motlier in tlie whole feathered world. When she is in
charge of her little brood, she endeavours to put them out
of danger and to draw the intruder aside by the exercise
of many a crafty wile. But, should the enemy come upon
the brood too suddenly to be deceived by cunning, the
mother partridge will boldly dash at the foe, and with self-
sacrilicing valour attack with beak, foot, and wing, until the
enemy has left the ground or she herself is killed ; knowing
that her young charges are taking advantage of the time
to place themselves in safety. It is sickening to think of
Englishwomen, created by Providence to be wives and mothers,
forgetting the gentleness and the compassionateness of their
sex, and butchering birds.
Among the recipes which I have given you for par-
tridges, I entreat you not to overlook braised partridge with
cabbage.* It is the French 'penlrix aux cltoux, which the
Paris correspondent of a daily newspaper seems to think
to be a dish exclusively patronised by the French hour-
geoisie. As a matter of fact, the partridge braised with
cabbage has been for many generations an aristocratic ^)Z«i ;
and the late E. M. Dallas, in his " Book of the Table," says
that French cooks " elaborate with extraordinary care the
ingredients of this preparation, and lavish immense ingenuity
on it." I will not indulge in such hyperbole, but will ask
you to try partridge with cabbage.
Minces.
In the earlier strams of the minstrels whose chief
musical instruments are the banjo, the bones, the tambourine,
and the accordion, there is a ditty of which the hero is
a certain " Uncle Ned," who was exceedingly fond of
* See Index to Recipes.
62 THE THOROUGH GOOD COOK.
corn-cake, but having attained so advanced a period of life
as to have lost all the molars and incisors requisite for the
mastication of solid food, " he had to let the corn-cake be."
It was possibly some remote ancestor of " Uncle Ned," or,
at all events, some individual in far-off antiquity, who,
through loss of teeth, and the dentist's art being yet in its
infancy, invented the culinary process known as mincing.
The earliest product of this device was in all probability
the sausage. The ancient Greeks, as we learn from the
comedies of Aristophanes, Avere much addicted to sausages,
and even to black puddings ; and the skill of the Greek
cooks in making these, to me, abhorrent dainties, was
emulated by the cordons hleus of old Rome. The cookery-
book attributed authentically or apocryphally to Apicius
contains a number of recipes for sausages. One is made
from the minced liver of a pig that has been fed exclu-
sively on figs ; then there are bacon sausages, with the
mince of Avhich pepper, cummin, and winter savoury pounded
in a mortar with pine-nuts, Avere used. Soyer, in his
" Pantrophion," tells of sausages composed of pork chopped
into very small pieces, with which was pounded the finest
white bread well soaked Avith Avine and seasoned Avith pepper
and decorticated myrtle leaves. The Eomans also had
chicken sausages ; and one of their favourite lioi^s d'aeuvres
Avas a very small sausage made of hard-boiled egg, mush-
rooms, and anchovies pounded together and Avell seasoned.
Page 45
Presented as published in 1895. 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
mother in the whole feathered world. When she is in charge of her little brood, she endeavours to put them out of danger and to draw the intruder aside by the exercise of many a crafty wile. But, should the enemy come upon the brood too suddenly to be deceived by cunning, the mother partridge will boldly dash at the foe, and with self-sacrificing valour attack with beak, foot, and wing, until the enemy has left the ground or she herself is killed ; knowing that her young charges are taking advantage of the time to place themselves in safety. It is sickening to think of Englishwomen, created by Providence to be wives and mothers, forgetting the gentleness and the compassionateness of their sex, and butchering birds.
Among the recipes which I have given you for partridges, I entreat you not to overlook braised partridge with cabbage.* It is the French 'perdrix aux choux, which the Paris correspondent of a daily newspaper seems to think to be a dish exclusively patronised by the French hourgeoisie. As a matter of fact, the partridge braised with cabbage has been for many generations an aristocratic plat ; and the late E. M. Dallas, in his " Book of the Table," says that French cooks " elaborate with extraordinary care the ingredients of this preparation, and lavish immense ingenuity on it." I will not indulge in such hyperbole, but will ask you to try partridge with cabbage.
Minces.
In the earlier strains of the minstrels whose chief musical instruments are the banjo, the bones, the tambourine, and the accordion, there is a ditty of which the hero is a certain " Uncle Ned," who was exceedingly fond of
* See Index to Recipes.
corn-cake, but having attained so advanced a period of life as to have lost all the molars and incisors requisite for the mastication of solid food, " he had to let the corn-cake be." It was possibly some remote ancestor of " Uncle Ned," or, at all events, some individual in far-off antiquity, who, through loss of teeth, and the dentist's art being yet in its infancy, invented the culinary process known as mincing. The earliest product of this device was in all probability the sausage. The ancient Greeks, as we learn from the comedies of Aristophanes, were much addicted to sausages, and even to black puddings ; and the skill of the Greek cooks in making these, to me, abhorrent dainties, was emulated by the cordons bleus of old Rome. The cookerybook attributed authentically or apocryphally to Apicius contains a number of recipes for sausages. One is made from the minced liver of a pig that has been fed exclusively on figs ; then there are bacon sausages, with the mince of which pepper, cummin, and winter savoury pounded in a mortar with pine-nuts, Avere used. Soyer, in his " Pantrophion," tells of sausages composed of pork chopped into very small pieces, with which was pounded the finest white bread well soaked with wine and seasoned Avith pepper and decorticated myrtle leaves. The Romans also had chicken sausages ; and one of their favourite hors d'oeuvres was a very small sausage made of hard-boiled egg, mushrooms, and anchovies pounded together and well seasoned.