He
would have learned quickly how to braise fish upon the
hot ashes of a nearly extinct wood fire, without the inter-
vention of any implement of stone or earthenware what-
soever.* When he had advanced to the manufacture of
earthemoare vessels, man could boil and fry his meat, and
add thereto such vegetables and fruit as experience would
show him to be eatable. Cereals and leguminosce, which
palaeontologists tell us were eaten by some early men, even
pre-Saxon inhabitants of England, in the unshelled and
* This is practised in the present time in many parts of Portugal, in
Lisbon before the doors of the houses of the wage-earning class, and before
and in the taverns frequented by labourers.
4
THE SPIRIT OF COOKER\
uncooked state,* would now be prepared by boiling, and
having been also broken by pounding instruments, stones
and wood-pestles, would yield the earliest massive nutritive
material, viz., grue.l.\
Further Illustrations of Evolution.
The development of the culinary treatment of meat on
the one hand would lead to the discovery or invention of
soups, stews, and sauces, while that of the treatment of
cereals would result in bread, first unleavened, afterwards
leavened, ultimately harmed, lastly raised by chemical means
through mineral agents in the shape of baking-powders.
The incidents of roasting would afford opportunities for the
study of the use and management oi fat ; a similar result
would come out of the treatment of the milk of cows,
namely, the knowledge of producing and using butter.
More southern men would have learned and practised the
use of fat from the oil-yielding seeds, such as nuts, almonds,
poppy-seeds, and particularly olives. To these main sup-
porters of life the use of green vegetables, of roots, rhizomes,
Milbs, sproids, and siveet or aromatic fruit could only have
been added very gradually, as they required to be educed
from their original so-called wild condition by horticultural
art — an art which presupposes stability of society and of
property, and was never practised by either pastoral nomads
or the huntsmen of the archaic forests. The discovery of
zests and spices was one of the latest acquisitions of culinary
science, and presupposed a great development of trade both
by land and sea. The earliest universal sioeet principle of
food was honey ; while s^i^ar from plants, particularly from
the sugar-cane, was an expensive curiosity yet in Eoman
imperial times, and did not become a staple article of trade
* The extremely ground-clown condition of their teeth has been at-
tempted to be explained by this practice.
t ‘Rome was reared upon gruel,’ said Cato of Utica.
OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF COOKERY
5
Page 12
Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
He would have learned quickly how to braise fish upon the hot ashes of a nearly extinct wood fire, without the intervention of any implement of stone or earthenware whatsoever.* When he had advanced to the manufacture of earthemoare vessels, man could boil and fry his meat, and add thereto such vegetables and fruit as experience would show him to be eatable. Cereals and legumes, which palaeontologists tell us were eaten by some early men, even pre-Saxon inhabitants of England, in the unshelled and
* This is practised in the present time in many parts of Portugal, in Lisbon before the doors of the houses of the wage-earning class, and before and in the taverns frequented by labourers.
uncooked state,* would now be prepared by boiling, and having been also broken by pounding instruments, stones and wood-pestles, would yield the earliest massive nutritive material, viz., gruel.
Further Illustrations of Evolution.
The development of the culinary treatment of meat on the one hand would lead to the discovery or invention of soups, stews, and sauces, while that of the treatment of cereals would result in bread, first unleavened, afterwards leavened, ultimately harmed, lastly raised by chemical means through mineral agents in the shape of baking-powders. The incidents of roasting would afford opportunities for the study of the use and management oi fat ; a similar result would come out of the treatment of the milk of cows, namely, the knowledge of producing and using butter. More southern men would have learned and practised the use of fat from the oil-yielding seeds, such as nuts, almonds, poppy-seeds, and particularly olives. To these main supporters of life the use of green vegetables, of roots, rhizomes, bulbs, sprouts, and sweet or aromatic fruit could only have been added very gradually, as they required to be educed from their original so-called wild condition by horticultural art — an art which presupposes stability of society and of property, and was never practised by either pastoral nomads or the huntsmen of the archaic forests. The discovery of zests and spices was one of the latest acquisitions of culinary science, and presupposed a great development of trade both by land and sea. The earliest universal sweet principle of food was honey ; while sugar from plants, particularly from the sugar-cane, was an expensive curiosity yet in Eoman imperial times, and did not become a staple article of trade
* The extremely ground-clown condition of their teeth has been attempted to be explained by this practice.
t ‘Rome was reared upon gruel,’ said Cato of Utica.