Practical gastronomy and culinary dictionary

Closet Opened." Some ten years after, another work was published, called the "Ladies' Companion," which contained some very cmious instructions as to a lady's conduct at the dinner-table. The following are a few examples : — " Do not lean your elbows on the table." " Discover not by any ravenous gesture your angry appetite nor fix your eyes too greedily on the meat before you, as if you would devour more than your throat can swallow." " Do not eat spoon-meat so hot that the tears stand in your eyes, or that thereby you betray your intolerable greediness." " Fill not your mouth so full that your cheeks shall swell Hke a pair of Scotch bagpipes." "It is uncivil to rub your teeth in company, or pick them after meals with your knife or otherwise." The following advice is given to children : — ** Avoid smacking your lips in eating." " Forbear putting both hands to your mouth at once, nor gnaw your meat, but cut it handsomely, and eat sparingly." "Let your nose and hands be always clean." " When you have dined or supped, rise from the table and carry your trencher or plate with you, doing your obeisance to the company." The following works give some insight into English THE ART OF COOKEEY 23 cookery at their respective periods, and they reflect great credit upon their authors : — Sir Kenehn Digby's Cookery, published in 1669. Hartman's Cookery, and Description of an Engine to cook without wood, candles, coals or oil, published in 1682. Marnitte's Perfect English Cook, published in 1686. The compleat Cook's Guide, published in 1701. The Queen's Cookery, published in 1709. Incomparable Secrets in Cookery, published in 1710. Carter's System of Cookery, published in 1730. Dr. King's Art of Cookery in Verses, published in 1740. The French are justly famed for their skill and taste in culinary matters ; they know how to prepare a nourishing and palatable dish so that but little alcoholic stimulants are required. This probably accounts for the saying, " As many Frenchmen as many cooks." Yet surrounded as they are by the most delicious wines and liqueurs, offering every temptation to render drunkenness attractive, it is perhaps true, as the saying goes, that a tippling Frenchman is a rara avis, England, although now greatly advanced in the art of cookery, was, according to early traditions, at one time very much behind. From the reign of Queen Elizabeth up to the time of the Revolution, the style was undoubtedly substantial, and cookery in general was coarse and heavy. In Queen Anne's time, how- ever, the art of cookery was much improved. During the reign of Queen Ehzabeth the larder's ^4 PEACTICAL GASTRONOMY best provision used to consist principally of chines of beef and pork, which were sent to the dinner-tables smoked and cold. Remains of such joints were sent up the next day and washed down with foaming tankards of ale. The pages of Pope throw an important light on the cookery of his time, as well as on the social charac- teristics of the epoch.