A. V. Kirwan

“ Any body can dine, but very few know how to dine, so as to ensure the greatest quantity of health and enjoyment—indeed, many people contrive to destroy their health; and as to enjoyment, I shudder when I think how often I have been doomed to only a solemn mockery of it, how often I have sat in durance stately, to go through the ceremony of a dinner, the essence of which is to be without ceremony, and how often in this land of liberty have I felt myself a slave. ”

“ It is impossible to deny that wine, taken in moderation, tends to strengthen and excite the spirits, to cheer and comfort the languid, and to refresh the toil-worn and exhausted. The poets of Greece and Rome celebrate the praises of wine, and, as though the invention of the liquor were too transcendental to be human, attribute it to the gods—to Osiris, Saturn, and Bacchus. Anacreon calls the juice of the grape ambrosial ”

“ While, also, the practical cook may find copious receipts in English cookery books for the boiling of turbot, cod-fish, john-dorey, and salmon, in the English and Dutch fashion, the sturgeon cutlets of the French, and their filets and béchamels of fish should be also introduced to English favour and attention from French cookery books. Our barons of beef, our noble sirloins, our exquisite haunches, saddles, legs, and loins of Southdown mutton, our noble rounds of boiled beef, and those haunches of British venison, the envy and admiration of the world, are worthy of the highest praise. ”

“ We have discovered and planted colonies which will perpetuate our name, our language, our literature, and our free institutions, to the last syllable of recorded time; but we cannot make veloutés of vegetables, nor haricots blancs à la maître d’hôtel. We have given liberty to the slave, and preached the pure word of the gospel to the nations subjected to our dominion and sway; but we still eat butter badly melted with our roast veal, and we have not invented three hundred and sixty-four ways to dress eggs. ”

“ The present system of dinner giving I consider thoroughly tainted with barbarism and vulgarity, and far removed from real and refined enjoyment. As tables are now arranged, one is never at peace from an arm continually setting on or taking off a side dish, or reaching over to a wine cooler in the centre; then comes the more laborious changing of courses, with the leanings right and left, to admit a host of dishes, that are set on only to be taken off again, after being declined in succession by each of the guests, to whom they are handed round ”

“ Gastronomy became the fashion of that day. Every one spoke on the subject; many wrote on it. Cookery passed from the kitchen to the shop, from the shop to the counting-house, from the counting-house to the studies of lawyers and physicians; thence to the salons and cabinets of ladies and statesmen. The object of life, according, at least, to our simple English notions, seemed reversed: people in England eat to live; in France, they appeared to live only to eat. ”

“ French tyranny, and think French military glory—which is but a velvety euphemism for French brigandage and French invasion—should be put down by the comity of nations, and the strong will and strong arm of all mankind—yet I am of opinion that there is much in the French kitchen which might be advantageously transplanted and successfully imitated in this country. But as nations cling with constancy to their old culinary customs, and as systems of cookery often survive systems of polity, I am not very hopeful as to any immediate change. ”

“ It may be a humiliating confession, but in England no learned treatises have been written on the art of dining or dinner giving. We are wholly without “meditations” or “contemplations gastronomiques;” we do not spend thousands of pounds in the gingerbread gilding of cafés and restaurants; nor have we “magasins de comestibles,” in the style of Chevet and Corcellet. Our inventive powers are not turned in the direction of luxury, nor do we make our bill of fare our calendar, nor measure the seasons by their dainty productions. ”

“ There is no reason why we should not have them, if schools of French cookery are multiplied, and families will go to the expense of the Madeira and Malaga wines, the truffles, the morels, the button mushrooms, and the bunches of sweet herbs. These things are expensive in London; and there are few so prone to obey the vulgar appetite of the belly—to use a phrase of the Roman historian, Sallust—that the outlay is not incurred. Our peers, our country gentlemen, as well as our wealthy merchants, are quite content to have their game well-roasted, which means not overdone. ”

“ I remember once receiving a severe frown from a lady at the head of her table, next to whom I was sitting, because I offered to take some fish from her, to which she had helped me, instead of waiting till it could be handed me by her one servant; and she was not deficient either in good breeding or sense. It is one of the evils of the present day, that every body strives after the same dull style, so that, when comfort might be expected, it is often least to be found. State, without the machinery of state, is of all states the worst. ”

“ There can be no doubt whatever that the large capitalist purchases a better wine than the small one, though the small capitalist has it in his power to produce as good a bottle of wine on his own table as his richer neighbour. But, when he caters for the public, it is more profitable by different mixtures to produce 100 tonneaux of middling quality than fifty of superior wine, even though the latter be sold at a considerably higher price than the former. In the cellars at Bordeaux there is great management of the wine. ”

“ The English imitators, or would-be imitators, wholly forget that a guest at a French table can never languish for lack of wine, for “vin ordinaire” always remains on the table, while only the very highest qualities of wine are handed round by the servants. In England, for many years past, the table is altogether stripped of wine, and the guests are at the mercy of butlers of paid waiters, who use the wine either for their private drinking after the dinner, in the servants’ hall, or of hosts who, to save their wine, would stint their guests. ”

“ But if we descend in England beyond the upper ten thousand, though the fried and roast are generally excellent, the attendance good, and the display of glass, crystal and plate much greater and better kept, than in any other country and capital in the world, yet the cookery is not to be compared to the finer cuisine bourgeoise of Paris. The professional and learned classes at Paris, as well as the class of superior traders, all feast at a cuisine, which, for its science, its relishing and appetizing qualities, greatly surpasses ours. ”

“ Though, therefore, the French cuisine be more luxurious, more varied, more palatable, more fair and dainty to look on than our ruder, more simple, more frugal, and less luxurious kitchen, yet our aliments (with the single exception of our vegetables) are infinitely more nutritious, and to English stomachs, at least, just as easy of digestion—perhaps, indeed, easier than the more refined and recherché fare of our livelier neighbours. ”

“ The coast of Holland, and the sea beyond our western coast, are as open to the French as to the British, yet when has any Paris market disclosed such a supply of fish as may be seen daily at Billingsgate, even after the hundreds of thousands of retail fishmongers have been supplied. In a few soups, such as turtle, which we possess in the greatest perfection, owing to our colonial trade, and ox tail, mock turtle, giblet, hare, pea, and mutton broth, we also surpass the French—but in the making of the latter admirable broth for invalids, there is still much to desire at coffee-houses and clubs. ”

“ We talk little of dining or dishes, however much the most luxurious and sensual among us may think about it. We can knead and bake, and roast and boil, and stew plain food as well, perhaps better, than our livelier neighbours; but we are not so expert in petits plats, in entrées, entremets, and ragouts, and are therefore justly obnoxious to the pert remark of Voltaire, that [51] though we have twenty-four religions, we have but one sauce. We can compare, combine and search out causes in morals, science, and legislation, but we have given no heed to the canons or combinations of cookery. ”

“ The metropolis of England exceeds that of France in extent and population; it commands a greater supply of all articles of consumption, and contains a greater number and variety of markets, which are better supplied. There are also some articles of meat and some articles of cookery in which England exceeds France. Though we are also undoubtedly inferior to the Gauls in the articles of veal and fowl, yet we greatly surpass them in mutton, produce better beef, lamb, and pork, and are immeasurably superior both in the quantity and quality of our fish, our venison, and our game. ”

“ Cookery is eminently an experimental and a practical art. Each day, while it adds to our experience, increases also our knowledge, and as we have come long after the Romans, and have had the benefit of their experience, it is no marvel that we should have greatly surpassed them. The characteristic of ancient cookery was profusion; the characteristic of [4] modern is delicacy and refinement. In the fifth century all trace of the Roman cookery had already disappeared. The barbarians from afar had savoured the scent of the Roman ragouts. The eternal city was invested, and her kitchen destroyed. ”

“ The only articles of food in the quality of which the French surpass us are veal and fowl, but such is the skill and science of their cooks that with worse mutton, worse beef, and worse lamb than ours, they produce better chops, cutlets, steaks, and better made dishes of every nature and kind whatsoever. In fricassées, ragouts, salmis, quenelles, purées, filets, and more especially in the dressing of vegetables, our neighbours surpass us. ”

“ It is one of the few dishes in Spanish cookery which an Englishman can relish.
Game is a light food, and easy of digestion; and there is no country in the world in which it is plainly roasted so well as in England. But in sautés, filets, or cutlets of game, in salmis of game aux truffes, à la rocambole, in crepinettes, or à la provençale, we are not [190] to be spoken of in the same century with the French. There are even tolerably simple ways of dressing game à la française, in which some of our French cooks are no adepts. ”

“ The finest aroma in fruit and flower will not always suffice, however, to produce fine liqueurs. Some plants of exquisite natural odours produce in distillation indifferent liqueurs; others there are of not so odorous a smell, which form the happiest possible combinations. There are many, for instance, who do not like the aroma of the truffle, and the perfumer can make little of it, yet it furnishes a most agreeable ratafia. It must in candour be admitted that the French are our masters in the art of the liquouriste. ”

“ The Spaniards are as little of a dinner-giving people as the Italians. Though every Spaniard tells you, with asseverating protestations, “Mi casa sta à la dispocion di usted,” yet this means nothing whatever, for assuredly you are never destined to eat or drink within his four walls, unless it be a cup of cold water. The only national dishes of any note in Spain, are the olla and the puchero, and neither would be relished by Englishmen of well-educated palates.
Germany has little to teach us in the way of cookery. On the banks of the Rhine they dress a carp well, with both sweet and sour sauce ”

“ There is, in truth, no more wholesome or palatable diet than good fish; and one dish of fish, and sometimes two, is generally found at a gentleman’s dinner-table in England, if he entertains a family-party of four or six. But though we have the finest fish in the world in this country, we do not dress it in the variety of ways in which it is served in France. ”

“ In asking people to dinner, you should put to yourself the question, “Why do I ask them?” and unless the answer be satisfactory, they are not likely to contribute much to the agreeability and sociality of the entertainment. They may be ornamental; it may be necessary, in a give-and-take sense, to have them in return for a dinner already long received and digested; but, unless they are sensible, social, unaffected, and clever men, they are not likely to contribute much to the hilarity of the entertainment. ”

“ It cannot be too often stated that the basis of all soup, and indeed of all broth, except mutton, should be juicy young beef and pure soft water. It should be remembered that the trimmings and the bones of fresh meat, the necks of poultry, the liquor in which a joint has been boiled, [125] and the shank-bones of mutton, are excellent additions to the stock-pot, and should be reserved for it. As soup is the food of childhood and old age, it should be restorative and nourishing. The great defect of English soups is, not the want of meat, but the want of a proper boiling or concoction. ”