vegetable in such a state of freshness as to enable them to eat it with
pleasure in the month of January:[IX-66] the method is as follows,--the
gourds were cut in pieces of a moderate size; these pieces, strung like
beads, where first dried in the open air, and then smoked; when winter
arrived, each piece was well washed before putting it into the stewpan,
with the various culinary herbs which the season produced; to this was
added endive, curled cabbage, and dried mushrooms.[IX-67] The rest of
the operation is easily understood. The Romans prepared this vegetable
in different ways: a few of the principal ones will suffice.
1st. Boil the gourd in water, squeeze it out carefully, place it in a
saucepan, and mix some pepper, a little cummin seed, rue, gravy,
vinegar, and a small quantity of wine, reduced to one-half by boiling.
Let the whole stew, and then sprinkle it lightly with pepper, and
serve.[IX-68]
2nd. Boil and carefully squeeze them to extract the water, then put the
gourds into a saucepan with vinegar and gravy; when it begins to simmer,
thicken with fine flour, sprinkle lightly with pepper, and serve.[IX-69]
3rd. Throw some salt on the gourd after it has been boiled, and the
water pressed out of it; put it into a saucepan, with a mixture of
pepper, cummin seed, coriander, green mint, and the root of benzoin; add
some vinegar; then chop some dates and almonds; a little later, more
vinegar, honey, gravy, sun-made wine, and oil; sprinkle lightly with
pepper, and serve.[IX-70]
4th. Put into a stewpan a fowl, with a gourd; add some apricots,
truffles, pepper, cummin, sylphium, mint, parsley, coriander,
pennyroyal, and calamint; moisten with wine, gravy, oil, vinegar, and
honey.[IX-71]
These four recipes are sufficient to prove that this vegetable stood
very high in the estimation of the Romans.
TURNIPS.
The epicureans of Athens preferred turnips brought from Thebes;[IX-72]
Roman gastronomists placed those of Amitermes in the first rank, and
those of Nursia in the second. The kitchen-gardeners of Rome furnished
them with a third variety, to which they had recourse when they could
not procure any other.[IX-73] They were eaten boiled, thus:--after the
water had been extracted from them, they were seasoned with cummin, rue,
and benzoin, pounded in a mortar, adding to it afterwards honey,
vinegar, gravy, boiled grapes, and a little oil. The whole was left to
simmer, and then served.[IX-74]
CARROTS.
The Greeks and Romans planted or sowed them in the beginning of the
spring, or autumn.[IX-75] They distinguished two kinds, the wild and the
cultivated.[IX-76]
This much esteemed root received the honour of being prepared in many
ways. Sometimes it was eaten as a salad, with salt, oil, and
vinegar.[IX-77]
It was also stewed, and mixed afterwards with œnogarum.[IX-78] Again,
they boiled it in a stewpan, over a slow fire, with some cummin and a
little oil, and just before serving it was sprinkled with ground cummin
seeds.[IX-79]
BLIT
(A SORT OF BEET).
Blit is one of the family of _atriplices_, which grows in Europe, and in
the temperate regions of Asia; it owes its ancient reputation entirely
to the insipidity of its flavour, from which it derives its Greek name,
synonymous with stupidity and insignificance.[IX-80] Blit was eaten
boiled, when nothing better was to be had. In fact, it was a last
resource--and nothing more.
PURSLAINE.
This vegetable, the aspect of which would lead us to suppose it
possessed savoury qualities (though experience proves the contrary), was
formerly mixed in different salads, and still enjoys some esteem when
associated with a leg of mutton.[IX-81]
In default of esculent qualities (which it certainly does not possess),
the ancients recognised in purslaine many admirable virtues,[IX-82]
which are not acknowledged in the present day. The internal use of this
plant, also its external application, cured the bite of serpents, wounds
inflicted by poisoned arrows, and infallibly neutralized the effects of
poisonous drinks.[IX-83] But, alas! purslaine is not now what it was
formerly; for it is hardly permitted to appear by the side of one of our
fresh white lettuces.
SORREL.
Sorrel is a polygenous plant, and grows throughout Europe amidst the
grass fields. The Romans cultivated it in order to give it more
vigour,[IX-84] and ate it sometimes stewed with mustard, and seasoned
with a little oil and vinegar.[IX-85]
BROCOLI.
Drusus, son of Tiberius, was so passionately fond of the brocoli, which
Apicius induced him to eat, that he was more than once severely
reprimanded by his father on the subject.[IX-86] It is true that the
celebrated Roman epicurean displayed so much art, and gave such
delicious flavour to it, that this dish alone would have been enough to
establish his reputation. In fact, brocoli has always been appreciated
by connoisseurs; and Glaucias, who passed his life in meditating
seriously on the perfectibility of culinary ingredients, said: “That
nothing could be better than this vegetable, boiled and suitably
seasoned.”[IX-87]
This was the method of preparing it at Rome: they used only the most
tender and delicate parts of the brocoli, which were boiled with that
extreme care the artist always devotes to this first operation; and,
afterwards, when the water had been well drained off, they added some
cummin seed, pepper, chopped onions, and coriander seed--all braised
together, not forgetting, before serving up, to add a little oil and
sun-made wine.[IX-88]
ARTICHOKE.
A young and unfortunate beauty had the ill-luck to displease a
vindictive and irascible god, who instantly metamorphosed her into an
artichoke.[IX-89] This poor girl’s name was Cinara. Although she had
become a bitter plant she preserved this sweet name, which the moderns
have strangely modified. Our readers, who eat artichokes with so much
indifference, will, perhaps, sometimes lament this poor victim of a
blind resentment.
This plant was well known to the ancients; the hilly regions of Greece,
Asia, and Egypt were covered with it;[IX-90] but the inhabitants made no
use of it as an aliment, and it remained uncultivated.[IX-91]
It would be rather difficult to trace the precise period when it was
first introduced into Italy. All we know is, that it grew there more
than half a century before the Christian era, in the time of
Dioscorides, who mentioned it.[IX-92] It appears, nevertheless, that
hardly any one troubled himself about artichokes, or their esculent
qualities, up to that time; but the wealthy, about a century after,
began to appreciate them, and Pliny, in one of his jesting whims,
reproaches the rich with having deprived the lower classes and _asses_
of a food which nature seemed to have destined for them.[IX-93]
This vegetable was then very dear,[IX-94] for it did not succeed, and
was subsequently given up. It was so far forgotten that in the year 1473
it appeared as a novelty at Venice;[IX-95] and towards the year 1465 it
was brought from Naples to Florence, whence it passed into France in the
sixteenth century.[IX-96]
Galen[IX-97] looked upon the artichoke as a bad food.[IX-98] Columella
sung its praise in his verses; he recommended it to the disciples of
Bacchus, and forbid the use of it to those who were anxious to preserve
a sweet and pure voice.[IX-99]
This plant, whatever may be in other respects its estimable qualities,
does not please every one equally well; its bitterness and unpleasant
odour keep it at a distance from numerous palates--perhaps because too
many allow themselves to be prejudiced by deceitful appearances. Here
are two very ingenious methods by means of which a trial might be made
to overcome, or lessen, the defects it undoubtedly has, and which we can
but deplore:--
Artichokes will become mild by taking care to steep the seed in a
mixture of honey and milk.[IX-100] They will then exhale the most
agreeable perfume, particularly when this seed has passed three days in
the juice of bay leaves, lilies, or roses.[IX-101]
Having quoted the authority, we give the recipe for what it is worth.
Until the result of this experiment is known, artichokes may be eaten
raw, with a seasoning of hard eggs chopped in very small pieces, garum,
and oil.[IX-102]
If you prefer a sharper sauce, mix well some green mint with rue, Greek
fennel,[IX-103] and coriander; add, afterwards, some pepper, alisander,
honey, garum, and oil.[IX-104] They are also eaten boiled, with cummin,
pepper, gravy, and oil.[IX-105]
“It is well known under what form artichokes, either raw or cooked,
appear on our tables. The best way to preserve them is to half cook
them, separate the leaves from the fur, and preserve the fleshy part,
called _the bottom_, and throw them, still warm, in cold water, to make
them firm. That operation is called _blanchir_. They are laid afterwards
on hurdles, and put four different times in the oven, as soon as the
bread is taken out. They become then very thin, hard, and transparent,
like horn, and return to their original form in hot water. They must be
kept free from damp.”--PARMENTIER.
POMPION.
Like the gourd, the good and creeping pompion has served more than once
as a term of comparison, and that in a style most humiliating. Should
any one happen to be thick-headed, or not very intelligent,[IX-106] he
was immediately compared to a pompion (popularly, pumpkin--whence
bumpkin). The insult went still further: it was said of a pusillanimous
man, “That he had a pompion where his heart ought to have been.”[IX-107]
The obesity of this vegetable, and its inelegant shape, have doubtless
given rise to these injurious remarks.
It was, however, acknowledged that it possessed many estimable
qualities, which ought to have compensated for its outward defects. It
was thought to be very refreshing, and was employed with success in the
treatment of diseases of the eyes.[IX-108]
We might undertake (if permitted) a long dissertation, in order to prove
that the Hebrews, weary of being in the Desert, murmured because they
were deprived of the pompion of Egypt,[IX-109] and not the melon, as
translators have rendered it; but we should be accused of egregious
presumption; the learned would frown, critics would not spare us, and
our pompions would, nevertheless, pass as melons.
This plant occupies a prominent place in the precious catalogue of Roman
dainties which we offer for the meditation of judges. Here are some of
the ancient modes of preparing this vegetable:
1st. Boil some pompions, put them in a stewpan with cummin and a little
oil; place them for a short time over a slow fire, and serve.[IX-110]
2nd. When you have well boiled, reduce them to a pulp, then put them on
a dish with pepper, alisander, cummin, wild marjoram, onion, wine,
garum, and oil; thicken with flour, and serve.[IX-111]
3rd. When the pompion has boiled in water, it is then seasoned with wild
fennel, sylphium,[IX-112] dried mint, vinegar, and garum.[IX-113]
CUCUMBER.
When the Israelites were in the Desert they regretted much the cucumbers
of Egypt, which were sold to them at a very trifling price when under
the yoke of Pharaoh.[IX-114] We may thence infer that this vegetable was
very plentiful, and chiefly in great demand by the lower order of
people; for as the Jews were in a state of servitude, they were
necessarily assimilated with the most abject of the Egyptians.
We see that this _cucurbitacea_ has been long known, and that, after the
lapse of many centuries, it is held in the same degree of estimation it
enjoyed among the Eastern nations.
The Greeks thought much of the cucumber, particularly of that kind which
came from the environs of Antioch.[IX-115] They attributed to this plant
marvellous properties, which modern scepticism has completely thrown
aside. We think it good in salad, with vinegar, oil, pepper, and salt,
and that is all.
It is, we imagine, the only good quality our farmers ascribe to it at
the present day. Formerly, in Greece, the same class of persons, being
clearer-sighted, or more credulous, were convinced that this vegetable
protected all kinds of seeds against the voracity of insects. To obtain
this result it was only necessary to steep the seed in the juice
obtained from the root of the cucumber, before it was sown.[IX-116]
We freely offer this preservative to those who may wish to give it a
trial, and sincerely hope they may profit by this revival of the Greek
process.
The Romans conceived that this cold and somewhat insipid vegetable (we
beg pardon of its admirers) required a seasoning to heighten its
flavour. No sooner had they transplanted it from Asia into Rome,[IX-117]
than they busied themselves in rendering it worthy of their tables by
various preparations, which may, perhaps, interest the curious.
1st. Scrape the cucumbers, and eat them with œnogarum.[IX-118][W]
Or, prepare the condiment with thyme, wild mint, pepper, and alisander;
to which add, as before, garum, oil, and honey.[IX-120]
2nd. Scrape the cucumbers, and boil them with parsley, seed, gravy, and
oil; thicken, and sprinkle pepper over the dish before serving.[IX-121]
3rd. Again, they may be seasoned with pepper, pennyroyal, honey, or
sun-made wine, gravy, vinegar, and a little sylphium.[IX-122]
4th. You will obtain a most delicate dish by boiling the cucumbers with
brains, already cooked; adding afterwards some cummin, and a little
honey.[IX-123]
The cucumber, although but little nutritious, does not agree with cold
stomachs. In the north an astonishing quantity are consumed. The Poles
ate them at every repast with boiled meat.
“Cucumbers are preserved in a very simple manner. The essential point is
to obtain good wine-vinegar. After having well washed and wiped them,
put them into either white or red vinegar (the colour is better
preserved by using the white); add salt; cover simply the vessel
containing them with a board. The vinegar must always be an inch higher
than the cucumbers, and must be entirely renewed at the end of a
month.”--PARMENTIER.
LETTUCE.
From time immemorial the lettuce has occupied a most distinguished place
in the kitchen garden. The Hebrews ate it, without preparation, with the
Paschal lamb.[IX-124] The opulent Greeks were very fond of the lettuces
of Smyrna,[IX-125] which appeared on their tables at the end of a
repast;[IX-126] the Romans, who at first imitated them, decided, under
Domitian, that this favourite dish should be served in the first course
with eggs,[IX-127] purposely to excite their indomitable appetites,
which three courses (and such courses, ye gods! when compared with ours
of the present day) would hardly satisfy.
The bitter lettuce was sufficient for the frugal Hebrews,[IX-128] but
the delicate epicureans of Athens and Rome were much more particular;
they valued them only when a mild and sweet savour invited the most
rebellious palate, and awakened the slumbering desires of a fatigued
stomach. And what care, what attention, did they not bestow on the
growth and maturity of this cherished plant!
Aristoxenus, a philosopher by profession, an epicurean by taste, had in
his garden a species of lettuce which was the envy of his surrounding
neighbours. The worthy man, rendered happy by their jealous admiration,
went every evening, without fail, to contemplate the small square of
ground which contained his treasure, and sprinkled it carefully with
water, doubtless from a limpid stream. Tush! Water, to moisten the
lettuces of Aristoxenus! No: the philosopher kept in reserve a sweet and
excellent wine to quench the thirst of his plants, and to communicate to
them that delicate perfume and exquisite taste, the mysterious cause of
which baffled the neighbouring gastronomists.
The day after, the arch old man would say, with a roguish smile, that he
was going to gather some relishing green cakes, which the earth prepared
expressly for him,[IX-129] and the simple countrymen were wonder-struck
without understanding the cause.
The lettuce--favourite plant of the beautiful Adonis[IX-130]--possesses
a narcotic virtue, of which ancient physicians have taken notice. Galen
mentions that, in his old age, he had not found a better remedy against
the wakefulness he was troubled with.[IX-131] The biographer of
Augustus informs us that this Emperor, being attacked with hypochondria,
recovered only by the use of lettuces, recommended by Musa, his first
physician;[IX-132] nothing, therefore, is wanting in praise of this
useful plant--literally nothing, since the king of cooks, Cœlius
Apicius, judged it worthy of an honourable place in the immortal book he
has bequeathed to the amateurs of the Archeologico-culinary science of
all ages and all countries.
“Take,” says he, “the leaves of lettuces, let them be boiled with
onions, in water wherein you have put some nitre; take them out, squeeze
out the water, and cut them in small pieces; mix well some pepper,
alisander,[IX-133] parsley seed, dried mint, and onions; put this
mixture to the lettuce, and add to the whole some gravy, oil, and
wine.”[IX-134]
Lettuces may also be eaten with a dressing of gravy and pickles.[IX-135]
Our ancestors served salads with roasted meat, roasted poultry, &c. They
had a great many which are now no longer in vogue. They ate leeks,
cooked in the wood-ashes, and seasoned with salt and honey; borage,
mint, and parsley, with salt and oil; lettuce, fennel, mint, chervil,
parsley, and elder-flowers mixed together. They also classed among their
salads an agglomeration of feet, heads, cocks’ combs, and fowls’ livers,
cooked, and seasoned with parsley, mint, vinegar, pepper, and cinnamon.
Nettles, and the twigs of rosemary, formed delicious salads for our
forefathers; and to these they sometimes added pickled gherkins.[IX-136]
ENDIVE.
Pliny assures us that the juice of this plant, mixed with vinegar and
oil of roses, is an excellent remedy for the head-ache;[IX-137] we leave
to the proper judges a pharmaceutical mixture which does not belong to
our province, and which we only quote _en passant_.
Virgil thought endive bitter,[IX-138] but he did not speak ill of it.
Columella recommended this salad to fastidious and satiated
palates;[IX-139] this is praising it. The Egyptians appreciated its
merits,[IX-140] which the Greeks had too much sense and good taste to
disdain; and the Romans ate it prepared in the following manner:--
Choose some fine endive; wash it well; drain off all the water; add a
little gravy and oil; then chop some onions very small; strew them over
the endive, and add honey and vinegar.[IX-141]
It is understood that the sweet savour of the honey corrects the
bitterness of the plant; but a judicious attention must preside over the
quantity of that substance, for too much or too little might easily
spoil this salad of Apicius.
ONIONS.
Whoever wishes to preserve his health must eat every morning, before
breakfast, young onions, with honey.[IX-142] Such a treat is assuredly
not very tempting: besides, this rather strong vegetable leaves after it
a most unpleasant perfume, which long reminds us of its presence;
wherefore this recipe has not met with favour, and, indeed, it is much
to be doubted whether it will ever become fashionable.
Alexander the Great found the onion in Egypt, where the Hebrews had
learned to like it.[IX-143] He brought it into Greece, where it was
given as food to the troops, whose martial ardour[IX-144] it was thought
to excite.
Pliny assures us that Gaul produced a small kind, which the Romans
called Gallic onions, and which they thought more delicate than those of
Italy.[IX-145] At any rate, it was a dish given up to plebeians and the
poor. Horace opposed to it fish--the luxurious nourishment of rich and
dainty Romans.[IX-146] In spite of this reprobation on the part of the
elegant poet, Apicius does not fear to introduce the plant in his _Olus
Molle_, a kind of _Julienne_, not devoid of merit.
Take onions, rather dry, and mix pepper, alisander, and winter-savory,
to season a variety of vegetables previously boiled in water and nitre,
the which, when very fine, thicken with cullis, oil, and wine.[IX-147]
LEEKS.
This vegetable--a powerful divinity, dreaded among the
Egyptians,[IX-148] and a food bewailed by the Israelites in their
journey through the Desert[IX-149]--cured the Greeks of numerous
diseases, which in our days it is to be feared would resist its
medicinal properties.[IX-150] Everything changes in this sublunary
world, and the leek no doubt follows the common law.
The authors of a compilation rather indigestible at times, but often
very curious, assert that this vegetable attains an extraordinary size,
by putting as many of the seeds as one can take up with three fingers
into a piece of linen, which is then to be tied-up, covered with manure,
and watered with care. All these seeds--so they say--will at last form
themselves into one single seed, which will produce a monstrous
leek.[IX-151]
This process, which is revealed to us by the geoponics, would have had
an enthusiastic reception from those fervent pagans who vied in zeal
with each other, to see who could offer Latona, on the day of the
Theoxenias, the most magnificent leek.[IX-152]
The mother of Apollo received this plant with pleasure, although
presented to her quite raw; but she would probably have preferred it
dressed in the following manner:--
Take leeks, the mildest it is possible to procure; boil them in water
and oil, with a handful of salt, and put them into a dish, with gravy,
oil, and wine.[IX-153]
Or, cover the leeks with young cabbage leaves; cook them under the hot
embers, and season afterwards as above.[IX-154]
MELON.
This _cucurbitacea_, the most delicate vegetable belonging to this
numerous family, has always been the delight of the inhabitants of the
East and of Europe. It came originally from the most temperate regions
of Asia; the chivalric Baber made it known to his Hindoo
subjects;[IX-155] and the Romans introduced it into the west, at the
time of their first expedition against the Persians. Melons had a
prodigious success at Rome, and soon became a necessity with which the
wealthy could not dispense. The Emperor Tiberius, that cruel and
covetous prince,[IX-156] liked them so much that they were served to him
every day throughout the year.
The Greeks, whose ingenious and lively imagination mingled with
everything the sweet perfume of flowers, contrived to place the seeds of
melons in vessels full of rose leaves, with which they were afterwards
sown. They maintained that, when at maturity, this cool and refreshing
vegetable was impregnated with sweet emanations, and that its flavour
called to mind its sweet and delicious abode with the queen of
flowers.[IX-157]
Sometimes also they macerated the seeds in milk and honey. Not only
melons, but all the _cucurbitaceæ_ were treated in this manner, when it
was wished to communicate to them a milder flavour.[IX-158]
In pointing out these processes in use among the ancient
horticulturists, we do not at all pledge ourselves for their efficacy.
However, it must be acknowledged that they exhibit a singularly
praiseworthy emulation, which has perhaps prepared the way for the
wonders with which our modern gardeners have made us familiar.
Independently of its exquisite flavour, the melon passed, among the
Greeks and Romans, as being very beneficial to the stomach and
head.[IX-159] It is possible that they may have gone a little too far;
but then man is so ready to give imaginary qualities to what he loves,
that we cannot wonder at their praises of this delicious plant, which we
generally eat in the most simple manner, without any other seasoning
than a little sugar, sometimes with salt and pepper. Not so with the
Romans; their practised palates required a more exquisite combination;
they, therefore, added to it a sharp savoury sauce--a compound of
pepper, pennyroyal, honey, or sun-made wine, garum, vinegar, and
sylphium.[IX-160]
Melons were not known in central or northern Europe until the reign of
Charles VIII., King of France, who brought them from Italy.[IX-161]
RADISH.
Amongst other singularities which abound in the Talmud, the curious can
but have remarked the following: