Garlic

“ Garlic, for instance, is a flavor and not a food, yet many of the lower class foreigners eat it on bread, making a meal of dark bread, garlic and red wine. It is offensive to sensitive nostrils and vitiates the taste when thus used, but when properly added to certain foods it gives an intangible flavor which never fails to elicit praise. What is true of garlic is also true of the many herbs that are used. It is easy to pass from a rare flavor that makes a most savory dish to a taste of medicine that spoils a dinner. ”

“ GARLIC (Allium sativum) is a plant with bulbous root, of irregular form, composed of many smaller bulbs, called cloves, which are all included within a white skin.
The stem leaves are flat and narrow; the upper part of the stem bears small bulbs, and the stamens are three pointed.
In warm climates, where garlic is produced having considerably less acrimony than in this country, it is much used, both as a seasoning and as food. The lower classes of French, Spaniards, and Portuguese, consume great quantities of it. The Jews also eat of it to excess. ”

“ Hereabouts you begin to become sensible of a change in the cookery at the table-d'hôtes; and in the gradually increasing predominance of oil and garlic, you recognise the kitchen influences of the sweet south. Garlic is a word of fear—of absolute horror to a great proportion of our countrymen, whose prejudices will permit them to learn no better. ”

“ A relish for garlic, in fact, is one of those many acquired tastes which grew upon us with curious rapidity. You turn from the first garlicky dish with dismay; the second does not appear quite so bad; you muster up courage, and taste the third. A strange flavour certainly—nasty, too—but still—not irredeemably bad—there is a lurking merit in the sensation—and you try the experiment again and again—speedily coming to Sir Walter Scott's evident opinions touching the petit point d'ail, "which Gascons love and Scotsmen do not despise." ”

“ Still further south, still further east, you will journey but to find the onion fainter in flavour, until in India it seems but a pale parody of its English prototype. And again, at different seasons, very different are its most salient qualities. In great gladness of heart everyone must look forward to the dainty little spring onion: adorable as vegetable cooked in good white sauce, inscrutable as guardian spirit of fresh green salad, irreproachable as pickle in vinegar and mustard.
Garlic is one of the most gracious gifts of the gods to men—a gift, alas! too frequently abused. ”

“ Garlic. The purveyor of the sultan of Casgar says he knew a man who lost his thumbs and great toes from eating garlic. The facts were these: A young man was married to the favorite of Zobeidê, and partook of a dish containing garlic; when he went to his bride, she ordered him to be bound, and cut off his two thumbs and two great toes, for presuming to appear before her without having purified his fingers. Ever after this he always washed his hands 120 times with alkali and soap after partaking of garlic in a ragout.—Arabian Nights (“The Purveyor’s Story”) . ”

“ All is confusion and hurry. The white tassels of garlic that wave in the shadow of the temple may be fallen to-morrow, the blue buds of the borage never have time to unfold. The pageant passes like the waving of a handkerchief, but in compensation without the lumber that attends the passing of an English spring, no stalks and reluctant exits of half-dead leaves. ”

“ Garlic is closely allied to the onion, but will remain in the ground from one year to another if undisturbed. Garlic is planted by setting the small bulbs, or cloves, either in the autumn or early spring. The culture is practically the same as for the onion. ”

“ Those skilled in simples, Eastern as well as Western, praise garlic highly, declaring that it "strengthens the body, prepares the constitution for fatigue, brightens the sight, and, by increasing the digestive power, obviates the ill-effects arising from sudden change of air and water." The traveller inserts it into his dietary in some pleasant form, as "Provence-butter," because he observes that, wherever fever and ague abound, the people, ignorant of cause but observant of effect, make it a common article of food. ”

“ Each herb has a peculiar quality as a stomachic and it must be as delicately measured as if it were a medicine. The use of garlic, so much decried as plebeian, is the secret of some of the finest dishes prepared by the highest chefs. It must not be forgotten that in the use of all flavors and condiments there may be an intemperance, there lying the root of much of the bad cooking. ”

“ With such supplies of food the bud is well able to take care of itself. And, in fact, when a market-gardener wishes to raise a crop of garlic, he does not have recourse to the seed; that would take too long. He turns his attention to the buds; that is to say, he plants in the ground, one by one, the bulblets of which the heads of garlic are composed. Each of these bulblets, sustained at first by its own reserves of food, puts forth roots and leaves and becomes a complete garlic plant. ”

“ Garlic I consider a most valuable article of food in a hot climate, especially eaten raw. I never travelled without a supply of garlic, and I found its beneficial effects on the stomach and system most marked. When very hungry and fatigued I have found nothing to equal a few pieces of raw garlic, eaten with a crust of bread or a biscuit, for producing a few minutes after a delightful sensation of repose, and that feeling of the [Pg 241] stomach being ready to receive food, generally absent when excessive emptiness or exhaustion is the case. ”

“ The oleraceum, Streaked Field-garlic, or Wild Garlic, which is perennial; grows in pastures, meadows, and among corn; and produces whitish-green blossoms in the month of July.—It is eaten by cows, goats, sheep, and hogs:—the tender leaves of this species are usually boiled in soups, or fried with other herbs, and form an wholesome article of food. ”

“ Again, as a most common plant in all our hedgerows, is found the Poor Man's Garlic, or Sauce-alone (Erisymum alliaria) , from eruo, to cure, a somewhat coarse and most ordinary member of the onion tribe, which goes also by the names of "Jack by the hedge" and "Garlick-wort," and belongs to the cruciferous order [223] of plants. When bruised, it gives out a strong smell of garlic, and when eaten by cows it makes their milk taste powerfully of onions. The Ancients, says John Evelyn, used "Jack by the hedge" as a succedaneum to their Scordium, or cultivated Garlic. ”

“ We make a special preparation, known as Vacuum Brand Garlic Compound, with which butchers are able to give a Garlic Flavor to any kind of meat, without having any of the objectionable features that result from the use of fresh Garlic. ”

“ Garlic is called the physic of the peasantry, especially in warm countries, where it is eaten before going to work, in order to guarantee them from the pernicious effects of foul air. It would be too long were we to relate all that has been written in favour of this vegetable ”

“ People who don't like garlic might have objected to some of the dishes, but a traveller should learn to like garlic. We had cold beef tongue with onion salad, soup, a beef-stew called puchero that includes squashes among its vegetables, stewed tripe, beefsteak fried with onions and tomatoes, and we finished with fruit and black coffee. ”

“ ALLIATUM, a garlic sauce, consisting of a purée of pounded garlic whipped up with oil into a paste of a consistency of mayonnaise, a preparation still popular in the Provence today; finally, anything flavored with garlic or leeks
ALLIUM, garlic; also leek. Fr. ”

“ As a medicine internally taken, garlic is administered as a bolus, or made into pills. Its smell is considered an infallible remedy against vapours, and to be useful in nearly all the nervous disorders to which females are subject. An oil is sometimes prepared from garlic, which is so heavy as to sink in water. But the virtues of this pungent vegetable are more perfectly and more readily extracted by spirit of wine than in any other way. A syrup is also made from it. ”

“ It is eaten in large quantities by the Latin nations of southern Europe, and is employed throughout the world as a seasoning or flavoring for many dishes. When eaten in excess it makes the breath extremely disagreeable, as can be witnessed by all who have traveled in the Latin countries of Europe and even among the South Germans. Garlic is not eaten to any extent by our native citizens, but is used by our first-class cooks extensively as a seasoning. ”

“ And here, in passing, one word on the onions and garlic, whose odor issues from the mouths of every Italian crowd, like the fumes from the maw of Fridolin's dragon. Everybody eats them in Italy; the upper classes show them to their dishes to give them a flavor, and the lower use them not only as a flavor, but as a food. ”

“ In England garlic is seldom used except as a seasoning, but in the southern countries of Europe it is a common ingredient in dishes, and is largely consumed by the agricultural population. Garlic was placed by the ancient Greeks on the piles of stones at cross-roads, as a supper for Hecate (Theophrastus, Characters, Δεισιδαιμονίας) ; and according to Pliny garlic and onions were invocated as deities by the Egyptians at the taking of oaths. The inhabitants of Pelusium in lower Egypt, who worshipped the onion, are said to have held both it and garlic in aversion as food. ”

“ Mustard, which was an ingredient in so many dishes, was cultivated and manufactured in the thirteenth century in the neighbourhood of Dijon and Angers.
According to a popular adage, garlic was the medicine (thériaque) of peasants; town-people for a long time greatly appreciated aillée, which was a sauce made of garlic, and sold ready prepared in the streets of Paris. ”

“ There will be a little too much garlic in my daily life—even such a destiny as mine must have its drawbacks—but think of the wonderful scenery I shall see and the queer, beautiful out-of-the-way holes and corners I shall discover! ”

“ The garlic is mostly contributed by hollow-eyed croupiers, who are in some measure responsible for the old clothes, an odour otherwise due to grave elderly persons, chiefly female, in garments of indescribable frumpishness and respectability, who form the staple of the afternoon congregation, and seem to contemplate life and its agreeable weaknesses from a standpoint of ferocious piety. ”

“ Horace says that this herb is only fit for the stomachs of reapers, but every man who loves garlic in France is not a reaper. Strangers to this region had better reconcile themselves both to its perfume and its flavour without loss of time, for of all the seasoning essences provided by nature for the delight of mankind garlic is most esteemed here. Those who have a horror of it would fare very badly at a table-d'hôte at Cahors, for its refined odour rises as soon as the soup is brought in, and does not leave until after the salad. ”

“ Garlic is a native of the south of Europe, and was introduced before the time of Henry VIII. The shallot is a native of Palestine, and it has been in cultivation in British gardens at least as long as [Pg 181] the garlic. It is very difficult to grow, as it is apt to be attacked by a kind of maggot; but it has been found to succeed planted in cup-shaped hollows like the leek.
All the onion tribe require a light, rich, well-drained soil; and they always succeed best where there is a gravelly subsoil.
Salad plants.—These are very numerous, and include lettuces, endive, small salads, celery, &c. ”

“ When hot cut up a clove of garlic very fine and brown slightly in the fat. Add a tablespoon of flour, stirring briskly, pepper and salt to taste and thin with soup stock, then the pieces of milt and let it simmer slowly. If the sauce is too thick add more water or soup stock. Some add a few caraway seeds instead of the garlic, which is a matter of taste. ”

“ Garlic Vinegar.— (No. 400.)
Garlic is ready for this purpose from midsummer to Michaelmas.
Peel and chop two ounces of garlic, pour on them a quart of white wine vinegar, stop the jar close, and let it steep ten days, shaking it well every day; then pour off the clear liquor into small bottles.
Obs.—The cook must be careful not to use too much of this; a few drops of it will give a pint of gravy a sufficient [271] smack of the garlic, the flavour of which, when slight and well blended, is one of the finest we have; when used in excess, it is the most offensive. ”

“ Two thousand three hundred roubles! After such a good stroke of business you’ll have an appetite for your lunch. Do you like my rooms? The ladies about here declare that my rooms always smell of garlic. With that culinary gibe their stock of wit is exhausted. I hasten to assure you that I’ve no garlic even in the cellar. And one day when a doctor came to see me who smelt of garlic, I asked him to take his hat and go and spread his fragrance elsewhere. There is no smell of garlic here, but the place does smell of drugs. ”

“ The garlic is more deobstruent and diaphoretic than the others; and the dog-leek, being wild, is drier than the common leek. Regarding pot-herbs in general, the raw, when eaten, furnish worse juices than the boiled, as they have more excrementitious juice. But those which are prepared for pickles with brine or vinegar and salt are stomachic, and whet the appetite, and discuss crude humours; but are of difficult digestion, and supply bad juices when too freely taken. ”

“ Prepare a sauce as described in the last, quite plain, bruise half a clove of a garlic to a purée, which add to the sauce with twelve chopped olives, two of chopped gherkins, two of capers, and the fillets of a small anchovy cut in fine strips; this sauce may be used for any description of salad. There are many persons who, I am aware, have a great dislike to garlic, but as there are a great many also very fond of it, I have here given it as a bonne bouche. ”