Year: 1878

Ancient Cookery.


Ancient cookery was exceedingly


simple. Our first glimpse of it is in the


patriarchal tent of Abraham, where
Sarah kneaded "fine meal' and made


cakes upon the hearth, which were


served with the dressed calf and butter


and milk. For aught we can see in the


text, the patriarch himself cooked the


calf, and if he did so, he was justified


by noble company. His own grandson


is represented as making q pottage so
seductive as TO beguilc his brother of


his birth-right. The heroes of Homer
did their own cooking. Achilles turned


the spit. Their exact methods of cook
ing are not very carefully recorded, and


it is probable that the women did the


most of the culinary work, vet the men


tion of many such circumstances seems
to indicate that it was done with very


little art and upon occasion by those


who needed it. Roasting meat before
tuC hiC VI cttthihf, ~ III put, dLu
ing cakes In the hot ashes on the hearth


were probably for ages the highest
achievements in that line-wholesome
cookery indeed! Shall we say that it
were better if we had never departed
therefrom? Is it true that man in this
respect, in his best estate, is a barbarian,
or shall we take the results of long
experience in waywardness and learn
how to come back to nature intelligently
and permanently Expensive eating
came to be apparently the only ambition
of the Roman people and their rulers.
Their senators We'd with each other in
giving the most extravagant dinners,
and their Emperors took the lead TO
such a degree that some of them are
noted only for the extent of their ap


petites. The Emperor Claudius sat down
to table at all hours and IN any place;
nor did he leave the repast until dis
tended with food and soaked with
drink, and then only to sleep. When
he awoke, tickling feather relieved
him of his surfeit, and he was ready to
eat again.


Many of the gourmaEds became great
adopts in the use of the feather. Vitel-
Illus used it so effectively that he could
cause himself to be invited to dinGer by
several different senator's the same day.
Little he cared if it should cause their
ruin; for they could not venture on
such banquet at less expense than
400, 900 sesterces (sl6, ,000), and this was
but a moderate sum. Lucullus served
Cicero and Pompey with a little COLA
tion that cost 5000 and there were
three of them to eat it. How they could
expend so much may be easily seen if
we examine their dishes. which were
little priced unless procured at great
expense. The hard flesh of peacocks,
at forty dollars per pair, was preferred
to that of cheaper but more delicious
poultry. But since MANY could avail
themselves of peacocks, even at this
price, those who would not be outdone
had dishes of peacock's brains. Another
dish was composed of the tongues of
singing birds. Young pigs were fed on
dates; geese were fattened on figs, and
their livers alone were used, being
soaked in milk and honey-the fore
runner of the modern pate de Jois grds.
Fish were in great demand, and those
which were brought the greatest dis
tances were the most highly esteemed.
Whole fleets of ships were employed in
bringing these and other dainties from
abroad. Roman mobiles would not un-
frequently pay one hundred dollars for
a single lamprey. Mullets sold as high
as from seventy-fiye to one hundred
dollars each, and it is related that Girls
pinus paid three hundred dollars for
one weighing six pounds, and con-
sidered it cheap at that. In the reign
of Tiberius three of these were sold for
over one thousand dollars. What, then.
must be the cost of dishes composed
only of the livers of these fish? Hello
gabalus had upon occasion two large
dishes filed with their gills only. At
last the wealthy built expensive re-
servoirs and kept their own fish, though
not with view to economy, for they
fed them with the rarest dainties. 1t
was even said that slaves were some-
times thrown in to satiate these pets.
but whether this be true or not, their
sea-eels were commonly fed with veal
soaked In blood. Other sorts were taken
from the river just where it received
the filth from the entire city.