Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil InstitutionsSoyer, Alexis
History
Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions
Soyer, Alexis
Cooking for military personnel; Crimean War, 1853-1856
Wine, though abominated by the Moslem, flowed in profusion. Excellent
Bordeaux, Champagne, Madeira, &c., was freely passed round and quaffed
with gusto, to the number, I should say, of several gross of bottles.
The children of the Crescent drank as freely as ourselves. The sheep and
lambs, dressed up whole, were placed upon the table, and every guest
helped himself _à la Turque_. The meat was pulled from the animal by the
Hadji Bachi, with his fingers, in presence of the company, placed in a
large dish, and handed round to the gourmets, who also helped themselves
with their fingers. The lamb was admirable; an Apicius would have gone
to Turkey to dine, had he known such delicacies were to be obtained
there. That worthy left Rome in a vessel, specially chartered by him, to
go to Greece, in order to obtain some crayfish rumoured to be larger
than any Rome could produce. On arriving, he found they were only the
same. He asked the fisherman, who had been some time expecting him,
“Have you never caught larger crayfish than that?”
“No, signor, never!” was the reply.
Rubbing his hands with delight, he ordered the captain to sail back at
once, saying, “I have left some at home larger than these, and they will
be spoiled if the wind is not in our favour.”[17]
The other dishes were eaten in the European fashion, with knives and
forks. The fête was under the management of a gentleman I had the
pleasure of knowing well, Mr. Ralli, a large proprietor at Kadikoi and a
Greek merchant, who, to oblige the Pacha, took upon himself all the
responsibility of carrying out his excellency’s liberal ideas.
London, or even Paris, could not have produced more effect or given more
_éclat_ to the entertainment, though, of course, in a different style.
Healths were proposed, and toasts given. The speeches were short, but to
the purpose. The music was very original; the fireworks were extremely
bad, and the illuminations very tenebrous.
_Names of Guests at the Dinner given by the Pacha of
Scutari._--Brigadier-General Lord William Paulet; Hon. Captain
Macdonald; Captain Seager; Major Sillery; Major Morris; Dr. Rowdon,
civil surgeon, late professor of anatomy at Middlesex Hospital; W.
Heaton, Esq., medical staff; Richard Ambler, Esq.; J. S. Robertson,
Esq., purveyor-general to the forces; Rev. George Lawless, senior
chaplain; Rev. Hugh Drennan, chaplain; Rev. W. Fergusson,
chaplain;--Hawkes, Esq., barrister-at-law; Eustatio S. Ralli, Esq.,
sen., Greek merchant; Etienne Eustatio Ralli, jun., Esq.;--Dixon, Esq.,
first-class interpreter to Lord William Paulet;[18] Monsieur Soyer, &c.
&c. Indisposition prevented the attendance of his Excellency Omer Pacha.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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