every kind known to the poul-
try yard and game list. with few not
Included in either, the small "uoix'
from each side of tie middle of the
back OF each bird alone being used.
This, no doubt, is a superlatlvely
dainty moIsel, but it is almost impos-
sible to repress a feeling OF indigna-
ton ct finding that hundred snipe
were sacrificed for it. The cost of the
''garniture" is set down at fl4 los,
and this consisted of coxcombs, trufiies,
mushrooms, crayfish, olives, asparagus,
sweetbreads, green mangoes and some
other ingredients. The one relief felt
on reading the account of this dish is
that such q vulgar and ridiculous med
ley is no longer possible.
Almost as foolish, although of diff
ferent character, is the recipe exalted
by Brillat-Savarin, which teaches US
how to misapply the flesh of two wood
cocks, with trufiies and other concomi-
tants, as the mere stufling for single
pheasant. We are assured that "the
success of this method Is guaranteed
Il, tarrf fhsa