Practical gastronomy and culinary dictionary

The etymology of "kitchen" is rather mixed: in French it is cuisine ; Italian, cucina ; in Latin, coquina ; and in German Kilche. We find that in Saxon it is cycane ; in Welsh, cequin ; in Danish, Kicekhen; and in Scotch, kyshen. Hence the names in German, Saxon, Danish, and Scotch resemble more the homely English word of "kitchen." The word itself seems to be in English an adaptation of the Latin coqtdna : it denotes the place where food is cooked. Some of our ancient authors refer to the word " kitchen " at very early dates. Thus Aristotle, 48 PRACTICAL GASTRONOMY in B.C. 329, writes : " It is less a rebuke for a man to be busy to know what is done in his kitchen than for a woman to know what is done without her house." Then, again, in 1590, Spencer says : — * 'They both attone. Did outie to their lady as became, Who passing byforth led her guests anone Unto the kitchen roome, ne spared for nicenesse none." In the poem of " Piers the Ploughman " there is the following passage : " Ich be cook in here kitchen." Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived in the 14th century, writing in " The Wyf of Bathe's Tale," speaks of " blessing halles, chambers, kitchens and boures, cities and burghs, castels hihe and toures." Shakespeare writes is his " Comedy of Errors " : — *' There is a fat frind at your master's house that kitchen'd me for you to-day at dinner, "j Some of the culinary affairs of yore disclose most en^dous facts in connection with cooks and kitchens ; for instance, there is a book mth the kitchens of the olden time, strange tricks and fancies, called " Porta's Natural Magicke." It gives directions as to the ways of roasting and boiling a fowl at the same time, so that one half shall be roasted and the other boiled, and concludes that, should you have a lack of cooks, there is a way of persuading a goose — how to roast himself. THE EARLY USE OF THE WORD "KITCHEN 49 Here is a recipe to make a *• Sauce for a Goose," A.D. 1381 : " Take a faire panne, and set him under the goose whill she rostes : and kepeclane the grese that droppes thereof, and put therto a godele [good deal] of Wyn, and a litel \dnegur, and verjus, and onyons mynced or garleek, then take the gottes of the goose and slitt horn, and scrape horn alone in water and salt, and so wash horn, and hack horn small, then do all this to gadur in a piffenet and do thereto raisinges and corance, pouder of pepur and of ginger and of canell, and hole clowes and maces, and let hit boyle and serve hit forthe." 50 PEACTICAL GASTRONOMY The Cook in Proverb. 1. The cook is worth as much as the waiter. 2. A strange cook makes good soups. 3. Even the best cook's soups may burn sometimes. 4. It is a sad sign of the cook who first seeks his spoon when the pot is boiling over. 5. The cleverest cook cannot make a good soup from water alone. 6. The cook is the best doctor. 7. The cook must know everybody's tastes. 8. A good cook has, as a rule, more fat on his hands than hi his stomach. 9. The cook is badly off who cannot lick his fingers. 10. A good cook in a kitchen is worth as much as a good jockey on his horse. 11. A good cook does not boil chickens immediately after they are picked. 12. Not all who have a large spoon in their hands are cooks. 13. The more cooks, the worse the broth.