ز a a quinquina, to fortify the suffering on. Then take the skynne and all the bowels, and enable them successfully fedures, and lay hit on a tabel abrode, to withstand the daily bombardment and strawe thereon grounden cornyn. of so inhuman and detestable an as- Then take the pecok and rost him, sailant. A good cook, therefore, we and endore him with raw yoks of eggs, repeat, should be of weak digestive and when he is rosted, then take him powers, and of a bilious habit ; and he off and let him cole awhile, and tak who presumes to treat of cookery, and sow him in his skynne, and gylde without possessing these fundamental hys combe, and so serve him forthe essentials, builds, like Dr Kitchener, with the last corse.” on the sand, and, like the small erec- The swan, too, was a bird which tion of the Doctor, its foundations shall our lordly forefathers took great pleabe swept away by the breath of reason sure in devouring. Such was the esand philosophy timation in which it was held, that, It has been truly stated in a former by an act of Edward the Fourth, it article on this subject, that the progress was decreed, that no one “ other than of cookery and civilization are uniform- the son of our Sovereign Lord the ly coetaneous. The stages of its ad- King, should have the privilege of vancement, we believe, in all coun- keeping any, unless he possessed a tries, to be nearly alike. It passes first freehold to the clear yearly value of from rudeness to simplicity, from sim- five marks,” a rent-roll in those days plicity to magnificence, from magnifi- of no inconsiderable amount. The cence to comfort and refinement. The following singular instances of gastric splendour of the entertainments of an- aristocracy are likewise to be found in cient Rome have remained cver since the MS. from which we have already perfectly unrivalled. But the dinners quoted. “ Take conynyes par boiled, _uf Apicius are not precisely such as a or elles rabits, for they are better for modern Gastronome would wish to a lord.” “A hole chycken for a lord.” partake of; the taste of the enter- An, if it be for a lord, put seven ainment is at least questionable ; leches in a dyshe, and make a dragge and it is probable that the value of of fine sugar. “When a pig is rost he dishes was estimated more by ed, lay athwarte him over a bar of heir rarity, and consequent expence, sylver foile, and anoder of golde, and han for their flavour on the pa- serve him so all hole to borde of a ate, and their fitness for culinary lorde.” &c. &c. purposes. As connected with the ad But, while the nobility fared thus rancement of philosophy and the arts, sumptuously, their vassals appear to t were perhaps a curious and not have had little reason to complain of inprofitable task to trace the pro- their cheer. They were denied, it is ress of cookery in our own coun- true, the peacock and the swan, but ry. In former times, if we may trust the goose and the turkey compensated "he suggestions of our own gustatory amply for their loss. If the horse was lands, the eye was consulted more beyond their means, the bullock afhan the palate. We are by no means forded them consolation ; and the fol l nclined to envy the magnificence of a lowing poetical account of the domesoasted horse, á boiled porpoise, or a tic economy of a yeoman, in the reign at in jelly,--dishes whichoccasionally of King Henry the Eighth, will leave, ecorated the tables of the great in the we apprehend, but few claims to supefteenth and sixteenth centuries. The riority in the score of eating to his deeacock, however, in all the graces of scendants of the present day. us plumage, was the dish which was “ Twelve sorts of meat my wife provides, onsidered as shedding the greatest And bates me not a dyshe, 'astre on the baronial tables of our Foure are of fleshe, of fruite are foure, ncestors. Daniel has quoted from a The other foure of fyshe. As. in the library of the Royal So- For the fyrste corse shee stores my borde lety the following receipt for dressing, With byrdes that daintyes are, 12 the most approved manner, a " Pe- And first a quayle, and then a rayle, Ook enhakyl " A byttern, and a jarre. “For a feste royal, pacokkes schol Mine appetite, when cloyed with these, e dighte on this mannere. Take and With fyshe she makes it sharpe, vec offe the skynne, with the fedures, And brings me next a lump, a ponte, Syle, and the neck, and the hed there- A gugeon, and a carpe. VOL. X. 4 B : а The second corse, of fruite well served, when ancient prejudices can prompt iss Fyttinge well the seson, to reject the improvements of foreign A medlar, and a hartichoke, artists, on what is vulgarly termed our A crab, and a small reson. national cookery. For the rich, there What's hee that having suche a wyfe is no national cookery. The materials Upon her should not dote, of our dishes are furnished by all the Who every day provides him fare regions of the globe. In the compass That costes him never a grote ?” of a single ragout are congregated the de productions of every climate, and of Since the days of Queen Elizabeth, every soil . The east, the west, the notwithstanding the unprecedented north, and the south, unite their treadiffusion of wealth and knowledge, sures to increase its flavour, and of the and the consequent progress of refine- cook, rather than of the poet , it is true ment in all classes of society, but little that he has “ exhausted worlds," and improvement has taken place in the if he could discover new, would rensystem of our nationalcookery. Strange der them subservient to our greatest that in the proud and glorious march source of enjoyment, the gratification of science and philosophy, amid disco- of the palate. It is only to the maveries which have rendered even the nagement of these extensive materials, elemental principles of nature subser- to certain specific and customary comvient to our power, that the art which, binations of them, that the term ndmore than all others, contributes to tionul can be applied. The diet of the our enjoyment, should alone have re- poor, indeed, is, and must be, regulamained uncultivated and unimproved, ted by the productions of the country à bare and barren spot, amid the uni- in which they live. For them, there versal verdure, and the golden fruits exists no region but that which they of industry and genius! But whatever inhabit. But this is the law of necesreproach this acknowledged and palpa- sity, not of choice; and the reason why ble deficiency may tend to cast on our the Highland fisherman devours his national taste; certain we are, that the spoil without the savoury relish of work of Dr Kitchener will tend in no anchovy sauce, and the Lowland degree to avert its application. He is ploughman mingles no curry, pow. equally ignorant of the kind of work der with his porridge, is merely that which the wants of the public demand, these articles are placed, perhaps for as he is of his own utter unfitness, to wise purposes, beyond their reach. Butik write on cookery at all. His, there if the productions of our own country fore, is a double failure. He has fail- are insufficient for the gratification of her ed both in that which he has attempt- more refined pålates, why, when we are ed, and in not attempting that which borrow the productions of foreign alone the public required at his hands. countries to increase our pleasure , To come forward, in the present day, should we not likewise adopt those with a long and laborious treatise on modes of preparation which can render roasting, boiling and stewing, (for pro- them more subservient to our enjoylix directions for these simple operations ment? We have a national literature occupyfour-fifths of the Doctor's book,) as well as a national cookery. But the is mere trifling at best. In fact, our former has been raised to its present cooks, bad as they generally are, can eminence, not more by the gigantic efroast, boil, and stew, as well as Dr forts of our native genius, than by an Kitchener himself; or, if they do not, intimate knowledge of the beauties it is negligence, not ignorance, which and excellence of the literature of for a occasions their failure. It is from prac- reign nations. So it must be with our tice, not theory, that accuracy in these cookery. Our indigenous artists mais elementary processes must be derived. appreciate and adopt the improvements All the necessary instructions have al- which the science has received in other ready been a thousand times repeated; nations, before it can receive any coma and the republic of cooks, we trust, siderable advancement at home. We have too much taste and penetration cannot but consider it, therefore, as a Cook's Oracle to the simple and prac- any man in these days of continental Rundell. course, who presumes to palm upon We trust the days are now past the public, a bald and unnecessary to petition of elementary directions for ble spoonful of Flour, beat it quite smooth, the most simple and ordinary processes, then put to it a pound of Raisins and a as a new system of cookery. "What is, pound of Suet ; it must not be chopped and will be required of every future very fine ; butter a mould well, put in the writer on this subject is, that he shall pudding, tie a cloth over it , tight, and boil it Five hours. carefully study the cookery of the dif N. B. This is a very delicious composiferent European nations that he shall tion, and is commonly called a MARROW make large and judicious selections PUDDING. of the best dishes they afford, thus Now, it is surely not judging too enlarging the orbit to which the track harshly of Dr Kitchener's taste, and of our native cooks has hitherto been that of his Committee of illustrious confined, and opening a new vista of Gastropholists, to assert, that if they, inexperienced enjoyment to the pa- as the Doctor assures us, really consilates of their masters. Whoever pub- dered this mass of unvarnished abomilishes a cookery-book, without doing nation as :“ a delicious composition," this, is a quack, and we warn the pub- they are just about as well qualified lic not to trust to his pretensions. to judge of delicacy of eating as an old We feel that we have been too pro- Boar, (no personal allusion to the aulix in these general observations. But thor,) and a Committee of Yorkshire cookery is a subject on which we love Pigs. to gossip, and we might almost say, On a diligent comparison, however, with regard to ourselves, that the next of the utter worthlessness of the book enjoyment to eating a good dinner, is as a culinary manual with the shrewdto talk about one. But we must have ness and sagacity which we believe the done, and proceed to introduce Dr Doctor to possess, we think it probable + Kitchener to the more intimate ac- that he trusted his hopes of success in quaintance of our readers, by giving his present undertaking rather to his 3Cthem a taste or two of his qualities, in jokes thạn his receipts; and looks for the capacity in which he has offered applause less to the originality of his himself to the public. discoveries, than from the facetious In the preface to the Cook's Oracle, and sparkling garb in which he has the Doctor gives us the following piece invested them. Be it so. The Docof information. tor's wit shall experience the same “He has not printed one Receipt—that ample justice which we have already has not been proved in His own Kitchen bestowed upon his cookery. In truth, -- which has not been approved by several the better half of his book'is occupied, of the most accomplished Cooks in this not by receipts for the composition of Kingdom-and has, moreover, been eaten dishes, for in this respect it is meagre with unanimous applause by a Committee in an unprecedented degree, but by a of Taste, composed of some of the most il- treatise on the proper mode of issuing lustrious Gastropholists of this luxurious and accepting invitations to dinner, Metropolis. instructions to awkward gentlemen Now we should really like to know and ladies how to conduct themselves of whom “ the illustrious Gastropho- in company, directions for carving, lists,” thus vaguely alluded to, consist. friendly advice to cooks, and by variIf the Doctor will only tell us the names of the members of this illustri- resting, but which very few of his pur ous other matters, no doubt very inteous committee, we promise never to chasers have the smallest inclination to dine with one of them should we live pay for. By the help of all this, and a hundred years. As a specimen of the frequent repetition of the same the taste of this club of foul feeders, receipt in different parts of his book, we shall specify a few of those dishes the Doctor has certainly succeeded in which were devoured by them with making a volume of a very respectable unanimous applause. “ Scotch Hag- size ; and we are really inclined to gies, ,"“Scotch Crowdie," " Ox cheek consider him a better maker of a book stewed," - Ox tails do.," “ Black than of a fricassee. The Doctor does Broth of Lacedæmon." Or take the not seem inclined to prize the joys of following receipt for à savoury mess, love so highly as the more enduring, which the Doctor calls a “ Fat Pud- and more easily repeated ones of the ding.” stomach. He is, therefore, rather unBreak five Eggs in a basin, beat them gallant to the ladies, and scarcely ever up with a teaspoonful of Sugar and a ta. omits an opportunity of giving them a 22 ST a : sly daub with his brush. We fear the he was obliged to pay for it in Ireland fair sex will be rather out of humour I should hardly prevail to find one.Vi. shateve with him for thinking it necessary, in sitor, if I were not able to hire him with a the present day, to extract the follow- bottle of Wine.'-Vide Swift's Letters toreis ing directions for their deportment, to POPE, July 10th, 1732. from a curious old work, entitled, 6 When twice as much cooking is un“The Accomplished Lady's Rich Clo- dertaken as there are Servants, or conve set of Varieties; or Ingenious Gentle- niences in the Kitchen to do it properly , Bear woman's Delightful Companion.” dishes must be dressed long before the din ner hour, and stand by spoiling—the poor “ A gentlewoman being at table, abroad Cook loses her credit, and the poor guests or at home, must observe to keep her body get indigestions. Why prepare for eight 3 straight, and lean not by any means with or ten Friends more than sufficient for her elbows, nor by ravenous gesture disco- twenty or thirty Visitors ? " Enough is as ver a voracious appetite ; talk not when good as a Feast," and a prudent provider , Tak you have meat in your mouth ; and do not 2 who takes measure of the Appetites, in. smack like a Pig, nor venture to eat stead of the Eyes of his Guests, may enSpoonmeat so hot that the tears stand in tertain his Friends, three times as often, your Eyes, which is as unseemly as the and ten times as well. Gentlewoman who pretended to have as “It is your SECOND COURSES-ridicu. little a Stomach as she had a Mouth, and lous variety of WINES, LIQUEURS, Ices, therefore would not swallow her Peas by DESSERTS, &c., which are served up to -spoonful, but took them one by one, and feed the Eye—that overcome the Stocut them in two before she would eat them. mach, and paralyze Digestion, and seduce It is very uncomely to drink so large a 5 children of a larger Growth” to sacrifice draught, that your Breath is almost gone the health and comfort of several days for and you are forced to blow strongly to re- the Baby-pleasure of tickling their tongue cover yourself-throwing down your liquor for a few minutes with Trifles and Cusas into a Funnel is an action fitter for a tards !!! &c. &c." Juggler than a Gentlewoman : thus much There is still -one topic to which for your Observations in general, if I am defective as to particulars, your own pru- which it would be unjust to the wor we have not hitherto alluded, but on dence, discretion, and curious observations thy Doctor to be silent. Aware, pro will supply. “In Carving at your own Table, dis- bably, of the coarse and abhorrent natribute the best pieces first, and it will ap- , ture of most of the dishes detailed in pear very comely and decent to use a Fork ; his work, he has very judiciously reso touch no piece of Meat without it.” commended the exhibition of certain We think in the following extract wonder-working drugs, to enable paour readers will recognize, like our- tients of weak stomachs to digest them. selves, an equal proportion of delicacy, We recommend them particularly to wit, and philosophy. the attention of all those who intend “ The old Adage that “the Eye is of nical sway of the Doctor. The fa. to subject their stomachs to the tyranten bigger than the Belly,” is often verified by the ridiculous vanity of those who lowing passage contains both full diwish to make an appearance above their rections for their composition and their fortune—nothing can be more ruinous of use. real comfort than the too common custom “ INDIGESTION will sometimes overof setting out a table with a parade and a take the most experienced Epicure. When profusion, unsuited not only to the circum- the gustatory nerves are in good humour, stances of the Host, but to the number of Hunger and Savoury Viands will some. the Guests :-or more fatal to true Hospi- times seduce the Tongue of a tality, than the multiplicity of dishes which Gourmand” to betray the interests of bis luxury has made fashionable at the tables Stomach in spite of his Brains. of the Great, the wealthy, and the Osten- « On such an unfortunate occasion, tatious, who are often neither great ncr when the Stomach sends forth eructant sig . wealthy. “ Such excessive preparation, instead of Persuaders are as agreeable and effectua ! nals of distress for help, the Peristaltie being a compliment to our Guests, is now' assistance as can be offered ; and for delithing better than an indirect offence; it is cate Constitutions, and those that are ima tacit insinuation that it is absolutely ne- paired by Age or Intemperance, cessary to provide such delicacies--to bribe fuable Panacea. the depravity of their palates, when we de. “ They derive, and deserve this name, sire the pleasure of their company-and from the peculiar mildness of their operas that Society in England now must be pur. tion. One or two very gently increase the chased at the same price Swift told Pore action of the principal viscera, help them 1 66 Grund are a re ence. SUADERS. wh to do their work a little faster, and enable TIONAL EPICURE, who happily attends the Stomach to serve with an ejectment the Banquet with “ mens sana in corpore "whatever offends it, and move it into the sano,” will keep the time not only for 2 Bowels. these strong reasons, but that he may not “ Thus Indigestion is easily and spee. lose the advantage of being introduced to dily removed, — Appetite restored,-(the the other Guests. He considers not only mouths of the absorbing vessels being clean what is on the Table, but Who are around sed) Nutritionis facilitated,—and Strength it ;-his principal inducement to leave his of Body, and Energy of Mind, are the own Fire-side, is the charm of agreeable happy results." --See “ Peptic Pre- and instructive Society, and the opportuCERTS," from which we extract the fol. nity of making connexions which may auglowing prescription ment the interest and enjoyment of existTo make FORTY PERISTALTIC PER " It is the most pleasing part of the Take Duty of the Master of the Feast, (espeTurkey Rhubarb, finely pulverized, two drachms cially when the Guests are not very numeSyrup (by weight) one drachm. rous,) to take advantage of these moments Dil of Carraway, ten drops (minims.) to introduce them to one another,—naming Made into Pills, each of which will contain Three Grains of Rhubarb. them individually in an audible voice, 66 The Dose of the PERSUADERS and adroitly laying hold of those ties of must be adapted to the constitutional pe- acquaintanceship or profession which may culiarity of the Patient—when you wish to exist between them. accelerate or augment the Alvine Exonera 6. This will much augment the pleasures ion—take two-three or more, according of the Festive Board, to which it is indeed as to the effect you desire to produce—Two indispensable a Prelude as an Overture to Pills will do as much for one person as an Opera : and the Host will thus acquire five or six will for another; they will ge an additional claim to the gratitude of his merally very regularly perform what you Guests. We urge this point more strongwish to-day, without interfering with what ly, because, from want of attention to it, you hope will happen to-morrow ;-and - we have seen more than once,-persons ire, therefore, as convenient an argument whom many kindred ties would have drawn against Constipation as any we are ac- closely together, pass an entire day without quainted with opening their lips to each other, because “ The most convenient opportunity to they were mutually ignorant of each other's introduce them to the Stomach,-is early names, professsions, and pursuits. in the morning, when it is unoccupied, and “ To put an end at once to all Ceremony nas no particular business of Digestion, as to the order in which the Guests are to &c. to attend to_i. e. at least half an hour sit, it will save much time and trouble if the before breakfast. Physic must never in- Master of the House adopts the simple and errupt the Stomach when it is engaged iu elegant method of placing the name of ligesting Food. each Guest in the plate which is intended “From two to four Persuaders will ge- for him. This proceeding will be of course herally produce one additional motion with the result of consideration, and the Host in twelve hours. They may be taken at will place those together who he thinks iny time by the most delicate Females, will harmonize best. whose constitutions are so often distressed On the whole, the Doctor's wit is uy constipation-and destroyed by the dras- much better calculated for the meriic purgatives they take to relieve it.” dian of a gentleman's kitchen than If the subsequent directions are ne- his cookery. We have no doubt it cessary, we cannot say we envy the has excited many smiles among the circle of society in which we presume nymphs of the scullery, and even in che Doctor forms the chief star. the more enlightened society of the “ The Cloth should be laid in the Par. housekeeper's room. To the beau monde lour, and all the paraphernalia of the din- of these regions, therefore, we consign aer table completely arranged at least an hour before dinner time. it. It is there, we believe, the Doc tor most wishes to be popular, and we " The Cook's labour will be lost if the Parlour table be not ready for action ceed. A good cookery book, in the are sure it is there only he will sucand the Eaters ready for the Eatables which the least delay will irreparably in higher sense of the word, is still a dejure :—therefore, the GOURMAND will be sideratum in our literature; and it is punctual for the sake of gratifying his ru- one which it will require an author of ing passion ;-the INVALID, to avoid the nicer palate and less indiscriminate volanger of encountering an indigestion racity than Dr Kitchener to supply. rom eating ill-dressed food ; and the RA |