Our viands

THE proverb that * hunger is the best sauce ' is, like many other proverbs, trite, and true to a certain extent, for a starving man would not ask for pepper and mustard to make his meat relish, although he probably would look for a little salt, that being Nature's own condiment, lavishly provided, and grateful alike to the palate of man and beast. Nevertheless, there are tribes of savages in various parts of the world who did not use salt until it was intro- duced among them by Europeans, and never felt the want of it; although many semi-civilised tribes have adopted various condiments, the most common being the betel, which is a species of pepper, universally chewed by the Malays of all ages, and by the inhabitants of almost all the East Indian islands, where it is regarded as one of the necessaries of life. Slices of the Pinang or Areca nut are wrapped in a betel leaf, previously sprinked with chunam, or quicklime, and chewed, causing the gums and lips to assume a bright red hue, and the teeth to become black. The ingredients for this indulgence are carried about everywhere — the rich possessing boxes of silver and gold, whilst the poor man has the same articles in a brass box, or mat bag — and the betel box is invariably offered to a guest, as the snuff-box used to be among ourselves. In South America the coc.a plant is substituted for the 157 158 OUR VIANDS betel, and is also chewed with lime, and carried about in curiously-carved boxes. In both hemispheres this custom is of immense antiquity. Amongst ourselves the coga, in the form of cocaine, has recently come greatly into use in medicine, being of great value as a local anaesthetic ; but it was first heard of in the form in which it is used in South America, the leaves being chewed for their sustaining properties. As to the betel, we seldom use it in England, its place being supplied by the pepper of commerce, which, in its three forms of pepper- corns, ground black pepper, and white pepper, has become a requisite, no dish of meat, and scarcely any of vegetables, being properly seasoned without it. Many people fancy that white pepper is quite different from black, but it is in reality the same, being prepared from the black pepper- corn deprived of its outer husk. Cayenne pepper, so useful in highly-seasoned dishes, is made from the ground fruit or seed pods of different kinds of capsicums, some of which are yellow and others red, which accounts for the difference in the colour of the pepper. Next to the pungent peppers, all of foreign origin, comes the old English condiment, mustard, used for centuries as a seasoning for roast beef.* 'Good Master Mustard-seed,' says Bottom in the ' Midsummer Night's* Dream,' ' I know your patience well : that same cowardly, giant-like ox-beef hath devoured many a gentleman of your house : I promise you, your kindred hath made my eyes water ere now.' * Coriander seed was considered by the Romans to be like mustard, strengthening and digestive, and was used with vinegar to keep meat fresh. CONDIMENTS 159