The cult of the chafing dish

Truffles suggest pigs ; pigs suggest, to me, Berkshire ; and Berkshire a certain witty lady who, speaking of a local magnate, a self-made man, and a very wealthy one too, but who retained his awfully uncouth manners, described him as a wild boar whom civilisation had turned into a pig. I fear me there are many such. One of the English Kings died of a surfeit of lampreys, and one of the French Ministers of a surfeit of truffles, which were also alleged to have mainly contributed to the demise of the famous gourmand Bequet, who was the predecessor of Jules Janin on the Débats, and on whom Roger de Beauvoir wrote this epitaph : " Cy-git Bequet, le franc glouton Qui but tout ce qu'il eut de rente ; Son gilet n'avait qu'un bouton, Son nez en avait plus de trente ! " An ex-chef to whom I told this story of Bequet was profoundly moved, and said simply : " It must have been a beautiful death ! " " And sweets grown common lose their dear delight." Shakespeare (Sonnet cii.). The warm glow of virtuous satisfaction induced by the knowledge that one has done what was expected of one is my sole excuse for the contents of this chapter. I have no sweet tooth, and my experience in the cooking of sweets has been limited to the few recipes which come later on. Even these I would rather have omitted, because it is so easy to buy klairs, petits fours, and other " dulceties " wherewith to finish oiF a Chafing-Dish meal, but it is just on the confines of possibility that this book may be read by a lady — or, if I am lucky, by two or even three — ^and I should be indeed accounted a poor instructor if I omitted M sweets from my curriculum. " I humbly beg pardon of heaven, and the lady," as Mr. Pepys said when he kissed the cook. " Give the bairns pudding in plenty, again say I " — so wrote Sir Walter Scott, and I am heartily at one with him, but Chaffinda does j not accommodate herself to the fabrication of pudding — and, besides, children ought to be in bed when supper-time brings the Chafing Dish on the table. Baking is of course impossible, and boiling in a cloth equally so. I have already said that Chaffinda — being so nearly human — has her limitations, and these are two of them, which I, for one, in no wise regret. Nevertheless, pudding is a great institution — in its proper place — which is childhood. Our national Jack Pudding was a common object of whilom country fairs, a sort of typical buffoon who performed pudding tricks on a stage ; one of them being to swallow a number of yards of black puddings amidst yokel plaudits. Curiously enough, and this is an etymological puzzle well worth following up, the typical buffoon of most European countries is christened after the commonest article of the daily food of the people. France has her Jean Potage ; Germany, Hanswurst ; Italy, Macaroni ; and Holland, Pickel Herringe. This can hardly be a coincidence. The learned Dr. Thudichum wisely says : " The state of culture of every nation can be estimated comparatively by its confectionery, even when we know little of its cookery, for confectionery is the most advanced and refined part of cookery, and thus enables an expert to draw a conclusion backwards regarding the kind of cookery out of which it originated." This is certainly true to a limited extent, but to attempt a rough and ready analysis on these lines is like dissecting a hummingbird with a hatchet. Generalisations are as dangerous as July oysters. Apple Fritters. Now for my sweets. The first one on the list is the familiar Apple Fritter, or "Beignet de Tommes. It is quite easily cooked, especially if a little care be taken over the concoction of the all-important matter of batter.