Produced by Metra Christofferson
THE COOK'S DECAMERON
A Study In Taste
Containing Over Two Hundred Recipes For Italian Dishes
By Mrs. W. G. Waters
"Show me a pleasure like dinner, which comes every day and lasts an
hour."-- Talleyrand circa 1901
To
A. V.
In memory of Certain Ausonian Feasts
Preface
Montaigne in one of his essays* mentions the high excellence Italian
cookery had attained in his day. "I have entered into this Discourse
upon the Occasion of an Italian I lately receiv'd into my Service,
and who was Clerk of the Kitchen to the late Cardinal Caraffa till his
Death. I put this Fellow upon an Account of his office: Where he fell
to Discourse of this Palate-Science, with such a settled Countenance and
Magisterial Gravity, as if he had been handling some profound Point
of Divinity. He made a Learned Distinction of the several sorts of
Appetites, of that of a Man before he begins to eat, and of those after
the second and third Service: The Means simply to satisfy the first, and
then to raise and acute the other two: The ordering of the Sauces, first
in general, and then proceeded to the Qualities of the Ingredients, and
their Effects: The Differences of Sallets, according to their seasons,
which ought to be serv'd up hot, and which cold: The Manner of their
Garnishment and Decoration, to render them yet more acceptable to the
Eye after which he entered upon the Order of the whole Service, full of
weighty and important Considerations."
It is consistent with Montaigne's large-minded habit thus to applaud the
gifts of this master of his art who happened not to be a Frenchman. It
is a canon of belief with the modern Englishman that the French alone
can achieve excellence in the art of cookery, and when once a notion of
this sort shall have found a lodgment in an Englishman's brain, the task
of removing it will be a hard one. Not for a moment is it suggested
that Englishmen or any one else should cease to recognise the sovereign
merits of French cookery; all that is entreated is toleration, and
perchance approval, of cookery of other schools. But the favourable
consideration of any plea of this sort is hindered by the fact that the
vast majority of Englishmen when they go abroad find no other school
of cookery by the testing of which they may form a comparison. This
universal prevalence of French cookery may be held to be a proof of
its supreme excellence--that it is first, and the rest nowhere; but the
victory is not so complete as it seems, and the facts would bring grief
and humiliation rather than patriotic pride to the heart of a Frenchman
like Brillat-Savarin. For the cookery we meet in the hotels of the great
European cities, though it may be based on French traditions, is not the
genuine thing, but a bastard, cosmopolitan growth, the same everywhere,
and generally vapid and uninteresting. French cookery of the grand
school suffers by being associated with such commonplace achievements.
It is noted in the following pages how rarely English people on their
travels penetrate where true Italian cookery may be tasted, wherefore it
has seemed worth while to place within the reach of English housewives
some Italian recipes which are especially fitted for the presentation of
English fare to English palates under a different and not unappetising
guise. Most of them will be found simple and inexpensive, and special
care has been taken to include those recipes which enable the less
esteemed portions of meat and the cheaper vegetables and fish to be
treated more elaborately than they have hitherto been treated by English
cooks.
The author wishes to tender her acknowledgments to her husband for
certain suggestions and emendations made in the revision of the
introduction, and for his courage in dining, "greatly daring," off many
of the dishes. He still lives and thrives. Also to Mrs. Mitchell, her
cook, for the interest and enthusiasm she has shown in the work, for her
valuable advice, and for the care taken in testing the recipes.
Contents
Prologue
Part I
The First Day
The Second Day.
The Third Day.
The Fourth Day
The Fifth Day.
The Sixth Day.
The Seventh Day
The Eighth Day
The Ninth Day.
The Tenth Day.