Our viands

Nevertheless, our forefathers were certainly less squeamish than we are ; they eat the queerest conglomerations, and seasoned their dishes with ambergris and other strange sauces, nor has the taste for odd combinations quite died out from among us, as witness the Scotch haggis and the Cornish pasties, for which a writer in the Western Antiquary, after quoting the Cornish saying that 'The devil will not venture into Cornwall for fear of being put in a pie,' gives the following recipes. ' The composition of the Squab-pie, deemed luxurious beyond all others, has been given by an unknown writer in verse, as follows : — " Of wheaten walls erect your paste ; Let the round mass expand its breast, Next slice your apples cull'd so fresh : Let the fat sheep supply its flesh : Then add an onion's stinging juice — A sprinkling — be not too profuse. Well mix't these nice ingredients, sure, Might gratify an epicure ! " ' The Herby-pie is another peculiar dish, composed of nettles, pepper-cress, parsley, mustard, and spinach, together with thin slices of pork ! Leeks and pilchards form a third sort, and a fourth is filled with goose feet, gizzard, and blood, with raisins, sugar, and apples ; a fifth of leeks and bacon, 152 OUR VIANDS cooled, before eaten, by Cornish cream ; a sixth of mackerel, parsley, and cream. All these, how piquant to the palate of Cornish people especially.' The same writer gives the following impromptu. ' In a season of scarcity, the attorneys at Quarter Sessions resolved to abstain from eating pasties, and the following epigram was extemporaneously delivered on the occasion :— " If the proverb be true that the fame of our pies Prevents us from falling to Satan a prey, It is clear that \i\sfriends the attorneys are wise In moving such obstacles out of the way." ' The Spanish olla podrida seems nearly related to these Cornish pasties. Carli, whose travels are given in Pinker- ton's collection, speaks thus of this famous dish : — ' Being come to Cordova, I went to our monastery, where I was forced to be satisfied with the Spanish dish they call Olla Podrida, signifying rotten pot; which name is not improper, for it is an extravagant medley of several things, as onions, garlic, pumkin, cucumber, white beets, a bit of pork, and two of mutton, which, being boiled with the rest, are almost lost. The fathers asked me whether I liked it. I told them it was very fit to kill me, being as I was almost sick, and so weak that I had need of some better restorative than that Podrida, to which I was not used. They put so much saffron in it that, had I not been yellow enough already with my distemper, that alone might have been enough to dye my skin of that colour. It is a great dainty for Spaniards, but a scurvy mess for those that are not used to it.' All these things are, however, as nothing to some of the dainties enjoyed by the old Romans, who not only feasted UNAPPRECIATED TRIFLES 153 upon snails, and the maggots found in old timber, but thought 'A lamb's fat paunch was a delicious treat,' and revelled upon water rats and stewed sow's teats, which Martial says were prepared by a certain cook with so much art as to appear still full of milk, and upon sucking puppies, which Pliny declared were worthy of being served at a supper for the gods.