It is not given to everyone to prefer cold
food to hot, nor for a good many people is
cold food as digestible as hot. Moreover, the
cold menu does not allow of the variety which
is not only charming but essential to any
dietary which is to do something more than
merely satisfy the cravings of hunger.
A man who dines daily on the same food we
look upon as eccentric because he is discarding
the conventional idea of varying the daily fare.
Convention is the wisdom we inherit from our
ancestors. It is the concentrated experience
of the past, and it is the concentrated ex-
perience of the past that leads us to vary the
menu of our principal meals.
The Soyer system means a vast increase in
properly cooked hot meals in small houses, and
a general relief from the tyranny of the cold
collation which is often a drawback to the joy
of a day spent in the open.
In every part of London where the workers
are working away from home you will see in
humble eating houses the legend “ Hot meals
served here ” boldly displayed.
The hot meal was the beginning of civiliza-
tion; it meant the passing of man from the
savage state.
124 SOYER’S PAPER-BAG COOKERY
The advent of the Soyer method means
death to cold food as a makeshift meal. No
pots and pans, no big array of heterogeneous
kitchen utensils will be required. You put
your meat and the accompanying ingredient of
the dish into a bag, and the rest is for the fire
and a pair of watchful eyes.
The gipsies have for ages cooked on what
is practically the Soyer system, and no one
who has dined or supped with the gipsies
around the gipsy fire will ever want to eat
better cooked food. The gipsies brought the
idea with them from India, from which they
wandered out to spread themselves over the
world. They enclose the bird or hedgehog or
the special Romany luxury in a case of clay,
and put it into the fire.
When the clay case is removed the meat
within is tender, savory and delicious. The
gipsy idea is the far-off origin of “ en pa-
pillote ” of which the Soyer method is the
twentieth-century perfection.
The new and simple method of clean, quick
and appetizing cookery will appeal, as I have
said, beyond the limits of the home. It will
travel far. It will sweep into oblivion the
primitive methods of the bush, the prairie, and
SOYER’S PAPER-BAG COOKERY 125
the jungle, and the vast tracts of solitude over
which the sons of Empire wander for profit,
for pleasure, for adventure, or for sport. In
the depths of the lonely valley, on the sum-
mit of the cloud-capped mountains, among the
eternal snows, and on the sand-swept deserts
the traveler with a supply of the special
paper-bags will be able to cook a meal that
may be to many a wandering son of Britain
a sunny souvenir of the Savoy and a radiant
reminiscence of the Ritz.
Already I see in fragrant fancy the new
pioneer clearing a forest space which is to be
the site of a mighty city and cooking himself
a dainty dinner of four courses when the
day’s work is done.
The Soyer Paper-Bag may be the one touch
of culinary art that is to make the whole
world kin in the kinship of the cuisine.
FROM A HEALTH
POINT OF VIEW
By Dr. Charles Reinhardt (Author of
“ Diet and the Maximum Dura-
tion of Life”).
Page 39
Presented as published in 1911. 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
It is not given to everyone to prefer cold food to hot, nor for a good many people is cold food as digestible as hot. Moreover, the cold menu does not allow of the variety which is not only charming but essential to any dietary which is to do something more than merely satisfy the cravings of hunger.
A man who dines daily on the same food we look upon as eccentric because he is discarding the conventional idea of varying the daily fare. Convention is the wisdom we inherit from our ancestors. It is the concentrated experience of the past, and it is the concentrated experience of the past that leads us to vary the menu of our principal meals.
The Soyer system means a vast increase in properly cooked hot meals in small houses, and a general relief from the tyranny of the cold collation which is often a drawback to the joy of a day spent in the open.
In every part of London where the workers are working away from home you will see in humble eating houses the legend “ Hot meals served here ” boldly displayed.
The hot meal was the beginning of civilization; it meant the passing of man from the savage state.
The advent of the Soyer method means death to cold food as a makeshift meal. No pots and pans, no big array of heterogeneous kitchen utensils will be required. You put your meat and the accompanying ingredient of the dish into a bag, and the rest is for the fire and a pair of watchful eyes.
The gipsies have for ages cooked on what is practically the Soyer system, and no one who has dined or supped with the gipsies around the gipsy fire will ever want to eat better cooked food. The gipsies brought the idea with them from India, from which they wandered out to spread themselves over the world. They enclose the bird or hedgehog or the special Romany luxury in a case of clay, and put it into the fire.
When the clay case is removed the meat within is tender, savory and delicious. The gipsy idea is the far-off origin of “ en papillote ” of which the Soyer method is the twentieth-century perfection.
The new and simple method of clean, quick and appetizing cookery will appeal, as I have said, beyond the limits of the home. It will travel far. It will sweep into oblivion the primitive methods of the bush, the prairie, and
the jungle, and the vast tracts of solitude over which the sons of Empire wander for profit, for pleasure, for adventure, or for sport. In the depths of the lonely valley, on the summit of the cloud-capped mountains, among the eternal snows, and on the sand-swept deserts the traveler with a supply of the special paper-bags will be able to cook a meal that may be to many a wandering son of Britain a sunny souvenir of the Savoy and a radiant reminiscence of the Ritz.
Already I see in fragrant fancy the new pioneer clearing a forest space which is to be the site of a mighty city and cooking himself a dainty dinner of four courses when the day’s work is done.
The Soyer Paper-Bag may be the one touch of culinary art that is to make the whole world kin in the kinship of the cuisine.
FROM A HEALTH POINT OF VIEW
By Dr. Charles Reinhardt (Author of “ Diet and the Maximum Duration of Life”).