doctrine I have long held; and I was recently much charmed in finding
the subject treated with such admirable sense and judgment by a high
authority in the science of living--Soyer. His letter entitled “The
Nursery Dinner,” in the “Modern Housewife,” I cannot too strongly
commend to the perusal and attention of my readers, and to the study of
those on whom the proper rearing of children in any way rests. Speaking
of the diet of children for the day, this author writes:--“Bread and
milk for breakfast at eight; the dinner at one, which was composed as
follows throughout the week,--roast mutton and apple pudding, roast beef
and currant pudding, baked apples; boiled mutton with turnips, after
which rice or vermicelli pudding; occasionally a little salt beef, with
suet dumplings, plain and with currants in them, or pease pudding; or if
unwell, a little veal or chicken broth, or beef-tea.”
This scheme of diet is intended for the children of persons in very
moderate circumstances; but for those who can afford it he prescribes,
as the dinner of one day, roast mutton: “then the next day I would give
them a small piece of mutton plain boiled, with turnips, and apple tart,
or a few slices of roast beef, or a small piece roasted on purpose,
after which a very plain currant pudding; or, occasionally, a little
pickled pork, with pease pudding, or roast pork, with baked apples, and
now and then a little salt beef, but very well boiled, with suet
dumplings, and occasionally, for change, either bread, vermicelli, or
tapioca puddings; in case of illness, and with the approbation of the
doctor, veal, mutton, or chicken-broth, sago, gruel, panada, &c. Many
people may perhaps imagine that there is too much variety of food for
children, but it is quite the contrary, for change of food is to the
stomach what change of air is to the general health; and of course, with
children, these changes must be effected with judgment.”
Soyer is perfectly right with regard to the question of variety of food
for children; and the intention is so rational, that it is difficult to
conceive how a difference of opinion can exist with regard to its truth;
and yet I have heard parents make a boast that their children were fed
exclusively upon mutton, as though it were their intention to render the
stomach incapable of supporting and digesting any other kind of
food,--in which they generally succeed.
Sameness of food, improper food, defective ventilation, and insufficient
exercise, are the causes of most of the diseases of children; and
especially of cutaneous complaints. This is the secret of the ring-worms
and scald-heads of public seminaries. In some of these institutions, as
I have heard, there is a ceremony in which the children take a public
meal in the presence of the governors and their friends. On these
occasions, the platters eclipse in whiteness the envious snow; a
suppressed burst of delight is heard from the spectators; the morsel of
cheese, cut with mathematical precision, would not vary a grain in the
thousand platters; the bread--what ingenuity!--each with his neighbour a
very twin. And how many days in the year do the children enjoy this
fattening collation?--365. For three hundred and sixty-five days, for a
thousand children, is this “_toujours perdrix_” feast the very same; and
yet there are people in the world who wonder that diseases should break
out, that skin affections should be rife, that consumptions should
prevail. Engraft a bud of Soyer on such an institution, and health and
happiness, learning, ability, and talent will take the place of disease,
melancholy, stupidity, and common-place intellect. What, now, in this
intelligent country, if there were a college of cookery, with Soyer for
its head?
* * * * *
_Now in progress_,
Soyer’s Plain Cookery for the People,
CONTAINING NUMEROUS RECIPES,
Adapted for the Cottage of the Labourer, the Home of the Artisan, and
the Chamber of the Invalid.
* * * * *
NOTE BY THE AUTHOR.
In the year 1846 I published a work on Cookery, entitled “The
Gastronomic Regenerator,” which was very successful. At page 650 I
observed that if any author were to write a work on the History of Food
and Cookery, it would not only be very interesting, but also an
extremely useful production. No one, however, having entertained my
suggestion, I determined to undertake the task, and, after several years
of deep study and perseverance, have completed this voluminous work.
In the “Modern Housewife,” which I published in 1849, treating of sauces
prepared by the ancients, I said, that “In all ages and countries
removed from barbarism, where fish has formed an article of diet, sauces
of various kinds have been an accompaniment. With the Romans, in the
time of Lucullus, great care was observed in their preparation; the most
celebrated of those which they used were the _Garum_ and the _Muria_.
“The Garum was a sauce which the Romans used in nearly all their dishes;
the preference was given to that which came from Antipolis and from
Dalmatia. Horace praises that made at Byzantium, being the most esteemed
and the most expensive: its composition is unknown.”[I] The epicures of
the present day should offer a premium for that which, in their opinion,
may bear the greatest resemblance to this ancient relish. It is a
subject well worthy the attention of the professors of our universities;
perhaps some leaf yet undiscovered, that may have escaped the
conflagration of Alexandria, might throw some light upon so interesting
a subject.
A. SOYER.
_42 Trinity Square, Tower Hill._
Vizetelly and Company, Printers and Engravers, 155 Fleet Street, London.