Gourmand

“ Much more complicated than the psychology of the ordinary eater is that of the gourmand, who always seems even to himself to be an exceptional kind of person and who has in unsuspected ways enlarged the sphere of possible pleasures. ”

“ For food, after all, is one of the lesser considerations; the connoisseur, the gourmet, even the gourmand, spends no more than four hours out of the day at his table. From the cycle, he may select four in which to eat ”

“ This is the gourmand all forlorn, who dreamed of the table where diners sat, served by the cooking-wench florid and fat, &c.
This is the postman who knocked in the morn awaking the gourmand all forlorn from his dream of the table, &c. ”

“ The excellence of a dinner à quatre, for any but a quartet of gourmands, is merely to provide a soft-footed ministration of successive felicities to the appetitive nature while the higher faculties, stimulated by the æsthetic accessories of the feast, nimbly engage in the discourse of reason. ”

“ Physically, it is a demonstration of the healthy state of the organs of nutrition.
Morally, it is implicit resignation to the orders of God, who made us eat to live, invites us to do so by appetite, sustains us by flavor, and rewards us by pleasure.
ADVANTAGES OF GOURMANDISE. Considered from the points of view of political economy, gourmandise is the common bond which unites the people in reciprocal exchanges of the articles needed for daily consumption. ”

“ Drinking has indeed been sung, but why, I have heard it asked, have we no ‘Eating Songs’?—for eating is, surely, a fine pleasure. Many practise it already, and it is becoming more general every day. I speak not of the finicking joy of the gourmet, but the joy of an honest appetite in ecstasy, the elemental joy of absorbing quantities of fresh, simple food—mere roast lamb, new potatoes, and peas of living green. ”

“ I thought that I detected a faint fragrance of lavender lurking in the clean curtains, or perhaps it might have come from the square of ancient damask covering the table, on which a meal was spread.
That meal consisted of chicken; a salad of pale green lettuce and coraline tomatoes; a slim-necked bottle of white wine; a custard with a foaming crest of beaten egg and sugar; and a dish of purple figs. Food for the gods, and with only a boy to eat it—but a remarkable boy. ”

“ Next the well-roasted bird—of game or poultry—accompanied or followed by salad, and a dish of choice vegetables. Then one light simple sweet, for those who take it, and a slight savory biscuit or morsel of cheese completes the repast. Such a meal contains within its limits all that can be desired for daily enjoyment and use. If well and liberally served, it is complete in every sense of the word. Dessert and its extent is a matter of individual taste ”

“ If any persons come in the afternoon, if no greater, or so great as the Person who entertains them, then you may present one or two Dishes of Cream only, and a whipt Sillibub, or other, with about four Dishes of Sweet-meats served in, in like manner as at Dinner, with Dishes of Fruit, and some kind of Wine of your own making ”

“ Although a meal satisfies your hunger you should have dessert, because the educated palate craves that particular spice as a proper finish. Scientists tell us that a dinner digests better because of a tasty dessert, which, they say, gives the final stimulus necessary to dispose of the food previously received. ”

“ The young married woman who is expert in blending sauces, is just as clever in mixing the human elements of attraction and amalgamation.
Refreshments, daintily served, stimulate conversation; ice cream breaks the ice, so to speak, and warms the company. Serving food is a visible demonstration of hospitality which all the philosophy in the world cannot cover.
Gorgeous ornamentation of dinner table is conceded to be bad form. ”

“ The mere sight of the food our twelve-pound-a-year cook put upon the table would take away her appetite. Love does not change the palate, give you a taste for cheap claret when you have been accustomed to dry champagne. We have bodies to think of as well as souls ”

“ A witty writer says that dessert should be "the girandole, or cunning tableau of the dinner." It should "surprise, astonish, dazzle, and enchant." We may almost decide upon the taste of an age as we read of its desserts. The tasteless luxury and coarse pleasures of the reign of Charles II.,—that society where Rochester fluttered and Buckingham flaunted,—how it is all described in one dessert! ”

“ Thus we go on absolving in great style, till it is time for the matutinal meal—vulgarly called breakfast; when the whiskey, eggs, toast, and tea as strong as Hercules, with ham, fowl, beef-steaks, or mutton-chops, all pour in upon us in the full tide of hospitality. ”

“ Deprived of the illusive accompaniments of the lights, the sparkling eyes, the tinkling glasses, and the indulgent good-nature engendered by an excellent dinner, good wines, and an ample dessert, these table libertinages, when read nearly a century afterwards, lose all their piquancy of flavor and become simply nauseous. ”

“ What a feast was spread before us on the white linen napkins on the grass!—rolls of bread and pats of butter, veal-and-ham pies, boiled eggs, nuts, pears, and a delectable salad compounded by his own hands, three bottles of wine, and I know not what else. ”

“ What shall I say of the numberless kinds of food to alleviate hunger, and the variety of seasonings to stimulate appetite which are scattered everywhere by nature, and for which we are not indebted to the art of cookery? ”

“ To my mind there is nothing in all travelling so delightful as these eggs-and-ham interruptions that do duty for meals. Not only is the viand itself so agreeable, but its odour when cooking creates an appetite. ”

“ No part of a dinner is governed more by individual tastes and circumstances than the dessert; it may consist of one or more dishes of choice fruits; or a varied display may be provided at a comparatively trifling cost, when the dessert is composed principally of fruits in season and homemade sweets. Pines, melons, grapes, peaches, nectarines, plums, strawberries, cherries, apples, pears, oranges, figs, raisins, walnuts, filberts, crystallized fruits, fancy ices, fancy cakes and biscuits, make up the dessert, together with dainty sweets and bon-bons, with which the present chapter deals. ”

“ DIFFERENT OBJECTS OF GASTRONOMY. Gastronomy considers taste in its pleasures and in its pains. It has discovered the gradual excitements of which it is susceptible; it regularizes its action, and has fixed limits, which a man who respects himself will never pass.
It also considers the action of food or aliments on the moral of man, on his imagination, his mind, his judgment, his courage, and his perceptions, whether he is awake, sleeps, acts, or reposes. ”

“ Lord M.—It is that which has always made me say that a good cook is as useful as a good tutor.
S.—I have always perceived, my Lord, that the finest palate is the most difficult to please, but also the most just in praise.
Lord M.—The choice of wines is of great importance in the progress of a dinner: a fine wine, light and generous, protects the cook and becomes the benefactor of the guest. ”

“ To us, who had lately fared so scantily, it seemed strange, and somewhat absurd, that such rich and delicious food, of which several had so liberally partaken, should not even be considered as a part of dinner. We were no less astonished to find, in this semi-barbarous place, people who had skill to prepare, and taste to enjoy, dainties well deserving the admiration of the most refined apician connoisseurs. ”

“ Profusion is not elegance—a dinner justly calculated for the company, and consisting for the greater part of small articles, correctly prepared, and neatly served up, will make a much more pleasing appearance to the sight, and give a far greater gratification to the appetite, than a table loaded with food, and from the multiplicity of dishes, unavoidably neglected in the preparation, and served up cold. ”

“ It is you that are the materialist, not I, for the reason that the familiarity of the process of eating blinds you to its essentially mysterious nature; that process of transmutation of gastronomic alchemy, by which food is changed into genius and beauty, and the kitchen seen to be the power-house of the soul. ”

“ All dishes must be beautifully prepared and disposed to woo and win the sense of sight; the assembled articles must give off odors harmoniously blended to delight and cultivate the sense of smell; and each substance must balance with every other in point of flavor, to meet the natural demands of taste; otherwise the entertainment is shorn of its virtue to bless and tranquillize the soul! . . . .
"But lo, the fanatic in eating appears! Miserably hot with gluttonous debauchery. He has feasted upon a thousand deaths! ”

“ Whether it be in jest or earnest, that the theological and Sorbonnical wine, and their feasts, are turned into a proverb, I find it reasonable they should dine so much more commodiously and pleasantly, as they have profitably and seriously employed the morning in the exercise of their schools. The conscience of having well spent the other hours, is the just and savoury sauce of the dinner-table. ”

“ And if there is a proper harmony to be attained in the combining of various ingredients, making every perfect dish a poem, there is no less harmony in combining the various dishes for a repast, making a poem in every perfect meal. For every leading dish has its kindred and antagonistic ones: as, at dinner, one would not serve cauliflower with fricasseed chicken, nor turnips with boiled salmon, nor, at tea, currants with cream-toast, nor currants with custard. ”

“ To snatch from his daily toil a few moments, here and there, in order to arrange with some degree of symmetry, not the delicacies that would awaken the jaded appetite of the gourmet, but to prepare an ensemble that might, with equal grace, adorn the home table or banquet board, has proven a task of no mean proportions. ”

“ I think cooking should be considered one of the fine arts—and the woman who prepares a dainty, appetizing dish of food, which appeals to the sense of taste, should be considered as worthy of praise as the artist who paints a fine picture to gratify our sense of sight. ”

“ Naturally, his taste ought to determine the seasoning of the food, the heat of his blood gauge the temperature of the rooms in winter, the whims of his moods govern the course of the conversation at dinner. ”

“ Wine, spirits, liqueurs, and ale are consumed in large quantities, as also soups, fish, game, venison, meat, and poultry of all kinds, with French side-dishes, a profusion of jellies, puddings, and pastry, and a plentiful dessert of fresh and preserved fruits. ”

“ To-day, for instance, I’ll tell you what our food was. Breakfast: good oatmeal with boiled milk and sugar, coffee, war bread, which one of the group toasted before the fire for our table, “bacon” the eternal, which is fried ham, and not very good. Lunch: a kind of meat loaf, rice, with cheese (which we have about every other day) , bread and butter, cocoa, and stewed figs, stewed without sugar. ”

“ No one, least of all the French cook, calculates to feast the eye at the expense of the sense of taste, yet it is his experience after long years that good digestion is much more likely to wait upon the appetite that has been stirred to a preliminary enthusiasm by the attractive appearance of a dish. ”

“ We always returned to our castellated home for our evening meal, and, armed with a basket containing sardines, bread, butter, cold tongue, or ham, delicious cakes or fruit for dessert, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. ”

“ Is not the spirit of the wholesome breeze, fresh from the mountain, and perfumed with wild flowers, infinitely more invigorating to the senses than the air of the crowded drawing-room, loaded with scented powder and essences? Did we relish so well the disguised dishes with which a French cook strove to whet our sickly appetites, as we do our draught of new milk, our homemade loaf, and the other articles of our simple fare? ”

“ I'm not hungry, but it is comforting to think how delightful that supper would taste if I were. Food is a so magic rich gusty gift bestowed on the human race: and is besides a profoundly delicious Idea. ”

“ Why should people eat a good dinner, and put their spirits into festive trim with Champagne, and afterwards mellow themselves into a most enjoyable state of quietude with copious libations of Sherry and old Port, and then disturb the whole excellent result by listening to speeches as heavy as an after-dinner nap, and in no degree so refreshing? ”

“ The harmonious blending of tastes, odors, colors, and the like is an art. Just as there are pleasing combinations of sound, so there are harmonies of flavor; certain dishes seem naturally to “go together.” Habit has a great deal to do with food combinations. A Chinaman would not eat sugar on rice; a Japanese would not cook beans with molasses as the Bostonian does. It is interesting to experiment with new combinations, and study to find out why old ones are pleasing. Why do we like crackers with soup? Butter on bread? Toast with eggs? Peas with lamb chops? ”

“ If it had been to dinner, indeed, or even to supper—but a cup of tea and a piece of cake or bread and butter, of what consequence could that be in a house where so much of those simple dainties was consumed every day? ”

“ As a matter of fact, in cookery the mention in the right place of a single ingredient, like in poetry the right word, often suffices to conjure up before the gourmet’s mental eye vistas of delight. Call it inspiration, association of ideas or what you please, a single word may often prove a guide, a savior. ”

“ Some fashionable ladies have the reputation of having very fine lunches—chops, chickens, oysters, salads, chocolate, and many other good things being provided; and others, just as fashionable, have nothing but a cup of tea or chocolate, some thin slices of bread and butter, and cold meat; or, if of Teutonic taste, nothing but cheese, crackers, and ale, thus reserving the appetite for dinner. ”