The Pleasures of the Table: An Account of Gastronomy from Ancient Days to Present Times. With a History of Its Literature, Schools, and Most Distinguished Artists; Together With Some Special Recipes, and Views Concerning the Aesthetics of Dinners and Dinner-givingEllwanger, George H. (George Herman)
History
The Pleasures of the Table: An Account of Gastronomy from Ancient Days to Present Times. With a History of Its Literature, Schools, and Most Distinguished Artists; Together With Some Special Recipes, and Views Concerning the Aesthetics of Dinners and Dinner-giving
Ellwanger, George H. (George Herman)
Gastronomy
He will be a learned œnologist as well, acquainted with the wines
of all countries, their best growths and most desirable vintages; as
also the widely varying effects upon the system of different wines.
Endowed with perfect physical faculties, furthered by long intimacy
with and daily use of wine, his sense of taste and smell will have
attained the highest possible development, enabling him to trace and
compare the flavours and ethers of different growths; thus indicating
what one should avoid, as also what one should choose, according to
individual requirements. Supplementing his monograph on wines will
occur as its natural consequent a profound dissertation on gout,
dealing at length with the true causes of the malady in all its phases,
and indicating a cure within the power of the wine-drinker to compass
without abstaining from the beverage he loves. Some magical lozenge
that is guileless of colchicum, some marvellous elixir distilled in the
alembics of the past, or some special essence of the vine itself will
be prescribed, to be taken with the dinner, when the afflicted may once
more eat and drink in moderation, "without fear and without reproach."
The author will have travelled far and wide, and will intelligently
contribute the spoils of his gastronomic chase, retrenching from a dish
here and elaborating there, if need be, as he dispenses his appetising
formulas. Yet so delicate his taste, of such discriminating nicety
his judgment, that, barring individual dislikes for certain aliments,
one may trust implicitly to the form of preparation he prescribes.
From the manuscripts of the ancient monks he will have rescued many
a simple though priceless dish, and from Baudelaire, Théodore de
Banville, and Jules Janin have committed many an unpublished poem of
the table to his storehouse of delights. And while conversant with
all that is best in existing works by the great masters of the art,
as well as the lesser lights of the science, and quoting freely from
them, he will nevertheless avoid the elaborate recipes and interminable
menus that Gouffé and others pride themselves upon, which require a
maître-d'hôtel to understand, a corps of assistants to execute, and
a Crœsus to liquidate. Spiced with anecdote and seasoned with
humour and philosophy, his chapters will glide on in lucid flow, and
his recipes leave no nightmares behind. His text will be free from
grossness, and be tainted with no worn-out aphorisms; so clear that
all may understand, and, understanding, turn its counsels to practical
account.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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