Evening star., 1936-06-20
BY EUGENE GUILD.

ID LOoLENL OCAADS
TN LOOKING over the recipes IN
really "old-time" cook books, the
modern reader is struck by the
apparent lavishness and extreme
abundance which prevailed in those
days, at least on the tables of the
great. A modern housewife would
not dare to tackle many Of these
recipes; her whole apartment, turned
into a kitchen, would not be large
enough to cook an eighteenth century
dinner. The dishes were numberlesS
and the proportions used were gigan-
tic Forty-three dishes are symmet-
rically arranged for a single course
in the layout for a dinner given by
Vincent La Chapelle, cook to Lord
Chesterfield A sample menu. for
dinner on July day. given by Mrs.
| Smith in her cookery book, issued in
1927, is as follows: First course:
Cock salmon with buttered l0bSterS
dish of Scotch collops, chine of veal,
veniSon pasty. grand salad, roasted
geese and ducklings, patty royal,
roasted pig larded, stewed carps, dish
of chickens boiled with bacon. etc.
Second course: Dish of partridges and
quails. dish of lcbsters and prawns,
dish Of ducks and tame pigeons. dish
| of jellies, dish of fruits, dish of mar
| mated fish, dish Of tarts of sorts"
| After a meal like this il is a wonder
that the guests could get away from
the table.
Yet even the wealthy did not always
serve so lavishly. much less those in
more modest circumstances. When
Boswell dined with DR.. Johnson one
| Easter Sunday he had "a very good
soup, boiled leg of lamb and spin
ach, a veal pie and rice pudding )"
The explanation for the enormous
menus given in some Of these old cook
books is that they were meant for
the households of great personages,
where throngs of guests and hangers
on continually came and went.
OF THE many books in foreign Ian
~ guages which Mrs. Pennen &C
ouired, the Oldest are Of more inter-
est to the book collector than TO the
ordinary reader. for they are in Latin.
/ Among them is the edition Of the work
of Apicius a Roman epicure who lived
| in the third century AID. His treatise
on cookery was handed down in
manuscript form during the Middle
/ Ages, and an edition was printed in
, 1896. only 80 years after the first
/ books that issued from a printing
press. Mrs. Pennen's copy Is bound
in vellum, and the pages contain mar
ginal notes, and even verses, written
oy unknown hands somewhere through
| the centuries that the old book has
been in existence.
Mrs. Pennell's Italian cook books
1 Of the Renaissance period are espe-
cially interesting, for the Italians were
| the originators of modern cookery.
! They introduced all sorts of refine
ments into cooking and dining. Among
other things. they invented forks and
! spoons. and thus revolutioniZed the
viously had been conducted with a
pair of hands and a carving knife,
The distinguished Italian cooks of
the period were in the service of great
mobiles or churchmen, and their
pages abound with lavish menus which
they arranged for the dinners of car
dinals and dukes. An example is the
work of Cervio, head carver to Car
dinal Alessandro Farnese. In his book,
published in 1893. he gives descrip-
ions of ornamental dishes to be
served at banquets. which make the
achievements of modern confection-
ers seem simple and modest. Pies from
which issued little blackamoors bearing
gifts. or rabbits with coral beads on
their feet and silver bells around their