As for pork, what shall we say ? A whole treatise would
not suffice to recount all the virtues and uses of ' honest
piggy5 — the poor man's genuine friend — every portion of
SUNDRY MEATS 87
which is good for food. The Jewish law which condemned
the pig as unclean, certainly deprived the Israelites of a
savoury food, but it does not appear to have prevented them
from keeping the unclean creature, and probably making it
a profitable article of commerce with the Gentiles, respecting
which, and the destruction of the herd of many swine, as
reported in the New Testament, a lively controversy was
lately carried on between two of our greatest men of light
and leading.
The parable of the Prodigal Son marks the depth of his
degradation by making him a swineherd. But our English
chroniclers give a story, in which a herd of swine running
into the water, caused the foundation of one of the best
known and most beautiful cities of England. As the story
is not generally known we will give it shortly. A British
prince, named Bladud, became leprous, and was driven
from his home, and, being forced to become a swineherd,
he communicated his disease to his four-footed companions,
and they wandered about, shunned by all. One day
Bladud's pigs took a strange freak. Being on a steep hill
in the forest, they all ran hastily down, and plunged into a
marsh at the foot of the hill, and there they lay wallowing,
and resisting all Bladud's efforts to draw them away. Day
after day they returned to their mud bath, till Bladud saw
with pleasure and surprise that they were all cured of the
leprosy. Being a wise prince, he was not above learning —
even of a pig — and, following their example, he too was soon
cured, and enabled to return to his father, and eventually to
become king in his place. He built a city on the spot
where he was cured, with baths for lepers, and this was the
origin of the far-famed baths of Bath — which certainly were
88 OUR VIANDS
held in repute even before the coming of the Romans.
Should any of our readers visit that fairest of cities, they
may see an ancient statue of Prince Bladud, with an
assigned date of centuries B.C., still presiding over the hot
bath, which is supposed to have been the scene of his
cure, and will find in the city many allusions to the
tradition.
The pig is, as we know, all in all to the Irish peasantry —
1 the gintleman that pays the rint,' when allowed to do so —
and the bacon exported from Ireland is not to be surpassed;
but most of that consumed in London comes from the
celebrated manufactory of Harris, of Calne, Wiltshire, where
thousands of pigs are killed and cured somewhat after the
Chicago fashion — going in at one end live pig, and coming
out at the other, bacon or sausages. I cannot say I quite
like this rapid curing process, which is not always perfect,
and, as a housekeeper, I often long for the old-fashioned
home-cured bacon and hams of my youth ; but a taste has
arisen for what is known in the market as mild-cured bacon,
which to my mind means only half-cured ; caterers for the
public, however, find it profitable to supply mild-cured meat,
which requires rapid consumption, so that it is difficult now
to find really well-salted meat or fish of any kind.
Our viands
1893Page 40
Presented as published in 1893. 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
A modernized reading is not available for this page yet. You are seeing the original text.
As for pork, what shall we say ? A whole treatise would
not suffice to recount all the virtues and uses of ' honest
piggy5 — the poor man's genuine friend — every portion of
SUNDRY MEATS 87
which is good for food. The Jewish law which condemned
the pig as unclean, certainly deprived the Israelites of a
savoury food, but it does not appear to have prevented them
from keeping the unclean creature, and probably making it
a profitable article of commerce with the Gentiles, respecting
which, and the destruction of the herd of many swine, as
reported in the New Testament, a lively controversy was
lately carried on between two of our greatest men of light
and leading.
The parable of the Prodigal Son marks the depth of his
degradation by making him a swineherd. But our English
chroniclers give a story, in which a herd of swine running
into the water, caused the foundation of one of the best
known and most beautiful cities of England. As the story
is not generally known we will give it shortly. A British
prince, named Bladud, became leprous, and was driven
from his home, and, being forced to become a swineherd,
he communicated his disease to his four-footed companions,
and they wandered about, shunned by all. One day
Bladud's pigs took a strange freak. Being on a steep hill
in the forest, they all ran hastily down, and plunged into a
marsh at the foot of the hill, and there they lay wallowing,
and resisting all Bladud's efforts to draw them away. Day
after day they returned to their mud bath, till Bladud saw
with pleasure and surprise that they were all cured of the
leprosy. Being a wise prince, he was not above learning —
even of a pig — and, following their example, he too was soon
cured, and enabled to return to his father, and eventually to
become king in his place. He built a city on the spot
where he was cured, with baths for lepers, and this was the
origin of the far-famed baths of Bath — which certainly were
88 OUR VIANDS
held in repute even before the coming of the Romans.
Should any of our readers visit that fairest of cities, they
may see an ancient statue of Prince Bladud, with an
assigned date of centuries B.C., still presiding over the hot
bath, which is supposed to have been the scene of his
cure, and will find in the city many allusions to the
tradition.
The pig is, as we know, all in all to the Irish peasantry —
1 the gintleman that pays the rint,' when allowed to do so —
and the bacon exported from Ireland is not to be surpassed;
but most of that consumed in London comes from the
celebrated manufactory of Harris, of Calne, Wiltshire, where
thousands of pigs are killed and cured somewhat after the
Chicago fashion — going in at one end live pig, and coming
out at the other, bacon or sausages. I cannot say I quite
like this rapid curing process, which is not always perfect,
and, as a housekeeper, I often long for the old-fashioned
home-cured bacon and hams of my youth ; but a taste has
arisen for what is known in the market as mild-cured bacon,
which to my mind means only half-cured ; caterers for the
public, however, find it profitable to supply mild-cured meat,
which requires rapid consumption, so that it is difficult now
to find really well-salted meat or fish of any kind.