In recent times, and in some parts of the Levant even now, as we
learn from Forbes and Spratt’s _Lycia_, the cuttle-fish of different
species were used as articles of food; and we know from the works of
travellers, that in other parts of the world, when cooked, they are
esteemed as luxuries.
Besides the common cuttle-fish (_Sepia octopodia_), two or three other
singular species are found on the Chilian coasts of the Pacific. The
first, the ungulated cuttle-fish (_Sepia unguiculata_), is of a great
size, and instead of suckers, has paws armed with a double row of
pointed nails, like those of a cat, which it can, at its pleasure,
draw into a kind of sheath. This fish is of a delicate taste, but is
not very common. The second is named (_Sepia tunicata_), from its
body being covered with a second skin, in the form of a tunic; this
is transparent, and terminates in two little semicircular appendages
like wings, which project from either side of the tail. Many wonderful
and incredible stories are told by sailors of the bulk and strength of
this fish; it is however certain that it is frequently caught of 150
lbs. weight, on the coast of Chile, and the flesh is esteemed a great
delicacy. The sea around Barbados is frequented by a species of the
order _Cephalopoda_, which is used as an article of food by the lower
classes of the inhabitants, namely the bastard cuttle-fish, or calmar,
(_Loligo sagitatta_, Lam.).
The flesh of the large cephalopodous animals, (_Loligo_ of Lamark; _les
Calmars_ of Cuvier,) was esteemed as a delicacy by the ancients. Most
of the eastern natives, and those of the Polynesian Islands, partake
of it, and esteem it as food; they may be seen exposed for sale in the
bazaars or markets throughout India.
The natives of most of the islands in the China Seas dry the _Sepiæ_
and _Octopi_, as well as the soft parts of the _Haliotis_, _Turbo_,
_Hippopus_, _Tridacna_, &c., and make use of them as articles of food.
But from my little experience of this kind of diet, notwithstanding
the assertion of the learned Bacon, in his _Experiment Solitary
touching Cuttle-ink_, that the cuttle is accounted a delicate meat,
and is much in request, I should say that it is as indigestible and
unnutritious as it is certainly tough and uninviting. Cephalopods,
however, are eaten at the present day on some parts of the
Mediterranean coasts; and in Hampshire I have seen the poor people
collect assiduously the _Sepiæ_ and employ them as food.
The common snail of the Meiacoshimahs is eaten by the natives, as the
_Helix aspersa_ and _H. pomatia_ are occasionally in Europe.
The Malays are fond of the _Cerithium telescopium_ and _palustre_ found
in the Mangrove swamps. They throw them on their wood fires, and when
sufficiently cooked, break off the sharp end of the spine, and suck the
tail of the animal through the opening.
‘The poor people of the Philippines relish the _Arca inequivalvis_,
boiling them as we do cockles or mussels; the flesh, however, is red
and very bad-flavoured. Some _Monodonta_ which I have eaten among
the Korean Islands are quite peppery, and bite the tongue, producing
the same unpleasant effects upon that organ as the root of the _Arum
maculatum_, or leaves of the Taro, but in much less intense degree; and
a species of _Mytilus_, found in the same locality, has very similar
unpalatable qualities.’[37]
Of the several species of urchins or sea-eggs, one, the _Echinus
albus_, is eaten by the Chilians and others. The white urchin is of a
globular form, and about three inches in diameter; the shell and spines
are white, but the interior substance is yellowish and of an excellent
taste.
There is a marine delicacy of the Chinese which must not be passed
unnoticed; it is a kind of sea-slug, varieties of _Holothuria_, fished
for on the coral reefs of the Eastern seas, and known under the names
of _Bêche-de-mer_ and _Tripang_.
When dried it is an ugly looking dirty-brown colored substance, very
hard and rigid until softened by water, and a very lengthened process
of cooking, after which it becomes soft and mucilaginous. It is
rendered down into a sort of thick soup, after partaking of which a
Chinaman sleeps in the seventh heaven of Chinese bliss. It looks like a
dried sausage or blood-pudding, and some resemble a prickly cucumber.
There are at least 33 different varieties enumerated by the Chinese
traders and others skilled in its classification, for fashion and
custom have caused each variety to have a different market. While the
gourmand of the South smacks his lips on the juicy white and black, the
less cultivated taste of those at the North is satisfied with the red
and more inferior varieties. One of the inferior kinds is slender, and
of a dark brown colour, soft to the touch, and leaves a red stain on
the hands; another is of a grey colour and speckled; a third is large
and a dark yellow, with a rough skin and tubercles on its side. The
second kind is often eaten raw by the natives, as I have seen a red
herring eaten raw. The price varies from £7 to £14 the picul, of 133
lbs., and as there are about 1,000 of the slugs in a picul, they are
worth from 2_d._ to 4_d._ each, according to quality, wholesale.
The process of curing and preparation for market is very simple. The
slug, on being taken from the boat, is simmered over a fire in an iron
caldron for about half-an-hour, after which it is thrown out upon the
ground, and the operation of opening commences, this being effected by
a longitudinal cut along the back with a sharp knife. It is then again
placed in the caldron and boiled in salt water, with which a quantity
of the bark of the mangrove has been mixed, for about three hours, when
the outer skin will begin to peel off. It is now sufficiently boiled,
and after the water has been drained off, the slugs are arranged in
the drying-houses (small huts covered with mats) upon frames of split
bamboo spread out immediately under the roof. Each slug is carefully
placed with the part that has been cut open facing downwards, and a
fire is made underneath, the smoke of which soon dries the tripang
sufficiently to permit its being packed in bags or baskets for
exportation.
Mr. Wingrove Cooke, in his cleverly described account of a Chinese
banquet, thus narrates his impression of the dish prepared from them:
‘The next course was expected with a very nervous excitement. It was a
stew of sea-slugs. As I have seen them at Macao they are white, but as
served at Ningpo they are green. I credit the Imperial academician’s as
the orthodox dish. They are slippery, and very difficult to be handled
by inexperienced chopsticks; but they are most succulent and pleasant
food, not at all unlike in flavour to the green fat of a turtle. If a
man cannot eat anything of a kind whereof he has not seen his father
and grandfather eat before, we must leave him to his oysters, and his
periwinkles, and his cray-fish, and not expect him to swallow the
much more comely sea-slug. But surely a Briton, who has eaten himself
into a poisonous plethora upon mussels, has no right to hold up his
hands and eyes at a Chinaman enjoying his honest well-cooked stew of
_bêche-de-mer_.’
The peculiarities of this animal have been thus graphically described:
‘It can stand erect and graze on the sea grasses, or crawl on its
belly, and digest the contents of sea-shells sufficient to fill a
cabinet; harder and bigger than a brick, it can yet go through a lady’s
ring: its natural shape is that of a cucumber, yet it will take the
mould of any vessel in which it is placed: apparently without sight,
night is the time it collects its food: furnished with teeth, they
are only used to hold on by, while at the opposite end the fish gapes
to receive its tiny prey, which it draws in by feelers thrust forward
for the purpose. Opened by the conchologist, he will be rewarded with
a store of minute shells most perfectly cleaned: boiled and dried it
reduces to one-twelfth its weight and one-fifth its size: resoaked, it
expands to nearly its former dimensions; but damped, it becomes glue,
nasty and disagreeable: sliced up and boiled it becomes isinglass, of
use to none but the Chinese gourmand. The reefs of the Archipelago
have been ransacked for it, and many a risk has been run in procuring
it from the Cannibal Isles of the Pacific. The main supplies for the
China market, are furnished by the Celebes proas. The industrious
merchants of this island bring it in their fleets from Torres Straits,
and the far-off reefs of New Guinea, and collect it from every islet
and village in the Archipelago. Other supplies with this find their way
to the Dutch and Spanish trading ports on the larger islands, and are
from them shipped to Batavia, Singapore, and Manila. From this last
port a few Spanish vessels have procured it in the Sooloo Sea; but this
fishery, as well as all the others well known, has yielded its best
supplies, and the enhanced price in China adds inducement to seek out
reefs less frequented for more abundant yield. At the above-named ports
it commands, for mixed cargoes, a higher price than in China itself.
American vessels are constantly engaged in this trade in the South
Pacific, and I noticed recently that two vessels from San Francisco
had procured cargoes from the Southern Isles, and were on their way to
Manila or China. It is a business in which, to be successful, no little
tact is required to deal with the treacherous natives, as well as a
knowledge of curing and preparing for the market; but it is one that
will long give a great return for small investments to the daring and
successful adventurers.’
When M. De Blainville states he has never heard that any of the
_Holothuriæ_ were of much utility to mankind, but that M. Delle Chiaje
does indeed inform us that the poor inhabitants of the Neapolitan
coasts eat them, he appears to have forgotten the great oriental
traffic carried on with some of the species, as an article of food.
Some years ago, in my _Colonial Magazine_, I called attention to the
fact, that the fishing for, and shipment of, this sea-slug to China
might prove a very profitable trade, but it seems to be an employment
for which European seamen are by no means well adapted.
It can be fished for in the Indian Ocean, from the Mauritius and Ceylon
to New Guinea, in the Pacific; and is to be procured from any of the
South Sea Islands. It abounds in the seas along the shores of the
Bermuda Islands, and some is said to be shipped from Boston and other
ports of the United States to Canton.
The late Sir W. Reid, when Governor of the Bermudas, endeavoured to
direct the attention of the inhabitants to the collection of it round
their shores, where it is common, with a view to curing it for the
purpose of exportation. He even went so far as to make soup from it,
and I understand, partook of it at his own table. His advice, however,
does not seem to have been followed, as up to the present time none has
been collected. It could be made a profitable article of export, if the
Bermudians chose to try the experiment, as the curing process is very
simple.
A company for carrying out this fishery was projected at Perth, in
Western Australia, in 1836, but it was never prosecuted with any
spirit, and soon dropped. Tripang is now carried into China from
almost every island of the Eastern Archipelago, and also from Northern
Australia.
The quantity sent from Macassar alone is about 9,000 cwt., and half as
much from Java. Probably between 4,000 and 5,000 tons go annually to
China, where the demand is perfectly unlimited.
The best and most detailed account I have met with respecting the
taking and preparing of this eastern luxury, is in the _Narrative of
the United States Exploring Expedition in the Feejee Islands_, by
Commander Charles Wilkes, of the American Navy: ‘Of the bêche-de-mer,’
he says, ‘there are several kinds, some of which are much superior
in quality to the others; they are distinguishable both by shape and
colour, but more particularly by the latter. One of the inferior kinds
is slender, and of a dark brown colour, soft to the touch, and leaves a
red stain on the hands; another is of grey colour and speckled; a third
is large, and dark yellow, with a rough skin, and tubercles on its
sides. The second kind is often eaten raw by the natives.
‘The valuable sorts are six in number: one of a dark red colour; a
second is black, from two inches to nine inches in length, and its
surface, when cured, resembles crape; a third kind is large, and of a
dark grey colour, which, when cured, becomes a dirty white; the fourth
resembles the third, except in colour, which is a dark brown; the fifth
variety is of a dirty white colour, with tubercles on its sides, and
retains its colour when cured; the sixth is red, prickly, and of a
different shape and larger size than the others; when cured, it becomes
dark.
‘The most esteemed kinds are found on the reefs, in water from one to
two fathoms in depth, where they are caught by diving. The inferior
sorts are found on reefs which are dry, or nearly so, at low water,
where they are picked up by the natives. The natives also fish the
bêche-de-mer on rocky coral bottoms, by the light of the moon or of
torches, for the animals keep themselves drawn up in holes in the sand
or rocks by day, and come forth by night to feed, when they may be
taken in great quantities. The motions of the animal resemble those of
a caterpillar; and it feeds by suction, drawing in with its food much
fine coral and some small shells.
‘Captain Eagleston stated that the bêche-de-mer is found in greatest
abundance on reefs composed of a mixture of sand and coral. The animal
is rare on the southern side of any of the islands, and the most
lucrative fisheries are on the northern side, particularly on that
of Vanua levu, between Anganga and Druan. In this place, the most
frequent kind is that which resembles crape. In some places the animal
multiplies very fast; but there are others where, although ten years
have elapsed since they were last fished, none are yet to be found.
‘The bêche-de-mer requires a large building to dry it in. That erected
by Captain Eagleston on the Island of Tavan, is 85 feet long, about 15
or 20 feet wide, and nearly as much in height. The roof has a double
pitch, falling on each side of the ridge to eaves, which are about
five feet from the ground. The roof is well thatched, and ought to be
perfectly water-tight. There are usually three doors, one at each end,
and one in the middle of one of the sides. Throughout the whole length
of the building is a row of double staging, called batters, on which
reeds are laid.
‘On the construction of this staging much of the success of the
business depends. It ought to be supported on firm posts, to which
the string-pieces should be well secured by lashing. The lower batter
is about four feet from the ground, and the upper from two to three
feet above it. Their breadth is from twelve to fourteen feet. Upon
the large reeds with which the batters are covered is laid the ‘fish
fence,’ which is made by weaving or tying small cords together. This is
composed of many pieces, the height of each of which is equal to the
breadth of the batter.
‘A trench is dug under the whole length of the batters, in which a slow
fire is kept up by the natives under the direction of one of the mates
of the vessel. The earth from the trench is thrown against the sides
of the house, which are at least two or three feet from the nearest
batter, in order to prevent accident from fire. This is liable to
occur, not only from carelessness, but from design on the part of the
natives. As a further precaution, barrels filled with water are placed,
about eight feet apart, along both sides of the batters.
‘After the house has been in use for about a week, it becomes very
liable to take fire, in consequence of the drying and breaking of the
material used in the lashings. In this case it is hardly possible to
save any part of the building or its contents. To prevent the falling
of the stages by the breaking of the lashings, fresh pieces of cordage
are always kept at hand to replace those which are charred and show
signs of becoming weak. A constant watch must be kept up night and day,
and it requires about 15 hands to do the ordinary work of a house.
‘The fires are usually extinguished once in twenty-four hours, and the
time chosen for this purpose is at daylight. The fish are now removed
from the lower to the upper batter, and a fresh supply introduced in
their place. This operation, in consequence of the heat of the batter,
is hard and laborious, and 50 or 60 natives are usually employed in it.
‘Fire-wood is of course an important article in this process, each
picul of bêche-de-mer requiring about half a cord to cure it. This fuel
is purchased from the chiefs, who agree to furnish a certain quantity
for a stipulated compensation. As much as 20 cords are sometimes bought
for a single musket. In carrying on the drying, it is important that
the doors be kept shut while the fires are burning. Much also depends
upon the location of the house, whose length should be at right angles
to the course of the prevailing winds. The batters also should be
nearest to the lee side of the house.
‘Before beginning the fishery, the services of some chief are secured,
who undertakes to cause the house to be built, and sets his dependents
at work to fish the bêche-de-mer. The price is usually a whale’s tooth
for a hogshead of the animals, just as they are taken on the reef. It
is also bought with muskets, powder, balls, vermilion, paint, axes,
hatchets, beads, knives, scissors, chisels, plane-irons, gouges,
fish-hooks, small glasses, flints, cotton cloths, chests, trunks, &c.
Of beads, in assorted colours, the blue are preferred, and cotton cloth
of the same colour is most in demand. For one musket, a cask containing
from 130 to 160 gallons has been filled ten times. When the animals are
brought on shore, they are measured into bins, where they remain until
the next day.
‘These bins are formed by digging a trench in the ground, about two
feet in depth, and working up the sides with cocoa-nut logs, until they
are large enough to contain forty or fifty hogsheads. If the fishery is
successful, two of these may be needed.
‘Near the bins are placed the trade-house and trade-stand. In the
first, the articles with which the fish is purchased are kept; and, in
the second, the officer in charge of them sits, attended by a trusty
and watchful seaman. The stand is elevated, so that the persons in it
may have an opportunity of seeing all that is taking place around them.
All the fish are thrown into the bin before they are paid for.
‘In these bins the fish undergo the operation of draining and purging,
or ejecting their entrails. These, in some of the species, resemble
pills, in others look like worms, and are as long as the animals
themselves.
‘The larger kinds are then cut along the belly for a length of three
or four inches, which makes them cure more rapidly; but care must be
taken to avoid cutting too deep, as this would cause the fish to spread
open, and diminish its value in the market.
‘When taken out of the bins and cut, the fish are thrown into the
boilers, which are large pots, of which each establishment has five or
six. These pots have the form of sugar-boilers, with broad rims, and
contain from one hundred to one hundred and fifty gallons.
‘They are built in a row, in rude walls of stone and mud, about two
feet apart, and have sufficient space beneath them for a large fire.
The workmen stand on the walls to fill and empty the pots, and have
within reach a platform, on which the fish is put after it has been
boiled.
‘It requires two men to attend each pot, who relieve each other, so
that the work may go on night and day. They are provided with skimmers
and ladles, as well as fire-hooks, hoes, and shovels.
‘No water is put into the pots, for the fish yield moisture enough to
prevent burning.
‘The boiling occupies from 25 to 50 minutes, and the fish remains about
an hour on the platform to drain, after which it is taken to the house,
and laid to a depth of four inches upon the lower batter. Thence at
the end of twenty-four hours it is removed, as has been stated, to the
upper batter, where it is thoroughly dried in the course of three or
four days. Before it is taken on board ship, it is carefully picked,
when the damp pieces are separated, to be returned to the batter. It is
stowed in bulk, and when fit for that purpose should be as hard and dry
as chips. Great care must be taken to preserve it from moisture.
‘In the process of drying, it loses two-thirds both of its weight and
bulk, and when cured, resembles smoked sausage. In this state it is
sold by the picul, which brings from 15 to 25 dollars.
‘Captain Eagleston had collected in the course of seven months, and at
a trifling expense, a cargo of 1,200 piculs, worth about 25,000 dollars.
‘The outfit for such a voyage is small, but the risk to be incurred
is of some moment, as no insurance can be effected on vessels bound
to the Feejee Group, and it requires no small activity and enterprise
to conduct this trade. A thorough knowledge of the native character
is essential to success; and it requires all possible vigilance on
the part of the captain of the vessel to prevent surprise, and the
greatest caution to avoid difficulties. Even with the exercise of these
qualities, he may often find himself and his crew in perilous positions.
‘In order to lessen the dangers as much as possible, no large canoes
are ever allowed to remain alongside the vessel, and a chief of high
rank is generally kept on board as a hostage. When those precautions
have not been taken, accidents have frequently happened.
‘The bêche-de-mer is sometimes carried to Canton, but more usually to
Manila, whence it is shipped to China.
‘In order to show the profits which arise from the trade in
bêche-de-mer, I give the cost and returns of five cargoes, obtained by
Captain Eagleston in the Feejee Group. These he obligingly favoured me
with.
Piculs. Cost of outfit. Sales.
Dolls. Dolls.
1st voyage 617 1,101 8,021
2nd ” 700 1,200 17,500
3rd ” 1,080 3,396 15,120
4th ” 840 1,200 12,600
5th ” 1,200 3,500 27,000
‘A further profit also arises from the investment of the proceeds in
Canton. Capt. Eagleston also obtained 4,488 pounds of tortoise shell,
at a cost of 5,700 dollars, which sold in the United States for 29,050
dollars net.
In Mr. Crawfurd’s _Indian Archipelago_, vol. iii., there are also the
following details:--
‘The tripang is an unseemly-looking substance, of a dirty brown
colour, hard, rigid, scarcely possessing any power of locomotion, nor
appearance of animation. Some of the fish are occasionally as much as
two feet in length, and from seven to eight inches in circumference:
the length of a span, and the girth of from two to three inches,
however, is the ordinary size. The quality or value of the fish,
however, does by no means depend upon its size, but upon properties in
them neither obvious to, nor discernible by, those who have not had
a long and intimate experience of the trade. The Chinese merchants
are almost the only persons who possess this skill, even the native
fishermen themselves being often ignorant on the subject, and always
leaving the cargo to be assorted by the Chinese on their return to
port. The commercial classification made by the Chinese is curious and
particular. In the market of Macassar, the greatest staple of this
fishery, not less than thirty varieties are distinguished, varying in
price from five Spanish dollars per picul to fourteen times that price,
each being particularized by well-known names. To satisfy curiosity, I
shall give a few of them, with their ordinary price:--
Tacheritaug (grey sort) 68 Spanish dollars.
Batu-basar (great stone) 54 ”
Batu-taugah (middling stone) 22 ”
Batu-kachil (small stone) 14 Spanish dollars.
Itaur-basar (great black) 30 ”
Itaur-taugah (middling black) 15 ”
Itaur-kachil (small black) 8 ”
Tundaug 24 ”
Kunyit 9 ”
Douga 7 ”
Japou 12 ”
Mosi 9 ”
Kauasa 5 ”
Pachaug-goreug 5 ”
Gama 12½ ”
Taikougkoug 13½ ”
Mareje (New Holland) 19 ”
Kayu-jawa 26 ”
Baukuli 20 ”
‘It is evident from this account that the tripang trade is one in
which no stranger can embark with any safety, and it is consequently
almost entirely in the hands of the Chinese. The actual fishery is
managed, however, exclusively by the natives. The fish are caught by
them on ledges of coral rock, usually at the depth of from three to
five fathoms. The larger kinds, when in shallow water, are occasionally
speared; but the most common mode of taking them is by diving for them
in the manner practised for pearl oysters, and taking them up with the
hands.’
* * * * *
I have now gone through the list of ordinary and extraordinary foreign
delicacies, and no doubt many of these have been read with surprise.
But there are many unexplained things in the food we Englishmen
consume even at the present time; for instance, although in the
knackers’ yards we can account for every other portion of the carcase
of the dead horse, no one knows what becomes of the heart and the
tongue. Dr. Playfair, when lecturing at the South Kensington Museum
recently, ‘on the application of Waste Substances,’ was staggered
on this point, and therefore he had to inscribe it on his board ‘a
mystery.’ It is questionable to my mind whether many of the smoked
ostensible ox-tongues, imported from Russia, are not veritable
horse-tongues.
The numerous herds of wild horses in Russia would easily furnish the
500 cwt. of tongues we import.
I am afraid that many little know too what they eat in the
sausage-meat, the alamode beef, the polonies, and the mutton and veal
pies of the pie-shops and street venders.
Whether the man who is said to have gone into the pie-shop, and
throwing down a skinned cat on the counter in the presence of numerous
customers exclaiming ‘that makes a dozen,’ did it out of malice or in
the way of business, it would be difficult to determine. But it is
always pleasant to see the vender partaking of his own pork or eel
pies; it inspires confidence, as the witness proved to the Judge in
Court.
‘You say you have confidence in the plaintiff, Mr. Smith.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘State to the Court, if you please, what causes this feeling of
confidence.’
‘Why, you see, sir, there’s allers reports ’bout eatin’-house-men, and
I used to kinder think--’
‘Never mind what you thought--tell us what you know.’
‘Well, sir, one day I goes down to Cooken’s shop, an’ sez to the
waiter, ‘Waiter,’ sez I, ‘gives’s a weal pie.’
‘Well sir, proceed.’
‘Well, just then Mr. Cooken comes up, and sez he, how du Smith, what be
going to hav?
‘Weal pie, sez I.’
‘Good,’ sez he, ‘I’ll take one tu;’ so he sets down and eats one of his
own weal pies right afore me.’
‘Did that cause your confidence in him?’
‘Yes, it did, sir; when an eatin’-house-keeper sets down afore his
customers an’ deliberately eats one of his own weal pies, no man can
refuse to feel confidence--it shows him to be an honest man.’
On the jamb of the door of an eating-house on the North Wall, Dublin,
the curious might recently read the following announcement printed,
conveying alarming intelligence to the gallant tars who frequent that
port--‘Sailors’ vitals cooked here.’
Probably none of the foreign epicures, whose numerous dainties I have
been placing before you, would eat hare and currant jelly, goose and
apple-sauce, fish pies or parsley pasty like the Cornishman, or the
squab pie of the Devonshire fisherman.
Now, while we are prone to ridicule others for their choice of food
delicacies, we should look at home. Our epicures are extremely fond of
woodcocks cooked un-gutted, and the standard dishes of Scotland, the
haggis, sheep’s-head, tripe, and black puddings, are not palatable to
every one.
We have seen, however, from our deliberate survey that whatever
enriches the earth and proclaims the bounty of the Creator, illustrates
His indulgent regard for Man as chief of the Animal orders. Rich
provision has been made for his wants and for his tastes, making glad
the fields, the meadows, the vineyards, the orchards, the waters, and
the air, peopled as they are with things made to be quartered, and
cooked, and eaten. Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be
refused if it be received with thanksgiving--‘Let no man judge you in
meat or in drink.’ The Creator granted to the use of Man animal food as
well as every green herb. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles and is set
before you eat, therefore, asking no questions for conscience sake.
In the course of our investigation, we have seen how difficult it is
to determine what is _food_ and what really are _food delicacies_;
for thereupon the proverb rises before us--‘What’s one man’s meat, is
another man’s poison.’
Some people eat arsenic in considerable quantities, and if not exactly
food, they find it conducive to an enjoying state of existence. Certain
tribes of Africans and South American Indians eat an unctuous kind of
earth, which, if introduced into our workhouses as food, would raise an
outcry far and wide. In some countries sea-weed is food, in others it
is manure for land. While we ruthlessly destroy snails and frogs, our
continental brethren fatten and feed upon them.
Thus do the food delicacies differ in different parts of the globe, the
nature of the alimentary substances varying exceedingly, and the ‘daily
bread’ assuming most diversified forms.
I have confined myself here to the Animal Food, because to have gone
into the Vegetable Substances would have carried me too much into
detail. As it is, I have only been able to skim over the surface, to
make a brief enumeration of some of the more prominent delicacies.
A talented friend has well remarked--‘It is a probable thing, that
many new varieties of food will ultimately be produced artificially,
but it would be difficult to persuade people to eat them knowingly.
Handy Andy, in Lover’s tale, thought stewed leather breeches very fine
tripe till he lighted on a button, which suddenly convinced him it was
unwholesome food; and Sir Joseph Banks--so says Peter Pindar--did not
think fleas equal to lobsters, though of the same genus.
‘The Berlin philosophers have been for many years trying to persuade
the community that horse-flesh is good beef, unsatisfactorily; and,
amongst civilized communities, it appears to be chiefly in France that
people voluntarily eat cats, both as a relish and a vengeance, if we
may trust the reports of the Tribunal of Correctional Police, though
scandal has long accused inn-keepers, both in France and Spain, of thus
feeding their guests, as a substitute for rabbits.
‘The French are chemists as well as cooks, and if fetid potato oil can
be converted into a delicious scent akin to attar of roses, we may very
well imagine that the partridge or venison bouquet may be obtained from
other kinds of flesh.
‘Glue and scraps of gloves, boiled with garlic, are eaten in Spain,
and there is, as I have already stated, an hiatus in the parchment
specifications at the Patent Office, caused by an unlucky boy, who
changed them away for tarts, in order that they might be stewed down,
and converted into calves’-foot jelly. The mechanical problems written
and graven on them were doubtless not precipitated on the delicate
palates of the ladies or gentlemen consuming them at Almack’s, or
elsewhere. It was but carbon gathered by the sheep in the shape of
grass from the earth’s surface--kid gloves in another form. Possibly
Chemistry will ultimately enable us to make kid gloves and parchment
without troubling goats or sheep for them, and artificial gelatine will
become a substitute for calves’-feet. It is probable, that even now
we occasionally eat old wool and hair in our gravy soups, as well as
make it into what is facetiously called ‘felt cloth’--the fibres being
glued instead of felted together; and in process of time we may prepare
gelatinous tubes, analogous to wool and hair, from carbon, converted
into gelatine. It certainly seems odd that a man’s coat should be
convertible into his dinner; but ‘Imperial Cæsar,’ according to Hamlet,
underwent as strange changes.[38]’
During the time of the Great Exhibition, in 1851, buffalo hides, and
sheep and calf skins, advanced cent. per cent. in price. This was
caused by the great demand for jellies in the refreshment rooms.
Visitors then consumed jellies who never tasted jellies before; and as
the usual material was not available, buffalo hides were purchased in
tons in Liverpool, for the purpose of making these delicacies. Size
and glue were used at first, but the hides were found to be cheapest.
No one knows now what he eats in English confectionery. The natives of
Java use the fresh hides of cattle as food,--nay even esteem them a
dainty beyond any other part of the animal. The first pair of buckskin
breeches seen in the South Sea Islands were so little understood, that
the natives stuffed them with sea-weed, and had them boiled for dinner.
After the enumeration I have given you of Food Delicacies, who shall
venture to determine what is good eating? Some Europeans chew tobacco,
the Hindoo takes to betel-nut and lime, while the Patagonian finds
contentment in a bit of guano, and the Styrians grow fat and ruddy on
arsenic. English children delight in sweetmeats and sugar-candy, while
those of Africa prefer rock salt. A Frenchman likes frogs and snails,
and we eat eels, oysters, and whelks. To the Esquimaux, train oil is
your only delicacy. The Russian luxuriates upon his hide or tallow;
the Chinese upon rats, puppy dogs, and sharks’ fins; the Kafir upon
elephant’s foot and trunk, or lion steaks; while the Pacific Islander
places cold missionary above every other edible. Why then should we
be surprised at men’s feeding upon rattle-snakes and monkeys, and
pronouncing them capital eating?
I do not know if any of the delicacies I have described may occasion
what Charles Lamb calls ‘premonitory moistening of the nether lip,’
but I trust I may not have spoiled the reader’s appetite for dinner or
supper. There is a saying of great truth, ‘that one half the world does
not know how the other half lives.’ These pages will, I think, serve to
verify the adage.