the famous “Twelfth-night cake,” almost all over Europe. The ephemeral
royalty it bestowed was often sung by the poets, and consecrated in
chronicles. Thomas Randolph informs us that Lady Flemyng was queen of
the bean in 1568.[VIII-17] Some days after the Duke of Guise was
assassinated by Poltrot. History has its puerilities as well as its
great tragedies.
The Spaniards had also their Twelfth-night cake. When John, Duke of
Braganza, had obtained the crown of Portugal (1640), Philip IV. of Spain
informed Count Olivares of the event, and added, as if it were a
consolation for the loss of a kingdom, that this new sovereign was
nothing more than a “king of the bean.”[VIII-18] Philip was mistaken.
These cakes were made in former days nearly in the same manner that we
make them now. Sometimes they contained honey, flour, ginger, and
pepper. One portion was for God, another for the Holy Virgin, and three
others for the Magi; that is to say, they gave all these portions to the
poor.[VIII-19]
In England the cake was often full of raisins, among which one bean and
one pea were introduced.
“Cut the cake,” says Melibœus to Nisa; “who hath the beane shal be
kinge; and where the peaze is, shal be queene.”[VIII-20]
“At the present day the bean is one of the vegetables most cultivated in
Egypt and Italy. At Naples, as in Egypt, they are eaten raw when young,
and the large ones cooked and grilled in the oven. They are publicly
sold already cooked.”--LEMAN.
HARICOTS.
It is well known that Alexander the Great was fond of travelling, and
that he was generally accompanied in his peregrinations by a certain
number of soldiers, who occasionally took for him, on his route, cities,
provinces, and sometimes kingdoms. It happened, one day, that as the
Macedonian prince--worthy pupil of Aristotle--was herbalizing in India,
his eyes fell upon a field of haricots, which appeared to him very
inviting. It was the first time that he had seen this plant, and he
immediately ordered his cook to prepare a dish of them--we do not know
with what sauce; but he thought them good, and, thanks to this great
conqueror, Europe was enriched with a new vegetable.[VIII-21]
Virgil was doubtless ignorant of this noble origin, when he decried
haricots severely, by qualifying them so disgracefully.[VIII-22] It is
true that the lower classes of people, who were very fond of them, did
great injury to their reputation; for things the most exquisite soon
lose their value when they fall within the reach of the vulgar. It is
thus with a pleasing melody--when given up to the barbarous and
melancholy street organs it ceases to charm the ears of drawing-room
fashionables. The same again with a plaintive ballad--it loses its
attraction the moment a street Orpheus begins to murder it with his
Stentorian bawl.
Let it not be thought, however, that the plant of which we speak was
exclusively reserved for the vulgar appetite. Oh, no! the Greeks and
Latins had too much good taste for that. The former allowed it a
distinguished place on their tables, together with figs, and other side
dishes. They only required that haricots should be young, tender, and
green.[VIII-23]
In Rome they were preserved with vinegar and garum; and, prepared in
this manner, they excited the appetites of the guests at the beginning
of the repast.[VIII-24] Moreover, it was admitted that this vegetable
was much more wholesome than beans, that the stomach was less fatigued
by it, and that persons of delicate constitutions might partake of it
without fear. Certain amateurs even pretended that no vegetable was to
be compared to haricots;[VIII-25] but others differed from them on this
point; and the latter, right or wrong, pronounced in favour of peas.
PEAS.
Green peas, we are sorry to say, were not appreciated as they deserved
to be by the Romans.[VIII-26] It was reserved principally for our
century to discover their value, to cultivate them with care, and to
force nature to give them to us before the appointed time. This plant
was hardly known in 1550. Since that period, the gardener, Michaux,
undertook to bring it into repute. For some time in France it was called
only by the name of this worthy man.[VIII-27]
Before that it was an unappreciated vegetable; it came forth, blossomed,
and disappeared, without utility and without renown.
It was not thus with grey peas (_pois chiche_), which flourished at a
very remote period, and are mentioned in the sacred writings.[VIII-28]
The common people of Rome and Greece made them their ordinary food. They
ate them boiled or fried; a rather disagreeable dish, according to the
caustic Martial,[VIII-29] who, however, speaks with disdain of every
kind of peas, in whatsoever manner they may be prepared.
Nevertheless, the satirical humour of this celebrated poet did not
prevent this vegetable from being universally sold; and men, women, and
children regaled, and even gorged, themselves, with fried grey
peas,[VIII-30] or ram peas (_cicer arietinum_), a singular name, for
which they were indebted to the slight asperity remarkable in each of
the grains.[VIII-31]
At the Circus, and in the theatres, they were sold at a low price to the
spectators, whom it seemed impossible to satiate with this delicacy,
although it has so little attraction for us.[VIII-32] In short, the
nation of kings had so decided a taste for grey peas, that those who
coveted public employment did not fail to distribute them gratuitously
to the people, in order to obtain their suffrages.[VIII-33] We must
acknowledge that in those days votes were obtained at a very cheap rate.
LENTILS.
The Egyptians, whose ideas were sometimes most eccentric, imagined it
was sufficient to feed children with lentils to enlighten their minds,
open their hearts, and render them cheerful. That people, therefore,
consumed an immense quantity of this vegetable, which from infancy had
been their principal food.[VIII-34]
The Greeks also highly esteemed this aliment, and their ancient
philosophers regaled themselves with lentils. Zeno would not trust to
any one the cooking of them; it is true that the stoics had for their
maxim: “A wise man acts always with reason, and prepares his lentils
himself.”[VIII-35] We must confess that the great wit of these words
escapes us, although we are willing to believe there is some in them.
However it may be, lentils were abundant in Greece and in the East; and
many persons, otherwise very sensible, maintained, with the most serious
countenance in the world, that they softened the temper and disposed the
mind to study.[VIII-36]
It is hardly necessary to observe that this plant was well known to the
Hebrews. The red pottage of lentils for which Esau sold his
birthright,[VIII-37] the present of Shobi to David,[VIII-38] the victory
of Shammah in the field of lentils,[VIII-39] and, lastly, the bread of
Ezekiel,[VIII-40] sufficiently prove that the Jews numbered this
vegetable as one of those in ordinary use among them.
The Romans had not the same esteem for it as the nations we have
mentioned. According to them, the moisture in lentils could only cause
heaviness to the mind, and render men reserved, indolent, and lazy. The
name of this vegetable pretty well shows, they said, the bad effect it
produces. Lentil derives its origin from the word _lentus_
(slow),[VIII-41] “_Lens a lente_.”
And, as if enough had not been alleged to disgrace this unfortunate
plant, and to give the finish to the ill-fame it had acquired, it was
placed amongst funereal and ill-omened foods. Thus Marcus Crassus,
waging war against the Parthians, was convinced that his army would be
defeated, because his corn was exhausted, and his men were obliged to
have recourse to lentils.[VIII-42]
How was it possible to resist such attacks! The humble plant gave way in
spite of the few flattering words of the poetic Virgil,[VIII-43] and the
assurance of Pliny that this food produced two uncommon
virtues--mildness and moderation.[VIII-44]
IX.
KITCHEN GARDEN.
The art of gardening, which may be called the luxury of
agriculture,[IX-1] was known at the most remote periods.[IX-2] In the
same inclosure was to be found the kitchen garden, orchard, and flower
garden,[IX-3] at a short distance from the habitation of the rich.[IX-4]
Royal hands did not disdain to embellish those spots which afforded a
pleasing retreat, solitude, and repose.
Thus Attalus resigned the cares of his crown to cultivate his little
garden, and sow in it the seeds of his favourite plant.[IX-5]
Babylon, the renowned city of antiquity, was celebrated amongst other
wonders for her gardens suspended in the air; they were partly in
existence sixteen centuries after their erection, and astonished
Alexander the Great[IX-6] by the sublime grandeur of their prodigious
boldness and the rare beauty of their workmanship.
Homer has left us the description of Alcinous’s garden,[IX-7] from which
can be traced the birth of the art of gardening; its luxury consisted in
the order and symmetry of its form, in the richness of its soil, the
fertility of the trees, and in the two fountains which ornamented it. It
was not so with the Romans. Those conquerors of the world displayed
every where pomp and ostentation: Lucullus, Crassus, Pompey, and Cæsar,
filled their gardens with the riches of Asia and the spoils of the
universe.[IX-8]
The serious horticulturist, who wanted a garden for enjoyment, and not
for show, carefully laboured, to see it bring forth fine fruits and
excellent vegetables.[IX-9] Water was properly distributed for
irrigation by means of aqueducts[IX-10] of tiles, wood, or lead
pipes,[IX-11] and everywhere the plants received the necessary
moisture; and clever experienced gardeners were constantly occupied in
improvements suggested by an attentive and skilful master.[IX-12]
The kitchen garden of the ancients contained mostly the vegetables,
herbs, and roots, of which we still make use; but they also cultivated
certain other kinds, which modern cookery has either put aside or rarely
employs. We shall describe all those which appear most worthy of notice.
CABBAGE.
This plant has experienced the fate of a host of human things that have
not been able to bear the weight of a too brilliant reputation. Time has
done justice to the extraordinary qualities attributed to it, and the
cabbage now remains, what it ought always to have been, an estimable
vegetable and nothing more.
The Egyptians adored it, and raised altars to it. They afterwards made
of this strange god the first dish of their repasts, and were imitated
in this particular by the Greeks and Romans, who ascribed to it the
happy quality of preserving from drunkenness.[IX-13] It was more
particularly the red cabbage that obtained these honours and
prerogatives. From Italy the victorious legions introduced it among the
Gauls, as well as the green cabbage; the white species appears to belong
originally to southern countries.
Hippocrates had a peculiar affection for this vegetable. Should one of
his patients be seized with a violent cholic, he at once prescribed a
dish of boiled cabbage with salt.[IX-14] Erasistratus looked upon it as
a sovereign remedy against paralysis. Pythagoras, and several other
learned philosophers, composed books in which they celebrated the
marvellous virtues of the cabbage.[IX-15]
A writer, not less serious than those we have just quoted, the wise
Cato, affirms that this plant infallibly cures all diseases; and
pretends to have used this panacea to preserve his family from the
plague, which, otherwise, would not have failed to reach them. It is to
the use the Romans made of it, he adds, that they were able during six
hundred years to do without the assistance of physicians, whom they had
expelled from their territories.[IX-16] This bold assertion deserved a
little retaliation on the part of the faculty; so they deposed the
cabbage from the rank occupied by it in medicine, and banished it to the
kitchen.
The Athenian ladies formerly partook of the general enthusiasm in favour
of this wholesome vegetable, which was always served to them when a
new-born infant required their maternal love and care.[IX-17]
The ancients were acquainted with three principal kinds of cabbage: the
silken-leaved, the curled, and the hard, round, white cabbage.[IX-18]
Apicius does not busy himself with any one of these varieties in
particular in the various preparations he points out, and which we
submit to the appreciation of connoisseurs:
1st. Take only the most delicate and tender part of the cabbage, which
boil, and then pour off the water; season it with cummin seed,[IX-19]
salt, old wine, oil, pepper, alisander, mint, rue, coriander seed,
gravy, and oil.
2nd. Prepare the cabbage in the manner just mentioned, and make a
seasoning of coriander seed, onion, cummin seed, pepper, a small
quantity of oil, and wine made of sun raisins.[IX-20]
3rd. When you have boiled the cabbages in water, put them into a
saucepan and stew them with gravy, oil, wine, cummin seed, pepper,
leeks, and green coriander.[IX-21]
4th. Add to the preceding ingredients flour of almonds, and raisins
dried in the sun.[IX-22]
5th. Prepare them again in the above manner, and cook them with green
olives.[IX-23]
Who will question the service rendered to the culinary art by
resuscitating these antique dishes, in which the cabbage admits of such
a variety of combinations, and which we owe to the learning and
experience of a man of taste? Whatever may be the opinion of our modern
Trimalcions, we must not forget that this vegetable, prepared according
to the recipe of Apicius, was the delight of the _gourmets_ of Rome more
than eighteen centuries ago.
The Romans brought the red cabbage into Gaul, and the green cabbage
also. White cabbages came from the north, and the art of making them
headed was unknown in the time of Charlemagne.[IX-24]
“In some countries cauliflowers are dried, and the white headed cabbages
are preserved. The first, stripped of their leaves, are cut in slices,
and boiled two minutes in water slightly salted. They are shortly after
withdrawn, and put to drain on hurdles, which are afterwards exposed to
the sun during two or three days. At the expiration of that time the
cauliflowers are placed in an oven half-warm, and are kept there till
the stalks are dry; they are then wrapped in paper to preserve them from
damp. To keep the headed cabbages, divide them in six or eight pieces,
according to size, throw them for an instant in boiling water, then
withdraw and plunge them in vinegar, which from time to time must be
changed, especially at the beginning, taking care to add always a little
salt.”--DUTOUR.
BEET.
Columella pretends that this plant owes its name (_beta_) to its
resemblance to the letter B.[IX-25] We shall leave to the professional
etymologist the trouble of examining whether Columella made a mistake or
not.
The Greeks had two distinct sorts of beet--the black and the pale; they
preferred the latter,[IX-26] especially when it came from Ascrea in
Bœotia.[IX-27] They called this species Sicilian beet; and the
physician Diphilus--who joined to his knowledge of botany that sort of
gastrophagic intuition, that culinary _mens divinior_, whose inspiration
never leads astray--placed it far above the cabbage, notwithstanding the
estimable qualities of this latter vegetable.[IX-28] He recommended it
to be eaten boiled, with mustard, and considers this food as a very
excellent vermifuge.[IX-29]
The beet has not found favour with Martial, who, always caustic and
severe, calls it an insipid dish.[IX-30] This injurious, and perhaps
unjust, epithet would doubtless have exercised a fatal influence upon
the destiny of this most inoffensive of vegetables, if an opponent of
greater weight had not entered the lists against the atrabilarious poet.
We read in Apicius: “Boil, over a slow fire, some very tender white
beet; add leeks, which have been taken from their native soil some days
previous; when all this is cooked put it into a saucepan with pepper,
gravy, and raisin wine; take care that the ebullition be regular, and
serve.[IX-31]
“Or, if you prefer: tie in bundles the beet you have carefully chosen,
wash it, throw in some nitre, and boil it with water; then put it into a
saucepan with sun-raisin wine, pepper, cummin, and a little oil; at the
moment of ebullition add a mixture of gravy and coarsely chopped
walnuts; cover the saucepan for an instant, uncover, and serve.”[IX-32]
The skilful artist is pleased for the third time to mention this
culinary herb; and this is the new preparation which he gives:--
“When you have boiled beet in water until it is tender, add a pulp of
leeks, some coriander, and cummin seed, carefully combined with flour
and sun-made wine; place these different ingredients in a saucepan, and
add gravy, oil, and vinegar.”[IX-33]
By tasting one of these dishes you will be convinced that Martial did
not understand them; or, perhaps, he composed his epigram after dinner.
One species of beet is well known in its two principal varieties, under
the name of beet-root and white-beet. The southern parts of Europe
appear to be the native countries of the beet. It serves as food for
both man and cattle. Sugar is extracted from the root, and potash from
the stalks and leaves.
Beet-root is preserved, after stripping it completely of its leaves, and
the earth which remains on them, in greenhouses, in dry cellars, and
even in trenches covered with earth, in layers, lengthwise, with sand.
They are thus preserved until the following May.
“Beet-root is eaten cooked in ashes or in water, and seasoned in various
ways; they are excellent in salad, either by themselves, or mixed with
endives or dandelion, &c.”--BOSC.
SPINACH.
It does not appear that spinach was known to the Greeks and Romans. Some
authors think that it might be the _chrysolacanon_ of the Greeks,[IX-34]
but it is probable that this was no other than the _orach_;[IX-35]
Beckmann[IX-36] thinks, with several botanists, that this plant came
from Spain; and, indeed, it has been often called the _Spanish
vegetable_.[IX-37]
We only speak of this plant by way of memento, and regret that our
first masters in cookery have not been able to transmit to us the
results of their studies and experience in the preparation of spinach,
whose precocity must always render it valuable to amateurs of vegetable
food.
MALLOWS.
The ancients ate mallows, and recognised in them soothing and softening
qualities.[IX-38] Diphilus of Siphne says that their juice lubricates
the windpipe, nourishes, and is easily digested.[IX-39] Horace praises
this aliment;[IX-40] and Martial, for once just, recommends its
use.[IX-41]
It is true that a passage of Cicero would seem to indicate we know not
what deception, which appeared all at once when eating or after
partaking of mallows;[IX-42] but the Roman orator, perhaps, knew little
of the properties of the plant, which were only described much later by
Pliny the naturalist. The curious may consult on this subject the
twenty-first chapter of the twentieth book of his great work.
At all events mallows were in high renown; they occupied one of the
first ranks among pickles, those famous _acetaria_ which had so powerful
an effect in quickening the appetites of the Greeks, and preparing their
stomachs for great gastronomic struggles.[IX-43] They were served as a
salad. The large-leaved mallow was mixed with œnogarum, pepper,
gravy, and sun-made wine.[IX-44]
The small-leaved mallows were also prepared with œnogarum and gravy;
but instead of pepper and wine, oil and vinegar were added.[IX-45]
ASPARAGUS.
“_Quiconque ne voit guère n’a guère à dire aussi._”[IX-46] But
travellers, those daring pioneers of science, have sometimes, in their
travels, the strange good fortune to behold wonders invisible to other
eyes. Thus some skilful explorators of Africa saw, about the middle of
the second century of the Christian era, in Getulia, asparagus of
excellent quality and of very beautiful growth, being no less than
twelve feet high! It is needless to add that the Libyan vendors rarely
sold them in bundles. But these veridical travellers, on quitting the
plain to ascend the mountains, found something still more wonderful; the
land there seemed to suit these plants still better, for they acquired
the height of twenty cubits.[IX-47] After this, what shall we say of our
European asparagus, so shrivelled and diminutive in comparison with that
of Getulia?
The Greeks, not having any better, contented themselves with the
ordinary sort, such as we have at the present day. They considered it
very useful in the treatment of internal diseases.[IX-48] Diphilus, who
was very fond of it, regrets that this vegetable should be so hurtful to
the sight:[IX-49] is it because we eat asparagus that spectacles have
become necessary at nearly all periods of life?
The Romans cultivated this plant with extreme care,[IX-50] and obtained
the most extraordinary results. At Ravenna, they raised asparagus each
stem of which weighed three pounds.[IX-51]
Then, as in our days, they were allowed but a short time to boil; hence
the favourite expression of Augustus, who, to intimate his wish that any
affair might be concluded without delay, was accustomed to say: “Let
that be done quicker than you would cook asparagus.”[IX-52]
The cooks of Rome had a method which appears to have been subsequently
too much neglected; they chose the finest heads of asparagus, and dried
them. When wanted for the table, they put them into hot water, and then
boiled them a few minutes.[IX-53] Thanks to this simple process the
plant swelled considerably, and passed as being very tender and fine
flavoured.
The Apicii, Luculli, and other connoisseurs of renown, had this
vegetable brought from the environs of Nesis, a city of Campania.[IX-54]
It is asserted that Asia is its native soil, and that it was originally
brought to us from that part of the world. Nevertheless, wild asparagus
grows naturally in certain sandy soils, as, for instance, in the islands
of the Rhône and the Loire.[IX-55]
“When it is found impossible to eat all the asparagus you have cut, and
which has arrived at a convenient maturity, place them by the thick ends
in a vessel containing about two inches of water; or else, bury them
half-way up in fresh sand. By means of these precautions asparagus may
be preserved several days.”--PARMENTIER.
GOURD.
This vegetable, which the wise _gourmet_ is too discreet to despise, and
to which the whimsical fancy of Roman gardeners gave the most grotesque
forms,[IX-56] appears to be the very image of those soft and easy
dispositions who yield to and obey every one, and whose unintelligent
mildness is only repaid with sarcasm or disdain. Observe this creeping
vegetable, left free to grow to its full size, which would sometimes
attain the length of nine feet,[IX-57] and which the will of man was
able to reduce to the slender and tortuous shape of a hideous
dragon.[IX-58] When hardly ripe, it was cut and served on the tables of
the most dainty, where it was eaten with vinegar and mustard, or
seasoned with fine herbs:[IX-59] and whilst the ungrateful guests
savoured the stomachic and nourishing flesh of the gourd,[IX-60] they
did not cease to amuse themselves at the expense of its round and almost
empty body[IX-61]--the proverbial image of a head not over well-provided
with brains.[IX-62]
To the present day even, more than one popular joke continues to pursue
this plant, although its culinary qualities are appreciated as formerly.
We are indebted to India for the seed of the gourd,[IX-63] which the
Greeks designated, according to the species, by the names of Indian and
common gourd. The latter kind was either boiled or roasted; the former
was generally boiled in water.[IX-64] Antioch furnished the finest
specimens to the markets of Athens.[IX-65]