points to be debated. In the present day no hints on marketing are
in any way complete without some consideration of the advantages
and disadvantages connected with retail shops and co-operative
stores. It will be conceded by every one that the stores are not
well adapted for the sale of goods involving great latitude of
choice. Nor, as a rule, have they large trade in articles of an
exceptionally perishable character. Rapidity of distribution is one
of the conveniences that customers at stores have decided they prefer
not to pay for. Housekeepers, as well as servants, who are accustomed
to have a boy to call daily for orders, and return in an hour’s time
with the order, though it be only 6_d._ worth of sugar or 1 lb. of
steak, often have an insuperable objection to the stores. The fact is
that the stores make heavier demands upon their foresight than people
can meet. None of us is so long-sighted in her household arrangements
that she would like to be wholly dependent on the stores. The country
shops exist for the benefit of even the most uncompromising adherents
of the stores, and, that being so, it is just as well to remember
that if no one ever deals with the shops they may some day die of
inanition, and that during a slow decline they must deteriorate. It
is, no doubt, a remembrance of these facts that induces many persons
to deal with local tradesmen, even though they make no tangible
difference in their prices for ready money. And then the competition
of the stores has brought into existence the ready-money shops. Some
are well known to all. There is no reason why they should not sell
as well and as cheaply as the stores if they adhere strictly to the
“no credit” system, if they spend no more than the stores do on
rent in a fashionable neighbourhood, advertisements, ground-floor
space, plate-glass windows, and such unnecessary luxuries. But the
difficulty of enforcing ready-money payment is very great where
the bulk of the customers are weekly wage-earners, liable to be
thrown out of work at any time through ill-health, winter weather,
depression of trade. It would not be necessary to insist on the want
of thrift that makes these people live always on the wages of the
week to come, instead of on the wages of the week gone by, if this
were a habit solely confined to the uneducated classes. But it seems
the ordinary custom of most persons earning limited incomes--and it
is productive of so much misery that the one hint for housekeepers of
all degree needing most to be pressed home is that to make a practice
of paying ready money is the only way to ensure good value, either in
the goods purchased or in comfort gained.
September.
_Meat._--As for the meat market, buck venison goes out, and pork is
again seasonable. It need scarcely be said that fresh pork is eaten
all the year round by a section of the public. All meat ought to be
very cheap. The highest prices for mutton always mean for Southdown,
of which there is only enough to supply a small percentage of
customers. Not a twentieth part of the mutton killed is Southdown,
so that butchers cannot fairly quote the prices given for it as a
justification of exorbitant retail prices of mutton in general.
Southdown sheep carry most of their weight in the hind quarter, and
the Leicester and other coarser sheep are heavier in front, and
this also must be allowed for in quoting market prices, as the fore
quarter is always cheaper than the leg and loin.
Ham must not be too new. The best manufacturers keep their hams for
some months before they send them out; but people in a small way of
business cannot afford to turn over their money so slowly, and it
never would answer to keep cheap hams. If the consumer has no place
to keep them, it is often possible to make arrangements to have
them kept a month or two at the shop. Ham and bacon must be hung up
in a warm but airy place, and they are generally tied in canvas or
paper bags. They are often hung in a kitchen, which does very well
if it is not too warm. There is much fashion and fancy as to choice
of different parts of bacon. The streaky covering of the rib bones,
corresponding to the thin flank of beef and breast of mutton, is
preferred for boiling, and commands a high price, strangely enough,
because that is one of the cheapest parts of other meat. A leaner
part is the back, or part of the gammon. The cheapest is the fore
hock or fore end, for boiling or family use. Part of the thick flank
is very good for boiling. To choose bacon, a knife or skewer should
be run in close to the bone, and, when withdrawn, should have no
strong, rancid smell. The bacon should not have yellow, “rusty”
patches.
_Game and Poultry._--Partridge-shooting begins with the month. Much
the same hints must be given to distinguish old from young as for
grouse. The tough, hard beak is characteristic of last year’s birds;
the under half of the beak breaks or bends if a young bird is held
up by it. There is also in the breast plumage of an old bird a mark
shaped like a horseshoe. They should have dark-coloured bills and
yellowish legs. French partridges, with the beautiful grey and brown
plumage, are not considered so good eating; they are slightly larger.
September witnesses the advent of the stubble-goose in all the glory
of sage and onions and apple-sauce, but many prefer gosling, or
tender adolescent “green” goose, to the plump stubble-fed bird. This
animal must of course be roasted to get rid of his superabundant
fat; but in Ireland a curious dish, called a goose-pie, is often
consumed by the robust inhabitants, and boiled goose is sometimes
eaten in the rural districts.
_Fish._--Net-fishing ended last month, but line-fishing still goes
on. Good takes of herring are reported from the Scotch coast, and
before the month is out the Cornish fishermen will be drawing their
harvest of pilchards from the sea, packing and curing them for
foreign exportation. This yearly exportation of pilchards is one
of the unaccountable food customs of England. We send them to the
Mediterranean, and we import sardines in oil. Sardines are eaten
everywhere, and yet the two fish are so much alike that many persons
believe them to be the same in different stages of growth; and in
appearance and flavour they both strongly resemble herrings, which
are eaten in England far more than any other fish. It is said of
herring, pilchard, and sardine, that if you hold them up by the
dorsal fin, one tilts its head up, the other its tail up, and the
third swings even.
Oysters are again in the market. Small ones with fairly smooth shells
are the best, though it may be advisable to buy the larger and less
delicate fish at a lower price for scalloping or cooking.
In a country admirably supplied with lobsters the tiny crayfish cuts
an insignificant figure, except in the eyes of those who by foreign
travel have become awakened to its rare merit. To be thoroughly
appreciated, the crayfish should be eaten hot, and “accommodated” _à
la bordelaise_.
Among true fishes grey mullet holds the chiefest place during
the present month. This excellent fish may be cooked in various
ways--boiled, broiled, or _au vin blanc_. John Dory holds his
position, but salmon is gone and codfish is hardly yet in season;
turbot and brill are good in September, and the latter fish is no
insignificant rival to the turbot.
_Vegetables._--This month sees many of the winter’s potatoes out
of the ground, and stored in a dry dark place for winter. In
choosing them it should be remembered that large deep eyes cut to
waste. Champions, for instance, are good, but on this account not
economical. A rough-skinned potato is generally floury; but there are
many exceptions to this rule. Small potatoes are seldom economical,
even at a low price, the waste in peeling being so great. The best
way to try them is by cooking a few in various ways.
As the golden tints of summer are succeeded by the brown hues of
autumn, a certain falling off in vegetables begins to make itself
felt; but ripe potatoes, scarlet tomatoes, creamy cauliflowers, and
abundant artichokes console us in some measure for the asparagus,
peas and beans of earlier days. Summer salads are scarce, while
the celery and endive of winter have not yet appeared. Cold cooked
cauliflower makes an excellent salad, and potato salad is well known
in America and in Germany. The comparative cheapness of artichokes
at this season is a strong inducement to indulge in one of the most
delicate of all possible salads. Cut up and served either with plain
salad dressing, or better still with a rich _mayonnaise_, artichoke
bottoms present a delicious dish, and if a little cooked and finely
minced truffle be added, the salad gains much in elegance and flavour.
It is a delusion to suppose that the small button mushrooms are the
only variety worthy of careful cookery. The huge field mushrooms are
excellent when toasted and eaten for breakfast, with a little pepper,
salt, and butter, and a slice of well-made dry toast.
_Fruit._--Stone-fruit of all kinds is to be had in abundance.
Peaches and plums, apples and pears, form the basis of many charming
tarts, pies, and puddings. West Indian pines are to be bought at
a low price, and as the tropical fruit lacks the high flavour of
hothouse fruit, it is perhaps eaten to the best advantage when sliced
and dressed with wine, sugar, and a little orange or lemon juice.
Magnificent melons of all sizes, shapes, and colours, from the huge
green rosy-hearted water melon, and the rocky-looking Dutch variety
to the elegant “cantelupe,” the dainty “nutmeg,” the recherché
“green fleshed,” and the tiny “golden drop.” In this country it is
but too common to regard the melon simply as a dessert fruit, to be
eaten with sugar and accompanied by wine. Eaten in this way the melon
is excellent; but perhaps the true use of the melon, like that of
most fruits, is to form the initial dish of the day. In America it is
customary to begin breakfast with a melon seasoned with pepper and
salt.
The apple crop is commencing in most parts of the country; but winter
apples will not be picked until quite the end of the month.
Buying at the Stores almost necessitates buying in large quantities.
Whether it is wise to do this more than one is compelled must depend
to some extent on the facilities for keeping groceries. If they are
anything tolerable, it will not be amiss to give a large order for
necessaries at the beginning of the month or quarter, when last
month’s earnings or income have just been paid. Some groceries
improve by keeping, as, for instance, candles and soap, which harden
by exposure to the air, and so do not waste in use.
Many others are no worse for keeping. Under this head come all the
groceries that are sent out in air-tight tins and bottles, and
these are also delightfully independent of a bad store-room; and
the greater number of the rest will keep without harm in wood or
earthenware for any reasonable length of time. The things that do
harm with keeping are those that are artificially dried, such as
oatmeal and maize meal, which readily take up moisture from the
surrounding air and turn bitter. Salt, and, to some extent, sugar,
have the same disagreeable absorbent power, but they can easily be
dried, and return to their former condition. Cheese is another thing
that improves with keeping in a damp place, or closely covered; but,
as the process of ripening is really a careful cultivation of mites
and mould, and, as mould is fatal to most food, it is not wise to buy
a store of cheese and keep it in the store-room.
To choose groceries is not always an easy thing. One would need to
qualify for a buyer in the grocery trade to do it well. But a few
hints every one can pick up, and every one will find useful. The
quotations in the daily newspapers will not help us much, for those
paragraphs bristle with trade terms, and are barely intelligible to
the outsider. A grocer selects sugar by the taste and smell; to the
average housekeeper all sugars smell alike. Mites are common in moist
sugar, less so in crystallised, and they may be detected by dropping
a pinch into water; the sugar sinks and the mites float. Presently
the sugar dissolves, and the sediment may fairly be taken for sand or
other adulterant. The profit on the sale of cane sugar has of late
been extremely small; in fact, cane sugar has often during the past
year sold for less than it cost to bring it to England. The chief
adulterant used is grape sugar, which is made from starchy matter.
Grape sugar has much less sweetening power than cane sugar--5 parts
of the former doing the work of 3 of the latter--and it crystallises
with difficulty. The sugar prepared from beet, of which much is used
in England, is cheaper, and therefore it also may be said to be used
as an adulterant, when it is passed off for cane sugar; but the two
sugars nearly resemble one another, and there is no reason to suppose
that beet sugar is unsuitable for preserving. There is, however, this
difference in the two sugars--i.e. that the treacle drained off from
beet sugar has an unpleasant flavour, and so cannot be used as cane
treacle is. Lump sugar and crystallised sugar are least likely to
be adulterated, and are therefore better to buy than ordinary moist
sugar.
Rice is sold under many names. Aracan is the lowest priced, and that
grown in Rangoon is not much dearer. Patna rice is recommended for
curries, because it is said to keep its shape better when boiled,
and occasionally Carolina, which is very large grained, is spoken
of. True Carolina is seldom met with in this country; there is but
a limited supply, and little of that leaves America; selected Patna
does duty under its name. The rice that swells most in cooking is the
best. Rice is like potatoes, and different sorts develop different
tendencies, and need different treatment. Good Rangoon is generally
cheapest for household purposes, and good rice broken is more
advantageous than inferior rice whole. Tapioca used to be an article
of luxury, but is now as cheap as sago, which it strongly resembles
in taste and nourishing power. Corn-flour can always be recommended.
To ensure having a genuine article it is well to order the brand of
an established house.
October.
_Meat._--The grosser viands, supplied by the butcher, are in great
perfection. Beef, mutton, and veal are all to be recommended, and
lamb has been replaced by pork. Esteemed coarse and indigestible by
many, the flesh of youthful swine yet possesses rare merits.
_Game and Poultry._--Pheasants come into the market. Ude says they
should “be eaten when blood runs from the bill, generally 6-7 days.”
Cooked quite fresh, they have not much more flavour than a fowl; but
the time of keeping depends on the weather. In damp, warm weather
nothing keeps long or well. The birds should be plucked just before
cooking; always hung in the feathers. The development of the spur in
the cock bird, and of the wing feathers in both cock and hen, show
the age. The hen is smaller, but generally thought better.
Hares are plentiful. Many are brought from abroad. The average weight
of a hare is about 5-7 lb., but it is not a suitable dish to serve
for a large party, as, except for the slices on either side of the
back, there are no choice morsels to be carved from a hare. There are
few dishes that it is so hard to carve well. An old hare should be
well hung, and jugged rather than roasted. It may be distinguished
from a young one by its size, by the much-spread cleft in the upper
lip, by the rough and blunted claws, and by the comparatively small
size of the knee joints. A hare should hang some time, “better not
paunched or skinned, but if paunched, it should be wiped inside every
day, and sprinkled with pepper and ginger.” Some persons advise that
an old hare should lie for a time in vinegar and water. Vinegar
always has the effect of softening the fibres of meat, and so making
it less tough. It is for this reason that vinegar is often added to
boiled meat or stew.
Rabbits are also very plump and good, and barndoor poultry is
abundant. Capons, ducks, geese, and young turkeys crowd the markets.
By no exercise of the culinary art can the tame duck be made to
rival her wild compeer, but she is nevertheless very toothsome when
“accommodated” _aux olives_.
_Fish._--Among the fishes of the present month may be found John
Dory, grey mullet, and red mullet. During October turbot is very
fine. A sigh of regret must, however, be exhaled over the persistence
of English people in accompanying this delicate fish with the rich
stew popularly known as lobster sauce. _Hollandaise_ sauce and caper
sauce are much to be preferred, for one reason among others, that
they permit the epicure to taste the fried smelts or fried oysters,
with which every turbot should be served.
Smelts, soles, whiting, skate, eels, and the famous Dublin Bay
haddock are now in season; but although codfish is supposed to
be “in” from September to March, the true gourmand will reserve
the pleasure of discussing that magnificent dish--cod’s head and
shoulders with oyster sauce--until at least November. Sea bream, a
fish in good condition during the autumn and winter, only requires
to be properly understood and properly dressed to be thoroughly
appreciated.
_Vegetables._--Potatoes need be covered only when there is fear of
frost; but they must never be exposed to the sun, especially when
they are washed and freed from the particles of earth that cling to
their skins. They should be turned over, and any diseased ones picked
out from time to time.
The common way of buying potatoes is by weight or by measure. Small
consumers almost always buy by weight, but it is not in any way a
good plan. It is dear. 2_d._ a lb. is not an uncommon price; 9_s._ a
bushel is almost unheard of. Last year it was easy to get very fair
potatoes at 1_s._ 6_d._-2_s._ a bushel of 56 lb. There must be few
households where a bushel of potatoes could not be eaten while they
were good, and they would keep very well in a sack at the bottom of
a cupboard, if no better placed offered. In larger quantities they
can be had cheaper than by the bushel. Just as with carrots, or
onions; they are cheapest soon after they are dug out of the ground;
and carrots keep well in any outhouse or cellar that is fairly
dry, stacked a few inches from the ground, and covered when the
frost comes. Per bushel the price is very moderate; but they make a
considerable item in housekeeping expenses when they are bought one
or two at a time from the greengrocer’s stall. Onions are even easier
to keep, for they do not dry up as carrots are apt to dry in the
kitchen cupboard, nor sprout so soon as carrots if they are too damp.
Vegetables are also sold by the sack or by the stone of 8 lb. Local
customs vary much. The actual weights and measures are standard the
same over all the country; but what is sold by weight in one county
is sold by measure in another. One needs be a ready reckoner to
turn pounds into gallons, stones into bushels or sacks, quarts into
pecks. And it is easy to see that a given measure does not contain
the same weight of any two things. A gallon nominally holds ⅛ of a
corn bushel, which is 7 lb. Practically a gallon measure of fruit
may weigh anything over 5½ lb. Sometimes though the measure is
spoken of, the weight is given. Of course, the larger the fruit, the
less advantageous to the purchaser to measure instead of weigh. The
disadvantage may be enough to compensate for the great waste of small
potatoes, small apples, or other fruit.
To pass over the truffle when discussing the luxuries of October
would be an unpardonable omission. The diamonds of the kitchen are
never in more superb condition than at present. On their immense
value, from their faculty of communicating an incomparable flavour to
everything with which they are associated, it is needless to dilate.
France rejoices in no less than 4 species of truffles; and of these
priority of place is universally granted to the black truffle of
Périgord.
Apart from the important position occupied by truffles in sauces,
salads, _farces_, and entrées, the truffle possesses the admirable
faculty of enhancing the flavour of Burgundy about fifty per cent.
With the exception of peas, beans, and asparagus, almost every
vegetable is in season. Artichokes, tomatoes, _aubergines_, cardoons,
cauliflowers, Brussels sprouts, and winter spinach may all be had.
_Fruit._--Lovers of fruit may rejoice in late peaches and plums,
early apples and delicious pears. Grapes are also abundant; and the
advent of ripe walnuts is enthusiastically hailed.
Plums can be kept many weeks if wrapped in thin paper and laid singly
on wood. Damsons and bullaces hang through the early frost, and can
be kept through November, laid out on wooden trays. They are besides
the most suitable fruit for bottling and preserving for tarts, and
are greatly in demand, and generally much dearer than cooking plums.
Mulberries and blackberries are plentiful, but the former travel
so ill that they have not much place in the markets. Blackberries
are seldom sold except in country and seaside towns. The American
blackberry, having a larger and fuller-flavoured fruit, and more
serrated leaves, has been introduced into this country, and promises
to be a valuable addition to our list of autumn fruits.
The best way of keeping ripe nuts is in an earthenware crock covered,
in a cellar, where they remain quite moist up to Christmas. Those who
have forgotten to make walnut pickle in July can turn the shells into
good ketchup now.
Chestnuts are generally sent to our markets from abroad, and, there
being little demand for them except as luxuries, they are dear. The
Spanish chestnut grows and ripens well in many parts of England; but
most of the trees are valued chiefly for their ornamental appearance,
it not being worth while to plant trees for the sake of the nut
harvest.
November.
_Fish._--At the head of the fish list is the cod, which has never
quite disappeared from the market, though its season is from November
to March. It is best in cold, frosty weather, and caught in high
latitudes. The Dogger Bank is the fishing ground best known by name,
but there are several different species brought to the London market,
which perhaps accounts for the great variety in the quality of this
fish. A thick head, red gills, bright eyes, flesh bronze-shaded where
it is cut, are all indications of a good and fresh fish. It should
besides be elastic to touch, with a stiff back and tail, which shows
that it is likely to be firm-fleshed. It will crimp only when it is
very fresh. The sound and liver are both esteemed. Cod liver is a
very suitable food to buy for an invalid, if it should happen to be
relished, as it is both nourishing and digestible.
The following are mentioned as fish in season; Barbel, brill, carp,
cod, dace, eels, haddocks, herrings, ling, perch, pike, plaice,
skate, smelt, soles, sprats, tench, whiting, cockles, mussels, crabs,
lobsters, oysters. In this country fresh-water fish do not form an
important article of food. Their excellence depends almost entirely
on the character of the stream in which they are caught. Like all
fresh-water fish, the larger they are the better. Shell-fish are also
among the foods that vary most according to special conditions of
their life. Well-known instances of mussels having proved poisonous
when taken from the copper sheathing of an old pier, and of shrimps
that caused symptoms of poisoning because they were caught at the
outlet of a sewer, have originated a belief that to eat any cheap
shell-fish is dangerous to health. But there seems no foundation for
the belief.
_Meat._--There is nothing new to be said about meat this month. Beef,
mutton, veal, doe venison, pork are in season. Small pork, with a
thin rind, a fair amount of fat, finely-grained lean, and small bones
is to be chosen for roasting; bacon pork is fatter and larger. The
quality of pork depends on the food that has fattened it.
_Game and Poultry._--Birds are never more plentiful than in November.
Partridges, pheasants, grouse, wild duck, teal, plover, dotterel,
woodcock, snipes, widgeon, ducks, geese, turkeys, fowls, are all in
season. The best turkeys are said to be fattened in Norfolk. At any
rate, most persons will agree that those fed and fattened in England
are preferable to those sent from Ireland, France, or Belgium. The
number consumed in England at Christmas is very much greater than the
number fattened in this country. The best indication of youth is the
absence of spur and the smooth skin, soft and silky to touch, which
with age becomes hard and wrinkled. As to plumpness, that may be felt
by the breast and thighs. It is not quite easy to see if a fowl is
plump, for either it has its feathers on or else it is trussed, and
the skill of the poulterer is used to give the bird its best possible
appearance. With this aim it is pressed into a round plump shape, a
thin layer of fat is laid over the breast, known as the leaf, and
supposed to come out of the bird, but quite as often fetched from
the butcher’s shop, and even white down is powdered over and secured
with a little gum. A hairy turkey, with reddish or purplish thighs
and back, is likely to be old, so is one of unusually large size. The
chief attainment of a successful poultry breeder is to get size and
youth together, but it is only the successful who accomplish it.