Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-02

| fast food-from the Roman gourmand, LII
| cullus dining with Lucullus,' at an expense
| of $1,000 for the single cover to DR.. Wiley
| and his poison squad or to Horace Fetch
er and his economical process of chewing
! and arch-chewing things that are not
| worth chewing.
When the following recipes were compiled
| the world was blissfully unconscious of
germs, bothered its head about no adulter
| atoms save that of wine and-most desir-
| able consummation-was remarkably free
| from indigestion. Between the fourteenth
| and the eighteenth centuries the earth, the
| air and the sea paid costly tribute to civil
| lied mans gastronomic enjoyment. Almost
| everything from nightingales tongues to
| boiled whale was served and relished. War
| devastated large areas, but the higher
| classes of all countries kept on faring
sumptuously. At table, three times day,
| at Ieast-sometimes oftener-they were
| gloriously content.
| No dish was held in greater esteem than
| the peacock, which was usually placed on
| the table dressed in it's own gorgeous plu
| mage, with tail outSpread and comb gided
| Upon the peacock's head knights often
| made oath to perform some specified deed
| of chivalrouS valor. AS a rule only men
| sat at table during a peacock feast, but
| the honor of serving the bird was usually
reserved for lady of high rank Behind
| this lady followed maldenS singing.
| Our ancestors accepted the main body OF
Roman cookery, but they drew the line at
| liquamen garum. the universal Roman
| sauce made of juices drained from putrid
| ably not civilized human being on this
| planet today could relish the following dish
which Caesar and his guests found good
A Hogs Paunch.
! Having cleaned it well. wash it first with
| vinegar and salt and afterward with wa
| ter. Then take hogs fieshe pounded to a
| payste; mix it with the brains of three
| hogs, cleaned from the fibers, together with
| hard eggs. To this put cloves of garlick,
| and whole peppers and make 1t of the con-
| sstency of broth. Beat up pepper, ligusti-
| cum Ga hot herb. assafoetida, anise seed,
| ginger, small quantity OF rue, the best
| garum and little oil. With this same
| composition stuff the pouch, but not too
| tightly that it may not be too much agi-
| tated in bowling. Tie the mouth of it well
| and put into boyling cauldron. When
! it is parboyled take it out and hang it up to
| smoke that il may acquire the proper flavor.
5 Serve with liquamen and ligusticum.
| The spice of life not mere figura-
| tive expression to forefathers. Every
| month of the year they imported tons of
| pepper, ginger mace and other spices. Any
| unpopular merchant was jeeringly called
''old pepper bags" in sighting reference to
| his chief commodity. In every dish placed
| on the table spices predominated. Herbs.
| especially saffron, were much used. Up
| to the fourteenth century saffron. in the
| form of pressed cakes, was imported from
| Italy. The plant itself. the cro"us stativus,
was brought into England in the reign of
! Edward III by palmer who concealed a
| crocus bulb in his hollow staff Before the
| century ended England controlled the SAT-
| from market of the world. But the crop
hard to raise. Only the three yellow
| chives in the center of each delicate blue
! flower could be used. The plants were
| easily injured. In fact, the crocus crop
was unreliable as the modern peach
| yield, and the growers, commonly called
"crokers," complained so much of their bad
| luck and issued each year such gloomy
| predictions that the word croaker became
| a general term in the English language.
| Saffron was much used for coloring elab-
| crate designs called Subtleties. A subtlety
| was seldom intended to be eaten. The fol-
| lowing directions for a subtlety, presented
at court supper on Twelfth Night, We're
| given by Master Robert May. The chief de-
| sign warShip:
Spectacular Cookery.
Place your ship firm in the great
| charger; then make salt around it and
stick therein eggshells full of sweet water.
| You may by a great pin take out all the
meat of the egg by blowing, and then fill it
| up with rose water; then on another charger
| have the proportion of stag made of
| coarse paste, with broad arrow on the
! side of him, and his body filled with claret
| wine. In another charger at the end or the
| stag have the proportion of castle, with
| battlements, portcullses, gates and draw
| bridges made of paste the guns and klckses
! covered with sugar. Place 1t at a distance
from the ship TO fire at each other, the stag
| being placed between them. AL eacn siue
OF the charger wherein is the stag place
pye made of coarse paste, in one of which
let there be some live frogs, in the other
some live birds; make these pyeS OF
| coarse paste filled with bran, and yellowed
over with saffron Gid them in spots, as
also the stag, the ship and the castle. Put
gilt bay leaves on turrets OF the castle ana
on the pyeS. Being baked. make mole IN
the bottom of your pyes take out the bran
put in your frogs and birds, and close up
the holes with some coarse paste, then slit
the lids. All being placed IN order upon the
table, order 1t so that some OF the ladles
may be persuaded to pluck an arrow out or
the stag; then will the claret wine follow
as blood foweth out of a wound. This be-
ing done with admiration to the beholders
after some short pause fire the train OF the
castle so that the guns of all one side may
go off, then fire the trains of one side of the
ship in battel. Fire the other sides as
before. This done, to sWeeten the stink or
the powder, let the ladies take the egg
shells full of sweet water and throw them
at each other All dangers being seemingly
over by this time, you may suppose that all
are beginning to be anxious to see what is
in the pyes; when, lifting the lid off of one
pye, out skip some frogs, which make the
ladies to skip and shreek; next open the
by natural instinct flying into the lights.
will put out the candles, SO that what with
the flying birds and the skipping frogs, the
one above, the other beneath, Will cause
much delight and pleasure to the whole
company; at length the candles are lighted,
a banquet brought in, the music sounds, and
every one with much delight and content
rehearses their actions in the former pas
SageS.
Monks Then Lived Well.
Nobody lived better in the fourteenth and
fifteenth century days than the clergy
Chaucers friar was typical:
His bread, his ale always after one;
better viendsd nowhere none.
Withouten bake mete never was his house.
OF fsehe and hesche, and that so plenteous
Ii snewed in his house OF mete and drink,
And of all dainties that man could of think.
Here is a fast day menu during the fes-
tivities that marked the. installation or
George Newell archbishop of York:
The First Course-Fish potage; Almonde
Butter; Red Herynges; Salt Fysh; Kelyng,
Cooling, and Hadock boyled: Thirtlepoole
I