FoodNet

The art of living in Australia

1893

Page 122 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1893. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
The methods of using the milt or the roe of tlie herring have already been re- spectively indicated, and after this matter has been attended to, all that is now needful to complete the herring salad is to pour over it some mayonnaise sauceMayonnaise Sauce, the preparation of which has been previously described. S. 1003. ( 178 ) CHAPTER XII. ON AUSTRALIAN WINE, AND ITS PLACE IN THE AUSTRALIAN DAILY DIETARY. " With time and care Australia ought to be the vineyard of the world." — Greater Britain. "Were I asked to name the one industry on which the prosperity of Australia must sooner or later rest, I should un- hesitatingly answer, " On the cultivation of the vine." And this must be so ; for while there is every reason to know that it will be called for from abroad, it is absolutely certain that it will be required in our own territories. The chief purpose of this chapter, indeed, is to insist upon the value of our own wines as the most healthful and the most whole- some drink for Australian use. It is a strange anomaly this, that at the present period of our existence a declaration of this kind should be necessary. Yet it is only in keeping with the rest of our food habits, with their perpetual chal- lenge to our semi-tropical environment ; and hence we are confronted with the astounding fact that although we are practically Southern Europe, yet we follow a mode of living suitable only for a rigorous climate and a land of ice and snow. Moreover, as I shall attempt to show, the Australian climate and soU are beyond all question naturally intended for the cultivation of the grape, so that there is no occasion to overcome the forces of nature ; on the contrary, they are unceasingly giving us the greatest encouragement. Then, again, think what widespread prosperity the use of our own wine would bring about. Apart from its beneficial influence on the national health, it would cover the land with smiling vineyards, and give to enormous numbers a AUSTBALIAN WINE. 179 healthy livelihood ; it would absorb thousands from the fever and fret of city wear and tear into the more natural life of the country ; and lastly, it would relieve the abnormal congestion of our crowded centres, and do more to bring about widely distributed employment than any other industry. The history of the introduction of the grape to Aus?tralian soil deserves more than bare reference to that event. It will be remembered that Captain Cook discovered this territory in 1770 ; in November 1791, barely more than twenty years afterwards, the first vine was planted at Parramatta, near Sydney. Nothing can demonstrate the suitability of the climate and the soil for its cultivation more than this one fact, namely, that at the very beginning of Australian settle- ment it was plain enough that the land was meant for the grape ; and there is an interesting historical association, well worthy of note, attached to this circumstance. By order of the Emperor Napoleon, the Great Napoleon, a voyage of discovery to the Southern Hemisphere was per- formed by a fully equipped expedition during the years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804. One of the naturalists, M. F.