" There's no want of meat, sir,
Portly and curious viands are prepared
To please all kinds of appetite."
Massinger.
''The destiny of nations depends on their diet," says
Savarin, an opinion exactly coinciding with that of the
ancient ballad-monger who asserted the infallibility of
Britons so long as they were fed upon beef. Without
exactly agreeing with either of these, time has proven
that the civilization of a people or age may be ascer-
tained by the style of its cookery — that gastronomic taste
changes with the progress of a people. In the time of
Henry VIII. a porpoise was esteemed a great delicacy.
The seasoning of dishes was strong and pungent, saffron
being a predominating flavoring for them. Shaks-
pere speaks of this in " The Winter's Tale," when
the clown, sent shopping for the sheep-shearing feast,
says, — " I must have saffron to color the warden pies."
The fee-favor of the city of Norwich was twenty-four her-
ring-pies, each containing five herrings. They were car-
13
14 THE PATTERN COOK-BOOK.
vied to court by the Lord of the Manor of Carleton in
1629. These pies were seasoned with ginger, pepper,
cinnamon, cloves, and " grains of Paradise," which were
much used in those days of strong palates, being pun-
gent and peppery. Looking back only to the last cent-
ury, we arc confronted with the coarseness of our more
recent ancestors' cookery. A gammon of bacon was
to be boiled and a quantity of hay was tied up in a
cloth and placed in the water during the cooking — for
flavoring. A neck of lamb was fried with ale, which
appears to have been freely used in cooking. Simplicity
evidently was unknown, as may be gathered from a
perusal of the " Cook's Dictionary," published a century
ago.
But we must not. forget, while criticising the cookery
of the past, that every age and country have been laid
under contribution to supply the materials with which
the modern cook works, and that our tables are now sup-
plied, thanks to the increased and rapid intercourse with
other lands, from the larder of tlie world. How best to
use and enjoy these gifts of Providence became at length
a study, and a literature of cookery gradually arose.
The first books were written by cooks or housewives, who
lacked the power of language to convey their knowledge
to others ; and like the " Cook's Dictionary," their books,
ill-spelled and poorly expressed, were of no great use to
the worker. But in the present day, as the art improves,
books on the subject grow with it, and ladies vie, in
writing them, with the professional cook.
COOKING
is the art of preparing food for the nourishment of the
INTRODUCTION. 1 5
human body. It is usually done by the direct applica-
tion of heat, fruits and some of the vegetables eaten in
their natural state having really been " cooked " by the
sun. Milk and eggs, which are perfect food, would be
nothing unless they came from the warm living animal.
Foods dried or smoked have undergone a certain process
of natural cooking,
HEAT
seems to create new flavors and to change the odor,
taste and digestibility of nearly all articles of food. It
opens the cells of starch in flour, rice and potatoes ;
hardens the albumen in eggs, fish and meal ; softens the
fibre of tough meat, hard vegetables and fruits ; and
gives new flavor to tea, coffee, etc.
COLD
Page 2
Presented as published in 1890. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
" There's no want of meat, sir, Portly and curious viands are prepared To please all kinds of appetite."
Massinger.
''The destiny of nations depends on their diet," says Savarin, an opinion exactly coinciding with that of the ancient ballad-monger who asserted the infallibility of Britons so long as they were fed upon beef. Without exactly agreeing with either of these, time has proven that the civilization of a people or age may be ascertained by the style of its cookery — that gastronomic taste changes with the progress of a people. In the time of Henry VIII. a porpoise was esteemed a great delicacy. The seasoning of dishes was strong and pungent, saffron being a predominating flavoring for them. Shakspere speaks of this in " The Winter's Tale," when the clown, sent shopping for the sheep-shearing feast, says, — " I must have saffron to color the warden pies." The fee-favor of the city of Norwich was twenty-four herring-pies, each containing five herrings. They were carried to court by the Lord of the Manor of Carleton in 1629. These pies were seasoned with ginger, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and " grains of Paradise," which were much used in those days of strong palates, being pungent and peppery. Looking back only to the last century, we arc confronted with the coarseness of our more recent ancestors' cookery. A gammon of bacon was to be boiled and a quantity of hay was tied up in a cloth and placed in the water during the cooking — for flavoring. A neck of lamb was fried with ale, which appears to have been freely used in cooking. Simplicity evidently was unknown, as may be gathered from a perusal of the " Cook's Dictionary," published a century ago.
But we must not. forget, while criticising the cookery of the past, that every age and country have been laid under contribution to supply the materials with which the modern cook works, and that our tables are now supplied, thanks to the increased and rapid intercourse with other lands, from the larder of the world. How best to use and enjoy these gifts of Providence became at length a study, and a literature of cookery gradually arose. The first books were written by cooks or housewives, who lacked the power of language to convey their knowledge to others ; and like the " Cook's Dictionary," their books, ill-spelled and poorly expressed, were of no great use to the worker. But in the present day, as the art improves, books on the subject grow with it, and ladies vie, in writing them, with the professional cook.
COOKING
is the art of preparing food for the nourishment of the
INTRODUCTION. 1 5
human body. It is usually done by the direct application of heat, fruits and some of the vegetables eaten in their natural state having really been " cooked " by the sun. Milk and eggs, which are perfect food, would be nothing unless they came from the warm living animal. Foods dried or smoked have undergone a certain process of natural cooking,
HEAT
seems to create new flavors and to change the odor, taste and digestibility of nearly all articles of food. It opens the cells of starch in flour, rice and potatoes ; hardens the albumen in eggs, fish and meal ; softens the fibre of tough meat, hard vegetables and fruits ; and gives new flavor to tea, coffee, etc.
COLD