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 Another Random Document on
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epicureans? Composed by the art of the most skilful cooks, struck with
admiration, they ate and relished, whilst unexpected wonders unceasingly
solicited their fatigued, yet not satiated, appetites; when at last appeared an
immense silver dish, on which was displayed an entire roasted hog, whose
vast sides concealed a multitude of quails and other small birds, tétines de
truie, relishing yolks of eggs, oysters, and a host of shell fish, prepared with
that scientific regard for gastric energy which considerably increases its
power.[XVI_27]
Macedonia possessed a particular species of pig, greatly envied by the
rest of Greece. Certain individuals of this giant race acquired enormous
proportions, and King Eumenes used to give as much as sixty-four pounds
sterling for one of these animals, provided it measured four feet seven
inches in height, and as much in length.[XVI_28]
It will be easily understood that the cooks vied with each other, to see
who could form unheard-of combinations with the succulent pieces which
these enormous pigs furnished. They disguised the taste and form in a
thousand different ways, and the most experienced palate was always the
dupe of these exquisite deceptions. Thus Titius Quintus, a clever amateur,
being enraptured with the number and astonishing variety of dishes which
his host caused to be served, at Chalies in Etolia, what was his surprise
when the amiable Amphytrion smilingly told him that he had eaten nothing
but pork![XVI_29]
Rome, be it observed, knew how to follow the example of Greece; and,
in the hands of its skilful cooks, the flesh of this heavy animal was often
transformed into delicate fish, ducks, turtle doves, or capons.[XVI_30]
But the masterpiece of these great artists—the ne plus ultra of their
fertile imagination—was the hog à la Troyenne, so named because from the
depth of its inside issued battalions of thrushes, myriads of ortolans, and
fig-peckers (becaficoes)—an ingenious image of those armed cohorts
inclosed in the horse of Troy.[XVI_31] Everywhere the sumptuous dish is
cited, but nothing is said of the manner in which it was prepared. The
curious will perhaps be thankful to find that this omission is here repaired:
—
The animal is artistically bled under the shoulder. When all the blood has
flowed, the intestines are drawn out by the throat, and washed for a long
time with wine, taking care to pass it through them. The pig is then hung up
by the feet, and washed also with wine. An excellent gravy must be
prepared beforehand, with meat hashed small and well peppered, with
which you stuff the intestines, and then force them back into their place by
the throat. Pour in at the same time a great quantity of gravy, and fill the
animal with small game. Half of the pig is afterwards covered with a thick
paste of barley meal, wine, and oil. It is then put into a portable oven, on a
small metal table, where it is roasted by a slow fire. When the skin has
assumed a fine colour it is withdrawn, and boiled on the other side; the
paste covering is then entirely removed, and the pig à la Troyenne may be
served.[XVI_32] The Romans reared a great number of these animals, and
also procured many from foreign countries, especially from Arcadia, which
produced some of extraordinary size. Varro relates that in this part of the
Peloponnesus he was shown a pig so fat that it was impossible for the
animal to make the least movement; and that a mouse had settled on its
back with her young family, softly ensconced in the fat, where they fed at
the expense of the careless animal.[XVI_33]
Rome adopted, with a kind of gastronomic rage, the preparations and
ragoûts celebrated in Greece.[XVI_34] The Trojan pig never failed to appear
on tables renowned for their luxury;[XVI_35] and sucking pigs were eaten in
such profusion, that the censors were obliged to interdict their use.
Alexander Severus renewed this prohibition.[XVI_36] The large pigs stuffed
with game (an expensive delicacy of patrician tables) also called forth new
sumptuary laws,[XVI_37] which only provoked disdain, and which fashion
soon rendered obsolete.
We hardly dare mention a strange dish, in great request among the rich
and luxurious, who alone could procure it. The first preparation consisted in
stifling the young before they were littered.[XVI_38] Thank Heaven, this
culinary atrocity could not survive an epoch without parallel, perhaps, in the
history of human follies, by we know not what refinement of incredible
gluttony, of frightful depravity, and atrocious cruelty, which, together,
prepared the downfall of the Roman colossus.
Besides this disgusting dish, much was thought at Rome, as well as at
Athens, of pig’s head, spare-rib, hams, and bacon. Seven other parts
occupied the second rank—these were the ears, feet, foreloin, fillet, cheek,
intestines, and blood.[XVI_39]
 Westphalia supplied sumptuous tables with much-esteemed hams; but
those of Sardinia, Catalonia, and Cantabria were, nevertheless, preferred.
[XVI_40] They were sometimes served at the beginning of a repast, in order
to excite the appetite; and also often at the close, in order to re-animate its
extinguished ardour, and provoke new libations.[XVI_41] One of the most
ancient geoponics teaches how to prepare, salt, and smoke hams;[XVI_42]
for the inhabitants of the country, and the lower classes in the cities, showed
a singular taste for this delicate meat, which the Gauls (great amateurs of
pork)[XVI_43] sent them at a low price, with an enormous quantity of
pickled pork, andouillettes, and sausages.[XVI_44]
This last preparation, very celebrated in Lucania,[XVI_45] served as a
means of livelihood to a great number of Roman women, who also
employed themselves in making excellent black puddings, in imitation of
those eaten in Greece.[XVI_46]
Bacon was then of great utility, as in the present day, though oil
superseded it in the concoction of a host of dishes. Bacon for a long time
served almost as the exclusive food of the Romans,[XVI_47] before their
unruly luxury had given it up to the soldiers and proletarians.[XVI_48] It was
also found in all public houses,[XVI_49] where the populace habitually
gorged themselves with pork, vegetables,[XVI_50] and hot water.[XVI_51]
The ancients salted the pig, in order to preserve it; but Apicius taught
them a very simple process for the use of epicures, which advantageously
replaced common brine. You take middling-sized pieces of pork, cover
them entirely with a sort of paste, composed of salt, vinegar, and honey, and
place them in vessels which you close carefully.[XVI_52]
We will now indicate some of the dishes most in vogue prepared with
pork—a meat so much esteemed by the Greeks and Romans, and in which
they believed themselves to have discovered fifty different flavours,[XVI_53]
or fifty parts, each possessing a distinct taste from the other.
Apician Pork.—Roast a fine young sucking pig; and whilst a slow fire
gently embellishes it with a golden colour, pound, with pepper and
alisander, some coriander seed, mint, and rue. Then pour over it some wine,
honey, garum, or gravy; mix with care these different ingredients, and pour
this seasoning on your roast, as soon as you have taken it from the spit or
oven.[XVI_54]
Macedonian Pork.—Choose, among a number of large and fine sucking
pigs, the one which appears to you the most worthy of the culinary
sacrifice. Draw it by the upper part; clean it well, and fill it with chicken
sausages chopped small, the flesh of thrushes, ortolans, and pork; add
Lucanian sausages, dates without stones, raisins, and afterwards, mallow,
beet, leeks, parsley, coriander, whole pepper, and pine nuts; add eggs, and a
good quantity of well-peppered gravy. Bake it, having previously scored the
back of the animal, so that it may be basted with its own gravy. When a
delightful odour shall then warn you that it is done, cover it, before serving,
with a relishing mixture of pepper, rue, garum, or gravy, to which you must
add wine, honey, and a little oil.[XVI_55]
Stuffed Sucking Pig.—The intestines are drawn out by the throat, and an
opening made under the skin. You then fill with stuffing a bladder, to the
neck of which is securely fixed a long and narrow tube, which will convey
to every part the somewhat liquid substance which you will express from
the bladder. The opening is then closed with parchment sewn to the skin. It
is hardly necessary to say that this operation should be performed in several
places.
Let us now see to the inside. Crush pepper, alisander, wild marjoram,
and a little benzoin root; mix with this, garum or gravy, cooked brains, raw
eggs, flour, and pork gravy; the whole must be boiled on a slow fire, and the
pig filled with it, also with little birds, pine nuts, whole pepper, and garum.
It now only remains to place it in the oven, watch over the cooking, baste it
with gravy, and serve.[XVI_56]
Aristoxenic Ham.—Take a fresh ham, salt it, and smoke it two days; then
rub it with a mixture of oil and vinegar, and hang it to the ceiling.[XVI_57]
Some days after you must boil it with a great quantity of figs and three bay
leaves; then take off the skin, make incisions in the flesh, and fill them with
honey. Finally, prepare a paste of flour and oil, with which cover the ham;
put it into the oven, and withdraw it only when this crust is completely
done.[XVI_58]
Lucullian Ham.—Cook a ham, newly salted, with two pounds of barley
and twenty-five figs. Then bone it, and slightly scarify the skin with an iron
blade; put it into the oven, taking care to cover it with a little honey. When
it begins to colour, put into a saucepan some cooked wine, pepper, wine and
a bunch of rue, the half of which is then poured on the ham. The other half
of this seasoning serves to humect the quenelles which you have taken
beforehand from the ham previous to baking; these must be well soaked
with gravy, and then, if you have any remaining, pour it over the ham,
which you serve surrounded by the quenelles.[XVI_59]
Ventre de Truie à l’Athénienne.—It is boiled with sweet herbs and served
with a seasoning of cummin seed, vinegar, and silphium.[XVI_60]
Ventre de Truie à la Romaine.—It is cooked in the manner before
described, and seasoned with a sauce composed of pepper, parsley seed,
dried mint, benzoin-root, honey, vinegar, and garum.[XVI_61]
Fillet of Pork à la Bœotienne.—When it has been covered with honey
and vinegar, and baked in the oven, it is eaten with a seasoning of pepper,
benzoin, and garum.[XVI_62]
Tétines de Truie à la Salienne.—Cook them in water; make several
incisions; cover them with salt, and place them in the oven, or on the
gridiron; prepare a seasoning of pepper and alisander, with garum, wine,
and cooked wine; thicken with fine floor; put in the tétines, and serve.
[XVI_63]
Tétines à la Flamine.—Mix the flesh of a sea-hedge hog with carrots and
pepper; introduce the mixture into the tétines; sew up the opening; cook
them in the oven, or on the gridiron, and eat them with brine and mustard.
[XVI_64]
Olympian Pig’s Liver.—Take the liver of a pig that has been fed only on
figs, bake it, and serve with a seasoning of œnogarum, pepper, thyme,
alisander, garum, oil, and a little vinegar.[XVI_65]
Capitolian Pig’s Liver.—Make incisions in the liver of a pig that has
been fed on nothing but figs, and put it into garum with pepper, alisander,
and two bay leaves; then wrap it in the caul, cook it on the gridiron, and
serve.[XVI_66]
Campanian Bacon.—It is cooked by just covering it with water and a
good quantity of dill, to which a little oil and salt are afterwards added.
[XVI_67]
 Quenelles of Pig’s Liver and Brains.—Roast a pig’s liver, and take off all
the fibrous parts; sprinkle it with pounded pepper and rue; add some gravy;
stir the whole well; then cut it into small slices, each of which you must
cover with a bay leaf; hang them over the smoke as long as you think
necessary.
When you wish to eat them, roast them afresh; then put them into a
mortar, with pepper, alisander, and wild marjoram; stir them, add gravy and
dressed sucking pigs’ brains, pounded with care; then add five eggs, and
dissolve them in such a manner as to make the whole thoroughly compact;
pour over it some gravy, and cook in a saucepan; when cooked, throw it on
a very clean table, and out this pulp into small square pieces, which mix in
the mortar with pepper, alisander, and wild marjoram. When you have
gently stirred all this, it must again be put into a saucepan, and boiled over a
slow fire. At the moment of ebullition, pour it on a plate, sprinkle with
pepper, and serve.[XVI_68]
Lucanian Sausages.—Pound in a mortar some pepper, cummin, and
winter savory with bay leaves, and moisten with gravy and garum; then add
to this mixture some pork, chopped small, more garum and pepper, and a
good quantity of bacon, with a few pine nuts. When these various
ingredients are well incorporated one with another, you stuff the prepared
intestines, and hang up the sausages.[XVI_69]
Imperial Sausages.—Cut some pork into very small pieces, which most
be pounded with the finest bread, well-soaked in wine; then pound some
pepper and decorticated myrtle leaves, and add some gravy. Make some
small sausages, and put inside some fir-nuts. When these sausages are
finished, you must cook them over a slow fire, with sweet wine, previously
reduced to a-third.[XVI_70]
The following is the seasoning you must add to it:—
Bone some small chickens, and put them into a saucepan, with leeks,
dill, and salt. When this is cooked, add pepper and smallage seed; then
crumble some sesame bread, on which pour some very thick gravy, mix the
whole well, and serve with the sausages.[XVI_71]
The Gauls had very considerable herds of swine, which they fed
exclusively upon acorns. The inhabitants of the towns reared them in their
houses. As these animals went frequently out, they caused some
obstruction, and we know that Philip, grandson of Louis-le-Gros, lost his
life in Paris, in consequence of a furious pig having run between the legs of
his horse, and caused him to fall. This accident took place on the 1st
October, 1181. The 3rd of the same month a proclamation was issued,
forbidding all persons to let their swine ramble through the streets of Paris.
A short time after, those which belonged to the Abbaye Saint-Antoine were
privileged; the abbess and the nuns having represented that it would be a
want of courtesy to their patron saint not to exempt his hogs from the
general rule.[XVI_72]
A new proclamation of the 20th January, 1850, interdicted with still
greater severity the rearing of swine in the town of Paris, under penalty of a
fine of 60 sous (two shillings and four-pence); and the police were
authorized to kill them wheresoever they might be found, to take the head
as a perquisite for themselves, and to deposit the carcase at the Hôtel-Dieu
(the name of an hospital), charging that establishment with the cost incurred
for its conveyance.[XVI_73]
There was nothing more delicate in the 16th century, nothing more
odoriferous, than the flesh of young pigs fed on parsnips,[XVI_73A] and
roasted, with a stuffing of fine herbs.[XVI_73B]

THE OX.
A profound sentiment of gratitude has been often the cause of rendering
to the ox extraordinary honours, which no animal, perhaps, ever shared with
him. The Egyptians considered this quadruped as the emblem of agriculture,
and of all that serves to support existence;[XVI_74] and incense smoked on
its altars at Memphis and Heliopolis.[XVI_75]
The Phœnicians religiously abstained from its flesh, and the Phrygians
punished with death whosoever dared to slay the labouring ox.[XVI_76]
In Greece, during the heroic ages, an ox was the reward adjudged to the
conquering wrestlers and pugilists; a horse was the prize of racing or the
quoits.[XVI_77]
At a later period the Athenians decreed that their coins should bear the
image of this useful quadruped;[XVI_78] and though they then offered it to
their gods, the ceremonies even of the sacrifice testified the repugnance felt
at shedding its blood.
The sacrificer fled with the greatest speed after he had struck it; he was
followed, and, to avoid being arrested, he threw away the axe he had used,
and accused it of causing the death of the innocent ox. The axe was then
seized and tried; some one defended it, and alleged that it was less guilty
than the grinder who had sharpened the blade. The latter cast the odium of
the crime on the grinding stone, so that the trial was never ended, and the
pretended offence remained unpunished.[XVI_79]
For a long time the greater part of the ancients considered it a sin to eat
the flesh of the ox, the companion of the agriculturist, whose patient vigour
hollows the furrow which is to be the means of his support.[XVI_80] But the
bad example of Proserpine, who prepared one for Hercules,[XVI_81] caused
these scruples, one by one, to be hushed, the solemn prohibition of the
legislator of Athens forgotten;[XVI_82] and, in spite of the obstinate
resistance of the Pythagorians and the disciples of Empedocles, every one
declared in favour of the doctrines of Zeno and Epicurus.
Moreover, it is certain that the heroes of Homer were not so scrupulous:
Menelaus offered roast-beef to Telemachus; Agamemnon also presented
some to the wise Nestor; and an ox, roasted whole, frequently appeased the
robust appetite of the illustrious chiefs of Greece.[XVI_83]
If we go back to centuries still more remote, and of which a venerable
historian has preserved us an account, we find herds of oxen were possessed
by the great patriarchal families.[X][XVI_84] Abraham cooked a calf and
served it to the three angels, in the valley of Mamre;[XVI_85] and the flesh
of this animal, whether ox or heifer, was evidently much in use in the
primitive ages, since no particular proscription exempts them from those
beings having “life and motion,”[XVI_86] and which are to serve us as food.
[XVI_87] As to Moses, far from interdicting it to the Israelites, he places the
ox in the first rank of pure animals,[XVI_88] whose flesh was allowed them.
The oracle of ancient medicine, Hippocrates, praises the flesh of the ox,
in which he recognises the most nutritious qualities, but nevertheless he
believes it to be heavy and indigestible.[XVI_89]
 Of what material, then, must have been the stomach of Theagenes, of
Thasos—he, who devoured a whole bull in one day.[XVI_90]
To be sure, the same exploit is attributed to Milo of Crotona, whose
ordinary meal consisted of eighteen pounds of meat, as much bread, and
fifteen pints of wine.[XVI_91] These formidable polyphagists could, without
much expense, indulge their fabulous appetites; for, in the time of
Demosthenes, 354 B.C., an ox of the first quality cost only eighty drachmas,
or about two pounds, eleven shillings, and eightpence.[XVI_92]
Magiric writers have left us very few details on the different methods of
cooking the flesh of the ox or calf. It appears to have been generally
roasted,[XVI_93] in which case it was eaten alone; but sometimes it was
eaten boiled, with one of the sauces to be hereafter mentioned.
These animals were fed with particular care, in order to render them
more worthy of the luxurious tables for which certain choice pieces were
destined. The manner of fattening oxen has already been described: it is
only necessary to add, that calves, which were to be slaughtered, received
no other food than their mothers’ milk; and that, frequently, they were not
killed before the expiration of a twelvemonth.[XVI_94]
Double tripe was reputed as an excellent food. The Asiatics, Greeks, and
Romans were particularly fond of it. It was served at a sumptuous repast
prepared for Achilles; and Homer observes, that this dish was always
honourably received at the banquets of heroes.[XVI_95]
Athenæus, describing a feast of the most exquisite elegance, names
double tripe among a host of dishes he enumerates;[XVI_96] he also says,
speaking of a state dinner at which Philoxenus, one of the generals of
Alexander the Great, was a guest, that first of all there appeared large basins
containing the intestines of animals, disposed with art around their heads:
[XVI_97] and it is thus, he adds, that even the gods gave themselves up, in
the society of their friends, to the pleasures of good cheer.[XVI_98] To be
brief, this artless chronicler of antique gastrophagy, tells us that after the
sacrilegious undertaking of the Titans, the human race enjoyed such perfect
happiness, that men caused to be served at every one of their repasts
delicious double tripe and savoury intestines.[XVI_99]
This touching example of felicity and innocent gluttony found few
imitators at Rome among that class of voluptuous men who entertained, at
enormous expense, tasters whose discriminating palates could tell whether a
fish had been caught at the mouth of the Tiber, or further off; whether a
goose’s liver had been fattened with fresh figs, or only on dried ones.
[XVI_100] For them tripe could have very little attraction, but this rather
plebeian dish appeared with honour on modest tables, and proletarian
epicures sought for it with eagerness.[XVI_101]
Beef à l’Ibérienne.—Well boil an excellent piece of beef, and serve it
with the following sauce. Grind and mix pepper, alisander, parsley seed,
wild marjoram, and dried onions; moisten with sun-made raisin wine; stir,
and add honey, vinegar, wine, garum, oil, and sweet wine.[XVI_102]
Stewed Beef à la Sarmate.—Carefully choose a piece of beef, which
stew slowly for a long time with leeks, cut small, onions, or beans. When it
is well cooked, pour over a mixture of pepper, benzoin, and a little oil.
[XVI_103]
Dish of Veal à la Syracusaine.—Cook a piece of veal, on a slow fire,
with pepper, alisander, carrots, and parsley seed, bruised together in a
mortar; then add honey, vinegar, garum, and oil; thicken the whole with fine
flour, and serve.[XVI_104]
Noix de Veau à la Tarantaise.—Take a noix de veau, cook it in a
saucepan with pepper, alisander, and fenugreek seed; add, later, some wild
marjoram, pine nuts, and dates; then moisten with a mixture of honey,
vinegar, garum, mustard, and oil. When the cookery of these various
substances shall have made an homogeneous whole, serve.[XVI_105]
Cisalpine Preserve.—Mince some beef in very small pieces; do the same
with a little bacon; add pine nuts, pounded with dates; pour on the whole a
mixture of vinegar, garum, mustard, and oil; stir well, and throw on this
pulp a powder of strong odoriferous herbs. Stir it a long time, let it rest,
compress it strongly in a prepared intestine, close the opening, and put a
string round to tighten it still more. This preserve cannot turn bad.[XVI_106]
The ox was so precious among the Romans, that mention is made of a
certain citizen accused before the people and condemned, because he had
killed one of his oxen to satisfy the fancy of a young libertine, who told him
he bad never eaten any tripe. He was banished, as if he had killed his
farmer.[XVI_107]
 The Brahmin women think to obtain abundance of milk and butter by
invoking one particular cow,—the darling cow of the king of heaven; the
type, mother, and patroness of all cows. The entire species are treated with
the greatest deference; they have lavished upon them every expression of
gratitude, and one day of each year is set apart as a solemn festival
consecrated to their worship.[XVI_108]
Some centuries ago the large pieces of meat were boiled first, and then
roasted. Roasted meat was always served with sauce. Animals roasted
whole were generally filled with an aromatic stuffing. Sage was the
common seasoning for geese, and sucking-pigs were stuffed with chesnuts.
Some minutes before these were taken from the spit, they were covered
with bread crumbs; and appeared on the table enveloped in a crust
composed of bread, sugar, orange juice, and rose water.[XVI_109]
Bœuf Gras.—There is a very old custom in the whole of France, and
which consists in leading throughout the streets, in the provincial towns, on
Shrove Tuesday, a fatted ox, ornamented with flowers and ribbons. This
ceremony is considered as a commemorative emblem of the fecundity of
the earth. In Paris, the ox chosen for the same purpose has generally
obtained beforehand the prize awarded by the Agricultural Society. The
horns of the animal are gilded; he is afterwards decorated in a sumptuous
manner, and led through the principal thoroughfares of that city, on Shrove
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, to the Palace of the Tuileries, the ministerial
residences, the Hôtel-de-Ville, and the foreign embassies. Troops of
butchers, dressed in appropriate fancy costumes, both on horseback and on
foot, are preceded by bands of music; and the heathen divinities, drawn by
eight horses in a richly gilt triumphal car, form one of the most splendid and
grotesque pageants of modern times.

THE LAMB.
Formerly, sworn examiners of the clouds, skilful in discovering the
storms they concealed, announced to the inhabitants of the country the hail
by which their crops were threatened, and every one immediately offered a
sacrifice to the inimical cloud, in order that it might carry ruin and
desolation elsewhere. The most devout sacrificed a lamb; the lukewarm
worshippers a fowl; some even contented themselves with pricking their
finger with a pin, and throwing towards heaven the drops of blood which
came out. The cloud, it is said, satisfied with these pious offerings, soon
disappeared never to return.[XVI_110]
The lamb, an oblation pure and agreeable in the sight of the gods,
reconciled the earth with Olympus. In Egypt, the inhabitants of Sais and
Thebes offered it to their divinities.[XVI_111] Minerva and Juno also were
pleased to see its flesh smoking on the altars which Greece and Italy raised
to them.[XVI_112]
These practices, no doubt, were an obscure imitation of the religious
rites which Moses prescribed to his people,[XVI_113] and which heathen
nations adopted in their turn, one from the other.[XVI_114]
The Hebrew law forbad the killing of the Paschal lamb before it was
weaned, and also the cooking of it in its mother’s milk. It was to be eaten
roasted, with unleavened bread, lettuces, mustard, or bitter herbs: whatever
might remain was to be burnt with fire. It was not to be boiled, nor a bone
of it broken. It must be chosen of that year, a male, and without fault or
blemish.[XVI_115]
Many passages of the sacred writings allow us to appreciate the pastoral
riches of the first nations of the East; and an idea may be formed of the
number of their flocks, when we are told that Jacob gave the children of
Hamor a hundred sheep for the price of a field;[XVI_116] and that the King
of Israel received a hundred thousand every year from the King of Moab,
his tributary, and a like number of rams, covered with their fleece.[XVI_117]
The delicate flesh of the lamb was the ornament of the tables of the
voluptuous inhabitants of Sion and Samaria. The prophet Amos reproaches
them with this luxury, and threatens them with the Divine anger[XVI_118] on
that account. The Greeks carried their love for this meat to such a height,
that the magistrates of Athens were obliged to forbid the eating of lamb
which had not been shorn.[XVI_119] This restriction did not prevent the
epicures of Attica from buying one of these animals every day, which cost
them ten drachmas[XVI_120] (6s. 5d.), and the head of which, prepared with
art, heightened the beauty of the first course.[XVI_121] Rome and Italy
imitated Greece,[XVI_122] and the flocks of the fertile Campania hardly
sufficed for the exigencies of the capital of the world, especially towards
the end of autumn, a period at which lambs afforded, according to the
Romans, a more highly flavoured and wholesome meat than in the spring.
[XVI_123]
Lamb’s Head à la Quirinale.—The head is boiled with pepper, garum,
and beans, and served with a sauce consisting of garum, pepper, benzoin,
and cummin, to which is added a little oil, and small pieces of bread, soaked
in sweet wine.[XVI_124]
Quarter of Lamb à l’Esquilin.—Place a quarter of lamb in a saucepan
with onions and coriander, chopped very small. Then pound pepper,
alisander, and cummin; put to it some oil, wine, and garum. Pour the whole
on the lamb; cook well, and thicken with fine flour.[XVI_125]
Palatine Broil.—Leave a piece of lamb during some time in a mixture of
pepper, benzoin, garum, and oil. After having cooked it in oil and garum,
put it a little while on the gridiron, sprinkle with pepper, and serve.[XVI_126]
Roast Lamb à la Phrygienne.—Bake a lamb and serve it with the
following sauce:—Mix well half an ounce of pepper, six scruples of
cinnamon, a little ginger, half a pint of excellent garum, and the quarter of
that quantity of oil.[XVI_127]
Lamb à la Trimalcion.—Draw a lamb at the neck; preserve the intestines
entire, and wash them with the greatest care; fill them with force meat and
garum; put them back again by the same way; sew up the opening, and
place the lamb in the oven. Then mix gravy and milk; add pounded pepper,
garum, wine, sweet wine, and oil; let it boil only an instant; thicken with
fine floor, and serve it with the lamb.[XVI_128]
Blount informs us of a very ancient and rather strange custom. He says:
—
“At Kidlington, in Oxfordshire, the custom is, that on Monday after
Whitson week, there is a fat, live lamb provided, and the maids of the town,
having their thumbs tied behind them, run after it, and she that with her
mouth takes and holds the lamb is declared Lady of the Lamb, which, being
dressed, with the skin hanging on, is carried on a long pole before the Lady
and her companions to the Green, attended with music, and a morisco dance
of men and another of women, when the rest of the day is spent in dancing,
mirth, and merry glee. The next day the lamb is part baked, boiled, and
roast, for the Lady’s feast, where she sits majestically at the upper end of
the table, and her companions with her, with music and other attendants,
which ends the solemnity.”[XVI_129]

THE KID.
The kid was one of the most delicate dishes of the Hebrews: Rebecca
prepared some for Isaac, in order to dispose him to give his blessing to
Jacob.[XVI_130] Moses ordered that, for the Feast of Passover, a lamb or a
kid should be slain.[XVI_131] Samson carried a kid to his young wife when
he wished to be reconciled to her.[XVI_132] The brother of the prodigal son
complains to his father that he has never given him a kid to make merry
with his friends.[XVI_133]
The Egyptians, who represented their god Pan with the face and legs of a
goat, abstained religiously from killing a kid or eating its flesh.[XVI_134]
Their veneration for this animal went so far, in some countries, that goat-
keepers appeared in their eyes invested with an august and sacred character.
[XVI_135] The Greeks did not judge it convenient to adopt these strange
ideas, although on other points their theology was sufficiently ridiculous.
The kid was considered one of the most dainty dishes in state banquets; it
was served whole, on a silver basin, to each of the guests at the wedding of
the Macedonian, Caranus.[XVI_136]
The kids of Attica were especially praised, and a considerable trade was
made of them in Athens.[XVI_137] Certain connoisseurs, whose authority
had weight, preferred, however, those produced in the Island of Mælos.
[XVI_138] A great many also came from Sicily: they were in less repute, and
sold at a low price.[XVI_139]
At Rome, the kid of Italy was much thought of; the most delicate were
fattened at Tivoli,[XVI_140] and in different localities of the Roman
Campagna.[XVI_141]
Kid à la Trans-Tibérienne.—The kid is to be cooked slowly, with a little
milk, four ounces of honey, an ounce of pepper, a little salt and benzoin.
After some time, add eight dates crushed in a mortar, a little gravy, garum, a
small quantity of excellent wine; the whole is thickened with fine flour.
[XVI_142]
Roast Kid à la Janiculum.—Empty and carefully clean a kid; rub it well
with oil and pepper; sprinkle with salt and a large quantity of coriander
seed; place it in the oven, and bake slowly.[XVI_143]
Kid à la Tarpéienne.—Empty the kid; stuff it, and sew it up; then
entirely cover it with a thick mixture of pepper, rue, winter savory, onions, a
small quantity of thyme, and some garum; then place it in an oven, or on a
dish, covered with oil. When the kid is cooked, you surround it with a sauce
of winter savory, onions, rue, dates, mixed with wine, oil, and cooked wine;
sprinkle with pepper, and serve.[XVI_144]
Kid à la Tivoli.—Bake the kid; then pound some pepper, rue, onions,
winter savory, and Damascus plums (without their stones), a little benzoin,
which you must dilute in wine, garum, and oil; throw this sauce on the kid
as you withdraw it from the oven, and, at the moment of serving, cover it
with boiling wine.[XVI_145]
Kid à la Mélissienne.—Draw the kid at the neck, and clean the
intestines; then pound some pepper, alisander, benzoin root, two bay leaves,
and a little Spanish camomile; add two or three brains; mix them well
together; then add some garum and a little salt; afterwards, a small quantity
of milk and honey. Fill the intestines with this stuffing, and place them
round the kid, which you then put into a large basin on the fire. When half-
cooked, you must add a mixture of garum, oil, and wine. Then bruise some
pepper and alisander seed, which moisten with the gravy of the kid, and a
little cooked wine; pour it into the basin, and the moment before serving
thicken with fine flour.[XVI_146]

THE ASS.
The ass was an impure animal, according to the law of Moses, whose
flesh was forbidden because it did not ruminate.[XVI_147] However, at the
siege of Samaria, the Jews were compelled to eat it for want of other food.
The famine was such, that the head of an ass was sold for eighty pieces of
silver.[XVI_148]
The Roman peasants thought the flesh of the young ass had a very
agreeable taste,[XVI_149] and regaled themselves with it at their rustic
festivals. The celebrated Mecænas one day tasted of this dish at the house of
one of his free slaves; he spoke of it with much praise, caused it to be
served on his own table, and even succeeded in introducing it on those of
the great and rich, who gave up the onager, or wild ass, which they had
hitherto preferred, to humour this illustrious favourite. But this new
gastronomic conquest had only a short vogue; and was forgotten after the
death of Mecænas.[XVI_150] Galen tells us that the cooks of Alexandria
thought much of the ass,[XVI_151] whose flesh, he says, much resembles
that of the stag.[XVI_152] Still, this great physician disapproves of the use of
this food, which he considers unsuited to mankind.[XVI_153]
It is asserted, even at the present day, that the flesh of the young ass is a
pretty good dish; we have heard, but we hardly can repeat it, that much is
consumed in the guinguettes round Paris, where the artless customers are
far from thinking that anything else but veal can be served to them.
The modern restaurateurs of the Barrières of Paris, have, perhaps, read
the biography of Mecænas, and endeavour to render popular the dish so
honoured by the celebrated favourite. Who can blame them?

THE DOG.
We must beg pardon of the reader for informing him that the dog
presented a very relishing dish to many nations advanced in culinary
science. To them, one of these animals, young, plump, and delicately
prepared, appeared excellent food.[XVI_154]
The Greeks, that people so charming by their seductive folly, their love
of the arts, their poetic civilization, and the intelligent spirit of research
presiding over their dishes—the Greeks (we grieve to say it) ate dogs, and
even dared to think them good: the grave Hippocrates himself—the most
wise, the least gluttonous, and therefore the most impartial of their
physicians—was convinced that this quadruped furnished a wholesome and,
at the same time, a light food.[XVI_155]
As to the Romans, they also liked it,[XVI_156] and no doubt prepared it in
the same manner as the hare, which they thought it resembled in taste.
[XVI_157]
However, it is but right to add, that this dish, which we will not even
hear mentioned, was never favourably received by the fashionable portion
of Roman society, and that the legislators of ancient gastrophagy even
repulsed it with disdain.
There is every reason to believe that the people regaled themselves with
a roast or boiled dog, especially once a year, at the period when they
celebrated the deliverance of the Capitol from the siege of the Gauls. It is
known that, at this solemnity, a goose, laid on a soft cushion, was carried in
triumph, followed by an unhappy dog nailed to a cross,[XVI_158] whose
loud cries greatly amused the populace. In this manner they commemorated
the signal service rendered by one animal, and the fatal negligence of the
other. The Gauls scaled the Capitol while the dogs slept, and Rome had
been lost if the deafening cries of the geese had not given an alarm to the
garrison, who, it must be allowed, should have kept better watch.
The quadrupeds last mentioned are the only domestic animals of the kind
used as food by the ancients. The chase afforded them several others, which
we shall mention, after having just glanced at the poultry—one of the most
interesting divisions in natural history for the serious and reflective
appreciator of gastronomic productions.
 XVII.

POULTRY.
The air is less dense than the earth, said Aristotle; poultry ought, then, to
stand higher in estimation than quadrupeds.[XVII_1] It is, adds Galen, the
lightest and best of all aliments.[XVII_2] After this, would any one dare to
accuse of sensuality those who, wisely following the diet recommended by
these great men, prefer a fat capon or delicate fowl, to heavy, common
butcher’s meat?
Our masters, the ancients, have left us fine examples on this head. In
vain did impertinent sumptuary laws, enemies of progress, strive to repress
the luxury of the farm-yards. These precautions on behalf of abstinence
against the magiric genius were unceasingly met by a resistance, as
energetic as it was truly Roman. Fannius, Archius, Cornelius, could make
martyrs; but let us say, with pride, good cheer never had cause to envy them
deserters and apostates. One of these tyrannical decrees was just published;
a tribune of the people, a man of heart and taste, undertook to have it
repealed. He courageously mounted the rostrum, and cried, with an inspired
voice: “Romans! you are treated like slaves. By the gods! what can be more
strange than the new law? They would force you to sobriety, whether you
will or no! They would impose temperance on you! Ah! renounce this
pretended liberty, of which you are so jealous, since you are no longer
allowed to ruin yourselves, each one according to his fancy, or die of
indigestion if you please.”
This discourse was received as it deserved to be, and unanimous
applause proved to the orator that he was addressing men capable of
understanding him. But, alas! this excellent tribune had a dangerous enemy:
the censor, Lucius Flaccus, a sort of fanatic teetotaller and carniphobis of
that time, had sufficient credit to cause this worthy citizen to be driven from
the senate. But Rome revenged him by devouring more poultry than ever.
[XVII_3]
 In the early ages of the Church, poultry in general was regarded as a
food for fast days; and this opinion was founded on the text in Genesis,
where it is said that birds and fishes were created on the fifth day, whereas
quadrupeds were created on the sixth.[XVII_4]
St. Benedict, in his rule, does not formally forbid the monks any other
flesh than that of quadrupeds; and St. Columbanus, in his, permits the
monks the flesh of poultry, in default of fish. The Greek monks ate it down
to the 10th century.

THE COCK.
An object of divine worship in Syria,[XVII_5] the cock was considered by
almost every nation as the emblem of vigilance and courage.[XVII_6] Thus,
heathen antiquity consecrated it to the god of battles.[XVII_7] Themistocles,
marching with his army against Xerxes, King of Persia, met with some
cocks fighting furiously; he made his troops halt, that they might observe
them, and he then addressed a spirited discourse to them on the subject. He
conquered, and on his return to Athens, desired that every year a cock-fight
should commemorate his victory.[XVII_8] These cruel games soon spread
throughout Greece, and feathered champions were reared with great care,
and obtained at a high price from Rhodes, Bœotia, Mela, and Chalcis.
[XVII_9]
Italy also wished to enjoy this barbarous pastime. At Pergamus, any
spectator might throw a cock into the arena, and a prize was awarded to the
lucky possessor of the bird who remained master of the field of battle.
[XVII_10]
This warlike bird has never enjoyed a high culinary reputation;
nevertheless, it was eaten when old, that is to say, at that period of its life
when its flesh, hard, fibrous, and tough, possesses neither juice nor flavour
—then this wretched food was left to those among the common people who
joyously feasted in the drinking-shops of Rome. They, however, always
avoided making fricassees of white cocks, because they were consecrated to
the month, and proclaimed the hours.[XVII_11]
 THE CAPON.
The cock being banished from the table of all respectable people, the
necessity of dressing hens became evident, for it was necessary to live.
Now, you are aware that there are two sorts of hens; one sort consumptive
looking and tough, the other tender, plump, and before which an epicure
banishes every other thought, and sighs with pleasure. These last were
preferred, and, in order to render them more worthy of the voluptuous
epicures for whom they were intended, they learned from the inhabitants of
the island of Cos the art of fattening them in dark and closed places, with
certain wonderful pastes, which increased their delicacy and tempting
whiteness.[XVII_12]
This ingenious invention belonged to Greece and Asia. Rome possessed
herself of it, and even improved it; but soon the constant tyrant of the
kitchen, the Consul, C. Fannius, who thought bad what others thought good,
and who pretended that in consequence of the immense consumption made
of them, the result would be that not a living hen would be left in the
empire, ordered that for the future the Romans should dispense with
fattening and eating this delicious winged animal.[XVII_13]
Fortunately, the law said nothing about young cocks; this silence saved
Roman gastronomy, and the capon was invented.[XVII_14] It is not
necessary to relate with what transports of delight this new creation was
greeted; it will be easily understood. Rome was moved; the famous Greek
cooks, who consecrated their science to her, were on tip-toe. Everywhere,
from mouth to mouth, spread the name of the skilful enchanter, who could
in such a manner metamorphose the clarion of the farm yard. Fannius,
himself, it is said, wished to be assured of the truth of the prodigy: he was
served with a roast capon, and the praises he bestowed on it were assuredly
the triumph of the bird, of epicures, and of art.[XVII_15] From this
remarkable epoch, nearly all chickens underwent the ingenious
transformation which rendered them so welcome to all Lucullian tables;
[XVII_16] and it caused such a destruction of birds, that the consul repented,
but too late, that he had only named hens in his sumptuary law.
 Capon à la Déliaque.—Draw completely a fat capon; then bruise pepper,
alisander, and ginger, which you must mix with sausage-meat and fine
flour, and a pig’s brains cooked; add some eggs, then some garum, a little
oil, whole pepper, and several pine nuts. Make a stuffing of this mixture,
and put it into the capon, which afterwards roast before a slow fire.[XVII_17]

THE HEN.
The cackling of hens infallibly announced, among the ancients, some
dreadful calamity to the person who had the misfortune to hear it.[XVII_18]
This fatal omen must have rendered a great number of people unfortunate;
for whether she lays eggs, or conducts her young family, a hen generally
cackles.
They therefore sought to diminish the number of these birds of ill-omen;
they fattened them for eating, and they did right, since, according to learned
physicians, the flesh of these birds is good for weakly persons, as well as
those who are convalescent.[XVII_19] Healthy individuals also find this food
suit them perfectly. In Greece there would have been something wanting at
a feast, if fat hens had not been served. They embellished the celebrated
wedding repast of Caranus; and Athenæus often speaks of them when
describing a grand banquet.[XVII_20]
At Rome, the art of fattening them became a serious occupation, which
was long studied, and had its precepts and rules. Marcus Lœlius Strabo,
belonging to the order of knights, invented aviaries in which hens were
confined;[XVII_21] others sought and discovered the means of giving to their
flesh that particular flavour unperceived by uncultivated palates, but which
the experienced gastrophilist always appreciates. They patiently gave
themselves up to laborious experiments: a warm, narrow, dark spot received
these interesting volatiles; the feathers of their wings and tails were
plucked, and they were gorged twice a day during three weeks with balls of
barley flour mixed with soft water. Great cleanliness was combined with
this diet: their heads were well cleansed, and care taken that no insect
should enter the aviary.[XVII_22]
 Afterwards barley flour, kneaded with milk, was preferred; then, instead
of milk, water, and honey were employed. Excellent wheaten bread, soaked
in good wine and hydromel, was also used with success.[XVII_23]
Skilful breeders by these means obtained magnificent hens of an
incredibly exquisite flavour, and which weighed no less than sixteen
pounds.[XVII_24]
The Fannian law unfortunately came, and, as we have before observed,
brought impediments to these beautiful results by interdicting aviaries and
skilfully prepared pastes. It is true that this law allowed a farm-yard hen to
be served at every repast[XVII_25]—mais une poule par jour est-ce
contentement? It became necessary, then, to have recourse to a mezzo-
termine, which was discovered in the capon. But the favourite dish
forbidden by the consular authority was not altogether abandoned: some
faithful epicureans always possessed in the shade well-furnished aviaries;
and it was even then, we are assured, that Rome and the universe were
enriched with the poularde.[XVII_26]
Poularde à la Viminale.—Cook a fine hen in its gravy; pound and mix
benzoin, pepper, oil, and garum, a little thyme, fennel seed, cummin, mint,
and rue; stir for a long time; add some vinegar; pound some dates, and mix
them with honey and a little vinegar. Of all this make a homogeneous
seasoning, and pour it on the hen when it is cold.[XVII_27]

THE CHICKEN.
It is certainly surprising that a people so serious as the Romans generally
were, should make the success of the greatest enterprise depend on the
appetite of their famous sacred chickens. They were brought from the Island
of Negropont, and were kept shut up in cages; their guardian was
designated by the name of Pullarius.[XVII_28]
Publius Claudius, constrained to consult these strange prophets before
engaging in a naval combat, ordered them to be fed; they refused to open
their beaks. The incredulous general ordered them at once to be thrown into
the sea, and laughingly exclaimed to the dismayed Pullarius: “Since they
will not eat—well! then let us make them drink.”[XVII_29]
Diodorus of Sicily, and some ancient writers, tell us that the Egyptians,
from a remote period, hatched chickens in ovens. This process is decidedly
of the highest antiquity, and was applied to the eggs of all kinds of poultry.
[XVII_30] In the last century, Réaumur tried various experiments, and
recovered this art, which was thought to have been lost; others again have
followed the steps of this skilful observer, and, at the present day, obtain the
most satisfactory results.
Chickens have ever been considered an estimable food, and hardly
yielded to the two glories of their family—the fattened hen and the capon.
[XVII_31] The Greeks served them at all their feasts of ceremony, and the
Romans granted them a distinguished place among the dishes of the second
course.
Apician Macedonia of Chicken.—Chop small the meat of a chicken,
which mix with a kid’s breast, and put it into a saucepan with parsley seed,
dried pennyroyal, dried mint, ginger, green coriander, and raisins; then add
three pieces of the finest oaten bread, some honey, vinegar, oil, and wine;
some time after, add some excellent cheese, pine nuts, cucumbers, and dried
onions, well chopped. Pour some gravy over the whole, and when it is
cooked, surround the dish on all sides with snow, and serve.[XVII_32]
Parthian Chicken.—Open the croup dexterously, and put it in the
saucepan; then mix some pepper, alisander, a little carrot, garum, and wine;
fill the chicken with this seasoning; cook well, and sprinkle with pepper
before serving.[XVII_33]
Numidian Chicken.—Begin by boiling a chicken for some time; then
place it in a stew-pan, after having sprinkled it with benzoin and pepper.
Afterwards bruise some pepper, cummin, coriander seed, benzoin root, pine
nuts, rue, and dates; add honey, vinegar, garum, and oil; boil, thicken with
fine flour, sprinkle with pepper, and serve.[XVII_34]
Chicken à la Frontonienne.—Half cook a chicken, and then put into the
saucepan garum, oil, a bunch of dill, some leeks, winter savory, and green
coriander. You then sprinkle with pepper, and serve.[XVII_35]
Chicken à la Cœlienne.—Cook a chicken with garum, oil, wine,
coriander seed, and onion. Then put some milk and a little salt into another
saucepan, with honey and a little water, and cook this mixture over a very
slow fire. Throw in by degrees some raspings of sweet biscuits, and take
care to stir continually. Put the chicken into this sauce, and then serve with
a seasoning of pepper, alisander, and wild marjoram, mixed with honey and
cooked vine, which must be boiled and thickened with fine flour.[XVII_36]

THE DUCK.
The duck swims so well it was thought to be paying a compliment to
Neptune by sacrificing it to him.[XVII_37] The god of the seas never found
fault with this offering.
Attica and the whole of Greece sought the beautiful ducks of Bœotia,
[XVII_38] and that province was always found to have supplied a larger
number than it reared. It is true the poulterers of Athens, banishing all
scruples of conscience, rarely failed to satisfy their customers as to the
doubtful origin of a white nêssa (duck), by taking Neptune to witness that it
was a pure Bœotian, a real duck, as they said emphatically, of that species
so much appreciated by connoisseurs. Future quidnuncs will examine
whether the friendly duck of the English and the political and literary
canard of the French have, or have not, found their way from Greece, after
wandering a little on the road.
There were ducks at that prodigious dinner of the opulent Caranus, of
whom we have already spoken several times. They were always served at
the tables of the rich Greeks;[XVII_39] and Archigenes reckons them among
the viands which agree best with the stomach.[XVII_40] Cato was of the
same opinion; and, if we are to believe Plutarch, he made them the food of
those of his family who were ill, and boasted of maintaining his children,
servants, and himself in perfect health, by the aid of this diet alone.[XVII_41]
It was the same idea that made Mithridates mix the flesh of ducks with all
he ate, as an antidote against poison, which he feared.[XVII_42]
Hippocrates evinces a contrary opinion. The flesh of this bird seemed to
him hard, heavy, and indigestible.[XVII_43] Avicenna goes still further: he
threatens all who eat it with fever.[XVII_44] The Romans were no more
frightened than the Greeks at the decision of the father of medicine.
Lentulus, one of the high magiric authorities of Rome, ordered that the duck
should figure in the most honourable manner at the brilliant feast of which
Macrobius has preserved us an account.[XVII_45] It must, however, be
remembered that polite people, who observed the forms and usages of
society, only offered to their guests the breast and head of this biped; the
remainder returned to the kitchen.[XVII_46]
Ducks’ Brains à l’Epicurienne.—Cook some ducks’ brains, and mince
them very small; then place in a saucepan, with pepper, cummin, benzoin
root, garum, sweet wine, and oil; add milk and eggs, and submit the whole
to the action of a slow fire, or rather, cook them in a bain-marie.[XVII_47]
Apicius’s Seasoning for a Roast Duck.—Make a mixture of pepper,
cummin, alisander, mint, stoned raisins, or Damascus plums; add a little
honey and myrtle wine; place it in a saucepan; cook, and then add to these
substances vinegar, garum, and oil; afterwards some parsley and savory;
serve with the roast duck.[XVII_48]

THE GOOSE.
When a flock of geese are obliged to pass Mount Taurus—the dreaded
abode of their enemies, the eagles—each of them takes the precaution to
hold a stone in its beak, in order that he may keep a profound silence,
which, otherwise, his natural loquacity would render impossible.[XVII_49]
This, if true, would justify Aristotle in attributing foresight to the goose;
[XVII_50] a quality which Scaliger also claims for this bird.[XVII_51]

The ancients highly esteemed its flesh. Homer[XVII_52] and

Athenæus[XVII_53] speak with praise of the fat geese and goslings which the
Greeks ate.
The Egyptians served them at their meals every day; it was, with veal,
the favourite dish of their monarchs,[XVII_54] and they did not forget to
offer some to King Agesilaus, when he was travelling through the country.
[XVII_55]
 Some eastern nations were impressed with such deep veneration for this
bird that they swore by nothing else.[XVII_56] The Britons honoured it, and
forbad all persons to do it the least harm.[XVII_57] It remained for Queen
Elizabeth to prove, at her joyous dinners of the 29th September, that tastes
and usages are modified by time.[XVII_58] And moreover, many centuries
before, her ancestors had been greatly wanting in respect towards a
particular kind of goose, which they roasted without any ceremony.[XVII_59]
A well-deserved sentiment of gratitude rendered them dear to the Romans:
their noisy clamour had formerly saved the Capitol.[XVII_60] They became
for them, as for the Egyptians,[XVII_61] a symbol of safety, and were reared,
both in town and country, to guard the houses.[XVII_62]
Those which were kept, out of gratitude, in the Capitol, were
consecrated to Juno, Isis, Mars, and Priapus,[XVII_63] and every year one of
them was chosen for the brilliant and solemn ceremony we have already
mentioned.[XVII_64]
But, alas! time obscures and effaces all the glories of this world; and that
of the Roman geese, no doubt, had to submit to this sad fate,[XVII_65] for
they were eaten at least a century before the time of Pliny. Unfortunate bird!
Yes, a perfidious art fed them delicately in the shade, in convenient aviaries,
where nothing was wanting for their comfort, and at the end of a few days
the poor victims made but one step from this dangerous retreat to the place
of execution.[XVII_66] The Emperor Alexander Severus became so fond of
this dish, that on his great festival days they served him with a goose and a
pheasant.[XVII_67] Nothing, in his estimation, could equal the exquisite
flavour of these two birds.
The luxurious Romans, however, neglected the entire animal, and
thought only of the liver. They invented the art of fattening this viscera, and
of increasing its size to such an extent that it often weighed two pounds. To
obtain this result, they simply fed their victims of sensuality, during twenty
days, with a paste of dried figs and water.[XVII_68] As soon as the goose
was killed, the liver was put to soak in milk and honey.
It is not known exactly to whom we are to attribute this gastronomic
discovery. Scipio, Metellus, and Marcus Sejus disputed the glory of the
invention.[XVII_69] At all events, it is certain that the same method was used
in Greece as in Italy; that white geese were chosen in preference,[XVII_70]
and that the fat livers were served roasted, or fried in the frying-pan, and
enveloped in the omentum, a membrane which we term the caul.[XVII_71]
Pliny assures us that Apicius found means to increase livers to a monstrous
size,[XVII_72] which almost equalled in weight the whole body of the
animal.[XVII_73]
The wings and neck of the goose also acquired some favour; the feet
were added, when Messalinus had taught how to peel them by passing them
rapidly over the fire, and then preparing them with cocks’ combs. The
remainder was only good for the common people.[XVII_74]
Stuffed goslings also enjoyed a reputation among the Greeks,[XVII_75]
who fattened them by giving them, three times a day, during a month, a
mixture of bran and flour, moistened with hot water (two parts of flour and
four parts of bran); but, if Palladius is to be believed, it is much better to
feed them solely with millet, and as much water as they may require.
[XVII_76]
Sejus Seasoning.—Bruise pepper, alisander, coriander, mint, and rue;
mix with it garum and a little oil; pour it over the roast goose, and serve.
[XVII_77]
Apician Seasoning for a Roast Goose’s Liver.—Crush in a mortar, and
then well mix, pepper, carrots, cummin, parsley-seed, thyme, onions,
benzoin root, and fried pine nuts; add honey, vinegar, garum, and oil, and
serve with the roast liver in the omentum.[XVII_78]
Boiled Goose à la Gauloise.—Boil a goose with garum, oil, wine, a
bunch of leeks, coriander, and savory; then crush pepper and pine nuts, to
which put a little water. Then take the leeks, coriander, and savory out of
the saucepan; put in their place the mixture mentioned, add some milk, boil
it, thicken with whites of eggs, and serve.[XVII_79]
In the sixteenth century they had dark cages, in which they fattened
poultry with ground tares, wheaten flour, and barley meal. Capons fattened
in hutches, where they could not turn, nor even stir, were esteemed
delicious. They fed pigeons on the crumb of bread, steeped in wine;
peacocks on the sediment from cider.
On Michaelmas Day, the 29th of September, many persons in England
eat roast goose for their dinner. It is said that this custom dates from the
time of Queen Elizabeth, who was being served with a piece of goose on
Michaelmas Day, at the very moment when news was brought of the defeat
of the famous Armada. Some persons affirm that the Queen expressed a
desire that this dish might, each year, serve to perpetuate the remembrance
of so signal a victory. Would it not be more simple to suppose that Elizabeth
herself already conformed to a custom which had existed before her time?
[XVII_80]
At Mans, instead of letting the poultry eat freely, they are shut up in a
dark place, and made to swallow pellets of about two inches long and one
thick, composed of two parts of barley flour, and one of maize, made with
sufficient quantity of milk.
“In the time when the French had a decided taste for spices and
aromatics, they imagined to vary at will the flavour and perfume of the
flesh of fowls. With the paste used to fatten them was mixed musk, anise-
seed, and comfits, with other aromatic drugs. A Queen was known to spend
1,500 francs (£60) in fattening three geese, whose livers she wished to
render more delicate.”—Parmentier.

THE PIGEON.
The dove, a bird so dear to Venus,[XVII_81] served ambrosia to Jupiter,
[XVII_82] and became the interpreter of Dodona’s oracles.[XVII_83] Several
nations consecrated it to their gods.[XVII_84] The Jews discovered in it the
image of the sweetest virtues,[XVII_85] of beauty, innocence, and purity;
[XVII_86] and they sacrificed it to the Almighty, as a burnt offering
agreeable to His unspeakable holiness.[XVII_87]
This was because the dove or pigeon (begging pardon, here, for mixing
varieties) is to the hawk, according to an expression of a father of the
Church, what the lamb is to the wolf,[XVII_88]—a symbol of good by the
side of evil, or of a calm and peaceful conscience, as opposed to the sad and
agitated criminal. But, alas! the ancient prerogatives of this tender bird, its
candour and innocence, could not even preserve it from the fate common to
almost everything which breathes. Its delicate flesh—fatal gift of Heaven!
—recommended it to the epicure; not for its poetical qualities, but for its
delicate flavour; and, after many songs of praise, it was condemned to be
roasted.
From the beginning of the heroic ages, pigeons were caught with snares
and nets,[XVII_89] in order to feed them, and be able to procure some at
once, if required to be served at a repast; for they formed a dainty dish upon
the tables of the most fastidious.[XVII_90] Of course they figured in the
joyous wedding feast of that opulent Caranus who entertained his guests so
sumptuously.[XVII_91]
The Greeks, therefore, used to bring up an immense number of pigeons,
and built for them, in the most open situations, charming pigeon-houses, in
the form of small towers, models of elegance and cleanliness, where those
timid birds found at night a retreat, always fatal to some one amongst them.
[XVII_92]
The Romans introduced in these sorts of edifices the most unusual
luxury.[XVII_93] Each kind of pigeon had a particular home[XVII_94]—a
foolish and expensive taste, which they continually attempted to embellish.
It was, however, a profitable speculation for those who knew how to be
satisfied with pigeon-houses of more simple appearance. A brace of rather
ordinary pigeons did not cost less than 16s.: the finest were sold at £4 a pair.
It is even known that L. Axius, a Roman knight, demanded and obtained £6
8s. for two young pigeons intended for a patrician’s table.[XVII_95]
Physicians of that period greatly praised the flesh of these birds; they
recommended it to the sick and convalescent.[XVII_96]
Roast Pigeon, with Servilian Seasoning.—Bruise some dill seeds, dried
mint, and the root of benzoin; add some vinegar, dates, garum, a little
mustard, and oil; stir well; then mix with it some wine reduced to half, and
pour the whole on the roasted pigeon.[XVII_97]

THE GUINEA HEN.

This bird, called by the ancients the “Hen of Numidia,” comes originally
from many burning regions of Africa. In Greece, and especially in Rome,
vanity alone gave it a price which was willingly granted, more on account
of its scarcity than for its taste.[XVII_98] The Guinea hen appeared at great
banquets, when the Amphytrion was more anxious to show his opulence
than to demonstrate the delicacy of his dishes. Martial,[XVII_99] and Pliny,
[XVII_100] the naturalist, raised great objections against this ostentatious and
useless rarity.
Guinea Hen à la Numide.—Cook it; then put it in a saucepan with some
honey and garum; make several incisions in the bird; baste it with its own
gravy, and sprinkle with pepper previously to its being served.[XVII_101]

THE TURKEY HEN.

“There must be two to eat a truffled turkey,” said a gastronomist of the
18th century, to one of his friends—a noted gourmand—who had just come
to pay him a visit. “Two!” replied the visitor, with a smile of sensuality.
“Yes, two,” answered the first; “I never do otherwise: for instance, I have a
turkey to-day, and of course we must be two.” The friend, looking earnestly
at the other, said: “You, and who else?” “Why,” answered the gastronomist,
“I and the turkey.”
In Greece, more than one stomach would have been capable of
challenging nobly the voracity of this modern polyphagus: witness the
insatiable greediness of the well-known glutton who complained that nature
ought to have given him a neck as long as the stork, that he might enjoy for
a longer period his eating and drinking.[XVII_102]
But for a long time the Greeks were quite ignorant of the culinary value
of the turkey; it was looked upon as an uncommon curiosity, and not
condemned to the spit. Sophocles, the first who spoke of it, pretended that
those marvellous birds came purposely from some distant climate beyond
the Indies, to bewail the death of Meleager, who took possession of the
throne of Macedonia (279 years B.C.), and who was soon driven from it.
[XVII_103] This Prince, it is reported, carried them away from barbarous
regions, that they might enjoy the charms of Greek civilization; and hence
could there be anything more natural than to find those compassionate
volatiles shedding tears for their benefactor, in one of Sophocles’ tragedies?
They have been called since, Meleagrides, and this name perpetuated
“misfortune, favour, and gratitude.”
Aristotle hardly supplies us with any details upon turkey hens: he merely
says that their eggs are distinguished by little specks from those of the
common hens, which are white;[XVII_104] but Clytus of Miletus, his
disciple, gives an exact description of them, by which no mistake can be
made.[XVII_105]
Egypt also possessed some of these birds; but there they were still more
rare than in Greece, and formed one of the principal ornaments in the
triumphal pomp of Ptolemy Philadelphus, when he entered Alexandria.
Large cages, containing meleagrides, were carried before the monarch, and
on that day the people knew not which to admire most—the prince or the
turkey.[XVII_106]
They were introduced into Rome about the year 115 before our era; but,
for a long time, they were objects of uncommon curiosity: and Varro, the
first of the Latins who speaks of them, confounds these birds with the
guinea hens, or hens of Numidia.[XVII_107]
A century later, turkeys greatly multiplied, and vast numbers were reared
in the Roman farms. Caligula, who had the good sense to make his own
apotheosis during his life-time, through fear lest it might be refused after his
death, ordered a sacrifice of peacocks, guinea hens, and turkeys to be made
daily before his statue.[XVII_108]
It appears, however, that the breed of turkeys soon began to diminish in
Europe; very few were reared, and that only as a curiosity: in the citadel of
Athens, towards the year 540 of the Christian era;[XVII_109] and in 1510,
two were exhibited in Rome, which belonged to the Cardinal of Saint
Clement.[XVII_110] Jacques Cœur brought some meleagrides from India, in
1450; they were the first ever seen in France, and it was not till fifty-four
years afterwards that Americus Vespucius made them known to the
Portuguese. In our days these ancient inhabitants of Asia or
America[XVII_111] have become naturalized among us, and let us hope that
the day is yet distant when they will be absentees from our farm-yards and
our tables. We admire them less perhaps than Charles IX. did when a turkey
was served to him for the first time,[XVII_112] but we shall always receive
with cheerfulness the majestic dish upon which appears a well-fed turkey,
truffled, and smoking hot.
Turkey à l’Africaine.—Roast a turkey; bruise some pepper, alisander,
and benzoin; mix it with wine and garum. Pour this seasoning on the turkey,
sprinkle with pepper, and serve.[XVII_113]
The historian of Provence, Bouche, will have it that the French are
indebted for the turkey to King René, who died in 1480. Other writers
assure us that this volatile was introduced during the reign of Francis I. by
Admiral Chabert. La-Bruyère-Champier speaks of it as a recent acquisition,
and Beckmann refutes those who date its existence in France previous to
the 16th century. He says that this bird, which was wild in the forests of
America, became domesticated in Europe.
It is also said that we owe the importation of it to the Jesuits. According
to Hurtaut, it was not until about the time of Charles IX. that turkeys
appeared in France.[XVII_114] It is asserted, adds this author, that at the
wedding-dinner of that Prince the first turkey was served, and that it was
admired as a very extraordinary thing. The English tasted this new dish in
1525, the fifteenth year of the reign of Henry VIII.
To fatten turkeys—every morning, for a month, give them mashed
potatoes, mixed with buck-wheat flour, Indian corn, barley, or beans; a
paste is made of it which they are left to eat as they please. Every evening
what remains must be taken away. One month after, you add to this food,
when they go to roost, half a dozen balls composed of barley floor, which
they are made to swallow for eight days successively; at the end of that time
turkeys, thus fed, become excessively fat, delicious, and weigh from twenty
to twenty-five pounds.
In Provence, walnuts are given to them whole, which they are compelled
to swallow by slipping them one by one with the hand along the neck until
they have all past the œsophagus; they begin with one walnut, and increase
by degrees to forty. This kind of food gives an oily taste to the flesh.
Turkey eggs are good boiled, and are preferred to those of hens for
pastry; mixing them with the common eggs makes an omelette more
delicate.
“To obtain all the advantages possible from turkeys, they must be killed
at the same time as pigs; then cut the turkeys in quarters, and put them in
earthen pots covered over with the fat of the pork, and by this means they
may be eaten all the year round.”—Parmentier.

THE PEACOCK.
The peacock comes originally from India: it was there that Alexander the
Great saw it for the first time. He was so struck with its magnificent
plumage that he forbad all persons, under pain of death, to kill any.
[XVII_115]
Oriental princes kept the peacocks which travellers brought them, from
time to time, in their aviaries.[XVII_116] It was thus[XVII_117] that a certain
king of Egypt received one, of which he thought Jupiter alone worthy;
wherefore he sent it in great pomp to the temple of that god.[XVII_118]
These birds were thus known over various parts of the world. Samos,
which seems to have been provided one of the first, ornamented its money
with their image.[XVII_119] Their reputation soon spread far and wide;
[XVII_120] and Athenian speculators sent to that island for peacocks, which
were shown to the curious once a month.[XVII_121]
This variety became afterwards an article of commerce, and all wealthy
people became desirous to have them. A male and female cost £8 sterling.
[XVII_122] But what was that, when delighted eyes could contemplate the
charming and lovely colours of the haughty favourite of Juno!
At Rome, the peacock had a prodigious success.[XVII_123] When alive,
the Romans praised its beauty; when dead, it appeared on the tables of its
enthusiastic admirers.
Quintus Hortensius, the orator, was the first who had them served in a
banquet given by him on the occasion of being created an augur.[XVII_124]
This gastronomic novelty made an extraordinary sensation at Rome—as
might be expected—and the peacock became so much in fashion, that no
banquet could possibly be given unless it was embellished by its presence.
[XVII_125]
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