Practical gastronomy and culinary dictionary

"Preach as I please, I doubt our curious men Will choose a pheasant still before a hen. Yet hens of Guinea feed as good, I hold, Except you eat the feathers green and gold Of carps and mullets, why prefer the great. Though cut in pieces as my lord can eat ? Yet for small turbots such esteem profess. Because God made these large, the others less. Oldfield, with more than harpy throat endued, Cries, 'Send me, gods ! a whole hog barbecued.' " " The Connoisseur," published in 1754, gives reference to the quality of cooking at the Star and Garter. " They drove to the ' Star and Garter ' to regale on Macaroni, or toyed with ortolans at White's or Pontac's. At Dolly's and Horsman's beefsteaks were eaten with gill ale." " The art of Cookery," by a lady, published in 1765, contains several useful recipes. The " Cook's Oracle," by Dr. Kitchener, published in 1817, was also a very popular work. The best of cookery books which were published at that time was undoubtedly that by THE ART OF COOKERY 25 M. Ude. Louis Eustache Ude was an eminent French cook : he superintended the kitchens of Louis XVI. and the Earl of Sefton. The cookery of England is not, generally speaking, a thing of luxury and art, but for a plain and at the same time substantial meal there can be nothing more agreeable than a well-cooked ''English dimier." The patriotic Briton has a right to be proud of Thackeray's lines, which run as follow : — " Dear Lucy, you know what my wish is. I hate all your Frenchified fuss ; Your silly Entrees and made dishes Were never intended for us. But a plain leg of mutton, my Lucy, I pray thee get ready at three. Have it smoking and tender and juicy. And what better meat can there be ? " There are, however, not two men who will agree as to what constitutes a good dinner. The father of the late Earl of Dudley, one of the most noted gourmands of his time, used to say, " A good soup, a small turbot, a neck of venison, duck- lings with green peas, or chicken with asparagus, and an apricot tart is a dinner for an emperor." I certainly agree with him, but should think that many would be quite contented with less, and if we never dined off anything worse than Lucy's leg of mutton, " smoking and tender and juicy," we ought not to complain. 26 PKACTICAL GASTRONOMY Who shall say what stupendous issues in the world's history have not turned upon good or bad cookery ? It has always been a reproach to the English that they are behind the rest of the civilised world in respect of cookery. A witty Frenchman once spoke of the English as " a nation with fifty religions and one sauce." I do not think they are as bad as that, and if there is still some reproach clinging to their nation in this respect, it is proved and admitted by competent judges that a first- rate dinner in England is, beyond all comparison, better than a dinner of the same class in any other country for the following simple reason, that English gold can buy the best cooks, just as it can purchase the best singers. The greatest cuisinier of his day, L. E. Ude, wrote as follows : " I will venture to affirm that cooking in England, when well done, is superior to that of any other country of the world."