FOOD.

Our observations upon this subject may be conveniently arranged as relating to the Selection, Preservation, and Preparation of the various substances which are commonly used for food.

SELECTION.

Animal matters in general are safe articles of food. In regard to the higher classes, the mammalia and birds, this is universally true of those in a state of health. A few exceptions occur among the fishes, depending either upon the constitution of certain persons, who are injuriously affected by substances generally alimentary, or upon some singularity in the nature of the individual fish, by which it becomes poisonous, although the species is generally nutritious and wholesome. As we descend still lower in the scale, these exceptions occur more frequendy, and more species are absolutely and universally unwholesome, or furnish poisons hurtful to every constitution. In the vegetable kingdom, the alimentary vegetables form but a small proportion of the whole, and almost an equal number are absolutely poisonous, or at least injurious, except when [7:9:721]given in small quantities, to counteract some existing disease.

Although quadrupeds, without exception, furnish articles which may be safely used as food, their flesh differs much in palatability, and probably in its nutritious qualities. There is also no part of this class of animals that may not be, and indeed is not occasionally used as food, although the flesh, or voluntary muscles upon the limbs, trunk, and head, is by far the most considerable and important. The heart, the largest of the involuntary muscles, is also commonly eaten; and the brain and spinal marrow or pith; all the glands, the kidneys, liver, udder, and sweetbread; the compound internal organs, the lungs, stomach, and intestines, the uterus, placenta, and even the contents of the stomach, the fat and marrow of the bones, the blood and skin, are all nutritious, and some of them highly prized; and even the bones themselves can be made to furnish much wholesome nutriment. The milk of all quadrupeds is also alimentary, and generally agreeable.

These various organs, although each of them contains several immediate principles, considered chemically, are characterized by some difference in their composition. The muscular flesh consists principally of fibrine, combined with some gelatinous mucus and osmazome; the tendons of the muscles, on the contrary, are little else than gelatine in a very dense form. This is likewise the case with the skin, the membranes in general, and the ligaments. Brain and medullary nervous matter consist chiefly of coagulated albumen, which also, perhaps, enters largely into the composition of glands. The fat, suet, and marrow of the bones, are different forms of concrete animal oil. All these principle? are digestible and nutritious, but in what comparative degree is far from being ascertained. According to popular opinion, it is nearly inversely as their solubility in water, muscular flesh being considered to furnish the strongest aliment, and gelatinous organs the lightest. But these substances are not exactly similar in all animals, nor even in the same animal at different periods of life.

In general the flesh and other parts are coarser in proportion to the size of the animal, not only when different in kind; but in different varieties of the same species, although well-grown individuals of the same variety are always better than those which have not been sufficiently nourished. Thus the flesh of the elephant and rhinoceros have been found to be very coarse and unpalatable, whilst that of the rat and smaller quadrupeds is very delicate. The larger varieties of the ox and sheep, also, are inferior to the smaller, as the kyloes of the Western Islands, and the sheep of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland.

The whole organs of young animals are much more gelatinous than those of the adult and aged, whilst these contain more fibrine and extract. Hence the flesh of young animals is more bland and tender, and yields most to the action of boiling water; whilst that of aged animals is more savoury, even to rankness, and is firm to toughness.

The flesh of very young animals is to our palates unpleasantly soft and flabby, qualities of which every one is a judge; but it is at no period of life, not even in the foetal state, actually unwholesome; and therefore there was no rational ground for that enactment which provided that no butcher shall kill any calf to sell being under five weeks old. The fact is, that cows large with calf are frequently killed, and the foetus is always sold as very young veal, and preferred by some people. By our butchers, calves are killed at from six to sixteen weeks; but they are reckoned best at ten βr twelve. Lambs are generally killed at from eight weeks to half a year.

The flesh of quadrupeds in the vigour of life is more stringy, and again becomes shorter as it advances to old age, when it becomes dry and unnutritious. Young animals also differ from those that are aged, in the distribution of the fat, which in the latter is chiefly collected in masses or layers external to the muscles, and in the former is more interspersed among the muscular fibres, giving the flesh a marbled appearance, which is always a desirable property in butcher-meat.

The beef of the larger breeds of oxen is in perfection when the animal is about seven years old, that of the smaller breeds a year or two sooner. Cow beef, on the contrary, can scarcely be too young. The flesh of a young heifer is highly esteemed; that of an old fattened cow is very bad. Wedder mutton is in perfection at five years. Ewe mutton is best when about two years old. Sucking pigs are killed about three weeks old; but pork differs from other kinds of butcher-meat in not requiring age to mellow it; so that swine for pork are killed at from six to twelve months old; but for brawn, age is an advantage, or rather necessary. The buck of the fallow-deer may be killed at six, but is better at eight years of age. The female in general being naturally more tender, and getting tough rather than mellowing by age, is sooner in perfection.

The sex also greatly influences the quality of the flesh,: that of the female being always more delicate and finely grained than that of the entire male, of which the fibres are stronger and the taste more rank. Indeed the influence of the genital organs on the flesh of animals is very remarkable. The delicacy of the flesh, even of the female, is greatly improved by removing the ovaries, or “spaying” them as it is called. Every day the testes are permitted to remain, even though totally inactive as to their proper function, injures the delicacy of the veal of the bull-calf; and an animal which is not castrated until after puberty always retains much of the rankness and coarseness of the entire male. Daubenton^[1. Dauben ton, Instruction pour les Bergers, publiée par ordre du Gouvernement, avec des notes par J. B. Huzard, 4tne ed. augmentée, 8vo. Paris, 1810. ] l directs that the male lambs should be castrated at from eight to fifteen days after their birth, although it is not usual to perform the operation until the age of three weeks, or even five or six months. But their flesh is never so good as when they are castrated at eight days. Hazard goes farther, and recommends it to be performed in a day or two after their birth, or as soon as the testes descend into the scrotum. The female lambs are also spayed occasionally in France, to render their flesh more delicate, and to improve the wool; but the operation cannot be performed until the ovaries have acquired a sufficient size to be brought out with the finger, when about three weeks old. In this country the sow pigs which are not reserved for breeding are all spayed when about four weeks old; the boar pigs are castrated a week sooner. On the other hand, the males of those races in which the testes are active only at certain seasons, as the deer tribe, have the coarse rank flesh of entire males only when rutting, and at all other times they much more resemble the castrated individuals of those animals, such as the bull, which are always capable of procreating their species. Even with the ram there is a short period when the flesh is less rank, and during the rutting season it is intolerable. Buck venison is highly esteemed, and the boar is preferred for making brawn.

The manner in which the animal has been fed has alsol considerable influence on the quality of the flesh. Generally the lean of fat animals is better than that of those that are poor, and perhaps an animal in a state of nature can never be too fat. Artificial fattening may, however, be carried too far; and the practice of feeding oxen [7:9:722]on oil-cake for the market is now almost laid aside, as the beef acquires from it an unpleasant rancidity. Also unwholesome fatness, such as that which takes place in the first stage of the rot, and which, it is said upon very good authority, some butchers induce artificially, is certainly not desirable. « Several graziers and butchers having observed that sheep are much disposed to feed during the first, stage, or four weeks after being tainted, omit no opportunity of producing it to increase their profits.”^[2. An Inquiry into the Rot in Sheep and other Animal, By Edward Harrison, M.D. F. R. A. S. Ed. &c. 8vo. London, 1804- ] But it is not only in regard to fatness that the flesh of animals is affected by the nature of their food, for its flavour is materially altered by it, and an epicure will readily distinguish by the taste, whether mutton of the same race has been fed upon turnips, or upon the natural grasses of a Highland farm.

The effect of the food is more apparent in pork than in. any other kind of butcher-meat. The fat of pigs fed on skimmed milk, though sour, is firmer, and vastly superior to that of hogs fed upon peas or meal. And Mr Jackson says we have no pork in £ngland or Ireland equal to that of Sardinia, where the hogs are almost wild, and fattened upon chestnuts.

The season of the year has considerable influence on the quality of butcher-meat, though less than upon other kinds of aliment. Its influence depends upon the more or less plentiful supply of food, upon the periodical change which takes place in the body of the animal, and upon temperature. In season and out of season are words often vaguely applied, meaning, most commonly and correctly, the period of the year in which the substance in question is naturally best and worst, but also occasionally expressing the good or bad condition of the individual animal, without any regard to the state of the species in general; and lastly and most improperly, meaning that it is at that time desired or rejected by the higher classes of society as being rare or common. The flesh of most full-grown quadrupeds is in highest season during the first months of winter, after having enjoyed the advantage of the abundance of fresh summer food. Its flavour then begins to be injured by the turnips given as winter food, and in spring it gets lean from deficiency of food. Although beef and mutton are never absolutely out of season, or unfit for the table, they are best in November, December, and January. Pork is absolutely bad or out of season during the summer months, and is only good in those of winter. The males of the deer tribe are in highest season from the middle of June to the beginning of September, when they begin to rut, after which they become thin and exhausted. Females in general are out of condition when they are suckling, or have lately suckled or given milk. Does which have had no kids, or were soon deprived of them, follow the general rule of castrated animals, and are in season from the middle of November to the middle of February. Their condition is not much affected during the first months of pregnancy. The season of the year when the young of quadrupeds have acquired the proper age for being used as aliment is the period when they are in season. This is naturally in the summer months, when lamb, veal, kid, and fawns are most abundant. But breeders continue to furnish the tables of the wealthy with the first t¼ ’ o of these at almost every season of the year, by selecting certain breeds, such as the Dorsetshire sheep, which lamb very early, or by treating them in such a way as to cause the female to come in heat at an unnatural time. In this way lamb is procured as an article of luxury as early as November and December; and, on the contrary, by keeping the ewe on a cold and poor hill pasture, the lambing season is retarded.

The mode of killing has considerable effect on the flesh of the animal. Most of those slaughtered for food are either bled to death, or are bled profusely immediately after being deprived of life in some other way.

The common mode of killing cattle in this kingdom is by striking them on the forehead with a pole-axe, and then cutting their throats to bleed them. But this method is cruel, and not free from danger. The animal is not always brought down by the first blow, and the rq>etition is difficult and uncertain; and if the animal be not very well secured, accidents may happen. Lord Somerville,^[3. General Survey of the Agriculture of Shropshire. By Joseph Plvtnley, Μ. A. Bvo. London, 1803, p. 243. ] therefore, endeavoured to introduce the method of pithing or laying cattle, by dividing the spinal marrow above the origin of the phrenic nerves, as is commonly practised in Barbary, Spain, Portugal, Jamaica, and in some parts of England; and Mr Jackson says, that “the best method of killing a bullock is by thrusting a sharp-pointed knife into the spinal marrow, when the bullock will immediately fall without any struggle; then cut the arteries about the heart.”^[4. Reflection, on the Commerce of the Mediterranean. By John Jackson, Esq. F. S. A. 8vo. London, 1804, p. 91. ] Although the operation of pithing is not so difficult but it may, after some practice, be performed with tolerable certainty, and although Lord Somerville took a man with him to Portugal to be instructed in the method, and made it a condition that the prize cattle should be pithed instead of being knocked down, still pithing is not becoming general in Britain. This may be partly owing to prejudice; but we have been told that the flesh of the cattle killed in this way in Portugal is very dark, and becomes soon putrid, probably from the animal not bleeding well, in consequence of the action of the heart being interrupted before the vessels of the neck are divided. It therefore seems preferable to bleed the animal to death directly, as is practised by the Jew butchers.

The Mosaic law so strictly prohibits die eating of blood, that the Talmud contains a body of regulations concerning the killing of animals; and the Jews, as a point of religion, will not eat the flesh of any animal not killed by a butcher of their own persuasion. Their method is to tie all the four feet of the animal together, bring it to the ground, and, turning its head back, to cut the throat at once down to the bone with a long, very sharp, but not pointed knife, dividing all the large vessels of the neck. In this way the blood is discharged quickly and completely. ∣ The effect is indeed said to be so obvious, that some Christians will eat no meat but what has been killed by a Jew butcher.

Calves, pigs, sheep, and lambs, are all killed by dividing at once the large vessels of the neck. Animals which are killed by accident, as by being drowned, hanged, or frozen, or by a fall or ravenous animal, are not absolutely unwholesome. Indeed they only differ from those killed methodically in not being bled, which is also the case with animals that are snared, and in those killed by hounds. Animals which die a natural death should never be eaten, as there are undeniable instances of disease, and even death, being the consequence.

Animals frequently undergo some preparation before they are killed. They are commonly kept without food for some time, as, if killed with full stomachs, their flesh is considered not to keep well. Oxen are commonly fasted two or three days, smaller animals a day; but it is evident that the practice must not be carried too far, as the opposite effect will be produced by the animal falling off or getting feverish. It is generally understood that, in order to [7:9:723]have veal very white, the calf is repeatedly bled largely before it is killed. But the practice does not seem to be very common. It is altogether denied by the feeders, and not confessed by the butchers. We are not, therefore, able to say what its effects would be; but Dr Lister has stated that nothing contributes more to the whiteness and tenderness of the flesh of calves than often bleeding them, by which the colouring matter of the blood is exhausted, and nothing but colourless serum remains. A much more cruel method of preparation for slaughter used to be practised, though now much less frequently, in regard to the bull. By some ancient municipal laws, no butcher was allowed to expose any bull-beef for sale, unless it had been previously baited. The reason of this regulation probably was, that baiting had the effect of rendering the flesh or muscular fibre much more tender; for it is a universal law of the animal economy that, when animals have undergone excessive fatigue immediately before death, or have suffered from a lingering death, their flesh, though it becomes sooner rigid, also becomes sooner tender than when suddenly deprived of life in a state of health. The flesh of hunted animals also is soon tender and soon spoils;^[5. Recherche» de Phyiiologic et de Chimie Pathologique. Par P. N. Nysten, 8vo. Paris, 1811. ] and it is upon this principle only that the quality of pigs’ flesh could be improved by the horrid cruelty, said to be practised by the Germans, of whipping the animal to death. Another part of the same receipt, to roast a pig wild-boar fashion, consists in making him swallow, some hours before death, a quantity of vinegar aromatised with herbs. We notice this, because we think the action of vinegar given to animals some hours before death, in rendering the fibre mellow, deserves to be examined. It is a common practice in the country to give poultry a spoonful or two of vinegar some time before they are killed, when they are to be dressed immediately. Popular practices are seldom without some foundation, and with this, the fact that acetic acid or vinegar has a peculiar chemical action upon fibrine connects itself. The Moors in West Barbary, before they kill a hedgehog, which is esteemed a princely dish among them, “rub his back against the ground, by holding his feet betwixt two, as men do a saw that saws stones, till it has done squeaking, and then they cut its throat.” (Mr Jones, Phil. Trans. No. 254.)

There is no bird, and no part of any bird, nor any bird’s egg, which may not be safely used as food. Gmelin quotes a singular instance of some persons having been much affected after eating larks; and suspects that the flesh of the birds may have been rendered poisonous by their having fed upon hemlock-seed, which they eat with impunity. But there can be no doubt that this must be a mistake, for larks are a common and favourite food in the very country where this accident is said to have happened.

The flesh of birds differs very much In its sensible properties, not only in different kinds, but even in the different muscles of the same bird. The pectoral muscles which move the wings are whiter, drier, and more tender than those which move the legs. The tendons of the legs are also very strong, and at a certain age become bony; but the flesh of the legs, when sufficiently tender, either from the bird being young, or from long keeping, or sufficient cookerj', is more juicy and savoury than that of the wings. Of a few birds, especially the woodcock and snipe, the legs are at all times preferred to the breast. In the black-cock, the outer layer of the pectoral muscles is of a dark-brown colour, while the inner is white. A similar difference is observed in many other birds, and perhaps it is general in a slight degree. The muscular organs of birds differ from those of quadrupeds in their flesh never being marbled, or having fat mixed with the muscular fibres.

There is a great diversity in the flesh of the different classes of birds; but no very accurate distribution of them in this respect can be made, as, though the extremes are sufficiently marked, they run insensibly into each other. We may, however, notice, as sufficiently distinct, 1. the white-fleshed, exemplified in the common fowl and turkey; 2. dark-fleshed, game, grouse, black-cock; 3. aquatic, goose, duck; and, 4⅛ rapacious, hawks and owls. Several species of the first and third classes are domesticated, and reared in great numbers as esteemed articles of food. The white-fleshed birds are very generally liked, when good of their kind, and by many are preferred to game, which, however, when sufficiently kept, is one of the greatest luxuries of an epicure’s table. It has then acquired a peculiar odour, called fumet, and an aromatic bitter taste, most sensible in the back. The aquatic birds, both swimmers and waders, are generally eaten, and many of them are very delicate; but in general they are disposed to become very fat, and often acquire a rancid and fishy taste. This is chiefly connected with the fat, and may be somewhat avoided by skinning the bird, and removing the inside fat, before cooking. Of the rapacious birds none are eaten, partly perhaps from prejudice, and partly because those which touch carrion acquire a cadaverous smell.

The muscular fibre is coarser in the larger than in the smaller birds of the same class, and it becomes less tender as they get older. It is also much influenced by sex, although of some birds the young cock is preferred, chiefly, we apprehend, on account of its greater size and handsome appearance. By removing the sexual organs at an early age, both sexes are much improved for the use of the table, becoming larger, fatter, and more tender, as we see in the capon and poulard. The manner in which birds are fed affects both their fatness and their flavour. Birds seldom get very fat in their wild state, or when domesticated, if allowed to go at large. The art of fattening poultry consists in supplying them with abundance of healthy food, and confining them. Aquatic birds, ducks and geese in particular, must be prevented from going into the water, both because they never get fat, but also acquire a rancid fishy taste.

The fattening of fowls for the London market is a con-: siderable branch of rural economy in some convenient 1 situations. “They are put up in a dark place, and crammed with a paste made of barley-meal, mutton-suet, and some treacle or coarse sugar, mixed with milk, and are found to be completely ripe in a fortnight. If kept longer, the fever that is induced by this continued state of repletion renders them red and unsaleable, and frequently kills them.”^[6. Agricultural Report of βerkihire. By william Mavor, LL. D. 8v<x London, 1813. ] But fowls brought to this state of artificial obesity are never so well flavoured in the flesh, and probably not so salubrious, as those of the same species fattened in a more natural way. The great secret of having fine pullets is cleanliness, and high keeping with the best corn.

Epicures in all ages have been exceedingly whimsical in the selection of certain parts of particular birds as dainties, and the ancients more so than the moderns; for although we still prize the combs of the common fowl, the trail of the woodcock, and even collect with care the dreg which drops from it in the process of roasting, the guts of the bustard, the gizzard and liver of the goose, and the feet of the duck; we find that Homan epicures delighted in the brains of ostriches and parrots, the tongue of the flamingo, and the enlarged liver of the goose. The last still [7:9:724]continues among our continental neighbours to be in great request, and the providing them is a considerable branch of rural economy in some provinces. It is said that, at Strasburg, it is effected by actually sewing up the anus of the tortured animal, after a certain preparation; but we have not met with the barbarity set down in print, and it is perhaps not true, otherwise so striking an exemplification of Sir E. Home’s doctrine, that the fatness of animals depended upon the length of their intestinal canal, and the length of time the faeces were retained in it, would not have escaped his notice. The process followed in different parts of France is described at length by Sonnini:^[7. Nouveau Dictionnaire d’fíůtoire Naturelle, art. oie. ] l “The object of the third method is to enlarge the liver. Nobody is ignorant of the endeavours of sensuality to cause the whole vital forces to be determined towards this part of the animal, by giving it a kind of hepatic cachexy. In Alsace, the individual buys a lean goose, which he shuts up in a small box of fir, sô tight that it cannot turn in it. The bottom is furnished with a wide grating of rods, for the passage of the dung. In the fore part there is a hole for the head, and below it a small trough is kept always full of water, in which some pieces of wood charcoal are left to steep. A bushel of maize is sufficient to feed it during a month, at the end of which time the goose is sufficiently fattened. A thirtieth part is soaked in water each night, and crammed down its throat next day, morning and evening. The rest of the time it drinks and guggles in the water. Towards the twenty-second day they mix with the maize some poppy oil, and at the end of the month it is known by a lump of fat under each wing, or rather by the difficulty of breathing, that it is time to kill it, otherwise it will die of fat. The liver is then found weighing one or two pounds, and besides, the animal is excellent for the table, and furnishes, during its roasting, from three to five pounds of fat, which is used in the cookery of vegetables. Of six geese, there are commonly only four, and these are the youngest, which answer the expectation of the fattener. They are kept in a cellar, or place with little light; and the Roman epicures, who prized their livers, had already observed, that darkness was favourable to this kind of education, no doubt because it prevents all distraction, and directs the whole powers towards the digestive organs. The want of motion, and the difficulty of respiration, may be also taken into consideration; the first by diminishing the waste of the system, and both by retarding the circulation in the vena portarum, of which the blood ought to become hydrogenated, in proportion as its carbon unites itself to the oxygen, which that liquid absorbe. This favours the formation of the oily juice, which, after having filled the cellular system of the body, enters into the biliary system and substance of the liver, and gives it that fatness and size which is so delightful to the palates of true gourmands. The liver thus only becomes enlarged consecutively, and the difficulty of respiration does not appear till the end, when its size prevents the action of the diaphragm.”

“The leanness of geese subjected to this treatment is often mentioned; but it can only occur in those whose eyes are put out, and feet nailed down to a board, as the consequence of this barbarous treatment. Among a hundred fatteners, there are scarcely two who adopt this practice, and even these do not put out their eyes till a day or two before they are killed. And therefore the geese of Alsace, which are free from these cruel operations, acquire a prodigious fatness, which may be called an oleaginous dropsy, the effect of a general atony of the absorbents, caused by want of exercise, combined with succulent food crammed down their throats, and in an ιmder oxygenated atmosphere.” There are certain months in which each kind of bird is considered to be in season, and which are determined by the time of their breeding, the abundance of food, or their migration. Some birds do not remain with us all the year, and are therefore to be valued when we can get them. The migrating birds go farther south in winter, and north in summer. They are, therefore, with us in winter or summer, according to their habits in regard to temperature and the supply of food. Those birds which remain during summer breed here, and their young may be obtained before they fly, and whilst they are still delicate, as the gannet or solan goose; others, as the woodcock, rarely breed in this country, and are only got in their adult state.

There is but little diversity in the mode of killing birds. Game is almost always shot, as hawking is entirely out of fashion, although formerly birds killed in this way were more esteemed, as, indeed, their flesh would be sooner tender. Larks are caught in winter in traps and nets, and then killed. The heads are twisted off young pigeons; but domestic birds, in general, are killed in a very unskilful and barbarous manner. The common fowl has its neck drawn, by which the spine is torn asunder at an uncertain plaçe; and if the spinal cord be not divided, or be divided too low, the animal dies slowly, and is sometimes alive after its feathers have been plucked off. The large blood-vessels are sometimes also torn across. This is an advantage, both from shortening the sufferings of the animal, and rendering its flesh whiter in consequence of the loss of blood. Turkeys are bled to death by dividing the vessels under the tongue. The only objection to this is that it is tedious, for probably it is not attended with much pain. Geese are killed by splitting the skull with a knife. This is sometimes very awkwardly performed, and neither any large vessels are divided, nor the nervous energy destroyed. Domestic birds are generally kept confined and fed upon choice food for some time before they are killed, and sometimes they are crammed, or forced to eat more than they would voluntarily. They should always be kept a day without food at the last, that their crops may be empty, as food left in them is apt to taint the flesh.

Of the reptiles, very few are used as food, though probably rather on account of their disgusting appearance, than of their being hurtful, or even unpalatable, as some of the greatest luxuries of the table belong to this class of animals. Besides the green turtle, several other species of Testudo are eaten, especially the Gra∙ca, Europoea, and ferox. Of the lizards, the Dracaena, Ainboinensis, agilis, and Iguana, are eaten. The flesh of the last is said to be delicious, but unwholesome, especially to those persons affected with syphilis, which, however, is probably a vulgar prejudice. The Lacerta scincus is held in estimation by the natives of the east as aphrodisiac. The eggs of the Iguana and of most species of Testudo, even of those whose flesh is said to be bad, as of the Imbricata, are nutritious and agreeable. The flesh of the Coluber natrix is eaten in some places; and even the viper, whose bite is poisonous, furnishes a nutritious broth to invalids. Of the frogs, the Rana esculenta is a favourite article of food with our continental neighbours. The Rana taurina, or bull-frog, rivals the turtle in the opinion of our Transatlantic descendants. The Rana bombi-na, though a toad, is also eaten in some places as a fish. We have no doubt that many other reptiles are used as food in some countries; and we are not aware of a single instance where injurious effects have been produced by any that have been tried. Their flesh seems in general to be delicate and gelatinous; the fibre resembles that of chicken or veal; and what is called the green fat of turtle is in reality [7:9:725]gelatinous, like the skin of calf’s head, or the tendons of ox-heel, which are employed to make an imitation of it, ’ We know little of the circumstances which influence the quality of reptiles as esculent; but the modern Apicius says, the best size of a turtle for taste is sixty pounds to eighty pounds, which is scarcely a tenth part of the size they sometimes reach; and we may presume that, like most other oviparous animals, they are best before they begin to lay their eggs, and out of season for some time afterwards. Turtles often become emaciated and sickly before they reach this country, in which case the soup would be incomparably improved by leaving out the turtle, and substituting a good calf’s head.

In some places fish constitutes the sole or chief food of the people, hence called Ichthyophagi, and almost everywhere it is in request. In Siberia, dried fish is used instead of bread. The Laplanders make a bread of fish bones, and the Negroes of the western coast of Africa dry a species of sprat, and beat it in wooden mortars to a paste, which keeps all the year, and is eaten with rice or corn. Putrid fish is even the favourite and ordinary food of some tribes. Fish, however, is not so universally a safe aliment as the two preceding classes of animals; for although no species is generally unwholesome, yet, in some situations, individuals of many different species are absolutely poisonous, whilst others of the same species, and not to be distinguished by any certain external characters, at the same place, and in the same season, are innocent and nutritious, which render the eating of fish in such countries not free of danger.

i The subject of poisonous fishes is still involved in great obscurity, although so important to those who are exposed to suffer from them. It is not peculiar to any genus, species, or distinct variety, but occurs in individuals only, and those of several genera of very different classes, such as Clupea, Perca, Boracinus, Sparus, Coryphana, Scomber, Muroena, Balistes, Tetrodon, and Cancer. Except the Boymarus Islandicus, which is reputed poisonous by the Icelanders, because the crows refuse to eat it, poisonous .fish occur chiefly in tropical seas. It is only at certain seasons, however, that any poisonous fish occur; as in the Carribbean Sea in May, June, and July, after having spawnetl. Their deleterious effects are ascribed by some to the fish feeding on poisonous substances, as on copper banks, medusae, and holothuriae, or the manchineel apple. The poison is supposed to exist in the gall; and it is said that if the peritoneum and all the entrails be speedily and dexterously removed, the flesh may always be eaten without danger. A fish is suspected when it is of an unusually large size, or is destitute of the natural fishy smell, or has black teeth, or when silver or an onion boiled along with it becomes black; but all these tests are uncertain. The poisonous quality is also said to be destroyed by salting the fish, or drinking along with it sea water, or the ripe juice of the lime, sugar cane, or sweet potato.

Some ancient, as well as modern naturalists and physicians, consider the roe of the barbel as unwholesome when eaten; others think it is hurtful only at certain seasons to certain individuals, and when eaten in excess; and, lastly, some declare the whole allegations to be erroneous and unfounded. Bloch, the great ichthyologist, and Bose, both assert that they and others have eaten it without any inconvenience; but Dr Crevelt of Bonn has published cases which leave little doubt that in some cases the roe is actually injurious, although the flesh of the same individual was eaten with impunity.

The ancients had many prejudices in regard to the wholesomeness or unwholesomeness of certain fishes. The Egyptian priests were forbidden to eat fish of any kind, under the idea that it increased the sexual appetite, or that it was a cause of the leprosy. For the latter reason the people were forbidden to eat any fish not covered with scales. Moses adopted the same principle: “Whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.” “Whatsoever hath no fins or scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.”^[8. Levit, ch. xi. 9, 12. ] Numa made a law for the Ŕomans much to the same effect; but it did not continue in force, as we find the lamprey and sturgeon among the luxuries of the emperors; and such fish now form the chief support of the people in some districts, without being followed by any bad effect.

Fishes, however, present an infinite variety in regard to their fitness as articles of food, in the colour and texture of their muscles, and in being more or less gelatinous, fibrous, or oily. The muscles of many fish, with the exception of the heart, are quite white, and in general, when the fish is good, they become opaque when cooked. When they remain semitransparent and bluish after sufficient boiling, they are not in season. Of some fishes the flesh is a pale red at certain seasons, and the higher the colour of these kinds the more are they esteemed. Of most fishes the muscles are disposed in flakes, and when in perfection, there is, when cooked, a layer of white curdy matter between them, resembling coagulated albumen. Some other fishes, chiefly those that are flat, or eel-shaped, or without scales, have a fibrous flesh, not divisible into flakes. The liver of the fish tribe abounds with oil, and of many species the flesh is mixed or covered with oil or fat, as the eel or salmon; but of many others the flesh seems to be totally free from it, as all the varieties of the cod, haddock, whiting, and the flat fish.

Almost every soft part of fishes is nutritious, and occasionally eaten. The great bulk of the animal consists of the muscles of voluntary motion, covering the spine and its appendages; but of some fishes, as turbot, ling, &c. the pulpy gelatinous skin is esteemed. Cod-sounds are the swimming bladders of the large cod, and they are preserved separately, and transmitted to the capital for the gratification of our epicures. In the fresh fish, the tongue, palate, and lips, although too soft for most people, are preferred by some. The roe of most fishes is eaten, and that of some constitutes a principal article of national food. Caviare is the preserved roe of the sturgeon. The melt or soft roe of the herring is eaten by many. The liver of the burbot is very large, and is much esteemed. The enormous vas deferens of the male cod fried is one of the best garnishes for that fish; and some of the smaller ⅛nd more delicate fishes are eaten whole, with the exception of the head.

So far as we have knowledge of the effect of sex upon the nutritive qualities of fish, the male or melter is much preferred, as in the herring and salmon. In spring the male only of the lump-fish or cock-padle, Cyclopterus lumpus, is eaten.^[9. Neill, Wernerian Traneactiont, vol. i. p. 648. ] Later in the year the female is nearly of equal quality.

The castration and spaying of fish was at one period practised, but only to a very limited extent, and is now entirely laid aside. It was first performed by Mr Tull of Edmonton, who seems to have been a fishmonger. The earliest notice of his discovery is in the History of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris for 174∙2, in the extract from a letter to Μ. Geoffroy, from Sir Hans Sloane, in which he states that he had seen the operation performed on two small carps. A more detailed account of an improved process was afterwards published in the Philosophical Trans- [7:9:726] actions for 1754. Mr Tull’s object at first was to prevent the excessive increase of fish in some of his ponds, where the numbers did not permit any of them to grow to an advantageous size; but from castration the increase was not only prevented, but the castrated fish grew much larger than their usual size, were more fat, and, what was no trifling consideration, were always in season. The operation was performed by making a longitudinal incision from between the two fore-fins almost to the anus of the fish, laying aside the intestines, first on one side, and then on the other, and dividing transversely the oviduct or vas deferens. The wound in the integuments was then stitched up, and, without further attention, few fish died of the operation. The operation was most easily performed in May, when the ovaries and spermatic vessels are full. In France Baron de la Tour operated so successfully that out of two hundred carps he did not lose four. It was also tried in Germany, and it was observed that those fish castrated in spring were in autumn still smaller than the others; but that in the following spring they were large and fat, but, some people thought, not so well tasted.^[10. Account of Mr Samuel TulΓ> Method of Caetrating Fith, Philoiophical Tramaction), vol. xlviii. 4to, London, 1756, p. 370. Also Krunitz, OekonomüehAEchnicoogůche Encyclopadie, 13ter Th. 8vo, Berlin, 1786, p. 491. ]

In regard to the age of fish as affecting their fitness for food, we are inclined to think that the ad⅛e “better small fish than none,” implying that the larger they are the better, is not always correct; for although a well-grown and well-nourished individual is always finer than one not in so good condition, and although some fishes, naturally soft, may become firmer as they grow older, yet many fishes are certainly more delicate when of a smaller size, probably from being younger. Cod is generally preferred large, but we have seen large cod exceedingly coarse. The haddock is certainly better when it does not exceed a middling size; and the whole skate tribe are apt to get coarse and strong as they get large. Ausonius says the bream is the only animal which improves by old age:

Tu melior pejore aevo, tibi contigit uni, Spirantum ex numero, non inlaudata senectus-

The flavour of fish is very much influenced by the nature of their food, independently of their apparent condition; and hence there is the greatest difference of the fish on different coasts, or in different rivers and lakes. In general, sea-fish are best where the water is deep, and strong or salt, and where the shore is bold and rocky. Hence the cod and ling caught near the shores, estuaries, and bays, are greatly inferior in quality to fish caught off headlands, in strong currents and deep water. Of the river fish, those which are found in clear, rapid streams, with a rocky or gravelly bottom, in a mountainous country, are indeed less fat, but better tasted; and hence the salmon of the Elbe and Rhine are more valued than those of the other continental rivers. The Thames salmon, however, is preferred in the London market to all other, and some epicures pretend to be able to distinguish by the taste when it comes from a favourite reach of the river. Certain, however, it is, that fislι caught in slow-running waters, with a muddy bottom, such as occur in flat countries with a rich soil, though generally larger and fatter, are very inferior in the more essential points of flavour and firmness. Also the fish of large deep lakes, with a gravelly bottom, is much preferable to that of small, shallow, and muddy ponds or tanks. The bad qualities of fish in stagnant waters, into winch the filth of cities was emptied, did not escape the notice of Galen. Fresh-water fish bred in muddy bottoms or foul water are sometimes freed from the unpleasant earthy taste by keeping them for some time in ponds of clear water with a gravelly bottom.

The season of the year has the most marked effect upon the quality of fish, as connected with their spawning. In ! general, fish of every kind are best some time before they begin to spawn, and are unfit for food some time after they have spawned. This, however, is not sufficient to prevent those who have an easy opportunity, from catching and eating fish in this state; and the legislature has found it necessary to fix the periods during which salmon fishing is legal. When the salmon is in the sea, and about to enter the rivers for the purpose of spawning, it is infested ŵith a parasitical insect, which adheres to every part of the body, and dies and drops off after the fish has been for a short time in fresh water. In this state it is in the highest perfection, the flesh is firm, red, and delicious, the form elegant, and the colours beautiful. On first entering the river, the silvery colour of the sides is very slightly marked with spots; but when it has remained long in fresh water this colour decays, and the spots become much larger, darker coloured, and more obvious. At the time of spawning, the sides of the fish get of a very red colour, and when the spawning is over the white colour entirely disappears, the belly becomes livid, and the sides are streaked all over with a sooty or black colour; and in this state the salmon are termed in the acts of parliament red and black fish. The rays of their fins are all at this time jagged or torn, a great part of their scales rubbed off, and their gills infested with parasitical worms. In Ireland, where great freedom is used in destroying salmon during and after spawning season, the eating of the fish at that time has been often, and in many places, found to be productive of much disease and mortality; and the same is probably sometimes the case in Scotland, although not so much observed as to be generally known; but a very marked instance is mentioned by Dr Walker.^[11. Prine Etiayn and Tramactiom of the Highland Society of Scotland, vol. ii. Edin. 1803. Enayn on the Natural Hiι tory of Salmon, by the Reverend Dr Walker, Professor of Nat. Hist. Univers, of Edin. A. Drummond, Esq. and Messrs Mackenzie and Morrison. ]

Other fish are probably unwholesome after spawning, but they are seldom caught in that state. Young fish, not come to the age of spawning, are in season all the year.

In regard to their habitat, or the situation where they live, fishes may be divided into three families: 1st, Those which live entirely in salt water, as the cod and herring; 2⅛ those which live entirely in fresh water, as various species of the cyprinus; and, 3d, those which live alternately in salt and fresh water, as the salmon and sturgeon. The comparative esculent qualities of each depend upon a great variety of circumstances; but of the last class it may be remarked, that as they enter the rivers for the purpose of spawning, they are in greatest perfection when they are proceeding up tire rivers, and are quite out of season when returning to the sea.

Fish seldom undergo any preparation for killing, nor is there any attention paid to the mode of depriving them of life. Most commonly they are killed as soon as caught, and frequently by merely taking them out of the water. Sometimes, when large, the fishermen strike them upon the head, or tear asunder the branchial vessels. The Dutch carry all their fresh fish alive to market, and when any die previous to being sold, they are exposed in a different manner, and at an inferior price. This practice no doubt insures fresh fish, but if certainly fresh, they will be in greater perfection if killed immediately when caught, than preserved alive for any time in an unnatural situation.

To improve the quality of fish, they are sometimes subjected to the process called crimping. It has been examined[7:9:727] by Mr Carlisle, to whom we are indebted for the following facts: “Whenever the rigid contractions of death have not taken place, this process may be practised with success. The sea-fish destined for crimping are usually struck on the head when caught, which it is said protracts the term of this capability, and the muscles which retain this property longest are those about the head. Many transverse sections of the muscles being made, and the fish immersed in cold water, the contractions called crimping take place in about five minutes; but if the mass be large, it often requires thirty minutes to complete the process.” The crimping of fresh-water fishes is said to require hard water, and the London fishmongers usually employ it. Mr Carlisle found that, by being crimped, the muscles subjected to the process have both their absolute weight and their specific gravity increased; so that it appears that water is absorbed, and condensation takes place.^[12. The Croonian Lectures on Muscular Motion, by Anthony Carlisle, Esq. F. R. S. Philosophical Transactions fur 1805, 4to, London, 1805, p. 23. ] It was also observed that the effect was greater in proportion to the vivaciousness of the fish. From these observations it appears that the object of crimping is first to retard the natural stiffening of the muscles, and then, by the sudden application of cold water, to excite it in the greatest possible degree, by which means it both acquires the desired firmness, and keeps longer. We may also here observe, that rigidity is a certain mark that the fish is perfectly fresh, and has not begun to spoil.

The Mollusci do not furnish a very extensive source of human food, and they are not without danger. Of those without shells, only the sepicε and some ascideae are eaten, but not generally. The limpet, Patella vulgata, the periwinkle, Turbo liUoreus, and welk, Murex antiquus, are eaten boiled by the common people in this country; and the Helix pomalia is reared and fattened with great care in some cantons of Switzerland, as an article of luxury, and exported pickled. Many other snails are eaten by the poor in various districts, and we do not know that any is absolutely hurtful. The bivalves, in like manner, are generally wholesome, and some of them have long been among the deliciae gulosorum. The Romans sent to Britain for oysters, and the British epicures delight in the Pholas dactylus of the Italian shores.

The crustaceous shell-fish of sufficient size are very generally esculent, and some of them are greatly esteemed, and others abundant. These chiefly belong to the family of Cancer, and comprehend both short-tailed and longtailed species; the velvet crab, one of the most esteemed in France; the C. manas, eaten by the poor in London; C. pagurus, the black-toed crab; C. ruricoa, the land crab of our Transatlantic islands; C. gammarus, the lobster; C. astacus, the craw-fish; C. crangon, the shrimp; and C. squilla, the prawn; besides others not known in this country.

. Few insects are used in food. The locust is, however, consumed in great quantities, both fresh and salted, so as to afford some compensation for the ravages it commits. The Moors in West Barbary esteem as delicious, honeycomb with the young bees in it; but Mr Jones says that they seemed insipid to his palate, and sometimes gave him the heartburn.

Although the vegetable kingdom furnishes the human race, even those who eat flesh most freely, with the greater part of their food, yet there are many more exceptions to the fitness for human food in the vegetable than in the animal kingdom, both from mere indigestibility or defect of nutritious qualities, and from being directly deleterious and hurtful. The selection of vegetable food, when we depart from that which is familiar and known, is therefore more difficult, and subject to uncertainty. There is, however, a certain analogy between the action on the animal economy among vegetables which resemble each other in external form, or in their botanical characters. The arrangement, therefore, of vegetables into natural groups or families, is calculated to assist us in judging of the uses, medicinal or esculent, of untried vegetables.^[13. Essai sur les Propriétés Médicales des Plantes, comparées avec leurs formes extérieures et leur classification naturelle. Par Μ. A. P. be Candolle, 8vo, Paris, 1816. ]

All parts of vegetables are used as food; roots, stalks, or shoots; leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, and the whole plant. The seeds os the Cerealia, the Graminea of modem botanists, furnish the most important part of our food in almost every climate. Their mucilaginous shoots also support that class βf animals hence called graminivorous, whose flesh is most generally eaten; and the abundance of different species in all varieties of climate, and the absolute identity of their nature, is the cause, as De Candolle well observes, that these animals may be transported and naturalized from one end of the world to the other.

PRESERVATION.

As the supply of food is always subject to irregularities, the preservation of the excess obtained at one time to meet the deficiency of another would soon engage the attention of mankind. At first this method would be simple and natural, and derived from a very limited observation; but in the progress of society the wants and occupations of mankind would lead them to invent means by which the more perishable alimentary substances of one season might be reserved for consumption at another, or the superfluous productions of distant countries might be transported to others where they are more needed. The principles of this most important art have been nowhere better explained than in the 45th number of the Edinburgh Review, by an eminent vegetable physiologist.

In general, organic substances, as soon as they are deprived of life, begin to undergo certain chemical changes, more or less rapidly, and of different kinds, according to their nature. Although the modes of change, especially in the first stages, are almost as numerous as the substances themselves, yet ultimately they terminate in one or more of the principal kinds of fermentation described by chemists. To each of these, besides the presence of an organic substance capable of undergoing it, several conditions are requisite, of which the principal are a certain temperature, a certain degree of moisture, and the access of air; and it is by obviating or modifying these conditions that we are enabled to prevent or regulate the natural fermentation. The kind of fermentation which substances undergo depends upon their composition, and it may be generally remarked, that those which do not contain a considerable proportion of azote are incapable of the putrefactive fermentation, but pass through the vinous, acetous, and destructive, successively. On the other hand, those which contain a large proportion of azote are capable only of the putrefactive and destructive; but there are many substances containing a small proportion of azote, in which both kinds of fermentation are combined.

A great proportion of vegetables are used in a recent state, and, in this case, the sooner after they are gathered the better. Vegetables, in general, should be kept apart; for, if laid in contact, in a very short time they impart their peculiar flavours to each other. Lecks or celery will [7:9:728]quickly spoil a whole basketful of cauliflower or the finer vegetables. Another general rule is, that they should not be kept in water, nor even washed or refreshed by sprinkling them with water, till they are to be used, as the flavour is thereby greatly injured; but if, by having been cut or gathered some time, they have become flaccid, it is absolutely necessary to restore their crispness before cooking them, otherwise they will be tough and unpleasant. This is to be done when the size of the vegetable admits of it, as cauliflower, salad, celery, and the like, by cutting off a piece of the stalk and setting the fresh surface, thus exposed, in water, which will be absorbed; in other cases the whole vegetable must be immersed in water.

Most vegetable substances being more or less succulent, their full proportion of fluids is necessary for their retaining that state of crispness or plumpness which they have when growing. On being cut or gathered, the exhalation from their surfaces continues, while, from the open vessels of the cut surface, there is often great exudation or evaporation, and thus their natural moisture is diminished, and the tender leaves become flaccid, and the thicker masses or roots lose their plumpness. This is not only less pleasant to the eye, but is a real injury to the nutritious powers of the vegetable; for in this flaccid and shrivelled state its fibres are less easily divided in chewing, and the water which exists in vegetable substances, in the form of their respective natural juices, is directly nutritious. The first care in the preservation of succulent vegetables, therefore, is to prevent them from losing their natural moisture. In regard to the tender succulent vegetables this is not altogether possible, because there is a constant exhalation from their surface, while the supply of moisture is cut off. The principle of preserving them, then, is to retard and diminish the exhalation. This is most effectually done by protecting them from the action of the sun’s rays, from the air, and from heat. Even growing vegetables become flaccid in a hot sun, because the exhalation is then greater than the supply; and exposure to the sun is absolutely ruinous to all the more delicate vegetables. The operation of heat and air is slower, but similar. Succulent vegetables should therefore be kept in a cool, shady, and damp place. They should also be kept in a heap, and not spread out, which greatly influences their shrivelling. But when accumulated in too large heaps for any length of time, they are injured in another way, by their heating, as it is called, which is the commencement, in them, of a chemical change, or fermentation, which altogether alters their nature. In many cases the chief business is to prevent evaporation. Potatoes, turnips, carrots, and similar roots, intended to be stored up, should never be cleaned from the earth adhering to them, because the little fibres by which it is retained are thus wounded, and the evaporating surface is increased. They should also be wounded as little as possible, and the tops of turnips and carrots should be cut off close to, but above, the root. The next thing to be attended to is to protect them from the action of the air and of frost. T]ιis is done by laying them in heaps, burying them in sand or in earth, immersing them in water, or covering them with straw or mats. The action of frost is most destructive, as, if it be considerable, the life of the vegetable is destroyed, and it speedily rots. A less degree of frost induces a singular but hurtful change upon the potato, by converting part of its starch, or mucilage, into sugar. The germination of seeds also converts their starch into sugar, as is exemplified in the malting of barley. But, even after this change has been induced, if the substance be thoroughly dried in a kiln or otherwise, it will still remain a long time without decay.

The maturation of fruits, although not thoroughly examined, seems to be a change of the same kind, that is, sugar is formed at the expense of the other principle of the unripe fruit. The maturation of fruits is intimately connected with a certain species of decay, as exemplified in the firmer fruits. The rotten parts of many pears is remarkably sweet, and the saccharine matter does not begin to be formed in the medlar until its decomposition be far advanced. In other instances, as in the apple, the decayed part is intensely bitter; and the softer juicy fruits grow mouldy and offensive. The art of preserving fruits consists in being able to prevent and retard these changes. A certain proportion of moisture seems to be necessary for their decay; and hence, by careful exsiccation, grapes are converted into raisins, plums into prunes, and figs are dried. But by carefully excluding them from the. air, they may even be preserved without dissipating their natural moisture. Thus currants, cherries, and damsons, gathered perfectly dry and sound, may be put into bottles, closed with cork and rosin, and buried in a trench, with the cork downwards. Fine bunches of grapes may also be preserved in bags, by closing the cut end of the stalk with wax, which prevents the escape of moisture; or they may be packed in very dry bran or sand. Some may even be preserved by being kept immersed in water. This is constantly practised in regard to the cranberry, and sometimes succeeds with apples.

The preservation of fruit is in many countries an object of much importance. In some, the great object is to preserve the fruit in as natural a state as possible. This is particularly the ease in regard to winter apples, and pears, and grapes. The time for gathering fruits depends upon their exposure, and the manner of gathering them influences their keeping. After having prepared the fruit-room, a fine day is to be chosen, and, if possible, after two or three preceding days of dry weather, and about two in the afternoon, the fruit is to be gathered, and deposited in baskets of a moderate size, taking care that none of it receive any bruise or blemish, for the injured part soon rots and spoils the sound fruit in contact with it. As the summer fruits ripen more quickly after they are pulled, only a few days consumption should be gathered at once, by which means we can enjoy them for a greater length of time. Autumn apples and pears should be gathered eight days before they are ripe; and, indeed, some kinds never become fit for eating on the tree. If they have been necessarily gathered in wet weather, or early in the morning, they should be exposed a day to the sun to dry, and they should on no account be wiped, which rubs off the bloom as it is called, which, when allowed to dry on some fruits, constitutes a natural varnish, closing up the pores, and preventing the evaporation of the juices. They should not be laid in heaps, which causes them to sweat, and undergo a slight fermentation; for fruit thus treated, if it does not spoil, gets dry and mealy; and hence, in this country, the ordinary apples imported from England and the Continent are inferior to our own. The principal requisites for a good fruit-room are great dryness, and equality of temperature, and the power of excluding light. Some curious persons preserve fine pears by passing a thread through the stalk, of which they seal up the end with a drop of sealing-wax, enclose each separately in a cone of paper, and hang them up by the thread brought through the apex. Experience has also proved that grapes keep better when hanging than' when laid upon a table. The cut end should be closed with wax, which prevents exhalation. Some hang them by the stalk, others by the point of the bunch, as the grapes are thus less pressed against each other; but it is in both cases necessary to visit them from time to time, and cut off, with a pair of scissors, every berry that is mouldy or spoiled.

More artificial modes of preserving grapes in a succident state are sometimes used, and become necessary for their [7:9:729]transportation to distant countries. They are often packed with bran and saw-dust; and Apicius says they may be preserved in barley. The same classical gourmand was well acquainted with the use of water in preserving the grapes in their natural state. “Take grapes from the vine without wounding them. Boil rain water down to a third, and put it into a vessel, into which you also put the grapes. Close the vessel with pitch and gypsum, and place it in a cool situation, to which the sun has not access, and when you please you will have green grapes. The water may be given to sick persons as hydromel.” The boiling of the water so long is unnecessary, as a much shorter time would be sufficient to expel the air, which is probably the manner in which it has some effect. The water will acquire a slight acidity from the grapes; and hence it was given, sweetened with honey, as a pleasant drink to the sick.

Animal substances in general, when deprived of life, have a natural tendency to undergo the putrefactive fermentation. Before this is established they pass through a series of successive changes, which are intimately connected with our subject. After death the bodies of animals cool more or less rapidly, according to the temperature and conducting power of the air, or other substances with which they are in contact. In fact they do not differ in this respect from an equal mass of any other matter, heat-ed artificially to the same temperature, and having the same conducting power. As this, however, is very weak, the bodies of animals cool very slowly after death.

For some time after death the muscular parts of animals continue to suffer contraction, followed by relaxation, when stimulated, as by the point of a needle, or the application of galvanism. But this irritability, or organic contractility as it is termed by some modern physiologists, gradually disappears in the different organs, and commonly in the muscles of the trunk before those of the limbs. It is also observed, that, in the different classes of animals, the duration of the irritability is inversely as the energy of muscular action which they exhibit during life. It is strongest and most durable in animals which are suddenly killed when in high health, and is weak and evanescent in those which die of lingering diseases, or from fatigue.

After the irritability has entirely ceased, the muscles begin to become rigid, first those of the trunk, and then those of the limbs. Its duration is inversely as the time of its commencement; and it is longest of beginning, but is greatest and lasts longest, in those animals which are suddenly killed when in high health. It appears very quickly, and lasts a short time only, in animals which die of exhaustion or from fatigue. In whatever attitude the limbs are placed at its commencement, they continue; and hence butchers take care to dress properly the carcasses of animals while yet supple. For after rigidity has commenced, if the position of the limb be forcibly changed, it is destroyed, and the joint becomes permanently supple. Also muscles which are frozen when rigid, are extremely supple as soon as they are thawed. Rigidity is perhaps never developed in animals frozen to death.^[14. Recherche» de Phyeiologie et Chimie Pathologique», par P. N. Nysten, 8vo, Paris, 1811. ]

While this rigidity continues, the flesh of animals is hard and stringy, and, so far as the palate is concerned, not yet fit for the table, although fully nutritious, and in perfection for making soup. After the rigidity has totally ceased, animal flesh is not long of experiencing the commencement of those chemical changes which terminate in putrefaction; and it is of the utmost importance, in domestic economy, to take care that all Urge joints be in this intermediate state when they are cooked; for no skill in the culinary art wall compensate for negligence in this point, as every one must have often experienced to his great disappointment. Meat in which we are able to detect the slightest trace of putrescency has reached its greatest degree of tenderness, and should be used without delay; but before this period, which in some kinds of meat is offensive, the degree of inteneration may be known by its yielding readily to the pressure of the finger, and by its opposing little resistance to an attempt to bend the joint. Poultry also thus part readily with their feathers, and it would be advisable to leave a few when the bird is plucked, in order to assist in determining their state. “No man who understands good living will say, on such a day will I eat that turkey; but let him hang it up by four of the large tail feathers, and when, on paying his morning visit to the larder, he finds it lying upon a cloth prepared to receive it when it falls, that day let it be cooked.” But as we cannot always choose our time for eating the joints in our larder, we must, in providing them for a particular day, estimate that they will then be in a proper state, or, if necessary, endeavour to hasten or retard it. By experience we acquire some knowledge of the length of time for which the different kinds of meat should be kept, although it is subject to great variations, depending upon the .temperature, moisture, and ventilation of the place where it is kept, upon the kind of meat, the age of the animal, and upon peculiarities in the individual not understood.

The chief means of preventing the fermentation of organic substances are, reduction of temperature, desiccation, exclusion of air, and the action of certain substances called antiseptic. Although most commonly employed in combination with each other, we shall briefly explain the principles upon which they act singly, and then notice their practical application in reference to the animal and vegetable kingdoms.

A moderate reduction of temperature acts by retarding vital and chemical action, and a reduction, capable of freezing the juices and fluids of organized bodies, by destroying vitality, and converting the water present into ice, and thus removing a condition essential to chemical action. Many vegetable, and some animal substances, such as eggs, possess what may be called latent life, and so long as this continues they resist fermentation. A very low temperature puts an end to it, while a high temperature calls it into action, after which it cannot be suspended without destroying it altogether, and thus it is longest preserved in a temperature just a little higher than the former. An egg which has been frozen is killed, and rots soon after being thawed. On the other hand, by incubation, or an equal degree of heat, the life of the chick becomes active, and cannot again be checked with impunity; while, at a moderately low temperature, the latent life of an egg continues a great length of time, ready to be excited into action when placed in favourable circumstances, and resisting the natural tendency to chemical change. The same observation nearly applies to vegetables. Succulent roots, for example, can be long preserved in a moderatel, low temperature; but if it be raised they begin to shoot, or if it be reduced too much they die, and soon rot.

On dead organic substances a reduced temperature acts by retarding or preventing chemical change.

The preservative effects of cold are of the utmost importance to the northern nations, by enabling them to store up a sufficient stock of all manner of provisions for their winter consumption, and to receive supplies from a great distance. It is thus that veal frozen at Archangel is brought to Petersburg, and the markets of Moscow present immense stocks of hogs, sheep, and fish. The same advantage is [7:9:730]taken of the cold in Canada, and all other countries where the frost is sufficiently steady.

Substances, so long as they are hard frozen, probably undergo no chemical change, of which the most striking proof was afforded by the body of an animal, probably antediluvian, being found imbedded in a mass of ice at the mouth of the Lena; but in the act of freezing, or of the subsequent thawing, some alteration is produced, which affects the nature of the substance. This may be either merely mechanical, from the particles of ice, during their formation, tearing asunder and separating the fibres; or chemical, by destroying the intimate union of the constituents of the fluids, as in wine injured by having been frozen; or by causing new combinations, of which we have an example in the sweetness acquired by the potato.

Captain Scoresby, contrary to popular belief, states that “the most surprising action of the frost on fresh provision is in preserving it a long time from putrefaction, even after it is thawed and returns into a warm climate. I have,” says he, “eaten unsalted mutton and beef nearly five months old, which has been constantly exposed to a temperature above the freezing point for four or five weeks in the outset, and occasionally assailed by the septical influences of rain, fog, heat, and electricity, and yet it has proved perfectly sweet. It may be remarked that unsalted meat that has been preserved four or five months in a cold climate, and then brought back to the British coasts during the warmth of summer, must be consumed very speedily after it is cut into, or it will fail in a day or two. It will seldom, indeed, keep sweet after being cooked above twenty or thirty hours.”

In freezing animal substances for the purpose of preserving them, no other precaution is necessary than exposing them to a sufficient degree of cold. “Animal substances,” says Captain Scoresby, “requisite as food, of all descriptions (fish excepted), may be taken to Greenland and there preserved any length of time, without being smoked, dried, or salted. No preparation of any kind is necessary for their preservation, nor is any other precaution requisite, excepting suspending them in the air when taken on shipboard, shielding them a little from the sun and wet, and immersing them occasionally in sea-water, or throwing sea-water over them after heavy rains, which will effectually prevent putrescency on the outward passage, and in Greenland the cold becomes a sufficient preservation, by freezing them as hard as blocks of wood.” “The moisture is well preserved by freezing, a little from the surface only evaporating, so that if cooked when three, four, or five months old, meat will frequently appear as profuse of gravy as if it had been but recently killed.” Captain Scoresby has not informed us why fish cannot be taken to Greenland in a frozen state, though this is a mode of preservation much used in Russia and Germany, and even in our own country.

Some attention is necessary for thawing provisions which have been frozen. “When used, the beef cannot be divided but by an axe or a saw; the latter instrument is generally preferred. It is then put into cold water, from which it derives heat by the formation of ice around it, and soon thaws; but if put into hot water, much of the gravy is extracted, and the meat is injured without being thawed more readily. If an attempt be made to cook it before it is thawed, it may be burnt on the outside, while the centre remains raw, or actually in a frozen state.” These observations, which we have transcribed from Captain Scoresby,^[15. see his Account of the Arctic Regioni, with a Iíùtory and Deecription of the Northern Whale Fuhery, 2 vols. 8vo, Edinb. 1819. ] an excellent observer, agree with the directions of earlier writers. Thus Kriinitz says, “when fish taken under the ice are frozen, lay them in cold water, which thus draws the ice out of the fish, so that it can be scraped off their scales. They taste much better afterwards than when they are allowed to thaw in a warm room."^[16. Encyclo∕>. vol. X. p. 68G. ] We do not know whether it be ignorance or inattention to this direction on the part of the London fishmongers which causes the salmon sent from Scotland in ice to be little esteemed.

The second general method of preventing fermentation is desiccation, or the removal of that degree of moisture which is an essential condition to this kind of chemical action. Desiccation takes place in consequence of the air absorbing the moisture of bodies exposed to its action. It is therefore promoted by the size of surface exposed, by the dry state of the atmosphere, increased temperature, and by the constant change of the air in contact with the body to be dried, or, in other words, by exposing it to a free current of air. This mode of checking fermentation is assisted by dividing or cutting the bodies to be dried, especially across the grain, which acts not only by increasing the surface, but perhaps still more by dividing the vessels containing the moisture or fluids, and thus allowing them to be freely acted upon by the air, to which the skin or epidermis, when entire, frequently exposes a very great obstacle. In pharmacy, where exsiccation is often necessary, this is well understood, and expressed in the collegiate directions for drying squills, and other succulent roots. In domestic economy it is also practised in drying artichoke bottoms, and guarded against when vegetables are required to be kept succulent, which are or ought to be trimmed or wounded as little as possible till they are to be used. Animal substances also dry much more slowly so long as the surface is entire; and hence some country butchers skin veal joint by joint only, as it is required. The influence of extent of surface is a matter of constant observation. A little water, which would require days to evaporate out of a wine glass, disappears in a few minutes when spread over a China plate. Also solid substances dry more quickly in proportion to the smallness of their size, as the surface exposed is proportionably greater. But none of the agents in accelerating exsiccation has so great an influence as the dry state of the air by which it is effected.

Mr Hearne^[17. * Journey to the Northern Ocean. ] gives an account of the manner in which the Indians of North America preserve, by means of mere exsiccation, the flesh of musk oxen, deer, or any other animat To prepare meat in this manner, no farther operation is required than cutting the lean parts of the animal into thin slices, and drying it in the sun, or by exposing it to the heat of a fire, when it is reduced to powder by beating it between two stones. Meat prepared in this way is very portable, and always ready for use, and it is very substantial; for Mr Hearne found that he could always travel longer without victuals after making a meal of it, than after any other kind of food. The northern Indians dry their meat by the heat of a very slow fire, or by fastening it to the tops of the women’s bundles, and allowing it to dry by the sun and wind as they walk along. But the southern Indians expose it to the heat of a very large fire, which, in Mi Hearne’s opinion, exhausts its juices, renders it as hard as horn, and gives it a bitter taste, whereas the other is soft and mellow in the mouth, and entirely free from smoke. Fish is also dried by them in the sun, and pounded for th« sake of carriage.

The third general means of preventing fermentation is the total exclusion of atmospheric air, or rather of oxygen.
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The truth of this is not so obvious to common observation as that of the others; for, on the contrary, we every day see substances spoiled by being apparently excluded from the air, but in reality by being shut up in confined air; and we are taught to consider free ventilation as a powerful means of preservation. The manner in which the latter acts we have shown to be by removing moisture, especially when contaminated by the exhalation of the perishable substance. The rationale of the former is more obscure, but has been ingeniously attempted by Gay-Lussac, and the Edinburgh Review (No. xlv.), in order to explain the processes of Μ. Appert. Gay-Lussac found that neither fresh vegetable juices nor animal matter fermented so long as oxygen gas was perfectly excluded; and that the fermentation, in both cases, commenced as soon as any portion of oxygen was admitted. When oxygen gas is confined in contact with a fermentable substance, it is changed into an equal bulk of carbonic acid gas, and all farther action ceases. Methods of preserving fermentable substances, illustrative of this principle, have long been practised imperfectly by housewives. Nothing can be simpler than Mr Raffald’s receipt for preserving green peas, cranberries, currants, &c. “Put them into dry clean bottles, cork them close, and tie them with a bladder; keep them in a cool dry place.” A variation of this process was to fill the bottles previously with sulphurous acid vapour, by holding in them for some time a lighted sulphur match. One effect of this is to remove all uncombined oxygen. Other methods of excluding air were also employed, as filling up the interstices with water or melted suet. The success of this process was greatly promoted by subjecting the substances to the action of a certain degree of heat, after being put into the bottles or jars in which they were to be preserved; and then we are desired “to set them in a copper of hot water till they are hot quite through,” or to “put them in an oven when the bread is drawn, and let them stand till shrunk a quarter part.”

In these cases the heat seems to act by coagulating and rendering insoluble and inactive a kind of gluten, which seems to be a principal agent in beginning fermentation. In general, in the old processes, we were directed not to cork or tie up the vessels until they were quite cool, by which it now appears a very great advantage was lost. But Mr Saddington obtained, in 1817, a premium from the Society of Arts for a method of preserving fruit without sugar, for house or sea stores; the chief peculiarity of which consisted in filling the bottles, as soon as they are taken out of the bath, with boiling water to within an inch of the cork, and immediately corking them very tight and laying them on their sides, that the cork may swell and effectually exclude the air. Animal substances have also long been occasionally preserved by the mere exclusion of air. The most familiar example is the buttering of eggs, which has the effect of closing the pores in the shell by which the communication of the embryo with the external air takes place. It is best performed by rubbing over the shell with butter while it is still warm after being laid; and an egg in this way retains the curdy milk, and possesses all the properties of a new-laid egg for a great length of time; but at whatever period after being laid the egg is buttered over, its progress to decay seems to be arrested. The same effect is produced, though not so perfectly, by immersing eggs in water. From an experiment of Reaumur’s, it appears that the cutting off the access of air to the embryo in the egg does not kill it or prevent it from being hatched, but, on the contrary, preserves it alive for a much greater time than if it had not been treated in this manner. He covered over eggs with spirit varnish, and he found them capable of producing chickens after two years, when the varnish was carefully removed.

Although, however, the preservation of alimentary matters by the total exclusion of air, assisted by subjecting them to a certain degree of heat, has long been practised in some degree, we are certainly indebted to Μ. Appert,^[18. Le Livre de tout lei Ménage·; ou l’art de conκrver pendant plucieurι annċei touter lei tubilancer animalcι et végftailee, 3me edit. Pari» 1813. ] who first published in 1810, for the regular and scientific application of these principles upon a large scale. From extensive experience and long perseverance he became convinced,

“Is/, That fire has the peculiar property, not only of changing the combination of the constituent parts of vegetable and animal productions, but also of retarding, for many years at least, if not of destroying, the natural tendency of those same productions to decomposition.

“2dZy, That the application of fire in a manner variously adapted to various substances, after having, with the utmost care, and as completely as possible, deprived them of all contact with the air, effects a perfect preservation of those same productions, with all their natural qualities.”

Upon these principles he invented many processes adapted to the different natures of the substances to be preserved; but the fundamental conditions consist, 1.5/, In enclosing in bottles the substances to be preserved. 2rfZy, In corking the bottles with the utmost care; for it is chiefly on the corking that the success of the process depends. 3dly, In submitting these enclosed cases to the action of boiling water in a water-bath {Balneum Maria), for a greater or less length of time, according to their nature, and in the manner pointed out with respect to each several kind of substance. ⅛thly, In withdrawing the bottles from the water-bath at the period described.

Μ. Appert employed at first bottles made of glass, which it was difficult to close exactly, especially when their mouths were large; but he now uses cylinders of tin plate, which are soldered up after they are filled. This is especially an improvement for animal substances, which require much more attention than vegetables. Tin cases or canisters seem to have been first used in London by Messrs Donkin and Gamble, by whom a very ingenious method of testing the provisions put up by them was also invented as early as 1813.^[19. In a patent granted in 1819 to Mr Aeneas Morrison of Glasgow, for preserving food upon similar principles, the corks or bungs are perforated by a tin tube, which is hermetically sealed by driving down a tin plug whilst the vessel is still quite hot and filled with ] The substances to be preserved are first parboiled, or somewhat more. The vegetables and meat, the bones being removed, are then put into tin cylinders, which are filled up with the broth, and the lid soldered down. It now undergoes the remainder of the cooking, when a small hole is opened at the top of the cylinder, and immediately closed with solder while still hot. The whole is now allowed to cool, and from the diminution of volume in the contents, in consequence of the reduction of temperature, both ends of the cylinder are pressed inwards and become concave. The cases thus hermetically sealed are exposed in a test-chamber, for at least a month, to a temperature above what they are ever likely to encounter; from 90° to 110° Fahrenheit. If the process has failed, putrefaction takes place, and gas is evolved, which in process of time will bulge out both ends of the case, so as to render them convex instead of concave. But the contente of whatever cases stand this test will infallibly keep perfectly[7:9:732] sweet and good in any climate, and for any length of time. Another advantage is, that if there be any taint about the meat when put up, it inevitably ferments, and is detected in the proving.

All kinds of alimentary matters may be preserved in this way,—beef, mutton, veal, and poultry, boiled and roasted, soups, broths and vegetables, creams and custards. The testimonies in favour of the success of the process are of the most unexceptionable kind. The meat is put up in canisters of from four pounds to twenty pounds weight each, and the milk and soups in quart or pint bottles. The meat is charged from Is. 8d. to 3s. a pound; roast higher than boiled, and veal dearer than mutton or beef. The milk is 2∙⅛s. per dozen for quarts, 15s. for pints, and 10s. for half pints; and soups from 30s. to 60s. per dozen for quarts. The weight of the canister is deducted, and nothing is charged ìbr canisters or bottles; and it should be observed, that the patent provisions being cooked, and without bone, render them nearly equivalent to double the weight of meat in the raw state; for, by experiment, the patentees found, that the waste in cooking, and weight of bone, are about one half. Captain Neish took a quantity to India; not one canister spoiled; and one which he brought home contained beef in the highest state of preservation after two years, and having been carried upwards of 35,000 miles in the warmest climates. The commissioners for victualling the navy also examined some nearly four years old, which had been in the Mediterranean and Quebec, and found it as sound, sweet, and fresh, as if it had been only yesterday boiled. We are also enabled to add the testimony of Captain Basil Hall, who has liberally communicated to us the result of his personal experience and observation: “I can answer for the perfect preservation of a great number of cases which were in my possession during the voyage to China. I had L.88 worth, and not one failure. At that time milk was preserved in bottles corked; but tin cases have been substituted with very great effect, as I have myself tried. It is really astonishing how excellent the milk is; and, indeed, every thing preserved in this way is good.

“You must, on examining the lists of prices, bear in mind that meat thus preserved eats nothing, nor drinks — is not apt to get the rot, or to die—does not tumble over board, nor get its legs broken or its flesh worn off its bones by knocking about the decks of a ship in bad weather—it takes no care in the keeping—it is always ready, may be eat cold or hot, and thus enables you to toss into a boat in a minute as many days’ cooked provisions as you choose—it is not exposed to the vicissitudes of markets, nor is it scourged up to a monstrous price, as at St Helena, because there is no alternative. Besides these advantages, it enables one to indulge in a number of luxuries which no care or expense could procure.”

The property of salt to preserve animal substances from putrefaction is of most essential importance to the empire in general, and to the remote grazing districts in particular. It enables the latter to dispose of their live stock, and distant navigation is wholly dependent upon it. All kinds of animal substances may be preserved by salt, but beef and pork are the only staple articles of this kind. In general, the pieces of the animal best fitted for being salted are those which contain fewest large blood-vessels, and are most solid. Some recommend all the glands to be cut out, and say, that without this precaution meat cannot be preserved; but that this is a mistake, the salt udder, and glands of the tongue, every day’s experience shows.

The salting may be performed either by dry rubbing, or by immersing the meat in pickle. Cured in the former way the meat will keep longer, but it is more altered in its valuable properties; in the latter way it is more delicate and nutritious. Six pounds of salt, one pound of sugar, and four ounces of saltpetre, boiled with four gallons of water, skimmed and allowed to cool, forms a very strong pickle, which will preserve any meat completely immersed in it. To effect this, which is essential, either a heavy board, or flat stone, must be laid upon the meat. The same pickle may be used repeatedly, provided it be boiled up occasionally with additional salt to restore its strength, diminished by the combination of part of the salt with the meat, and by the dilution of the pickle by the juices of the meat extracted. By boiling, the albumen, which would cause the pickle to spoil, is coagulated, and rises in the form of scum, which must be carefully removed.

Dry salting is performed by rubbing the surface of the meat all over with salt; and it is generally believed that the process of salting is promoted if the salt be rubbed in with a heavy hand. On the contrary, it is said, that in very hot countries, for example, Jamaica, where it is so necessary that the action of the salt should take place as quickly as possible, the mode of salting a round of beef is to place it on two sticks over a tub of water, with the small end uppermost, and to cover it with a heap of salt, which penetrates through the veins and arteries, and among the fibres, in the state of a saturated solution. However this may be, it is almost certain that very little salt penetrates, except through the cut surfaces, to which it should therefore be chiefly applied; and all holes, whether natural or artificial, should be particularly attended to. For each twenty-five pounds of meat, about a pound of coarse-grained salt (St Ubes’ is the best) should be allowed, and the whole, previously heated, rubbed in at once. When laid in the pickling tub, a brine is soon formed by the salt dissolved in the juice of the meat which it extracts, and with this the meat should be rubbed every day, and a different side turned down. In ten or twelve days it will be sufficiently cured.

For domestic use, the meat should not be salted as soon as it comes from the market, but kept until its fibre has become short and tender, as these changes do not take place after it has been acted upon by the salt. But in the provision trade, “the expedition with which the animals are slaughtered, the meat cut up and salted, and afterwards packed, is astonishing.”^[20. wakefield’s Ireland, vol. i. p. 7δ<J. ] By salting the meat while still warm, and before the fluids are coagulated, the salt penetrates immediately, by means of the vessels, through the whole substance of the meat; and hence meat is admirably cured at Tunis, even in the hottest season; so that Mr Jackson, in his Reflections on the Trade of the Mediterranean, recommends ships being supplied there with their provisions.

“Take half a pound of black pepper, half a pound of red or kyan pepper, and half a pound of the best saltpetre, all beat or ground very fine; mix these three well together, then mix them with about three quarts of very' fine salt: this mixture is sufficient for eight hundredweight of beef. As the pieces are brought from the person cutting up, first sprinkle the pieces with the spice, and introduce a little into all the thickest parts; if it cannot be done otherwise, make a small incision with a knife. The first salter, after rubbing salt and spice well into the meat, should take and mould the piece, the same as washing a shirt upon a board; this may be very easily done, and the meat being lately killed, is soft and pliable; this moulding opens the grain of the meat, which will make it imbibe the spice and salt much quicker than the common method of salting. The first [7:9:733]»alter hands his piece over to the second salter, who moulds and rubs the salt well into the meat, and, if he observes occasion, introduces the spice; when the second salter has finished his piece, he folds it up as close as possible, and hands it to the packer at the harness tubs, who must be stationed near him: the packer must be careful to pack his harness tubs as close as possible.

“All the work must be carried on in the shade, but, where there is a strong current of air, the harness tubs in particular; this being a very material point in curing the meat in a hot climate. Meat may be cured in this manner with the greatest safety when the thermometer, in the shade, is at 110°, the extreme heat assisting the curing.

“A good sized bullock, of six or seven hundredweight, may be killed and salted within the hour.

“The person who attends with the spice near the first salter has the greatest trust imposed upon him; besides the spice, he should be well satisfied that the piece is sufficiently salted before he permits the first salter to hand the piece over to the second salter.

“All the salt should be very fine, and the packer, besides sprinkling the bottom of his harness tubs, should be careful to put plenty of salt between each tier of meat, which is very soon turned into the finest pickle. The pickle will nearly cover the meat as fast as the packer can stow it away. It is always a good sign that ⅛e meat is very safe when the packer begins to complain that his hands are aching with cold.

“By this method, there is no doubt but that the meat is perfectly cured in three hours from the time of killing the bullock. The saltpetre in a very little time strikes through the meat: however, it is always better to let it lie in the harness tubs till the following morning, when it will have an exceeding pleasant smell on opening the harness tubs; then take it out and pack it in tight barrels, with its own pickle.”

Beef and pork, in a less degree, properly salted with salt alone, acquire a green colour; but if an ounce of saltpetre be added to each five pounds of salt employed, the muscular fibre acquires a fine red colour; but this improvement in appearance is more than compensated by its becoming harder and harsher to the taste; to correct which, a proportion of sugar or molasses is often added. But the red colour may be given if desired, without hardening the meat, by the addition of a little cochineal.

Meat, when salted, is either preserved immersed in pickle, in close vessels, or dried, when it gets the name of bacon, ham, or hung beef.

Meat kept immersed in pickle rather gains weight. In one experiment by Messrs Donkin and Gamble, there was a gain of three per cent., and in another of two and a half; but in the common way of salting, when the meat is not immersed in pickle, there is a loss of about one pound or one and a half in sixteen.

The drying of salt meat is effected either by hanging it in a dry and well-aired place, or by exposing it at the same time to wood smoke, which gives it a peculiar flavour, much admired in Westphalia hams and Hamburg beef, and also, perhaps, tends to preserve it, by the antiseptic action of the pyrolignic acid. When meat is to be hung, it need not be so highly salted.

Fish, in like manner, may be preserved either by dry salting or in pickle. The former method is employed to a great extent on the banks of Newfoundland and in Shetland. For information on this important subject, the article Fishery may be consulted.

Dr Hibbert thinks that the cod-fish prepared in Shetland will always maintain its pre-eminence over the cod of other places. In Newfoundland the fish are said to be exposed, after being salted, on standing flakes, made by a slight wattle, and supported by poles, often twenty feet from the ground. But the humidity is not nearly so well extracted from the fish as when, according to the Shetland method, they are carefully laid out upon dry beaches, the stones of which have been during winter exposed to the abrading action of the ocean, and are thus cleared from animal and vegetable matter.^[21. Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, No. iii. p. 148. ]

The Dutch derive great national advantages from the preference given to the herrings caught upon our own coasts, when cured by them. They use no other than the Spanish or Portuguese salt, preserve no fish that they are not able to cure between sunrise, when the nets are drawn, and sunset, when they are again shot, and pay particular attention in giping, sorting, and packing each kind by itself. They fill up the barrels with fish of the same kind and night’s catching, and are exceedingly careful of the pickle, as they use no other in filling of the barrels.^[22. Highland Society’s Transactions, vol ii. p. 321. ]

Herrings and salmon are also often cured by drying them in wood smoke after being slightly salted, and are called red' herrings or Yarmouth herrings, and kipper or smoked salmon.

Butter is commonly preserved by working into each pound one or two ounces of salt, until they be thoroughly incorporated. The best salt for the purpose is in large crystals, and it should be thoroughly dried and coarsely-powdered. But Dr Anderson recommends for the curing of butter, a mixture of two parts of the best great salt, one of sugar, and one of saltpetre, beat into a fine powder. One ounce of this mixture is sufficient for a pound of butter. He says that butter cured in this way does not taste well till it has stood at least a fortnight after being salted; but after that period it has a rich marrowy taste, that no other butter ever acquires, and tastes so little salt, that one would imagine it would not keep; and yet Dr Anderson has seen it perfectly sound and sweet when two years old.

Butter spoils and becomes rancid, chiefly from the milk, which is not entirely expressed from it, and in consequence of the albumen, which is constantly present. These maybe separated by melting the butter and keeping It over the fire until all the water be evaporated, when the albumen will also be coagulated, and sink to the bottom. To prevent all risk of producing an empyreumatic taste, the vessel containing the butter should not be exposed directly to the fire, but placed in a larger vessel filled with water, which is made to boil, forming what the chemists call a water-bath. While the butter remains fluid, it resembles a perfectly transparent oil, and on cooling it becomes opaque, and is firmer and a little paler than the butter before it was clarified. It will keep for a considerable time without salt; but if it be salted as common butter, it will continue much longer sweet in hot climates, than if it had been cured in its original state.^[23. Anderson’s Recreations, vol. iv. p. 87- ]

The natives of Hindustan never use butter, but prefer what is called ghee, because it keeps better, and has more taste and smell. Their butter is prepared from coagulated acid milk; and in order to collect a sufficient quantity, it is often kept two or three days, by which time it is highly rancid. It is melted in an earthen pot, and boiled until all the water be evaporated. After being taken from the fire, a little coagulated acid milk and salt, or betel leaf and reddle, are added. It is kept in pots, and eaten when even a year old.^[24. Buchanan’s Journey from Madras, vol. ii. p. 15. ]
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Vinegar, in itself a very destructible substance when exposed to the air, tends greatly to preserve vegetable substances when both are carefully excluded from it. In general, however, the vegetable is previously salted. After the pickles are prepared, the bottles are to be carefully corked, tied up with bladder, and sealed over with wax or rosin. For the making of pickles, the vinegar now distilled from wood, as in itself containing no principles of decay, must be preferable to common vinegar.

Μ. Parmentier has given a minute description of the process of making sour krout on the great scale. The heads of winter cabbages, after removing the outer leaves, are to be cut into fine shreds, by means of an instrument made on purpose, and then spread out to dry upon a cloth in the shade. A cask is to be set on end, with the head taken out. If it formerly contained vinegar or wine, so much the better, as it will promote the fermentation, and give the cabbage a more vinous taste; if not, the inside may be rubbed over with some krout barm. Caraway seeds are to be mixed with the shreds of cabbage, a good layer of salt placed at the bottom of the cask, and then cabbage shreds to be evenly packed, to the depth of six inches. A man having on strong boots, well washed and nicely clean, must now get into the cask, and tread down the shreds to half their original bulk. The same process is to be repeated, with additional layers of salt and shreds, till the whole be packed. They are then to be covered with a layer of salt, or till the barrel be filled within two inches of the top, over which the outside leaves of the cabbages are to be spread. About two pounds of salt are required for twenty cabbages.

The head of the barrel, which should have been previously well fastened together, is lastly to be put within the barrel above the leaves, and loaded with stones, to prevent the mixture from rising during the fermentation. The mass thus compressed subsides, and the cabbages give out their juice, which rises to the surface, is green, muddy, and fetid. It is to be drawn off by a spigot placed two or three inches down, and replaced by fresh brine every day, until it come off clear, which will take twelve or fifteen days, according to the temperature of the place. The essential point for keeping sour krout good, is to take care that it be always covered at least an inch with pickle. For home consumption enough may be made at one time to serve the year, and the pickle is then renewed at the beginning of spring, and at midsummer. When intended as ship provision for long voyages, the sour krout must be repacked very firmly into other casks, which are then to be filled with fresh pickle, and closed as accurately as possible. When well made and preserved, it has a very pleasant acidity, and is not only very healthy, but agrees with many persons who cannot use fresh cabbages. It is also considered to be a very excellent antiscorbutic; and Captain Cook attributed his success in preserving the health of his crew in his voyage partly to its use.

Vinegar is never used for the preservation of butcher meat, but salmon is often pickled in it, with the addition of salt and spices.

Pryolignic acid has lately been much extolled, as having a specific power in preserving animal matters. It consists of acetic acid, impregnated with an empyreumatic oil. The acid is in general very strong, and being free from the mucilage which promotes the spoiling of common vinegar, it is so far a better antiseptic; but the empyreumatic oil may also add to its powers, either by keeping away insects, to which it is very offensive, or by a direct antiseptic power not understood. Professor Jörg of Leipsic is said to have recovered tainted flesh by rubbing it with the oil separated from the acid; and there is no doubt that the smoking of beef, hams, salmon, and herrings, makes them keep longer than the mere drying, and the degree of previous salting, would lead us to expect.

Sugar has also the power of preserving vegetable substances from decay, but, on account of its expense, it is only used for fine fruits and aromatic substances. The preservation of these by means of sugar constitutes a principal part of the art of confectionary, and attention to many minutiae is necessary for the success of each preparation. The most general principles only can be noticed here.

Vegetable substances may be either preserved in syrup or candied; or their juices may be employed in malting syrups, jellies, or fruit-cakes. The art of confectionary is very difficult, and, to attain perfect success, requires attention to many particulars, which at first seem frivolous and even improper, but which have been found by experience to be essential. The clarification and boiling of the sugar to its proper degree is of primary importance, and has not perhaps been sufficiently examined by scientific men.

A weak syrup has a tendency to ferment, and quickly becomes sour if kept in a temperate degree of heat; it is therefore not calculated to prevent the natural fermentation of vegetable juices, which always increase its tendency to corrupt. Pharmaceutists have ascertained that a solution, prepared by dissolving two parts of double-refined sugar in one of water, or any watery fluid, and boiling the solution a little, forms a syrup, which neither ferments nor crystallizes; and the proportion may be considered as the basis of all syrups, and seems to be the degree of boiling syrup called smooth by the confectioners, as exemplified in their Syrops de Capillaire, Orgeat, and others.

Sugar is equally powerful in preserving animal substances from putrefaction. As a novelty to modern artists, we translate from their great precursor, Caelius Apicius, a method of preserving meat at any time without salt: “Let fresh meat of any kind be covered with honey; but hang up the vessel, and use it when you please. This succeeds better in winter; but will last a few days in summer. The same may be done with meat that has been cooked.”

Other methods of preserving food have been tried, but rather as a matter of curiosity than utility.

The property of charcoal to restore sweetness to flesh beginning to be tainted, was first pointed out by Μ. Lowitz in Petersburg, in 1786,^[25. CreU⅛ Annah. ] who made numerous experiments upon the subject. For their success, it is necessary that the charcoal have been recently burnt, and that it be applied in a certain quantity. Too little fails in its effect, and too much affects the nature of the substance upon which it acts. By some it has been supposed to act merely mechanically, by absorbing fluid and putrescent exudations; but it is more probable that it acts chemically, by absorbing oxygen gas from the air in contact with the meat. In the fourth volume of the Journal of Science (p. 367), there is an account of some successful experiments, in which alternate layers of meat and charcosd were packed in canisters, previously filled with carbonic gas, and then carefully luted up and covered with bladder.

In the Journal de Pharmacie for September 1818, Μ. Raymond, professor of chemistry at Lyons, has related some experiments which he made upon the antiseptic properties of chlorine. Beef exposed to the action of this gas for a few minutes underwent no change in the course of six months, except becoming dry from the action of air and time. A Guinea pig, suffocated in the same gas, and afterwards immersed for a few minutes in water saturated [7:9:735]with chlorine, and then exposed to the air for four months, without having its entrails removed, showed no sign of pu- , trefaction in four months. He also found that tainted meat recovered the smell and appearance of fresh meat by being immersed in liquid chlorine.

PREPARATION.

Alimentary matters are used either in their crude or raw state, or after having undergone some kind of preparation.

Fruits and salads, although they admit of various forms of cookery, are most frequently eaten in as fresh and natural a state as possible.

Cookery is either necessary to destroy some deleterious property, or to render food more palatable and nutritious. Of the former effect the most remarkable example is furnished by various species of arum, which in their crude state are acrid, or even poisonous, but by being cooked become mild and wholesome. The acrimony resides in a very volatile principle, which is easily dissipated by heat. A more familiar example in this country is furnished by the onion tribe, the acrimony and flavour of which are entirely destroyed by being long subjected to the action of heat.

numerous as the receipts are, the processes of cookery are but few. In some, the chief object is to extract the fluid or soluble parts of the substance cooked; in others, to alter the nature of the substance itself, and often to combine both purposes. Fire is a principal agent in almost all the processes of cookery, and the most economical mode of applying it has engaged the attention of many philosophers and artists.^[26. See Rumford’s Etiayι ; Fournier, tur let Subetancer Alimentalret ; Repertory of Artt ; Archwet dee Découvertet. ]

Convenience and economy are the objects proposed by all alleged improvements. The nature of the fuel is of no little importance, and is different in different countries. Pit coal has the advantage' of forming a lasting fire, and producing an intense degree of heat, which renders it almost indispensable for roasting; but its smoke is very detrimental, both by the unpleasant flavour it imparts, and by the inconvenience arising from the flame, and from the soot deposited upon the vessels and in the chimney. Wood and turf evolve less smoke, but their flavour is more penetrating, and they give less heat, and are less durable. The cleanest and most generally usefill fuel is charcoal of wood, or coke, neither giving out any smoke, or imparting any flavour. Charcoal is more easily kindled, but coke lasts longer, and gives out more heat. Well burnt cinders are an excellent substitute for coke, which in every family ought to be carefully preserved for the purposes of cookery.

The heat, from whatever fuel produced, is applied in various ways to the substances to be cooked, either directly or indirectly. Heat is applied directly, as radiant heat in the process of roasting, in which the effects are produced entirely by the rays of heat impinging directly upon substances placed at a short distance before it. For this purpose a clear glowing fire is necessary, and the bars of a good roasting grate should impede as little as possible the radiation of its heat. Another very direct mode of applying heat, is by placing the substance over the fire by suspending it in the stream of heated air ascending from it, or laying it directly on the burning fuel, or on bars, or a plate of iron, or other substance capable of supporting the heat. Broiling is the result of this mode of applying heat. Heat is also often applied through the intervention of fluids, chiefly of water or steam, as in boiling or stewing; or of some oily substance, as in frying. The peculiarity of baking consists in the substance being heated in a confined space, which does not permit the escape of the fiιmes arising from it.

To understand the theory of cookery, we must attend to the action of heat upon the various constituents of alimentary substances, as applied directly and indirectly through the medium of some fluid. In the former way, as exemplified in the processes of roasting and broiling, the chief constituents of animal substances undergo the following changes; the fibrine is corrugated, the albumen coagulated, the gelatine and osmazome rendered more soluble in water, the fat liquefied, and the water evaporated. If the heat exceed a certain degree, the surface becomes first brown, and then scorched. In consequence of these changes, the muscular fibre becomes opaque, shorter, firmer, and drier; the tendons less opaque, softer, and gluey; the fat is either melted out, or rendered semitransparent. Animal fluids become more transparent; the albumen is coagulated and separated, and they dissolve gelatine and osmazome. Lastly, and what is the most important change, and the immediate object of all cookery, the meat loses the vapid nauseous smell and taste peculiar to its raw state, and it becomes savoury and grateful. Heat applied through the intervention of boiling oil or melted fat, as in frying, produces nearly the same changes, as the heat is sufficient to evaporate the water, and to induce a degree of scorching. But when water is the medium through which heat is applied, as in boiling, stewing, and baking, the effects are somewhat different, as the heat never exceeds 212°, which is not sufficient to commence the process of browning or decomposition, and the soluble constituents are removed by being dissolved in the water, forming soup or broth; or, if the direct contact of the water be prevented, they are dissolved in the juices of the meat, and separate in the form of gravy.

It is evident, that whether the heat be applied directly or indirectly, there must be a considerable loss in the cooking of animal substances in public institutions, where the allowance of meat is generally weighed out in its raw state, and includes bones, and is served out cooked, and sometimes without bone; and it is a matter of importance to ascertain nearly their relative proportions. Much, no doubt, depends upon the piece of the meat cooked, and the degree of cookery, and the attention bestowed upon it. We have been informed by persons who salt rounds of beef to sell by retail after they are boiled, that they are able to get 19 lb. of cold boiled beef from 25 lb. raw; but the meat, it must be confessed, is always rather under-done. Messrs Donkin and Gamble boiled in steam 56 lb. of Captain’s salt beef; the meat, when cold, without the bones, which amounted to 5 lb. 6 oz. weighed only 35 lb. In another experiment, 113 lb. of prime mess beef gave 9 lb. 10 oz. of bones, and 47 lb. 8 oz. meat; and in a third, 213 lb. mess beef gave 13 lb. 8 oz. bones, and 103 lb. 10 oz. meat; or, taken in the aggregate, 372 lb. of salt beef, including bones, furnish, when boiled, 186 lb. 2 oz. without bone, being about 50 per cent.; or, disregarding the bone altogether, salt meat loses, by boiling, about 44∙2 per cwt. We are indebted to Professor Wallace, of the University of Edinburgh, for the detail of a very accurate and extensive experiment in a public establishment, of which the results were, that, in pieces of ]0 lbs. weight, each 100 lbs. of beef lost, on an average, by boiling, 26∙4; baking, 30∙2; and roasting, 32-2: mutton, the leg, by boiling, 21-4; by roasting, the shoulder 31∙1, the neck 32∙4, the loin 35∙9. Hence, generally speaking, mutton loses, by boiling, about one fifth of its original weight, and beef about one fourth; again, mutton and beef lose, by roasting, about one third of their original weight.

The loss arises in roasting from the melting out of the fat and evaporating the water, but the nutritious matters remain condensed in the cooked solid; but in boiling, the [7:9:736]loss arises partly from fat melted out, but chieflyfrom gelatine and osmazome dissolved in the water in which the meat is , boiled; there is therefore a real loss of nourishment unless the broth be used, when this mode of cooking becomes the most economical.

Vegetable substances are most commonly boiled or baked; or, if apparently fried or roasted, there is always much water present, which prevents the greater action of the fire from penetrating below the surface. The universal effect of cookery upon vegetable substances, is to dissolve in the water some of their constituents, such as the mucilage and starch, and to render those that are not properly soluble, as the gluten and fibre, softer and more pulpy.

We cannot pretend to enter into the details of the various processes, nor explain the many precautions requisite to ensure success. For practical receipts we recommend L'Art de Cuisinier, par A. Beauvilliers; A New System of Domestic Cookery, by a Lady; and, lastly and chiefly, Apicius Redivivus, or die Cook’s Oracle, in which, along with the plainest directions, there is more of the philosophy, and, if we may so speak, of the literature, of gastronomie., than in any work we have seen. The reader is also referred to a very curious volume by Mr Accum, on Adulterations of Food, and to a German work on the same interesting subject by Knoblauch. The unprecedented success of the Almanach des Gourmands, and of the Manuel des Amphytrions, shows how much may be made of the subject by a man of talents; nor do the writings of Μ. Grirnod de la Reynière surpass in wit the entertaining articles in the Edinburgh Review, No. xi. and in the Quarterly Review, No. xlv. (z.)