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
If one desires a roast goose after the German mode, let him proceed
after the following manner: Rub a young dressed goose overnight with
salt, pepper, sage, thyme, and sweet marjoram inside and out; in the
morning prepare a dressing as follows--a large handful of stoned
raisins and Zante currants, bread crumbs, a couple of sour apples
chopped fine, and one mealy potato, with butter mixed in, and all well
rolled together, but put no spices in the dressing. For the gravy,
boil the giblets in a little water and mash the liver in a spoonful of
flour, chop the gizzard, stir these in the liquid they were boiled in,
add it to the gravy in the dripping-pan, sprinkle in a little thyme,
sage, and sweet marjoram, and it is done. Serve the gravy separately.
When cooked and served, garnish with sliced lemons and parsley. A
"Compot" of some kind, like Hagenmark, cherries with Kirsch, or even
applesauce, if not too tart, should complete the dish.
The duck may be similarly treated; but a goose or duck _à l'Allemande_
would scarcely meet with favour in France, where the rules are laid
down so strictly that even a slight deviation from accepted canons
would be met by a hiss from parquet and gallery alike. Thus the
"Almanach des Gourmands," in speaking of the young wild duck, or
albran, which in October becomes a canardeau and in November a canard,
mentions, among various ways of preparing it, that of serving it with
turnips, adding that this honour belongs more strictly to _monsieur
son père_. This gastronomic slip--that of serving turnips with a
_wild_ duck--on the part of La Reynière, who is rarely caught napping
in anything relating to foods or food preparations, aroused the ire
of Savarin, who protests against it in these vigorous words: "The
adjunction of such a vegetable as this to this noble game would be
for a young wild duck an improper and even injurious proceeding, a
monstrous alliance, a dishonourable degradation." On the other hand,
Savarin himself was roundly denounced by M. de Courchamps for assigning
a truffled turkey a place among the roasts instead of among the large
pieces of the first service. This culinary heresy, he states, has
lessened the esteem in which M. Brillat-Savarin has been held in other
respects, and seriously hurt the reputation of his book. The ethics of
gastronomy, it will be seen, are as marked as those of society, and
the arrangement of a bill of fare calls for as much finesse as do the
functions of a chaperon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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