The becafico, or fig-eater (_Sylvia hortensis_), a bird about the size
of a linnet, which is highly prized by the Italians for the delicacy of
its flesh, particularly in autumn, when it is in excellent condition
for the table.
There is a curious food product obtained, (not exactly, however, from
the bird,) which is in high repute in China; and that is the edible
nest of a species of swallow extensively obtained in some of the
islands of the Eastern Archipelago.
These nests are attached to the sides of rocks like those of our martin
and swallow to walls, and look like so many watch-pockets. The eggs are
white, with a slight pinkish tinge, and are generally two in number.
The nests are either white, red, or black, and the natives maintain
that these are built by three distinct species, with a white, red, and
black breast, but this is erroneous. The Malays assert frequently,
moreover, that the nests are formed from the bodies of certain sea
snakes, but the food is, without doubt, insects. The subjoined accounts
furnish the most detailed information known respecting the collection
and trade in these birdsnests.
The following description of the birdsnests’ rocks, in the district of
Karang Bollong, on the southerly sea-coast of Java, is given in the
first volume of the _Journal of the Indian Archipelago_, published at
Singapore.
‘The gathering of these nests takes place three times a year--in
the end of April, the middle of August, and in December. The yearly
produce is commonly between 50 and 60 piculs of 133⅓ lbs. The business
of collection is opened with great ceremony by the natives. By the
assistance of ladders and stages made of rattan, the collectors descend
the rocks and cliffs, provided with the requisite bags to contain the
nests, which are taken from the wall by the hand, and those which are
on the roof by an iron hook made fast to a long bamboo. The birds feed
upon different kinds of bloodless insects, hovering above the stagnant
waters, for which their wide open beak is very useful. They form their
nests by vomiting the strongest and best fragments of the food which
they have eaten. The nests are weighed and packed in hampers (of 25
catties each), and labelled with the net weight, mark of the overseer,
&c., and then further preserved and secured with strips of bark,
leaves, and matting.
‘The edible birdsnests, which owe their celebrity only to the whimsical
luxury of the Chinese, are brought principally from Java and Sumatra,
though they are found on most of the rocky islets of the Indian
Archipelago. The nest is the habitation of a small swallow, named
(from the circumstance of having an edible house) _Hirundo esculenta_.
They are composed of a mucilaginous substance, but as yet they have
never been analyzed with sufficient accuracy to show the constituents.
Externally, they resemble ill-concocted, fibrous isinglass, and are
of a white colour, inclining to red. Their thickness is little more
than that of a silver spoon, and the weight from a quarter to half an
ounce. When dry they are brittle and wrinkled; the size is nearly that
of a goose’s egg. Those that are dry, white, and clean, are the most
valuable. They are packed in bundles, with split rattans run through
them to preserve the shape. Those procured after the young are fledged,
are not saleable in China. The quality of the nest varies according
to the situation and extent of the caves, and the time at which they
are taken. If procured before the young are fledged, the nests are of
the best kind; if they contain eggs only, they are still valuable;
but if the young are in the nests, or have left them, the whole are
then nearly worthless, being dark-coloured, streaked with blood, and
intermixed with feathers and dirt. These nests are procurable twice
every year; the best are found in deep, damp caves, which, if not
injured, will continue to produce indefinitely. It was once thought
that the caves near the sea-coast were the most productive; but some of
the most profitable yet found are situated 50 miles in the interior.
This fact seems to be against the opinion that the nests are composed
of the spawn of fish, or of _bêche-de-mer_. The method of procuring
these nests is not unattended with danger. Some of the caves are
so precipitous, that no one but those accustomed to the employment
from their youth can obtain the nests, being only approachable by
a perpendicular descent of many hundred feet, by ladders of bamboo
and rattan, over a sea rolling violently against the rocks. When the
mouth of the cave is attained, the perilous task of taking the nests
must often be performed by torchlight, by penetrating into recesses
of the rock; where the slightest slip would be instantly fatal to
the adventurers, who see nothing below them but the turbulent surf,
making its way into the chasms of the rock--such is the price paid to
gratify luxury. After the nests are obtained, they are separated from
feathers and dirt, are carefully dried and packed, and are then fit
for the market. The Chinese, who are the only people that purchase
them for their own use, bring them in junks to this market, where they
command extravagant prices; the best, or _white_ kind, often being
worth four thousand dollars per picul (a Chinese weight, equal to 133⅓
lbs. avoirdupois), which is nearly twice their weight in silver. The
middling kind is worth from twelve to eighteen hundred, and the worst,
or those procured after fledging, one hundred and fifty to two hundred
dollars per picul. The majority of the best kind are sent to Pekin,
for the use of the court. It appears, therefore, that this curious
dish is only an article of expensive luxury amongst the Chinese; the
Japanese do not use it at all, and how the former people acquired the
habit of indulging in it, is only less singular than their persevering
in it. They consider the edible birdsnest as a great stimulant, tonic,
and aphrodisiac, but its best quality, perhaps, is its being perfectly
harmless. The labour bestowed to render it fit for the table is
enormous; every feather, stick, or impurity of any kind is carefully
removed; and then, after undergoing many washings and preparations,
it is made into a soft, delicious jelly. The sale of birdsnests is a
monopoly with all the governments in whose dominions they are found.
About two hundred and fifty thousand piculs, of the value of one
million four hundred thousand dollars, are annually brought to Canton.
These come from the islands of Java, Sumatra, Macassar, and those of
the Sooloo group. Java alone sends about thirty thousand pounds, mostly
of the first quality, estimated at seventy thousand dollars.’[12]
Mr. J. H. Moor, in his notices of the _Indian Archipelago_, published
at Singapore some years ago, states, that ‘one of the principal and
most valuable articles of exportation is the edible birdsnests, white
and black. These are found in much greater abundance in and about the
Coti, more than any other part of Borneo, or from what we at present
know on the subject, all parts put together. On the western coast they
are scarcely known to exist; about Banjermassin and Bagottan there
are none; at Bataliching and Passier they are found in considerable
quantities. At Browe there is abundance of the black kind of a very
superior quality, but little of the white. At Seboo, and all the parts
to the north of Borneo, we know there is none, as I have seen many
letters from different Rajahs of those countries averring the fact,
and begging the Sultan of Coti to exchange his edible nests for their
most valuable commodities, and at his own price. Nor ought this to
create surprise, when we consider, not only the large consumption of
this article by the Cambojans, who almost exclusively inhabit some of
the largest Sooloo Islands, and the northern parts of Borneo, but the
amazing demand on the whole coast of Cambodia, particularly of Cochin
China, the principal inhabitants of which countries are as partial
to this luxury as their more northern neighbours--the Chinese. There
are in Coti and adjacent Dyak countries perhaps eighty known places,
or what the natives term holes, which produce the white nests. I have
seen the names of forty-three. There can, however, be no doubt there
are many more likewise known to the Dyaks, who keep the knowledge to
themselves, lest the Bugis should dispossess them, which they know from
experience is invariably the case.
‘According to the accounts of the Sultan, rendered by Saib Abdulla,
the bandarree in 1834 yielded 134 piculs. The usual price in money
to the Coti traders is 23 reals per catty from the Dyaks, and 25 in
barter. The black nests may be procured in great abundance. The best
kinds come from Cinculeram and Baley Papang. The latter mountain alone
yields 230 piculs (of 113⅓ lbs.). Cinculeram gives nearly as much.
There are several other parts of Coti which produce them, besides the
quantity brought down by the Dyaks. Last year, 130 piculs paid duty to
the Sultan; these left the large Coti river. Those from Cinculeram and
Bongan were taken to Browe and Seboo. The bandarree’s book averages
the annual weight of those collected in the lower part of Coti at 820
piculs (about 1,025 cwts.)
‘The Pangeran Sierpa and the Sultan say they could collect 2,700 piculs
of black nests, if the bandarree and capella-campong would behave
honestly. The Sultan, however, seldom gets any account of what is sent
to Browe, Seboo, and the Sooloo Islands, the quality of which is far
superior to any sent to European ports.’
The exports of birdsnests from Java, between 1823 and 1832, averaged
about 250 piculs a year; in 1832, 322 piculs; but of late years the
exports have not averaged half that amount; and in 1853 and 1854 there
were only about 35 or 40 piculs shipped.
In the third order, SCANSORES, there are very few edible birds.
In the mountain of Tumeriquiri, in the government of Cumana, is the
immense cavern of Guacharo, famous among the Indians. It serves as a
habitation for millions of nocturnal birds (_Steatornis caripensis_, a
new species of the _Caprimulgis_, of Linnæus), whose fat yields the oil
of Guacharo.
Once a year, near midsummer, this cavern is entered by the Indians.
Armed with poles, they ransack the greater part of the nests, while the
old birds hover over the heads of the robbers as if to defend their
brood, uttering horrible cries. The young which fall down are opened
on the spot. The peritoneum is found loaded with fat, and a layer of
the same substance reaches from the abdomen to the vent, forming a kind
of cushion between the hind legs. Humboldt remarks that this quantity
of fat in frugivorous animals, not exposed to the light, and exerting
but little muscular motion, brings to mind what has been long observed
in the fattening of geese and oxen. ‘It is well known,’ he adds, ‘how
favourable darkness and repose are to this process.’
At the period above mentioned, which is generally known at Carissa by
the designation of ‘the oil harvest,’ huts are built by the Indians,
with palm leaves, near the entrance and even in the very porch of the
cavern. There the fat of the young birds just killed is melted in clay
pots, over a brushwood fire, and this fat is named butter or oil of the
Guacharo. It is half liquid, transparent, inodorous, and so pure that
it will keep above a year without turning rancid.[13]
There is a curious bird met with in caves in the West India Islands--as
at Dominica, and the gulf of Paria, the diablotin or goat-sucker,
which, if eaten when taken from the nest, is pronounced by epicures
unrivalled; and the flesh is also considered a delicacy when salted.
It has received its popular cognomen from its ugliness, but I have not
been able to trace its scientific name.
The bird is nearly the size of a duck, and web-footed, with a big
round head and crooked bill like a hawk, and large full eyes like an
owl; the head, part of the neck, and chief feathers of the wing and
tail, are black, while the other parts of its body are covered with a
fine milk-white down; the whole appearance being very singular. The
diablotin only leaves its haunts at night time, flying with hideous
screams like the owl, which it resembles in its dislike to day-light.
The nests are made in holes in the mountains. When the palms are in
fruit, the bird becomes one lump of fat. The hideous appearance of the
bird and the strong scent once got over, it is said to be a delicious
morsel.
We have our delicate tit-bits in spitted larks, and as many as four
thousand dozen have been known to be taken in the neighbourhood of
Dunstable between September and February. What the number sold in our
metropolitan markets is annually, it is impossible to say. But larks
are taken in much larger numbers in Germany, where there is an excise
upon them, which has yielded as much as £1,000 a year in Leipsic--the
larks of which place are famous all over Germany as being of a most
delicate flavour.
In the Italian markets, besides carrion crows, strings of thrushes,
larks, and even robin redbreasts are sold.
Young rooks, when skinned and made into pies are much esteemed by some
persons, but they are very coarse eating.
One of the most delicious birds is the rice-bunting of South Carolina
(_Dolichonyx oryzivorus_).
The rice-bunting migrates over the continent of America, from Labrador
to Mexico, and over the great Antilles, appearing in the southern
extremity of the United States about the end of March. Towards the
middle and close of August, they enter New York, and Pennsylvania
on their way to the south. There, along the shores of the large
rivers lined with floating fields of wild rice, they find abundant
subsistence, grow fat, and their flesh becomes little inferior in
flavour to that of the European ortolan, on which account the reed, or
rice birds, as they are then called, are shot in great numbers. When
the cool nights in October commence, they move still farther south,
till they reach the islands of Jamaica and Cuba in prodigious numbers
to feed on the seeds of the guinea grass. Epicures compare the plump
and juicy flesh of this delicacy to the ortolan.
On the shores of the Mediterranean there are feathered delicacies in
the shape of the quail and the ortolan. Thousands of ortolans used
to be shipped from the island of Cyprus, packed in casks of 300 or
400, prepared with spice and vinegar. When specially fattened for
the table, they are regarded as most delicious; but, being merely
lumps of fat, are so rich as soon to satiate the appetite of even a
professed gourmand. In the West India Islands and the Southern States
of America, the rice-bunting, as we have seen, takes its place, and is,
occasionally, found in prodigious numbers, and greatly esteemed.
The bluish flesh of the toucan, notwithstanding its enormous and
unsightly beak, is a wholesome and delicate meat; and there are no
birds that give the Trinidad epicure a more delicious morsel. It is
one of the most omnivorous of birds, and its powers of digestion and
impunity to poisons are remarkable.
Parrot pie is said to be pretty good; at least, it may be so when other
animal food is scarce.
Among the GALLINACEOUS fowls, large numbers contribute to the food
delicacies of man. Some, like the turkey, peacock, &c., of considerable
size; others, as the pigeon tribe, form smaller tit-bits.
The game birds, the pheasant, partridge, grouse, &c., and the quail,
guinea fowl, and jungle fowl, are bagged whenever they can be obtained
by the sportsman.
The peacock enkakyll ‘was one of the famous dishes at the costly royal
banquets of old, and the receipt for dressing it is thus given:--
‘Take and flay off the skin with the feathers, tail, and the neck and
head thereon; then take the skin and all the feathers and lay it on the
table abroad, and strew thereon ground cumin; then take the peacock
and roast him, and baste him with raw yolks of eggs; and when he is
roasted, take him off and let him cool awhile, then take him and sew
him in his skin, and gild his comb, and so serve him forth with the
last course.’
As far as my own experience goes, with all the basting and sauces, the
peacock is, at best, a dry and tough eating bird.
The domestic fowls and the tame turkey require no notice here, there
being nothing curious about them, however delicate eating they may be
when properly fattened and brought to table; but there is a species
of wild turkey found in New Granada, weighing from 12 to 16 lbs., and
called the iowanen, which is described by Mr. W. Purdie of Trinidad as
the most delicate article of food he ever tasted.
Dear as fowls, ducks, and eggs comparatively are, they meet, as every
one knows, with a ready sale. When we find our imports of eggs,
chiefly from France, amount to about 130,000,000 a year, besides our
nominal ‘new laid,’ or home produce,--when we learn that the foreign
poultry we receive (mixed up with not a few Ostend rabbits) is valued
at 39,000_l._, and that Ireland supplies us with about 150,000,000 of
eggs, we begin to perceive that fowls, ducks, geese, and turkeys must
be a profitable investment to some persons, and the capital of about
4,000,000_l._ we lay out on these various products serves to gladden
the heart of many a poultry breeder.
There are sent to market about nine or ten million head of poultry in
a year to supply the whole population of the United Kingdom, shipping
and all, which is not more than one-third of a fowl to each person
annually. Now, were every one to have a fowl as part food once a month,
it would require 330,000,000 more fowls or other poultry than are at
present sold.
I copy the following from what I believe to be the first fixed tariff
of provisions, in the City of London, about the second year of Edward
I. (1272.) The people had at that time great cause to complain of the
exorbitant prices demanded of them for provisions, by hucksters and
dealers, and a fixed price was found necessary by the Mayor:--
The best hen three half-pence
Pullet three half-pence
Capon two pence
Goose five pence
Wild goose four pence
Pigeons, three for one penny
Mallard, three for a half-penny
Plover one penny
Partridge three half-pence
Larks, per dozen one penny half-penny
Pheasant four pence
Heron six pence
Swan three shillings
Crane three shillings, and by
a subsequent Act one shilling
The best peacock one penny
The best coney, with skin four pence
Ditto, without skin three pence
The best hare, with skin three pence half-penny
The best lamb, from
Christmas to Lent six pence
At other times of the year four pence.
In the time of Edward II., 1313, eggs were 20 a penny, and pigeons sold
at three for a penny.
It is curious, even to notice the London prices of poultry, two or
three centuries ago, although regard must of course be had to the
difference in the value of money now and then.
Sir James Hawes, during his mayoralty, in the year 1575, fixed the
following prices within the City of London:--
_s._ _d._
Blackbirds, per dozen 0 10
The best capon, large and fat 1 8
Ditto, second best, being fat 1 4
The best green goose, until Whitsuntide 0 8
Ditto ditto, after Whitsuntide 0 10
Ditto, in winter, being fat 1 2
Pigeons, per dozen 1 4
Chickens, the largest, each 0 4
Ditto, second sort 0 3
The best coney rabbit, from and after the
summer 0 5
Eggs, four 0 1
Cygnets, fat until Allhalloweentide, each 6 0
Ditto, from then to Shrovetide 7 0
Cranes, the best, each 6 0
The best heron, pheasant, shoveller (duck),
and bittern, each 2 6
Turkey-cock, fat and large 3 0
Turkey chicken, fat and large 1 4
Woodcocks, each 0 6
Snipes, each 0 2½
Hens, being fat and the best, each 0 9
Ditto, second sort 0 7
Green plovers, fat 0 4
The best wild mallard 0 6
Teals, each 0 3
At a feast given at Ely House, by the serjeants-at-law, November, 1531,
(23rd of Henry VIII.) on the occasion of making eleven new serjeants,
open house was kept for five successive days. On the fourth day, King
Henry, his Queen, the Foreign Ambassadors, the Judges, and Lord Mayor
and Aldermen, were feasted, as also numerous guests, knights, and
gentlemen. Stow particularizes the following articles and prices, in
order to furnish _data_ for computing the relative value of money at
different periods:--
_s._ _d._
Great beeves, from the shambles (twenty-four) each 26 8
One carcase of an ox 24 0
Fat muttons (one hundred), each 2 10
Great veals (fifty-one), each 4 8
Porks (thirty-four), each 3 8
Pigs (ninety-one), each 0 6
Capons of Greece (of one poulterer, for they
had three) ten dozen, each capon 1 8
Capons of Kent (nine dozen and six), each 1 0
Capons, coarse (nineteen dozen), each 1 0
Cocks of grouse (seven dozen and nine), each cock 0 8
Cocks, coarse (fourteen dozen and eight) 0 3
Pullets, the best, each 0 2½
Other pullets, each 0 2
Pigeons (thirty-seven dozen), at per dozen 0 10
Swans (twenty-four dozen) no price
Larks (340 dozen), per dozen 0 6
The consumption of liquids, pastry, and _trifles_, can easily be
guessed at.
Here is an ancient receipt for making a Christmas game pie, found in
the books of the Salter’s Company, which is presumed to have often
furnished an annual treat to the members in the olden times; and when
made after this receipt, by the Company’s cook in modern days, has been
found to be excellent.
‘For to make a mooste choyce paaste of Gamys to be etin at ye Feste of
Chrystemasse.
‘(17th Richard II., A.D. 1394.)
‘Take Fesaunt, Haare, and Chykenne, or Capounne, of eche oone; wᵗ.
ij. Partruchis, ij. Pygeounes, and ij. Conynggys; and smyte hem on
peces and pyke clene awaye p’fro (_therefrom_) alle pᵉ (_the_) boonys
pᵗ (_that_) ye maye, and p’wt (_therewith_) do hem ynto a Foyle
(_a shield or case_) of gode paste, made craftily ynne pᵉ lykenes
of a byrde’s bodye, wᵗ pᵉ lyuours and hertys, ij. kydneis of shepe
and farcys (_seasonings or forced meats_) and eyren (_eggs_) made
ynto balles. Caste p’to (_thereto_) poudre of pepyr, salte, spyce,
eysell,[14] and funges (_mushrooms_) pykled; and panne (_then_) take
pᵉ boonys and let hem seethe ynne a pot to make a gode brothe p’ for
(_for it_) and do yᵗ ynto pᵉ foyle of paste and close hit uppe faste,
and bake yᵗ wel, and so s’ue (_serve_) yᵗ forthe: wt pᵉ hede of oone
of pᵉ byrdes, stucke at pᵉ oone ende of pᵉ foyle, and a grete tayle
at pᵉ op’ and dyvers of hys longe fedyrs sette ynne connynglye alle
aboute hym.’
Marrow bones seem to have been in favour at an early date. 2,000
marrow bones were among the requisites for the Goldsmiths’ Company’s
feast, on St. Dunstan’s day, 1449.
In the reign of Edward VI., 1548, a time of plague and scarcity, the
king thought it prudent to fix the price of cattle, &c., sold in the
several seasons of the year:--
£ _s._ _d._
The best fat ox, from Midsummer to
Michaelmas, at 2 5 0
One of inferior sort 1 8 0
The best fat ox, from Hallowmas to
Christmas 2 6 8
One of inferior sort 1 19 8
The best fat ox, from Christmas to
Shrovetide 2 8 4
One of inferior sort 2 6 8
The best fat wether, from shearing time
to Michaelmas 0 4 0
One of ditto, _shorn_ 0 3 0
The best fat ewe 0 2 6
One ditto, shorn 0 2 0
The best fat wether, from Michaelmas
to Shrovetide 0 4 4
One ditto, _shorn_ 0 3 0
Essex barrelled butter, per pound 0 0 0¾
All sorts of other barrelled butter, per
pound 0 0 0½
Essex cheese, per pound 0 0 0¾
All other sorts 0 0 0½
We are not quite such prodigious devourers of eggs as our French
neighbours, having a greater amount of meat or solid animal food to
fall back upon, and fewer fast days. Another reason is, that we cannot,
like the French, get them so fresh and cheap; but as an alimentary
substance, eggs are always in demand at a ratio proportionate to the
prices at which they can be obtained. In Paris the consumption of eggs
is at least 175 per annum to every head of the population; in the
departments it is more than double that amount; eggs entering into
almost every article of food, and butchers’ meat being scarce and dear.
If we only use, in London, half the number of eggs the Parisians do,
there must be a sale of about 173 millions a year; and the consumption
throughout the kingdom would be fully 2,000 millions. Although smaller
in size, and not equal to a new-laid egg, the French eggs arrive in
pretty good condition, and, if sold off quickly, are well adapted
for ordinary culinary purposes. Few are wasted, for even when not
very fresh, they are sold for frying fish, and to the lower class of
confectioners for pastry. Fried eggs, boiled eggs chopped up with
salad, egg sauce for fish, &c., eggs for puddings, for omelets, and
pancakes, all contribute to the sale. Omelets, sweet or flavoured with
herbs, are much less patronized in this country than they are in France.
The sixty wholesale egg merchants and salesmen in the metropolis,
whose itinerant carts are kept constantly occupied in distributing
their brittle ware, might probably enlighten us as to the extent and
increasing character of the trade, and the remunerative nature of the
profits. Railways and steamers bring up large crates, and carefully
packed boxes of eggs, for the ravenous maws of young and old, who
fatten on this dainty and easily digested food. The various city
markets dispose of two millions of fowls, one million of game birds,
half a million of ducks, and about one hundred and fifty thousand
turkeys, every year. But even if we doubled this supply, what would
it be among the three million souls of the great metropolis requiring
daily food.
Ireland and the continent contribute largely to our supply of poultry
and eggs. Immense pens of poultry, purchased in the Irish market, are
shipped by the steamers to Glasgow and Liverpool. Commerce owes much
to the influence of steam, but agriculture is no less indebted to the
same power. Taking everything into account, and examining all the
advantages derived by cheap and rapid transit, the manufacturer of food
is quite as much indebted to the steam-ship and the locomotive as the
manufacturer of clothing.
There is no difficulty whatever in testing eggs; they are mostly
examined by a candle. Another way to tell good eggs is to put them in
a pail of water, and if they are good they will _lie on their sides_,
always; if bad, they will stand on their small ends, the large ends
always uppermost, unless they have been shaken considerably, when they
will stand either end up. Therefore, a bad egg can be told by the way
it rests in water--always end up, never on its side. Any egg that lies
flat is good to eat, and can be depended upon.
An ordinary mode is to take them into a room moderately dark and hold
them between the eye and a candle or lamp. If the egg be good--that is,
if the albumen is still unaffected--the light will shine through with a
reddish glow; while, if affected, it will be opaque, or dark.
In Fulton and Washington market, New York, a man may be seen testing
eggs at almost any time of the year. He has a tallow candle placed
under a counter or desk, and taking up the eggs, three in each hand,
passes them rapidly before the candle, and deposits them in another
box. His practised eye quickly perceives the least want of clearness
in the eggs, and suspicious ones are re-examined and thrown away, or
passed into a ‘doubtful’ box. The process is so rapid that eggs are
inspected perfectly at the rate of 100 to 200 per minute, or as fast as
they can be shifted from one box to another, six at a time.
The preservation of eggs for use on ship board has always occupied a
large share of attention. They have been usually smeared with oil or
grease, and packed in bran or sawdust. A plan recommended by M. Appert
for preserving eggs is to put them in a jar with bran, to prevent
their breaking; cork and hermetically seal the jar; and put it into a
vessel of water, heated to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, or 12 degrees below
boiling. The vessel with water being taken from the fire, the water
must cool till the finger may be borne in it; then remove the jar. The
eggs may then be taken out, and will keep for six months.
Salted ducks’ eggs are an article in great demand in some parts of the
East, for transport by the trading junks. The Malays salt them as they
do their meat; but the Chinese mix a red unctuous earth with the brine,
which no doubt stops the pores of the shell, and preserves them better.
They are put into this mixture at night, and taken out during the day
to be dried in the sun, which is, in fact, a half roasting process in a
tropical climate.
Pickled eggs, while they constitute a somewhat novel feature in the
catalogue of condiments, are at the same time particularly relishing.
When eggs are plentiful, farmers’ wives, in some localities, take
four to six dozen of such as are newly laid, and boil them hard;
then, divesting them of the shells, they place them in large-mouthed
earthen jars, and pour upon them scalded vinegar, well seasoned with
whole pepper, allspice, ginger, and a few cloves of garlic. When this
pickle is cold, the jars are closed, and the eggs are fit for use in a
month afterwards. Eggs thus treated are held in high esteem by all the
farm-house epicures.
Fowls’ eggs, variously coloured, and having flowers and other matters
upon them, formed by the colouring matter being picked off so as
to expose the white shell of the egg, are a part of all the Malay
entertainments in Borneo. The eggs eaten by the Dyaks are frequently
nearly hatched when taken from the nest, as they enjoy them just as
well as when fresh.
An article called ‘condensed egg’ is now sold in the shops. It consists
of the whole substance of the fresh uncooked egg, very delicately and
finely granulated by patent processes, after the watery particles,
which the egg naturally contains, have been completely exhausted and
withdrawn, without further alteration of its constituents. It contains
all the nutritious properties of the egg in its natural state, and must
be valuable to shipmasters, emigrants, and others. One ounce of it is
said to be equal to three eggs.
The ancient Romans, though not great beef-eaters, were particular as to
poultry. Dr. Daubeny, in his _Lectures on Roman Husbandry_, says--‘The
ancient Romans had large preserves, not only of poultry and pigeons,
but even of thrushes and quails enclosed in pens which were called
‘ornithones,’ from which they could draw their supply for the table
at pleasure. We are told, indeed, of two sorts of ornithones, the one
merely aviaries stocked with birds for the amusement of the proprietor;
the other kind, constructed with a view to profit, which were often
of vast extent, to supply the demands of the Roman market for such
articles of luxury. In the Sabine country particularly, we read of
extensive pens, filled with birds for the latter purpose. For thrushes
alone there were large rooms provided, each capable of holding several
thousand birds. As they were put in to be fattened, the place had only
just light enough to enable the birds to see their food, but there was
a good supply of fresh water accessible. And I may remark that, whilst
nothing is said by the Roman writers about the fattening of oxen and
sheep, particular directions are given for fattening poultry and other
birds--a strong additional argument of the little importance they
attached to the larger animals as articles of food.’