F-
!
*•
\
vr - .
22500386962
i
V
THE
Vo/. Ill , containing Numbers 25 to 36.
FOOD JOURNAL
5
A REVIEW OF
mhl mb fowrmg,
AND
“ Appetite runs, whilst Reason lags behind,”
LONDON:
J. M. JOHNSON & SONS, 3, Castle St., Holborn.
Sold by Simpkin, Marshall & Co., and all Booksellers.
Printed by
J. M. Johnson & Sons, at their Steam Printing Works, 56, Hatton Garden, London.
INDEX.
PAGE
Absinthe Drinking . 193
Acorns as Food for Pigs . 64
Adulteration Act . 281, 353, 399
,, of Beer . 119
„ „ Butter . 78,394, 473
„ ,, Coffee . 234
,, ,, Food . 81, 121
i) >> Ices . . . « . « . . . . 231
„ „ Lard . 70
» „ Milk . . . 275, 316, 395, 434
>> j> Tea . . 241, 3^^
,, ,, Tobacco . 76
„ „ Whisky . 193, 397
After Quality, Quantity . 414
Air and Rain . 278
Alcohol . 73
American Tippling . 131
Analysis of Brandy . 45
Appointment under the^New Adulteration Act . 398
Army Hospitals . 25
Artificial Milk . 23, 324
Australian Meat . 1, 112, 283, 312, 427
,, ,, at the Central London District School . 392
Banquets, Recent French . ; . . 207
Belfast, Water Supply of . 223
Beer, Export of . . . 213
,, Manufactured at Weisenau . 208
Beetroot Distillation . 417
Bill to amend the Law of Adulteration . 79
Biscuits at Gibraltar . 16
Black Puddings . 238
Board of Trade Returns . . . 159, 213
Bouillon Cakes . 173
Boulevard Gastronomy . . . 458
Brawn . 66
Bread . . . . . 382, 422, 446
Breakfast Table, Past and Present . 341
Buenos Ayres, Plague in . 19
Butcher Fined at Bootle . 311
Cancerine . 86
Capitone Eel, The . 39
IV.
INDEX.
Cattle Trucks .
Cheap Bread .
Cheap Butter in Manchester and Salford .
Cheap Dishes .
Cheese Manufacture in Russia .
Cherry Brandy .
Chestnuts .
Chick Pea, The .
Chinese Medicines . .
Christmas Fare in the Hills .
Cocoa Nut Palm, The .
Cod Liver and Castor Oils .
Coffee, New Value in .
Columbia Market .
Commercial Travellers .
Condition of the Working Classes. No. 4
Consumption of Spirits .
Cookery Papers. Entrees .
)> ,, Fish . . . .
Correspondence . . .
Cream Cocoa . . .
Curries . . . * . .
PAGE
. 79
. 236
. 222
. 65, 376
. 294
. 418
. 363
. 59
. 389> 436
. 6
• • . 259
. . . 120
. 33i
. 273, 403, 444
. 456
. 53
. . 223
. i74
• . . 13, 46, 136
37, 73, *57, i99> 399. 427
. 142
. . . . . 245
Dandelion, Medicinal Value of . 279
Decrease of Sheep Stock in Great Britain . 419
Dinner in the Heart of the City . 214, 264
Diseases and Defects of Wine . . . . 88
Domestic Hygiene. No. 3. Drains . . to
Recipes . 38, 77, 118, 160, 200, 240, 280, 320, 360, 400, 440, 480
Edible Nuts . . . . . 224, 343
Elderberries . 79
Entrees . 174
“ Excelsior ” . . 323
Fish Cookery . . . . . 13, 46, 136
Fish Culture . 366
Fish Supply of London . 403, 444
Flour kept in Barrels . 145
Food Adulteration . ..81, 121, 325
,, ,, Who is to Blame ? . . . . . . 161
,, and Customs of the Cornish People . 465
,, Controversy . 370
,, Daily Allowance of, to Soldiers . 303
,, in Majorca . 139
,, of the Peasantry . 233
,, Producing Power of the United States . 291
,, Prospects of Ireland . 347
j, Resources of the Upper Yang-Tsze . 67, 95, 152, 171
j, Supply in Zanzibar . . . . 49
INDEX.
v.
PAGE
Fowls, Cruelties Practised on . 279
Fracas at St. James’ Hall Restaurant . 272
Franco-Prussian War, Consequences of the . 277
French Banquets . 207
,, Delicacies . 41 1
Fruit, How to make the most of our . 267
Genuine Tea . 223
German Preserved Beef . 57
Gillon & Co.’s Meat Preserving Establishment . no, 143, 252
Glycerine as an Antiseptic . 119
Grand Salad . 280
Grandmother’s Recipes . 320, 360, 400, 440, 480
Green Ruin . 450
Guarana . 296, 364
Haggis . 160
Haricot Beans . 369, 410
,, ,, a Substitute for Potatoes . 332
Hint to Impecunious Philanthropists . 352
Hippophagy . 119
Horrible Story from Paris . 331
Ices from Beef Tea . 163
Imports of Grain, etc . 213
Indian Wine . 116
Jamaica, Prospects of . . . . . . 197
Jelly from Berberis Aquifolia . 358
Kei Apple, The
199
Licensing Act, The . . . . . 20 1, 361
„ ,, and the Gin Shops . . . 401
“ Life in the Sugar Bowl ” . . . 437
Liebig’s Essence of Beef . 303
,, Extract of Meat . . 462
Liquor Taraxici . 279
Locusts . 317
London International Exhibition of 1873 . . . . 32 1, 441
Lord Mayor’s Banquet, 1871 . 58
5> Jl >» l872 , . . 429
Losh . 234
Macaroni . 355
Madame de Maintenon on Housekeeping . . 388
Mad Vegetarianism . 91
TMaize Culture in Africa . 189
Malting, Brewing, and Bottling . 386
VI.
INDEX.
PAGE
Manchester Food Markets . 26, 297
Markets of the Month. . . .35, 71, 117, 155, 191, 229, 269, 310, 350, 390, 430, 471
Markets, The Want of . . . . . . 5
Mastication . 194
Meat from New Zealand . 17
„ Supply . 406, 467
,, ,, New Source of . 324
Metropolis Water Act . 221
Metropolitan Fish Supply . 237, 444
Milk, Condensed . 319
,, from Cows attacked by Typhus . . . . . 22
„ of the Cocoa Nut . . . s 359
„ Gauge, New . 381
Muntz’, Mr., Adulteration Bill . 353
Mussels . . 377
Natal Garden Fruits . 178, 373
National Registration of Sickness . 98, 203, 33s
Natures Wants and Fashions Requirements . . . 181
Navy, Sickness in the . . . 25
Neglected Source of Food . 102
New Adulteration Act, Appointment under the . . . 398
New Value in Coffee . . . 331
New Zealand Butter and Beef . 158
Notes of the Month .... 39, 78, 119, *59> I93> 231, 271, 312, 352, 393, 433, 473
Notices of Books . . . 40, 80, 120, 199, 278, 480
Nutrition . 157
Nuts . 224, 343, 385
Oranges and Lemons . . . 1 06
Oxide of Zinc in Water. . . . . 159
Oysters . 379
,, Selling Putrid . . . . . . 1 19
Parisian Dinners and Parisian Fasting . . 164
Paupers, Dietary of . . 3JS
Pea Soup . 65
Pilchard Fishing in Cornwall . 146
Pilchards . . . 428
Plague of 1871 in Buenos Ayres . . . 19
Plum Pudding and Mince Pies . . 425
Pods of Peas, Uses of the . 285
Popular Food Analysis, No. 14 : A Neglected Source of Food . . 102
,, „ ,, No. 15: Preserved Meat . . 167
Pork, Dangers of Unsound . 318
„ Use of . . . 196
Potato Crop, The . 433
„ Supply from Germany . 372
Potatoes, Preservation of . 34$
,, Substitute for . . . . . 33 2
INDEX.
vn.
PAGE
Preservation of Meat . 159, 309, 454
Preserved Meat . . . 312
Public Health Bill, Mr. Stansfeld’s Proposed . 247
Quantity after Quality . 414
Queensland, New Product of . 315
Quinine Cordial . 342
Quinine Wine . 120
Railways and the Fish Trade . . . 403, 444
Raiponce or Reponce . 290
Rations to Soldiers . 303
Recent French Banquet . 207
Recipes . 38, 77, 1 18, 160, 200, 240, 280, 320, 360, 400, 440, 480
Rival to Tea and Coffee . . . 296
Russian Food and Russian Prices . , . 148
Salad, A Cheap and Capital . . 66
,, A Grand . . . . 280
Salmon Culture, Importance of . 194
Salt, No. 2 . 30
Sanitary Condition of the Black Country, Part III . 61
>> >> y> ” >> . . 1 1 3
,, Reform in Barracks . . . . . . . 135
Sawdust, Uses of . 232
School Dietaries . 217
Schooling in its Bearing on Household Work . 41
Sea Water used in Bread Making . . . . 78
Seaweed as Food . 185
Seizures of Unsound Meat . . . 309
Sheep Stock in Great Britain, Decrease of . 419
Shell Fish . 195
Shetland : Its Manners and Diet . , . 128, 209
Snails sold in Paris . . . 378
Song of the Ancient Turnspit . 94
Soup . 37
South Sea Islanders Staff of Life . 304
Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company . 317
Strikes among London Workmen . 276
Substitute for Potatoes . 332
Sulphurous Acid for Washing . 188
Taro . 304
Tea, Abuses of . 231
,, Cultivation . 197
,, Consumption . 232
,, Exports from China . . 277
„ Seizure of Spurious . 78
Tippling in America . . 1 3 1
Tomato, Qualities of the . 405
Vlll.
INDEX.
PAGE
Trades Unions and the Price of Food . 439
Turtle . 255, 286, 397, 399
United States, Food Producing Power of the . . . 291
Unjust Weights and Measures in Dublin . . . 202
Unwholesome Pork . 173
Veloute . . . . . 41 1
Vivisection . 274
Watercress . 186
Water Supply of Belfast . 223
Wells and Burying Grounds . 295
Wine, Diseases and Defects of . 88
Workhouses, Food Supplied to . 315
Zanzibar, Food Supply in . 49
*►
I
THE
FOOD JOURNAL.
AUSTRALIAN MEAT.
The high price of butchers’ meat has once more directed public attention to the value of Australian meat as a partial substitute for it ; and, preserved in tins, it has met with unqualified praise at the hands of writers in the public press for the last few weeks. The letters which have appeared on the subject seem to show that even now the admirers of this wholesome food are chiefly if not entirely to be found amongst clergymen, professional men, and clerks ; for few, if any, letters are supplied by working men, who, unfortunately, seem not to use it as an ordinary article of domestic consumption, nor even appreciate its value. Doubtless prejudice has done much to deter our mechanics and agricultural labourers from using food which may, in their opinion, be of doubtful origin and composition. It is likely, however, that this feeling operates most on the latter class ; for the mechanics are at present too independent to trouble themselves about cheap food, as every branch of trade in this country is just now in a flourishing state ; and they can therefore obtain regular employment and good wages, and thus command not only the necessaries of life, but luxuries also in abundance.
The poorest classes of the community do not appear to be at all favourable to Australian meat, if we may judge from the newspaper reports. The guardians of unions, and the authorities who have in charge our criminal population, seem to meet with considerable difficulties in introducing the meat into workhouses and gaols, and cannot get the inmates to eat it, even when most carefully pre¬ pared.
Our fresh-meat supply is certainly one of the difficulties of the age in which we live ; the rich have the means to purchase it, but, with the best beef at 8%d. a pound, when sold wholesale by the carcase, and mutton a shade higher, it is evident that many with small fixed incomes must either buy very little or use it rather as a luxury than a necessary of life. Many reasons are given for the high price of fresh meat, and the one that finds the greatest favour is that the butchers have combined to make fortunes at the expense of the
B
2
The Food Journal .
[Feb. i, 1872.
public. In a few cases this may be so, but the truth seems to b& that every year Englishmen become more luxurious in living, and consequently more meat is consumed. An increased demand must lead to a corresponding rise in price, if the supply does not keep pace with the demand ; and as this has not been the case, fresh meat has during the last few years steadily increased in value.
Butchers’ meat would certainly have now been dearer if the latter part of the summer and autumn had not been very moist and mild, and particularly favourable for the growth of pasturage. Such abundance of grass has not for many years been known in the south of England, and the ordinary stock of cattle of the farmers have not been able to keep the pastures bare. The meat market has consequently been easier for the last few months, but there is every reason to anticipate a rise before the winter is fairly over. As the price increases, some great effort must be made to get meat at a cheaper rate for those who cannot afford to pay so high a sum ; and it is consoling to find that Australian meat is rapidly gaining favour with the public; for while in 1866 the value of tinned meat imported from Australia was only 320/., in 1870 it was 204,000/., and in 1871 it exceeded half-a-million sterling. During five years the quantity imported has therefore increased nearly sixteen hundred-fold ; and such a rate of increase must not only have taxed to the utmost the productive powers of the different manufacturing establishments, but must also have exceeded the most sanguine expectations of those connected with them.
In the end it may prove a benefit to the users of Australian meat that all classes have not taken to it at once, but gradually. Even under present circumstances, when its consumption is confined to a small class, the demand is greater than the supply; and now there is such a scarcity that the London agents of the several Australian: companies cannot obtain sufficient for the wants of their regular customers. This temporary scarcity has caused the meat to increase in price about a halfpenny a pound, and if the demand had been: more general it is fair to suppose that the price would have been much higher. This increase is much to be avoided, both in the interest of the colonies and ourselves. The strong prejudice which exists against the preserved meat is only overcome, in the majority of cases, by its low price ; and if that price were now raised to any considerable extent it would not only deter people from using it but would also do much to divert public attention to some other quarter for a supply of cheap food.
The Australian colonists have at present an opportunity of se¬ curing a lucrative trade with this country, and it would be a pity if
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
3
they sacrificed their chance of a permanent business for a temporary gain. A little careful management on the part of the several com¬ panies is only required to regulate their supplies for the future, and for the present it would be well for them to adhere to old prices rather than create a prejudice which may at a future time be difficult to overcome.
That the present scarcity of Australian meat is only temporary, is evident from the fact that in Australasia there is an almost unlimited supply of cattle ready for export. The chief impediment which has hitherto stood in the way has been that no satisfactory method has before been devised of preserving the meat so as to make it a marketable commodity. This difficulty having now been overcome, the farmers are directing their attention to the subject of meat- preservation as being to them a source of great profit. Formerly, on farms distant from towns there was no outlet for the disposal of surplus meat; the cattle were therefore killed for the fat and hides, and the meat was thrown away as useless.
To show that there need be no apprehension of a failure in the Australian meat supply, it may be both interesting and instructive to those seeking information on the subject, to compare the statistics of the United Kingdom with those of the Australian colonies. For this purpose it will be necessary to give the area of the two countries, the population, and the live stock which can be used as food.
The population of Great Britain, including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, is very nearly 3 1,000,000 ; the area, 77Fmillion acres ; cattle, 9,235,052 ; sheep and lambs, 32,786,783. The population of Australia, including Tasmania and New Zealand, is 1,844,185; area, 1,652,524,800 acres; cattle, 4,059,536; sheepand lambs, 49,136,642. From these returns it will be seen that the population of Great Britain is nearly seventeen times more than Australasia, whilst the acreage is nearly twenty-one and a-half times less. Great Britain owns two and three-tenths times more cattle, and Australasia one and a-half times more sheep. Fears may be entertained that as the quantity of meat imported into this country during the last few years has rapidly increased, there may have been a corresponding decrease of animals in the country. The fact, is, however, that the number of cattle and sheep have increased. The return for 1869-70 shows an increase of 50,000 cattle and 1,536,000 sheep over the previous year, and an increase on sheep over the year 1867 of 5,465,000 — facts which go far to prove that a good export meat trade will cause the agriculturist to pay more attention than ever to the breeding of cattle. The agricultural returns for the United
B 2
4
The Food Journal .
[Feb. i, 1872.
Kingdom also teach the same thing, and show that whenever fat cattle are high in price and the feeding of them pays better than corn-growing, farmers at once change with the times and produce that which pays the best.
The above facts conclusively prove that the Australasian colonists have abundance of land for cattle-feeding to an almost unlimited extent, whilst the population, as compared with that of Great Britain, is so small that little of the animal food produced in the colonies is necessary to be retained for home consumption.
The prices of fat bullocks and sheep in the Sydney market will further show the great difference there is in the value of meat in Australia and Great Britain. A firm of cattle salesmen stated, in one of the Sydney papers, in September last, that of “ fat cattle the supply has been barely equal to the demand, and we may quote good quality at fully 15^. to 20 j. per head higher. The average sales may be quoted as follows : — Good heavy bullocks, 61. 10 s. to yl. 1 oj*. ; ordinary bullocks, 4/. 10^. to 5/. 15^. ; cows, 3/. 15^. to 5/. 5s. The market has not been adequately supplied with fat sheep. We may quote prices as higher than for some time past; best wethers, ii.r. 6 d. to 13^.; medium, gs. to 9^. 6 d. ; ewes, ys. to 8s. 3 d. per head.”
The prices in this country would be about five times as great as those given, and if the difference in value is so great now, when the preparation of meat for our home market is only in its infancy, there is every reason to believe that the supply will be practically unlimited when the large farmers throughout the colonies utilise the carcases of the cattle which they now throw away.
In the late newspaper correspondence on Australian meats, much has been written by those interested in certain companies to draw public attention to the superiority over all other of the meat pre¬ pared by these companies. Doubtless all who have regularly used Australian meat will have a partiality for the meat to which they have been accustomed. But, taking a broad view of the question, it is difficult to understand in what this superiority consists. The meat to be preserved is alike in quality to begin with, and is pre¬ pared by the same process. Objection might justly be made to the whole of the meat being slightly over-cooked, and in the case of certain companies, objection might justly be taken to the short weight of the meat ; but it is a pity that at the commencement of a new branch of trade those interested in it should endeavour to bring success to their own company, not by healthy competition, but by traducing others. Public opinion is generally a safe guide in these matters, and if certain productions are superior to all
Feb. x, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
5
others, their superiority will soon be detected, and the increase in the sales will show that they are fully appreciated.
In bringing this paper to a close, there is one subject to which I wish to refer, because it seems to have been much overlooked, and that is the weight which meat loses during the process of cooking. Unless this loss is shown, no comparison can be made between the prices of butchers’ meat and tinned meat, because the former is raw and contains bone, and the latter is cooked and without bone. The results given below are taken from Dr. Donovan’s “Domestic Economy.” The experiments were carefully made, the same con¬ ditions were observed throughout ; and as the meat was considered cooked when some might fancy it was “ underdone,” the per¬ centage of loss is rather under estimated : —
Legs of mutton, when boiled and separated from bone, lost 20 per cent.
|
5 5 55 |
V |
roasted ,, |
55 |
» 31 |
55 |
|
5 5 55 |
55 |
,, (overdone) |
55 |
.» 42 |
55 |
|
Shoulders ,, |
55 |
55 |
55 |
35 |
55 |
|
Ribs of beef |
55 |
55 |
55 |
,, 26 |
55 |
|
Sirloins of beef |
5 5 |
55 |
55 |
35 |
55 |
The effect of cooking and removal of bone may perhaps appear more striking if it be assumed that the beef and legs of mutton were purchased at 10 d. per lb., and the shoulder at 8 d. per lb., and then compared with the price of one pound of cooked meat free from bone: —
|
.S’. |
d. |
||||
|
A pound of boiled leg of mutton would cost . . |
. . I |
||||
|
55 |
55 |
roasted ,, |
55 • • |
. . 1 |
2h |
|
V |
55 |
overroasted ,, |
55 • • |
. . 1 |
si |
|
55 |
55 |
roasted shoulder |
55 • • |
. . 1 |
°i |
|
55 |
55 |
,, ribs of beef |
55 • • |
. . 1 |
ii |
|
55 |
55 |
,, sirloins |
55 • • |
. . 1 |
3i |
|
R. B. |
|||||
|
1 The Pall Mall Gazette calls attention to an old grievance amongst |
Londoners, |
viz., the want of markets, and especially of suburban markets. There cannot be any doubt but that new markets opened, say, in Kensington, Paddington, Camberwell, Islington, and other populous quarters, would prove amply re¬ munerative to the promoters, and would do more than anything else to check the spirit of co-operation amongst consumers. Those who are curious in the matter cannot do better than go themselves to the wholesale markets for a week and compare the prices with those of their retail tradesmen. Even allowing for work, rent of shops, bad debts, and trade profit, a considerable margin would be left which at the end of the year would alter the complexion of many a bank balance. We regret to see that the old monopoly of Billingsgate is still sufficiently powerful to prevent a really good fish supply being established in Bethnal Green, and that for all the good that it is likely to be to the poor, Baroness Burdett Coutts might as well not have built the Columbia Market.
6
The Food Journal .
[Feb. i, 1872.
CHRISTMAS FARE IN THE HILLS.
My friend Simpson was, and is, a keen sportsman, and being in pretty easy circumstances, and of no particular profession, he indulges his hobby to a very considerable extent. A year or two ago he took a place, or rather he rented some shooting — for there was no “ place ” to take in that wild district — in a small village, which, not to be invidious, I will disguise under the name of Blankham. This village is nine miles from the nearest town and two from a railway station. It was the first season that he had been down there, and I and another mutual old college chum — a rising young surgeon — having promised to go and spend Christmas Day and the week following with him, in fulfilment of this promise took the Midland train and arrived at the station alluded to at about six o’clock, just in time for dinner. We were a little disap¬ pointed at not meeting Simpson on the platform, and much missed his cheery voice of welcome and the presence of his comely form. “ The gentleman was not very well,” the man said as he put our traps into the vehicle, “ and had sent him to drive us.”
When we reached our friend’s quarters we found him indeed looking anything but himself. He had taken what rooms could be spared at a small farmer’s house, certainly not very commodious, but sufficient for the requirements of a sportsman. It had its con¬ veniences too. “For,” said he, “the man is not only a farmer, but keeps a small store, and sells, I verily believe, everything eatable and drinkable that the village folk can possibly require.”
We dined together, and, after a cigar or two of our own , and a bottle of the farmer’s old crusted port, were conducted by our good-natured host to our respective rooms. In the morning, far from Simpson’s looking better, he looked worse.
“ Been raking or drinking or over-exerting yourself,” suggested our medical friend, Smart.
“ Not one or the other. I live as regular a life as possible here. Breakfast at eight ; out on the hills ; back at dusk ; bed by eleven.”
“ Well, then, you have been eating or drinking something which has disagreed with you.”
“ Not so ; nothing of the kind. Always live on simple diet while shooting. During the month I have been here I haven’t par¬ taken of anything but the plainest food ; so that is impossible.”
Feb. i, 1872. J
The Food Journal .
7
“ What do you call plain food '?”' • 1 *
“ Well, as I’ve told you my hours, I’ll give you my diet,” said Simpson, smiling, “and you’ll be able to judge.”
“ Do,” said Smart, chipping an egg — [yes, on Christmas Day.] >
“Bread and milk in the morning, biscuits and sherry in my pockets, chop or steak and potatoes, sometimes, though rarely, a pudding, cheese with celery, and a glass or two - ”
“ Half a bottle ?” —
“There or thereabouts, of Tokeley’s fine old crusted port.”
“ Who's Tokeley?”
“ Farmer and landlord. Coffee or tea, with bread-and-butter or toast, and nothing after but a cigar — or, lately, a pipe or two, I could not stand Tokeley’s cigars — with perhaps a second glass of gin-and-water.”
“ Stiff?”
“Well, yes, stiffish.”
“Very abstemious ; quite a sporting hermit, in fact.”
“At any rate, you see, I can’t hurt from what I do take — nothing deleterious.”
“Art advised of that, lad ?”
“ Certainly.” And there the matter dropped.
But it so ^happened that at the end of our week we were all rather squeamish. The air may have been pure enough, but some¬ thing was rotten somewhere ; and when the last two days of our stay came, Smart declined going with the dogs, but kept near the farm, and was constantly poking his analytical nose into all the farmer’s premises and belongings. Nor was that expressive and scientific feature by any manner of means improved by the opera¬ tion. Longer and longer, more scornful and suspicious — the nose has a fine power of expressing suspicion — our friend’s nose became. I was over-persuaded, not very unwillingly, to stay the other three days with our poor ailing friend, Simpson. We were seated over a rather later breakfast on the morning fixed for my own de¬ parture, and he was expressing a half-resolution to accompany me back for advice and change when the long-legged letter-carrier was seen entering by the garden gate. There were several letters, one, I remember, from my wife (with which, being conjugally que¬ rulous touching those three extra days, I will not trouble the reader) ; I was immersed in its contents, my own facial proboscis rivalling in longitude — longitude penitential that is — that of our departed friend, when Simpson suddenly started up from the perusal of his own, shouting for Tokeley and the whole household to get out the mare and to assist him in packing.
8
The Food Journal .
[Feb. x, 1872-
“Not a gwoin, Mr. Simpson, zur ?”
“ Must, man. Important business. Come, look alive.”
Whatever Mr. Tokeley looked, whether alive or dead, my friend certainly looked rueful to a degree.
“ Don’t ask me a question,” he said — “ not a word. Let me get
out of this, and then - ” Here the trap came round, and in half
an hour we were seated snugly in our railway carriage, when, with a sigh of infinite relief, Simpson turned to me — we were alone — - and said : “ One of those letters was from Smart. Here it is ; read it.”
I did so, and this is what it read like : —
“ Guy’s, January — , 186 .
“ Dear Simpson, — I dare say you noticed that when I left your hospital — I mean hospitable — quarters I had encumbered myself with a rather bulky parcel. You were polite enough not to inquire what that parcel contained. 1 am about to tell you. It contained well assorted samples of your hermit’s fare, as supplied by the bucolic Tokeley, farmer and dry goods store. When you enume¬ rated the various simple articles of diet on which you, with a self- denial which is above all praise, contrive to support existence during the sporting season, and said, with such an air of triumph, that it was impossible that you should have taken anything to disa¬ gree with you, I had my doubts ; and certain symptoms of my own, together with certain observations on the spot, very much strength¬ ened those suspicions which have been fully confirmed since my return to town. You asked me what it was ailed you. I can tell you now! Your friend Tokeley has been poisoning y ou ! Don’t start ; don’t knock the man down ; don’t give him in charge to that solitary village constable ; he may not have known it. I have analysed all your simple hermit’s diet, and I am about to give you the result of my scientific researches.
“With your daily bread -and- milk — sweet harmless innocent sound ! — the process commenced. Taking it for granted that you consumed two pounds of bread every day — which, from my own observation, I think is within the mark — in the thirty-five days you have been at Tokeley’s, judging from three samples I brought away, you have swallowed, at 150 grains per 2 lbs. per diem, 5,250 grains of alum. I think I heard you say you had suffered from nausea, griping, and purging at different times. My poor friend, these are the ordinary effects of alum. As to the milk, that was harm¬ less enough in itself ; but Tokeley’s water isn’t, and as I find he only adulterates to the extent of 40 per cent., any extra purgings
9
fkb. x, 1872.] The Food Journal.
you suffered from that beverage it would be unfair to lay to the milk.
“ Of Tokeley’ s fine old crusted port , allow me to give you the in¬ gredients as nearly as I can ascertain : — cider, brandy, a little real port, ripe sloes, red Sanders (for colouring), and powdered catechu. There was no alum in the wine, it is true ; but those veracious (or mendacious) corks owed their fine old appearance to a strong- decoction of Brazil wood with that commodity.
“As to your coffee , I can’t say what effect that may have had ; it entirely depends on whether chicory agrees with you. But for Tokeley’s tea , I can pronounce that Prussian blue, how fine soever may be its effects to look at, as a facing or glazing medium, is not generally considered wholesome by the faculty. Sand and gum, too, are not such ingredients as I should myself prescribe in a patient’s ordinary beverage.
“You contented yourself with about one half-pint of gin daily, which is lucky, as that alcoholic fluid chez Tokeley is strongly im¬ pregnated with combined sulphates. You pointed out to me, my poor martyr, how well it “ beaded,” how prettily the little bubbles clung to the glass. Well it might ; it is the nature of sulphate of zinc to produce that effect.
“There is one thing on which I can most heartily congratulate you, and that is the substitution of Tokeley’s tobacco , in which I detected nothing worse than green copperas, for Tokeley’s cigars , so-called — those, at least, which I brought away with me being simply a deadly poison. They are what in the vulgar tongue are called the thorn-apple cigar. They are made of a herbaceous plant belonging to the genus Datura. You, remember their bitter, acrid taste? — that arose from daturin. Ah ! I congratulate you with all my heart that you eschewed Tokeley’s cigars so early in your acquaintance with that mercantile agriculturist. My love to S - .
“ Ever yours,
“ Geo. Smart.
“ P.S. — Perhaps I may see you in town shortly — eh ?”
“ Isn’t it awful ? ” asked Simpson, as I gave him back the letter.
I said that I thought it was. But, after all, Tokeley is only a hardworking respectable British farmer and tradesman.
J. M. S.
IO
The Food Journal .
[Feb. i, 1872.
DOMESTIC HYGIENE.
No. 3.— DRAINS.
One of the most important enquiries in taking a house should be as to the efficiency of the drains, for upon this will often depend its healthiness and therefore its suitability for habitation. It is not sufficient that the local sanitary authorities of the village, town, Or neighbourhood in which a house is situated, have done theif utmost to secure healthiness by the provision of stringent laws and as perfect a system of general drainage and sewerage as the means and advice at their disposal is capable of ; much also de¬ pends upon the individual drainage arrangements of each house; so that, in spite of all their precautions, much of the ultimate success of their labours is dependent upon the builders of houses, over whom, in the details of their internal arrangements, they cannot well exercise any absolute control. Of what use will the main drains be to a certain house if its own drains, or their connection with the sewers, are imperfectly constructed ? In such a case the imposition of a heavy sewers’ rate is little less than an extortion for which the builder is primarily responsible, but in respect of which the local authorities too often get the blame. Irrespective of sewage arrangements, provisions for securing a dry subsoil round a house are essentially necessary ; for nothing is more in¬ jurious to health than a damp house. As the general question of drainage is so all-important for securing the healthiness of habita¬ tions, we shall consider it in its several aspects, for which purpose We propose to devote two or three articles, each bearing upon the different points connected with it; and for the present we shall deal with the subsoil part of the question, and the conse¬ quences likely to arise from a neglect of the proper provisions necessary to draw away the moisture arising from local springs, or from the downwards filtration into the soil of surface waters.
When a house is built upon a light, gravelly, or sandy soil, it is clear that the ground itself will, in a great measure, act as an efficient drainage medium ; but where clay or stiffish loam is met with, especial precautions become necessary to secure the proper drainage of the foundations ; for if the foundations of a house are damp, the house itself can never be properly dry. A thoroughly dry house will also be much warmer than a damp one, and so more comfortable, besides being more healthy. It is also well worthy of being remembered that it is far more easy to apply preventive pre-
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
1 1
cautions from the first than to adopt remedial measures afterwards ; indeed, it is often almost impossible to introduce the latter without great trouble and expense. Intimately connected with this subject, also, although having no connection with drains, is one that may not improperly be briefly noticed here. It is the effect which too rapid building often has upon the subsequent dryness of the walls of a house. When they are first built, ample time should be allowed to intervene before plastering, to allow the moisture absorbed by the bricks from the mortar to dry out; other¬ wise the internal covering seals in the moisture, and it cannot afterwards properly evaporate. A well-known consequence of rapid construction is that, after being inhabited and warmed by fires, the walls of a house will sweat, the heat drawing the moisture through the plastering into the house, thereby creating a damp atmosphere in the passages and rooms. At night time, when the internal temperature cools down, this moisture condenses and settles again upon the walls, only to be drawn out again day after day, creating the same injurious and unhealthy effects as those which we shall presently notice as arising from defective drainage. It is customary to lay a “ dry course ” in the walls, a little above the ground, consisting of slates, cement, or asphalte, to prevent moisture rising from the foundations up the walls, which it would otherwise do, by capillary attraction, through the pores of the bricks. This, however, is but a partial preventive against damp, if the lower foundations are not secured against moisture ; for, although it may not be able to rise directly up the walls, it will be drawn by warmth out of the foundations, and find its way, as a vapour, through the boards of the flooring. None of those mea¬ sures, therefore, which are now commonly adopted, and which should always be employed, will prevent the necessity for those which are too often neglected. The introduction of dry areas and air bricks below the “ dry course,” are but ineffectual provisions for the prevention of the ill effects consequent upon the absence of proper drainage. That they are useful additions cannot be denied, but they only partially counteract the evils against which they are in¬ tended to provide. To secure absolute freedom from damp, drains should be run all round the footing of the foundations, and at a lower level, externally in all cases, and also internally where the soil is of a tenacious character. These drains may consist either of earthenware pipes provided with sufficient fall to carry away the water from the building, or of a thick layer of rough gravel and brickbats. When this is not adopted inside the walls, the ground should be carefully sloped away from outside, with a drain at
12
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872^
the lowest point to carry away any moisture into the earth. All floors in basement rooms should be raised sufficiently off the ground to prevent any moisture getting into the girders, and a current of air should be secured by means of air bricks, communicating from beneath the floors with the air outside through the medium of a dry area; and all the drains of the house should be laid well below the foundations, and, while having plenty of fall into the main drainage system with which they may be connected, they should also be carefully laid on a good foundation, so as to guard against any breakage of joints through a settling of the ground beneath them.
Having thus briefly considered the necessary means to be employed in order to secure a dry house, there yet remains to be pointed out the evil consequences arising from a damp house, and the causes from which they arise. Experiments have proved the fact that germs of vegetation abundantly exist in the atmosphere, and even carefully distilled water has been found to propagate germination when exposed to the sun’s rays; how much more, then, must water, impregnated with salts from the soil, favour what is commonly known as “spontaneous growth,” when brought into contact with the atmosphere? The appearance of a damp wall is too well known to need any further description here. An outside wall will soon become covered with a species of moss, whilst inside a house a finer sort of lichen is found to grow in patches ; the paper rots and falls away from the walls, or becomes discoloured, and what is called a damp smell pervades the room affected, and some¬ times the whole house. The damp from the walls communicates itself to the floor joists and other woodwork, causing the growth of a kind of fungus, which flourishes most in dark and hidden corners. These different germinations absorb oxygen from the air and exude carbonic acid gas, well known for its poisonous nature, which, diffusing through the whole atmosphere, renders it injurious and unwholesome. It is for this reason that plants are considered unwholesome to be kept in a bedroom, or in any room that is usually closed for any length of time. Besides this, moisture in a wall causes the paste used in papering a room to ferment, the process of which destroys the paper and discharges the noxious gases arising from decomposition into the surrounding atmosphere. As a rule, the inmates of a damp house endeavour to counteract the cold effects communicated to the rooms by keeping up good fires,, but it should be remembered that although, to the senses, the remedy appears effectual, warmth but encourages the development of the evils by stimulating the growth of fungoids, and increasing fermentation. Fred. Chas. Danvers.
Feb. i, 1872. J
The Food Journal.
13
COOKERY PAPERS-
No. 7.— FISH.
In this paper I propose to discuss fish, which, as a natural sequence, should follow the consideration of the subject of my last article — soup. It is not my province to dilate upon the enor¬ mous waste which notoriously occurs every year with regard to this article of diet ; but I cannot help suggesting that the un¬ fortunate loss of so much good food is frequently unavoidable from the localisation of the supply. It is not, I think, so much because people in out-of-the-way places do not under¬ stand what to do with — i. e., how to preserve — the abundance of food which the prolific ocean casts at their feet, as is fre¬ quently stated, as that the supply is in excessive proportion to the demand. The immediate consumption of the neighbourhood being perfectly inadequate to exhaust the supply, it must either be salted or cured, or wasted — turned into manure. Now, in many places where the expense of conveyance to a market is great, salted or cured fish, when sold, does not command a suffi¬ ciently high price to remunerate the parties concerned. Hence tons and tons of fish are annually turned into manure because it is not worth the expense of salting and conveying it to market ; that is, because when sent to market it does not fetch a sufficiently high price to bring home any profit. I think we must allow that this state of affairs is inevitable in many places far remote from a market where the commodity would be saleable. Or, again, how can cured fish transported from enormous distances be expected to compete in price with the same class of fish procured from the immediate neighbourhood ? Granting that the expenses attending the process of salting and curing are the same at both places, which is hardly probable, there still remains the cost of con¬ veyance to market, against which, however, we have to set the difference in value of the fresh condition at the place where the fish is brought to shore, which, surely, would in many in¬ stances not balance the other greater expense. It is not so much because the people of remote fishing hamlets do not know how to cure the abundance of fish which fortune occasionally sends to their nets, as that they do know that it doesn’t pay to cure them and send them to a distant market which receives a regular supply
14
The Food Journal .
TFeb. i, 1872.
from a nearer source. In fact, in many such places they only cure fish in sufficient quantity for the consumption of their own neigh¬ bourhood. The large amount of waste of this class of food which occurs annually in many parts of our coast is not due to ignorance,, but rather to knowledge — the knowledge that it does not pay to save it. But I have wandered from my subject, which does not so much relate to the economy of the supply of fish as to the economy of cooking it. First, then, I will begin with fresh-water fish.
The monster tench, carp, pike, and eels, which the monks of old used to feed in ponds called fish-stews, (very good judges of good living were those monks ; they dressed their fish generally in wine, or served them en matelotte ), have passed away with the necessity which alone sustained their existence ; for fish of this kind are not to be compared to the denizens of the deep sea, either as regards flavour or nourishing properties. But the monks had not invented railways, so must needs provide themselves with such fish as would inhabit the swamps and ponds and rivers which were then so prevalent all over the country, and could be obtained fresh in their immediate neighbourhood. High farming and drainage have banished the tench, the carp, the eel, and the rest of the fresh-water fish to very circumscribed districts of their former extensive domains, where still occasionally some monster specimen falls to the skill of the expert angler of the locality, and is duly served up in a lordly dish. But who would go to market and buy pike or tench, when a magnificent turbot or delicious mullet might be purchased for the same money ?
Few river fish are worthy of the notice of the disciples of Epicurus. The eel, however, so justly admired from time imme¬ morial, is dressed en matelotte , a luxury meet for the gratification of the most fastidious connoisseur of haut gout. The tenacity of life which these fish possess is remarkable, and no stream is too foul for their habitation. They have been known to pass up the sewers of towns, and will migrate across the fields from one pond to another — in fact, they will live for days without water. Most of the large eels which appear in our London markets are procured from Holland.*' There are two or three kinds of eel found in our rivers, of which the silver eel is the most highly esteemed. Eels may be stewed in wine, or served spitch-cocked, fried, or collared.. The pike may be boiled and served with anchovy sauce, or stuffed
* Hints for the Table says, “whole cargoes of Dutch eels are daily sent up the river to be eaten as Thames or Kennet eels at Richmond, Eel-pie Island, etc.”
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
15
and baked, and eaten with piquant sauce ; if cut in slices and broiled it is excellent for breakfast. Perch are best stewed or broiled ; small ones should be fried ; but beware of the bones— and small perch are all bones, and require the exercise of patience. The barbel, if eaten, should be stewed; the parts about the head and round the collar-bones are considered the tit-bits. Bream are good for nothing but manure.* Trout, I need not say, are delicious, as are also char, and the other species of the same family. Plainly boiled, if large fish, they are excellent, or they may be stewed in claret. Cold trout, with salad or cucumber, is a very nice dish ; and a mayonnaise of trout is a gastronomical lonne louche. The smaller fry, which abound in many places, should be broiled or fried. Carp should be stewed, as the monks nearly always treated them. Crayfish make an excellent soup — Bisque <V Ecrevisses — or are very useful as garnish when boiled, and are in much demand for the purpose of decorating the chef d' oeuvres of skilful cooks. I allude to the small fresh-water crayfish. The large sea crayfish may be used for any purpose when lobsters are not available ; it is not, however, equal to the lobster in flavour. Eels, trout, and many other fish are often baked in a pie, and are very good ; trout may be potted ; gudgeon should be fried like smelts. The lamprey is, I believe, an excellent fish, much like a stunted eel. We all know the story of Henry the First’s fatal greediness ; but the lamprey is a fish not easily obtained now-a-days, and rarely seen in our markets ; though a writer, writing in 1854, says: — “This self¬ same fatal material, cooked up in a pie, is, by ancient custom, transmitted annually, at Christmas, as a token of loyalty by the city of Gloucester to the sovereign of this country,” and adds, “ At that particular season of the year they (lampreys) can hardly be obtained at a guinea apiece.” Smelts and whitebait, though caught in rivers, are usually found in brackish, if not quite salt water. However, I may as well consider them here. The smelt is a fish which must be eaten quite fresh ; it has a pleasant odour, something like the scent of the violet, and is of a delicate, pale, transparent green colour on the back, with a silver belly and sides — in fact, the fish itself is so delicate as to be almost transparent. When stale it loses its peculiar odour. Smelts must be fried, and eaten with melted-butter. Whitebait — what is it ? I will not open up the much-vexed question ; it is sufficient for my purpose here to say that it is a delicious fish, much esteemed by epicures ;
* The chub is not held in much estimation, the flesh being woolly and insipid, and when cooked should, I think, be broiled.
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872.
16
and that the only whitebait with which I am acquainted is caught in the Thames. To be eaten in perfection the gourmet should dine at Blackwall or Greenwich. There are other places where they pretend to catch whitebait, but the genuine fish is only to be caught in the Thames, I believe. Whitebait is said to be found in the Hamble, which flows into the Southampton Water ; in Scotland in the Firth of Forth, and at Constantinople in the Bosphorus.
This fish is of so delicate a nature that it is said, if placed on a dish at night, nothing will remain the next morning except a few spots of dirt — which means that it will not keep twenty-four hours. Brown bread-and-butter and lemons should accompany its entree. This enrapturing delicacy should be sprinkled with flour and fried quickly, and each person should try a second dish, which should be devilled. The tench should be stewed. The rudd is a fish somewhat like the roach and dace ; they are never good eating, in whatever way they are cooked. The grayling and the sewin are a species of trout, and should be cooked in the same manner. The sturgeon, I think, may be classed as a fresh-water fish. The flesh, when cut, should be white, if the fish is in good condition. ; a slice out of the middle stewed in wine is excellent. Sturgeon steaks are very good. Caviar is, or ought to be, prepared from the roe of this fish, though much of the substance sold as caviar is the roe of other fishes. The flesh of the sturgeon much resembles veal.
The eel pout, or burbot, is a delicious fish, very like an eel, but more stunted in appearance. It was some years back to be caught in the Cam, but is now extinct there. It is found in “the Severn, the Trent, and some rivers in Yorkshire.” Minnows are some¬ times eaten by the uneducated gastronomer as whitebait.
I think that I have now exhausted the catalogue of fresh-water fishes ; and in conclusion I would advise any one wrho has had a good day’s sport, if possible, to eat it the same day; and also, if any doubt exists as to how any fish should be cooked, broil it ; most fish are delicious broiled. Fresh fish is nourishing ; stale fish is per¬ nicious in the extreme. No one has eaten fish in perfection who has not eaten it a few hours after it is caught.
A Cook.
The biscuits in store at Gibraltar appear more fitted for a museum of natural history than for the interior of the stomachs of her Majesty’s subjects. Mr. Rowsell, the superintendent of contracts, brought home with him from these stores a choice collection of maggots, upon which Professor Huxley was asked to give an opinion. It is to be hoped that this opinion will be made public, so that those who have to eat the biscuits may have the satisfaction of knowing the genera of the live stock which they have been compelled to devour.
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
17-
MEAT FROM NEW ZEALAND.
Whilst the importation of fresh meat from Australia is rapidly increasing, and company after company is being formed in our Australian colonies for the prosecution of the new trade which has been opened up, a New Zealand Meat -Preserving Company (James Wotherspoon and Co.) has entered the same field, and has commenced operations on an extensive scale and with an energy which seems to promise success. Shops have been opened in the towns of Scotland for the sale of New Zealand meat alone. We are informed that there are about ten of these shops in Edinburgh, and no fewer than 45 in Glasgow, and that they are much frequented by the working classes, as well as by others to whom it is a matter of importance to procure good fresh meat at a moderate price. Mutton is sold at 7 \d. a lb., beef at 8 ff. Both are sold in quantities to suit the convenience of customers, from a quarter of a pound upwards ; and in this respect the new enterprise of this company merits high commendation, as it brings the valuable commodity in which they deal — one of the prime necessaries of life — within easy reach even of persons in very poor circumstances, who cannot afford to buy more than a small quantity at a time ; whilst others also must often find it more pleasant to purchase only what they intend to use at a single meal, than to buy a whole tin at once, as the purchaser of Australian meat has hitherto been obliged to do. The fat — of which each tin contains a considerable quantity — is also sold separately, at the price of 6 ff. a lb.; and the scraps, of which some always remain after the contents of a tin have been disposed of, are mixed with a little gelatine, salt, and pepper, made into a kind of potted meat, and sold at 4 ff. a lb. Nor are even the empty tins thrown away. Being neatly opened, they are sold for iff. each, readily finding purchasers, to whom they are useful for many purposes, and who, for an expenditure of 4<ff or 5 ff., can get them made into pitchers or tankards as good as could be obtained from the tinsmith for is. or is. 2 ff. The shops are remarkably neat and clean, and everything about them is attractive. We understand that it is the intention of the New Zealand Meat-Preserving Com¬ pany, which, being a Scotch company, naturally began its operations in Scotland, to extend them speedily to the towns of England ; and we expect soon to hear of shops being opened for the sale of New
c
1 8
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872.-
Zealand meat in London, and in all the English towns. We wish the company great success and prosperity, being convinced that their operations would be attended with great advantage to the public, and especially to the poorer classes of the people. We are glad to be able to commend very highly both the New Zealand beef and mutton ; although we cannot say that we deem them superior to the Australian. They are, however, more firm, and can more easily be cut with a knife, which is of great importance, as making it easy to divide them into small portions for sale.
The success which has followed the experiment made by the New Zealand Meat-Preserving Company in their shops has already induced a number of shopkeepers to adopt the practice of opening tins of Australian meat, and offering their contents for sale in small quantities, to suit the convenience of purchasers. This trade, wherever it has been established, is rapidly becoming more extensive ; and it is pleasant to be able to add that the prejudice against preserved meat, at first very prevalent, has in a great mea¬ sure given way. There is ample field for competition, and all the meat supplies that can be obtained from Australia and New Zealand will probably soon be found insufficient to meet the de¬ mand. The colonies in that part of the world are indeed evidently capable of yielding a far greater supply than they have yet sent into our market, and may be expected to do so, as the demand increases and the trade is found profitable. But time must be allowed for the development of their resources. All their present surplus would not be nearly sufficient for the wants of Britain, and cannot be deemed likely to reduce the price of fresh meat much in our market. The utmost result that can be expected for some years is that further increase of price may be prevented. In these circumstances it is satisfactory to learn that a company has been formed for the importation of preserved meat in tins from South America. The success of the enterprise must depend mainly on the quality of the meat, and that will be very much according to the manner in which the cattle are treated before being slaughtered. If meat - preserving establishments are formed within a short distance of the pastures on which the cattle are fed, meat of fair quality may be expected ; but if the cattle are driven from remote farms to Buenos Ayres and other seaports to be there slaughtered, after the fashion hitherto prevalent, the meat cannot be expected to be so good and wholesome. We trust, however, that the under¬ taking will be conducted in a judicious manner, so as to yield satisfactory results.
J. Montgomery.
Feb. i, 1872.I
The Food Journal.
19
THE PLAGUE OF 1871 IN BUENOS AYRES.
It is less likely that these sweeping and contagious maladies should be always sent for the punishment of impious men, because I remember to have read in good authors that as some plagues destroyed both men and beasts, so some other did peculiarly destroy animals of very little consideration or use to men, as cats, &c. Upon these and the like reasons I have some¬ times suspected that in the controversy about the origin of the plague, namely, whether it be natural or supernatural, neither of the contending parties is altogether right.
Boyle, Discourse on Air, vol. iv., p. 288.
A pestilence has just swept over the city of Buenos Ayres which, if not equal in fatality to some of the epidemics in our own country during the seventeenth century, is almost without a parallel in modern times. Two accounts of this great disaster have come into my hands, one by the Rev. T. E. Ash, B.A., Chaplain of British Legation at Buenos Ayres ; the other — more strictly medical — by William N. Hiron, M.R.C.S., published in the Medical Times and Gazette ; and it has occurred to me that some useful sanitary lessons might be gathered from the graphic and instructive narratives which these gentlemen have given.
Buenos Ayres, the capital of La Plata, the city of “good air” is a town of some 180,000 inhabitants, situated on the banks of the river Plate. Until recently it has borne a high reputation for health ; “as far as natural climate, air, and soil of the country are concerned, unquestionably the healthiest place in the world,” is Mr. Ash’s description. Alas, that man by indifference and neglect should have made it what it is ! By what accident or providence it has escaped so long and avoided a catastrophe is one of those mysteries that we cannot attempt to solve. Imagine a city with narrow streets, crowded houses, and, in parts, a density of popula¬ tion almost beyond belief ; where there is no provision for drainage beyond the cesspool or old well ; no water supply save that from the river — a river so poisoned by filth, that “ dead fish covered the roadstead as high as Palermo.” Add to this a sluggish inlet into which the Riachuelo (our little Ganges, as it was aptly termed) poured a reeking mass of debris from the slaughter-houses, which may be better imagined than described ; “the Saladeros continued working, and the river at Baracas literally ran blood ' the smell in December had been so horribly nauseous that in various parts of the town ladies and people of weak constitution were seized with vomiting when the wind blew from the south.”
20
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872.
Newly-made roads had been filled in with offal and refuse from the scavengers’ carts before being macadamised, and these gave forth an almost intolerable stench after every shower of rain.
Cesspools have been mentioned as universal, and as many as fifteen or sixteen old wells would be found in clearing the site for a house. These naturally became the receptacles of filth and of water, which it was prohibited to throw in the streets. The soil, therefore, in spite of a dry winter*4 and spring, was saturated with moisture, and a summer sun of unprecedented power brought about the natural results. “The city was fermenting and steaming; so noxious and deadly were the vapours that rose from the ground, that wherever it was opened nausea and sickness followed.” In the expressive words of Mr. Ash, “ the air was foul and sickening, the water was corrupted, the earth was reeking with abomination. The plague came, and it found the place ripe for destruction.” Sporadic cases of yellow fever had occurred in 1858, and in the autumn (April) of 1870, but it had not spread. At the close of the latter year, Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, was attacked, and soon afterwards Corrientes, a town on the direct line of com¬ munication between Asuncion and Buenos Ayres. With the new year of 1871 it became manifest that people were dying fast in one of the low quarters of Buenos Ayres : “ it was cautiously whispered,
‘ We have yellow fever amongst us,’ but Dr. Golfarini and others hastened indignantly to contradict the rumour, and comfort the public mind. It was only the fall of the leaf, etc.”
No precautions were taken, no sanitary cordon drawn round the infected quarter. In February came the Carnival, with its crowded theatres and noisy festivities, and the mortality was doubled. The municipality now became alarmed, and precautions were taken, but whitewash and offal carts, and sprinkling of tar were inade¬ quate to cope with evils now grown so gigantic. In March the deaths reached 350 in the day, and all parts of the city were in¬ volved. Physicians recommended those who could to leave the city, and in the general sauve qui pent no less than 100,000 fled from their homes. All honour to those who, in that fearful time, were true to duty. “The few English doctors,” we read, “stood their ground manfully,” and were all at one time or another struck down, but, fortunately, recovered. The Irish nuns, the French sisters of charity, and the clergy of English, Scotch, Irish, and
American congregations bore an heroic part, where friends and _ * _ _ _ * _ _ _
* The summer months in Buenos Ayres are December, January, and February. The plague, therefore, which lasted from January to May, took place in the true epidemic season, the latter half of summer and autumn.
Feb. x, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
21
neighbours had fled in wild dismay. “ It was like a gleam of sun¬ shine to see the French and Irish sisters noiselessly moving about on their heavenly mission, soothing the last hour of many, and sometimes rescuing others from the jaws of death, who had been forsaken by friends and kindred.”
Bakers and printers suffered most severely ; no less than sixteen newspaper carriers died. Women and children almost (escaped, and grave-diggers, though overworked, bore a charmed life; “there were 360 employed, and yet not one died of the fever.”
The difficulties of interment increased with the mortality, and many bodies lay for days unburied. Men, supposed dead, broke from their flimsy coffins on the way to the grave. Buenos Ayres was as a city of the dead ; business was at a standstill. “ At night the silence was rarely broken but by the hollow sound of vehicles taking off the dead, or the tinkling of a little bell, as the blessed Sacrament was conveyed to the dying.” Instances of heroic de¬ votion even unto death were numerous. The cases of one merchant and his wife, stricken down together, were “ so malignant that six nurses in succession died while attending on them, and finally a a young lady, of good family and education, volunteered for the post of danger, and also fell a victim.” The doctors had toiled nobly. “ Of seventy who remained on duty, about half sickened and fifteen died.” (Hiron). The mortality for the month was 1 1,000.
By the middle of April all the city offices had closed except four, and twenty days’ vacation was ordered by the Government ; but more than 22,000 persons had been buried in one cemetery during the past three months.
During the latter part of April and May a marked and rapid improvement took place, until, with the advent of winter, the plague was finally extinguished. Of the cases imported to the country districts none spread, and in other places, such as Parana, Rosario, and Monte Video, immunity was secured by a strict and vigilant quarantine. Assistance readily poured in from various quarters. Monte Video sent up 10,000/. for the poor; Brazil, Chili, and Banda Oriental were not behind, and in May last large sums of money, together with disinfectants and papers of advice from our own sanitary authorities, were promptly forwarded from England to the desolated city.
More recently Dr. Scrivener has been sent over to Europe by the Government of Buenos Ayres to inform himself on all matters of hygiene likely to be of use in averting or combating any future outbreak of the disease. The causes of a mortality so disastrous
22
The Food Journal .
[Feb. i, 1872
would not seem far to seek : decomposition of animal and vege¬ table matters of the vilest description, under an almost tropical sun, poisoned drinking supplies, densely crowded and filthy fever nests invited the outburst of epidemic disease, and fed it to the last; whilst an imperfect sanitary administration could but look on with dismay. The losses from the plague were variously estimated at from 20,000 to 26,000, and atone time there remained but 40,000 people in the town, of whom 7,000 were sick, with a daily mortality of 600 or 700.
Such was the plague of the year just ended in Buenos Ayres. It will be well if a lesson has been learned, and a desire for sanitary improvements impressed deeply on the people. Dr. Scrivener will doubtless return with all the knowledge to be gained in Europe ; his difficulties, however, will begin when ^he faces the evils, which have been so clearly pointed out in the narratives to which I have alluded. We may hope that as the cholera with its attendant horrors was the mainspring of sanitary life and work in England — though the fruits, alas, are small even yet — so the epidemic of yellow fever in Buenos Ayres may be the means of averting future evil, — not alone by the local precautions to which it may give immediate effect, but by enforcing attention to sanitary science and to the ordinary requirements of social and municipal life.
E. T. Wilson.
From the Chemical News we learn that Dr. Husson has been investigating milk taken from cows while attacked by typhus. The milk of twenty-two cows, belonging to the same proprietor (of which number four were so badly attacked by contagious typhus as to necessitate their being immediately killed, while another batch of four were apparently quite well, and fourteen in a doubtful condition), has been investigated by the author. It appears that, as compared with the composition of normal milk, the milk of all these animals became more or less altered as regards the quantity of normal constituents, and may be termed very poor ; yet, with the exception of the milk taken from the four cows which were very ill, there was nothing disagreeable about these samples, and of the milk, which had got a bad taste and colour, a cat drank some 50 grms. with¬ out experiencing any bad effects. The author draws this conclusion, among others, from his researches — that neither the milk nor meat from cows so diseased can give the disease to men or other animals not belonging to the Ruminantia ; yet, very properly, he urges that severe measures should be taken to prohibit the use of milk as well as meat of cattle even suspected to be attacked by contagious typhus to be used as food ; in fact, the milk, even at the first beginning of the disease, is entirely altered chemically as well as in its histological characters, as revealed by the microscope.
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
23
ARTIFICIAL MILK.
Of the many enquiries which took place in Paris during the siege respecting the preservation of food and the adoption of new, or rather unused, elements, there are, doubtless, some that failed to reach the ear of the British public, and the discussions respecting artificial milk were, we believe, of the number.
In the Academy of Sciences on the 16th of January a com¬ munication was read from the well-known industrial chemist, M. Dubrunfaut, on the composition of milk, and on the preparation of obsidional milk. The average milk of the cow contains,
according to M. Boussingault : —
Nitrogenous matter (casein or albumen) .. 0-0337
Fatty matter (butter) . 0-0376
Sugar (lactine) . 0-0567
Salts . 0-0020
Water . 0-8700
According to the late M. Payen, human milk is sensibly alkaline, a quality which is due to soda ; this fact is borne out by numerous analyses, and accords with general opinion. Many physiologists, founding their observation on microscopic examination, account for the formation of butter by churning, by declaring that the globules of butter are contained in thin membranes, which are broken by the mechanical action so as to place the butter at liberty. This theory M. Dubrunfaut sets down as unfounded. If, he says, any neutral fatty body taken in the fluid state be submitted to the pro¬ cess of emulsion in slightly alkaline water, analogous to the serum of fresh milk, globules are obtained which under the microscope have the aspect and varied dimensions of those of butter. This fact is still more evident when the alkaline quality of the serum is increased, that is to say, when the emulsion is effected in water which contains from 50 to 6° alkalametric of soda crystal per litre. In these conditions the fatty matter which has been submitted to emulsion behaves like milk, the cream being separated by repose. The saturation of the alkali restores to the fatty body after emul¬ sion the property of rising and collecting above the serum in the form of oily liquid. If it be borne in mind that by churning the serum contracts a very sensible acidity, due unquestionably to the commencement of lactic fermentation which developes itself so rapidly in buttermilk, the inutility of the membrane theory will be evident. Moreover, if the globules were covered with membranes,
2 4
The Food Journal .
[Feb. i, 1872&.
they ought, like organised cells or tissues, to exhibit the phenomena of double refraction, which they do not. Finally, M. Dubrunfaut proposes to ascertain by experiment whether, according to the views of MM. Hopp and Muller, butter is produced in the milk after it has been drawn from the animal.
From these theoretical considerations M. Dubrunfaut has been led to the preparation of an artificial milk, which the Academy pro¬ nounced worthy of consideration. The production of artificial, milk is a highly useful operation, and M. Dubrunfaut seems to have solved the problem by making use only of elements which exist in large quantities in Paris. The whole theory depends on the emulsion of a fatty body in an alkaline serum, offering a like, if not identical, constitution to that of milk.
The following is his recipe : — Dissolve in half a litre of water 40 to 50 grammes of saccharine matter (lactine, cane sugar, or glucose), 20 to 30 grammes of dry albumen (desiccated white of egg, as sold ordinarily in Paris), 1 to 2 grammes of crystals of soda. With this mixture make an emulsion with 50 to 60 grammes of olive oil or other comestible fatty matter. The emulsion succeeds better warm than cold ; a temperature of 510 to 6o° Centigrade is •sufficient for the purpose. The milky liquid thus produced has the consistency of cream, and assumes the aspect of milk when added to an equal volume of water. M. Dubrunfaut also recommends the use of an alimentary cream richer than the preceding in fatty matter, which is produced by substituting gelatine for the albumen in the above receipt. 100 grammes of the emulsion of fatty matter may also be introduced into a litre of serum containing not more than 2 to 3 grammes of gelatine. The substitution of the last named substance for albumen offers no inconvenience, as the recent communications of MM. Dumas, Fremy, and Chevreul have established the fact that gelatine is an alimentary substance.
It should be remarked that many French chemists support the theory of the globules and membranes discarded by M. Dubrunfaut.
M. Thierry Mieg also communicated to the Academy a formula for the preparation of a fitting food for infants. He adopts the theory of Liebig, and recommends the use not only of malt and feculse, but of cocoa, butter, and extractum ccirnis , all reduced to an impalpable powder, to be mixed with cold water and afterwards boiled ; the proportion of water is about ten times that of the powder, by weight.
M. A. C. Gaudin, with reference to the communication of M. Dubrunfaut, announced to the Academy, that fifteen years ago, having at his disposition a bakehouse, furnaces, and steam, as-
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
25
means of studying the preparation of food, he succeeded, in con¬ currence with M. Choumara, by means of emulsion under high pressure steam, in converting soup, or bouillon de viande , made principally with bones rich in grease and gelatine, into milk. Re¬ cently, having been employed in the disinfection of bone grease of a very disagreeable nature, in order to render it comestible, he discovered, at the same time as M. Dubrunfaut, that, with the aid of steam, all bad odours could be removed, so that chocolate mixed with bone grease thus purified did not possess the slightest disagreeable taste. In the face of these results, his attention was again turned to the production of artificial milk, by adding to the purified grease gelatine equally fit for alimentary purposes. With the aid of the apparatus and utensils employed in Paris, 500,000 litres of this artificial milk might, he says, be produced daily, which would be a great boon at moments of scarcity of certain provisions.
“This artificial milk,” says M. Gaudin, “assimilates very nearly to that of the cow ; when kept, it emits an odour that can scarcely be distinguished from that of sour milk and cheese. In the com¬ position the caseine is represented by gelatine, the butter by grease, and the sugar of milk by ordinary sugar. It is suitable for the pre¬ paration of cafe au lait or chocolate, bread and milk, and creams of excellent flavour, and the cost of it is trifling.”
G. W. Yapp.
According to Dr. Graham Balfour, Deputy Inspector-General of Army Hospitals, the sickness in the navy between 1859 and 1868 was about one-fifth greater than that of the army, while the deaths from all causes were 48 per 1,000 higher ; and this excess is partly attributed to the fact that there are a very much larger number of boys in the army, at which period of life mortality is at its lowest. Sailors suffer much more than soldiers do from dyspepsia in the proportion of 37 per 1,000 to 13 per 1,000, and this probably arises from the difficulty so frequently experienced in getting a sufficient quantity of fresh provisions. Tubercular disease prevails more amongst the red coats than the blue jackets, but, on the other hand, the latter are very much more addicted to deliriurn tremens and epilepsy ; we fear that Jack is still too fond of his grog.
3,6
The Food Journal .
[Feb. i, 1872.
MANCHESTER FOOD MARKETS.
No. 1.
The wholesale fruit and vegetable market in Manchester is, without doubt, the largest in the United Kingdom, and probably the weight of farm and garden produce brought into it is not exceeded else¬ where. This statement will not surprise those persons who are aware that Manchester, with a radius of forty miles, has a larger population than the metropolis and a similar radius. Manchester, including Salford, has a population of nearly half a million souls, and as each of these souls have a body to support, the market in question is pretty sure of customers. But it is not the home cus¬ tomer alone who supports it. Many populous towns within the radius mentioned are almost exclusively supplied from it, and many shopkeepers from some of the large Yorkshire towns, even beyond the radius, come to it for their spring supplies. Manchester is the centre of an enormous number of consumers of fruit and vegetables ; but such things are produced but on one, the Cheshire, side of it, and it is this peculiarity which has made it the wonderful mart which it has become for business. The westerly, its productive side, is continually pouring in vast supplies from its rich and well-tilled soil, but our market draws its supplies from almost every corner of the globe.
It has flowering brocoli, early potatoes, and radishes from Corn¬ wall and the Scilly Isles ; cabbages, cabbage plants, peas, potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, apricots, peaches, apples, pears and plums, from Lincolnshire, Notts, and Northamptonshire; damsons from Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Shropshire, and North Wales; cauliflowers, cabbages, savoys, brocoli, peas and potatoes from distant parts of Yorkshire; early radishes and peas, as well as all kinds of fruit, from Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and Gloucester¬ shire, whilst two or three trains, arriving every night, bring the better sorts of fruits, vegetables, and herbs from the London markets, or direct from the southern growers. We must not omit to notice also the almost incredible quantities of onions and cucumbers sent to Manchester from Bedfordshire.
Lancashire, itself, may fairly claim the credit of growing three articles to perfection — namely, potatoes — in our opinion there is no potato grown so good as the Ormsldrk kemp — red cabbages, and
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
27
celery. The wholesale price here of red cabbages of fair size, at the present time, is 2s. per dozen; and of fine red, or “Lady white” celery, is. 3^. to i*. 6 d. per dozen. The fluke potato was brought out by a Lancashire man, John Turner, a weaver, of Middleton. Lancashire, also, has the honour to be the first English county in which the potato was ever grown.
From Ireland we get cauliflowers, brocoli, cabbages and cabbage-plants, gooseberries, and mushrooms ; from Scotland, large quantities of very excellent potatoes, grown from the York Regent sets. Of foreign produce there is poured into this emporium — chiefly from the port of Liverpool, a little over thirty miles away — oranges from Oporto, Lisbon, Valencia, Messina (also lemons), St. Michael’s, Seville (bitter, sour and sweet), Tangiers, Figuerina, and Carthagena ; onions, chestnuts, and nuts from Spain and Portugal ; nuts, chestnuts, and walnuts, and many kinds of soft fruit from France; figs from Greece and Turkey; pineapples from Algeria and the West India Islands ; cranberries from Russia ; cocoanuts from Pernambuco and Honduras ; onions, cucumbers, potatoes, currants, cherries, and whortleberries from Antwerp and Rotterdam ; and the celebrated Newtown pippins from Boston and other American ports.
For the accommodation of these vast supplies a large space of market ground is required. This Manchester possesses ; for, in¬ dependently of many thousand yards of open space, it has an area measuring 11,441 square yards, which is entirely covered — its streets, avenues, and all, with one unbroken roof, lofty, airy, and flight, and open to the uncovered market on three of its sides.
Some idea of the business done here may be gathered from the fact that an official return shows that during one week this summer, from the 31st of July to the 5th of August, there were delivered into the market 38,593 hampers of potatoes of 126 lbs. ; 10,447 s^cks of peas of 12 pecks, and 146 cartloads of cabbages.
Although it is the commoner kinds of vegetables, such as the
<•
last mentioned, which form the staple of the market, it must not be supposed that there is no traffic in the finer sorts, such as find their way to the tables of the wealthy. Would the reader “ be surprised to hear” that the whole of the pines for the Lord Mayor’s banquet, both this year and last, were not only supplied from the Manchester market, but grown within four miles of it ? Whether or not, it is a fact.
The markets and manorial rights were purchased by the Corpora¬ tion of the city from the late Sir Oswald Mosley, in 1846, for* 200,000/. The markets have all been, or are about to be, much
28
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872..
enlarged and improved. The one more particularly under notice was, at the time of the purchase, entirely uncovered, and only a third of its present size. The amount received as tolls for the first year (1846-7) was 5,907/. 2 s. 8 d.; the amount received for the last year was 23,602/. os. 9 \d. The total amount received the first year from all sources, rent of shops, quarterly stalls, etc., etc., was 10,345/. 4^. 4 d. The amount received by the department from all sources in the year last ended was 35,092 /. 9 s. 10 show¬ ing an increase of 24,747 /. 5s. 6 \d.
The staff of officials required to work the concern consists of a superintendent, who has the supervision of the whole business of the department, five collectors, five assistant collectors, with two extra during the summer months, a meat inspector and an assistant, four weighing machine clerks, two office clerks, six market con¬ stables and an inspector, a gasfitter, a carpenter, and a lamp-cleaner. There are also attached to the markets 400 licensed porters, who are supplied with a numbered brass badge to wear on the left arm when on duty, and a printed copy of the bye-laws of the markets for reference.
The' quantity of whortleberries, or whinberries (called here whzmberhes) sent to this market from Rotterdam and Antwerp, is such as would make a Covent Garden salesman wonder. A few seasons ago one salesman here had 1,500 packages of them in one day, and they were almost given away. The consequence was there was scarcely a factory worker throughout the district on the following Sunday who was not black in the mouth. In plentiful seasons a considerable quantity of this wild fruit is sent also from North Wales, and, arriving fresher and in better condition than the foreign, brings a better price. It is also astonishing to see the quantity of pot-herbs disposed of here. The industrious workers in these northern counties are very fond of broth, with plenty of herbs in it, and so it comes about that there are more pot-herbs sold in the Manchester market in one month than in Covent Garden in twelve.
Twenty-five years ago the only water-cresses to be seen in this market were brought to it on the backs of the peripatetic rustics, who sought out, and gathered them in the Cheshire brooks. Now, from early spring until past midsummer, hundreds of baskets of the fine-grown, clean and cultivated cress arrive every morning from London, and is sold at a price which has sent those who formerly were wont —
“ for bread,
To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread ”
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
29
— to seek in fresh fields, and pastures new, for the roots of the dandelion and other plants for the medical herb stalls.
If a Londoner were to take a stroll round this market early on a summer’s morning, say, about three or four o’clock, when the country buyers are making their purchases, he would be sorely puzzled to make out what they were talking about. There are various dialects used peculiar to the district of the speaker. Some of the salesmen know, the moment their customer speaks, wrhat part of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, or North Derby¬ shire, he hails from.
“What art axin’ for the praters this morn?” asks one. The question is probably put to a Cheshire farmer, from Delamere Forest, who answers, “ I’ll not tak less than fifteen shillin ter dee when he gets for a rejoinder, “ Fifteen shillinck ! tha ’ll be fain ter tay less fore tha gooz whome t’ neet.” The next would-be cus¬ tomer will probably ask the price of “ potterters.” Another, how “ taties are goin’P” and so on. Our cockney visitor might also wonder at the command that the people have here of their anatomy, if he heard, as we have before now, in answer to the question put, perhaps, to a burly farmer or gardener, “ Flast got any kidneys ?” “No ; but I shall have some to-morrow.”
He would not fail, however, to find a plentiful sprinkling of “the brogue ” in the confusion of tongues around. Many of the hucksters, and about three-fourths of the porters, first saw the light in that land where there are no snakes. We remember hearing a rich bull here some years ago, when “ spud fruit ” were dear. A huckster, evidently fresh from the shamrock shore, asked a farmer the price of his “praters.” “A pound a load” (252 lbs.), was the reply. “ Och, murther ! ” says Paddy, “ why thin, I’ve seen the time I could buy ’em in Drogheda for nothin’, an tak ’em to Dublin an’ sill ’em for twice as much ! ” and he walked away evidently lamenting the decline of such prosperous times.
On the south-easterly side of the market a variety of articles are sold, including dried fish, eggs, butter, cheese, etc., etc., and also many things which are not food, although almost as necessary, such as ready-made clothing, drapery, goods, etc. ; and there is an excellent earthenware market attached. Stalls, also, for the sale of jewellery, toys, combs, cutlery, hardware, tinware, books, and trinkets of every description, are allowed to be placed on the ground vacated by the market gardeners at noon. All these, how¬ ever, are being gradually cleared away as the necessity arises for increased space for the legitimate merchandise of the market.
J. P.
30
The Food Journal .
[Feb. i, 1872-.
SALT.— No. 11.
Having previously treated of the preparation, qualities, properties, and uses of salt, I proceed finally to notice some ancient and modern customs, observances, and popular superstitions connected with this invaluable product of nature.
Salt, from the remotest period, has been employed in sacrificial rites': a circumstance which invests it with more or less of a sacred
k-'
character. According to the Mosaic ordinances salt was required to be sprinkled on all flesh offered in sacrifice, and hence it was designated “ the salt of the covenant.” Among the Greeks and Romans salt was not only employed as an indispensable adjunct of their bloody sacrifices, but was itself offered as a propitiation when no animals were slain. Thus in the Ferialia, or offerings to the Dii Manes — designedjto redeem from the vengeance of the Stygian or infernal deities — the Romans simply used salt, mixed with a small portion of flour : —
Parva petunt Manes, Pietas pro divite grata est Munerej non avidos Styx habet una Deos,
Tegula porrectis satis est velata Coronis,
Et parcae fruges, parvaque Mica Salis.
In the Lemuria — another festival to the same Dii Manes — beans were substituted instead, the celebrant repeating these words : —
His inquit, redimo, meque, meosque fabis.*
Salt was likewise mixed with the sacrificial cakes used by the Greeks and Romans. It became an indispensable concomitant of their lustrations, which, says Tennant, “ gave rise in after times to the superstition of holy water.” Much reverence was consequently attached to it, and great was the veneration in which it was held both by priests and people.
Selden observes of salt that it “ was used in all sacrifices by express command of the true God ; the salt of the covenant in Holy Writ ; the religion of the salt, set first, and last taken away, as a symbol of perpetual friendship ; that in Homer the phrase is used ‘ he sprinkled it with divine salt.’ In the title of agnites , the cleanser, given it by Lycophron, you shall see apparent and apt testimony of its having had a most respected and divinely honoured name.”f
* And with these beans I me and mine redeem, f Notes on the Polyolbion, Song xi.
Feb. x, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
3*
For several centuries salt has been used in the services of the Latin Church ; in the performance of baptism, no less than in the conse¬ cration of holy water. In the former instance the “ parva mica” is taken from a gold or silver box and deposited in the child’s mouth, the priest observing the while, “ Receive the salt of wisdom, and may it be a propitiation to thee for eternal life.”
In a symbolical and metaphorical sense salt is frequently used by profane and sacred writers. At a very remote period it was regarded as an emblem of extreme sterility, while kings and conquerors like Abimelech, after the sacking of a city, have scattered salt over it A' Grounds have also been sown with salt to render them barren.f In the prophetic denunciation against Moab, “ Salt-pits and a perpetual desolation” form one of the curses uttered against that land.J During the December of 1596 a popular tumult occurred in Edinburgh. On the 1st January following, what are described as ferocious brigands thronged the thoroughfares, gloating over the fell prospect before them, and ready when the sovereign (King James) gave the word to “sack, raze, and plough the capital, and sow it with salt.” §
Some eminent writers of antiquity touch disparagingly upon what they term salt soils. Virgil, for example, reprobates a salt soil as occasioning the deterioration of fruit trees, and as one admitting of no amelioration even from the plough. Pliny considers every place in which salt is discovered as destructive to vegetation. Modern science, however, has set these questions at rest, as it demonstrates the futility, not to say absurdity, of such opinions, no matter from how high a source they emanate. The water of salt springs, sea sand, and even refuse salt, is now frequently and advantageously employed as manure in this and other countries. Indeed, ever since the time of Henry I. salt has been used as an artificial stimulant to the earth, especially on the Cornish coast, and with marked advantage. Naturally, in such cases, it needs to be dispensed with careful discrimination; for if not judiciously applied it would become more injurious than beneficial ; nay, prove a potent poison to vegetables. The Egyptians, apparently, had such an abhorrence of salt that, according to Plutarch, they re¬ garded it as the spittle or foam of the giant Typhon, the dreaded enemy of their cherished divinities.
Salt has long been regarded as emblematic of wit, wisdom, and intelligence. Hence the “ Attic salt” and the ceremony of
* Vide Judges ix. 45. f Deut. xxix. 23. J Zeplianiah ii. 9.
§ Woodrow’s Life of Bruce, prefixed to Bruce’s Sermons. Edin. 1843.
32
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872.
“ Depositio,” among the scholars of Strasburg University, so late as two centuries ago. Thus observes one of the professors of that famous seat of learning : “ With regard to the ceremony of salt, the sentiments and opinions, both of divines and philosophers, concur in making salt the emblem of wisdom or learning.”* Eternity and immortality have likewise been symbolised by it. “The devil,” quaintly remarks an old divine, “ loveth no salt in his meat, for that is a sign of eternity.” f Salt has also been regarded as typical of hospitality and fidelity. The partaking of bread a.nd salt has from time immemorial been used as a form of oath. “The “ Covenant of salt” has not alone been confined to the Jews. It is still adopted by the Arabs, and was even practised in England as late as the sixteenth century. Accordingly, Decker the dramatist makes one of his characters say : —
He tooke bread and salt by this light, that he would Never open his lips.
Some of the Tartar tribes are wont, when they set out on a journey, to carry a portion of salt in a tiny bag attached to their saddle, as a solace for themselves and as an offering and pledge of friendship to those they may encounter on their way. The Musco¬ vites considered that a prince could not manifest a stronger mark of affection than by sending salt from his own table to his friends ; while Pennant asserts that “ a tune called Gosteg yr Halen, or the prelude of the salt, was invariably played whenever the salt cellar was placed before King Edward’s knights at his Round Table.”J In England important festivals were formerly held in honour of salt. Every Ascension Day the old inhabitants of Nantwich made great rejoicings with this object, when hymns of thanksgiving w^ere sung for “the blessing of the brine.” On these occasions one particular brine pit, held in especial veneration, was bedecked with boughs of trees and garlands of flowers, around which lads and lasses indulged in the reveries of song and dance. The triennial ceremony at Eton, called Montem , held on Whit-Tuesday, was, however, the most remarkable. Salt-bearers and scouts, attired in motley-coloured but expensive silk costumes, preceded the Etonian procession, and collected the usual contributions in money. Each person carried salt in a handkerchief, from which the passing traveller had to take a pinch ere he paid his dues. Now and again these scouts extended their pleasantries beyond all legitimate
* Dyas Orationum de Ritu Depositionis.
f Reginald Scot’s (citing Boden) Discourse upon Angels and Devils.
+ Tour of Wales.
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
33
limits, for upon encountering any boorish rustic who wanted any¬ thing in return for the trifle he had bestowed, they would directly fill his mouth with salt, to the infinite merriment of the spectators. When the procession reached Salt Hill the Etonians solemnly paraded round its base, when a religious ceremony was performed by a priest. Large offerings of money were then collected, which became the property of the “captain” or “ senior of the collegers,” at the time. The presence of royalty frequently graced the Montern , thereby giving prestige to, and enhancing the value of, that
Long-famed triennial fete.
On Whit-Tuesday, 1790, according to authoritative records, five hundred pounds were collected at the festival, their majesties sub¬ scribing fifty guineas each. The Montern is said to have originated with the monks for the purpose of raising contributions by the sale of salt. From the profits on this commodity Salt Hill and other valuable lands became the property of the college.
The superstitious observances with regard to salt are numerous, some of which obtain, at the present day, even among ourselves. Formerly no person would engage in any important undertaking, or remove from one house to another, without previously putting salt in his pockets. The very mendicant in the streets was independent enough to scornfully refuse charity if it were not courteously pre¬ faced by an offering of salt. In certain parishes of Scotland the farmers were accustomed to place salt in the first milk a cow had after calving, when proffered to any body to drink, in order to prevent “ skaith ” (harm), should the individual happen not to be “ canny.” In Ireland it was customary for women and girls to sprinkle salt, mixed with flour, upon all persons when appointed to public offices ; and before seed was sown in the ground the mistress of the household invariably scattered salt over it. The practice of laying a plate of salt on a dead body widely prevailed in the United Kingdom, and, indeed, is not yet ^extinct. This I have myself observed.
Two young ladies of my acquaintance, who certainly are not superstitious in other respects, informed me on the morning of New Year’s Day, that about a quarter to twelve the previous night they placed a portion of salt and bread crumbs upon the window sill, and then took a stroll up and down the street in which they reside. Upon their return, just at midnight, they at once removed the salt and bread into their chamber. Having inquired what motive they had for performing so silly an act, I was met with the pithy rejoinder, “ Because it is lucky!”
The spilling of salt, or the over-turning of the salt-cellar has,
d
34
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872.
from the earliest times, been regarded with the most superstitious dread, either as presaging some impending calamity to the unlucky individual himself, or as a sure^sign of some fell casualty about to happen to the family : —
Salinum in mensa evertatur — omniosum est.
Such ill-luck is considered to be partially or wholly averted by throwing a little of the fallen salt over the shoulder into the fire : —
Mollivit aversus Penates,
Farre pio, saliente mica.
Sometimes, however, wine poured on the lap was used as an incantation, and was regarded as infallible. Nathaniel Home enumerates, among bad omens, the falling of salt towards a person seated at table. He observes, “ How common it is for people to account it a sign of ill-luck to have the salt-cellar to be overturned, the salt falling towards them.”* And Bishop Hall, speaking of the superstitious man, remarks, “ If the salt fall towards him he looks pale and red, and is not quiet till one of the waiters have poured wine on his lappe.”f
A rare old English ballad professes to explain the cause of this unluckly omen : —
We’ll tell you the reason Why spilling of salt Is esteemed such a fault,
Because it doth everything season.
Th’ antiques did opine,
’Twas of friendship a sign,
So serv’d it to guests in decorum,
And thought love decay’d,
When the negligent maid
Let the salt-cellar tumble before them.
Of all nationalities possibly the Germans have the greatest abhorrence of spilling salt. This peculiarity might be regarded partially as a religious superstition. Leonardo da Vinci, in his grand masterpiece, “The Last Supper,” represents Judas as having overturned the salt-cellar ; perhaps, to signify, as has been plausibly suggested, the reluctance of Iscariot to share salt with one against whom violence was intended. It is somewhat remarkable to find old scholars and divines like Dr. Horne and Bishop Hall avowedly favouring such popular superstitions. Even at this day it is re¬ garded by many persons, who ought- to know better, as unlucky to help another to salt. Hence the apophthegm, “ If you help me to salt, you help me to sorrow.” S. Phillips Day.
* Daemonology.
f Characters of Vertues and Vices.
Fk!I. I, 1872.]
35
The Food Journal
1
MARKETS OF THE MONTH.
Taking a retrospective view of the past year, in almost every department of the food trade, prices have experienced a decided rise since 1870. In many branches of provisions the rise has been considerable, and though we have the advantage of bread being tolerably cheap, still, in consequence of the increased price of most things, the poorer classes will find it harder to make both ends meet in the winter of 1871-72, than in the winter of 1870-71. Wages may be quoted almost universally higher, perhaps ; but it is rarely that the rise in price of wages is of sufficient extent to counterbalance the increased cost of living, when it is augmented by an almost uniform rise in the price of every necessary of life, as has been the case during the past twelve months. The value of wool has risen 30 or 40 per cent, during the past year. There has been a gradual rise, too, in the price of sugar during the latter part of the year, which rise has been maintained, and the market is still firm. Prices in the coffee market also are higher, and tea is reported as firm at former quotations. The cotton market has lately shown great activity, and an advance on most grades > has been established, in consequence of a belief that the American crop would prove to be under three and a-half million bales. There has also, during the past year, been a rise of from 1 /. to 2/. per ton in the price of iron, and there has been a considerable advance in the price of most metals since 1870.
The flour market, with the exception of occasional slight fluc¬ tuations; has been firm. The meat market has during the past two months exhibited a downward tendency, and prices — retail prices even — have ruled in favour of buyers. Still meat is very dear ; the marbled sirloins, with the lean beautifully streaked with fat, a sight which epicures love to behold, command higher prices than they did last year. Eggs lately were at their dearest : they have rapidly fallen, and will fall to 8s. or gs. per hundred ; which price they will maintain until after Shrovetide. Butter and bacon and hams remain unchanged at prices which may favourably com¬ pare with last year’s quotations. The fish market at this season does not command so much attention as the others, the only feature worthy of notice being that Norway salmon entered an appearance about
d 2
36
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872^
Christmas-time at from 4 to 5.?. per lb., and that lobsters have lately been unusually scarce, fetching 4^. to 6x. each.
The poultry market is the chief attraction at Christmas, where the monster turkey is the admired of all admirers, and hangs in lordly majesty above regiments of geese enveloped in luscious yellow fat. Ducks such as are only seen at Christmas-time appear in battalions, and capons in companies. It is difficult to state the prices obtained, as everything depended upon con¬ dition. Large turkeys, if fat and well-conditioned, were sold for is. 6 d. per lb., and geese ranged from 8s. to 12 s. each ; ducks from 3s. to 5 s. each ; and fowls, pullets, and capons are dearer than they were before Christmas. Pheasants, “ the jewelled exotics of our woods,” are worth 4^. each ; partridges, young birds, zs. 6 d. grouse are out of the reckoning now ; woodcocks, 4.S. ; snipes, 1,?. 6 d. ; plovers, is. to is. 6 d. ; hares, 4 s. ; wild ducks, zs. 6 d. to 3 s. 6 d. ; in fact, everything in the game and poultry way is dearer than it was. It is always so at Christmas-time, and for a certain period afterwards. Prices, however, are no higher than they were last year. Oranges have been in much demand, and also nuts : best St. Michael's, 19^. 6 d. to 22 s. 6 d. per box ; Valencias, from 14,?. to I'-js. 6 d. per case; Palermo, from 7s. to 8s. 6 d. per box. Messina lemons, from i8j. to 30s. per case; Malaga, from 35 s. to 40.?. per case, or 9^. per hundred; Barcelona nuts, i6j. per bushel; Spanish, 14^-.; Brazils, izs. to 18 s. ; chesnuts, 7s. to ioj. ; walnuts, 14s. to to 22 s. ; almonds, 20.?. ; Lapucai nuts, is. zd. per lb. ; Kent cobs, 9 d. per lb. ; cocoanuts, from 4 d. to 8d. each. Almeria grapes, is. 6 d. per lb. ; hothouse grapes, 5^. to 6^.; muscats, 7 s. to 8s. per lb. ; English pines, 7s. to 8j. per lb. ; Tangerein and Mandarin oranges, 8^. to ioj-. per hundred. Apples, as I anticipated, are much dearer : good cooking, iij. to 13^. per bushel. Muscatel raisins, from 4/. 10^. to 5/. per cwt.; Jordan almonds, from is. zd. to zs. zd. per lb. ; figs, eleme, layers, from 48 j. to 75 s. per cwt. ; dates, Tafilat, 9 d. per lb. ; French plums in bottles from 33*. to icxt. 6 d. according to size and brand.
Forced vegetables, too, are now in market. Imitation new potatoes, 5 d. per lb.; sea kale, from is. 6 d. to 3s. per bundle; aspara¬ gus, 9^. to io^-. per bundle; cucumbers from zs. to 3s. each, but naturally very small. Cauliflowers are dear ; fair sized ones, 3d. to 4 d. each. French lettuce and endive and forced rhubarb are also to be purchased in Covent Garden. Potatoes are slightly dearer, first-class qualities fetching 6/. to 61. 10s. per ton. Coals are dearer than they were last year ; best coal has gone up in 1871 to the extent of from 4«r. 6 d. to 5^. 6 d., and inferior kinds from 4^. 3 d..
1?EB. I, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
to 5^. 9 d. per ton. All the leading manufacturers of earthenware have found it necessary lately to raise their prices all round. This,, we may, I think, attribute to the “ Nine hours movement.” All things, are undoubtedly, generally speaking, dearer than they were this time last year.
January 1 2th, 1872. P. L. H.
CORRESPONDENCE.
SOUP.
To the Editor of the “ Food Journal.”
Sir, — In your Journal of the 1st inst. we notice an article on soup, containing statements which are not correct. Your correspondent, “ A Cook,” states that tinned soups are not artistically prepared, and consequently are seldom experi¬ mented upon more than once. Had “ A Cook ” studied his subject, he must have been aware that there is a constantly increasing demand, both at home and abroad, for preserved soup, and that the best tinned soup cannot be distinguished from that made at home on the most approved method. “ A Cook ” might also- find that preparing a first-class soup, as he 'proposes, is not the very profitable business he would appear to anticipate.
When the public wishes a first-class article of any kind, it can generally be obtained by paying a fair price. Cheap soups in tins, like other cheap goods,, are found dearest and least satisfactory in the end. M.
Aberdeen, 10th January, 1872.
How to Cook Vegetables. — It is often observed that a meal from vegetables is not satisfying. I have found it frequently happen that the persons who thus objected did not know even how to boil a vegetable. The rule is simple, and should never be forgotten. Eveiy kind of vegetable intended to be served whole should, when put to boil, be placed at once in boiling water ; and this applies especially to potatoes and vegetables from which the outer cover has been re¬ moved. Now it often happens that potatoes, etc., are, to save time, placed in cold water, and left to boil gradually. It is just this which allows the nutritious matter to escape, and renders the meal unsatisfying. When, on the contrary, the water boils from the moment that the vegetable is immersed in it, the albumen is partially coagulated near the surface, and serves to retain the virtue of the vege¬ table. The reverse is, of course, the rule for making soup, or any dish from which the water will not be drained. By placing the vegetables in cold water the albumen is slowly dissolved, and actually mixes with the water — a process most necessary for the production of nutritious soup. — The Farmer.
38
The Food Journal.
[Feu. i, 1872..
DOMESTIC RECIPES.
The Editor desires to appeal to his readers , and especially to the ladies , for contributions of recipes for cheap , tasty, and serviceable dishes , both for poor households and those of the higher classes.
MOCK VENISON OF CORNED BEEF.
Cut the beef in thin slices, and freshen it by soaking for three or four hours in tepid water. When sufficiently fresh, lay the slices on a gridiron, and heat through quickly. Make a gravy of drawn butter ; add a little peppef, and the yolk of an egg chopped fine, and pour over the meat ; or butter, pepper, and salt may be used, like beefsteak. This will be found a savoury dish when only salt meat can be procured, but it is better with fresh beef.
FISH CAKE.
Take the remains of any cold fish, 1 onion, 1 faggot of sweet herbs ; salt and pepper to taste, 1 pint of water, equal quantities of bread crumbs and cold potatoes, \ teaspoonful of parsley, 1 egg, and bread crumbs. Pick the meat from the bones of the fish, which latter put, with the head and fins, into a stewpan with the water ; add pepper and salt, the onion and herbs, and stew slowly for gravy for about two hours ; chop the fish fine, and mix it well with bread crumbs and cold potatoes, adding the parsley and seasoning ; make the whole into a cake with the white of an egg, brush it over with an egg, cover with bread crumbs, and fry of a light brown ; strain the gravy, pour it over, and stew gently for fifteen minutes, stirring it carefully once or twice. Serve hot, and garnish with slices of lemon and parsley.
SCOTCH EGGS.
Boil 4 or 5 eggs hard, take only the shells off, and roll them completely up in a fine relishing forcemeat, in which scraped ham or chopped anchovies have a due proportion. Fry them a slight brown, and serve with a good gravy in the dish.
ALMOND PUDDING.
Pound ^ lb. of sweet almonds fine, mix them with 2 ozs. of butter melted in ■| pint of good milk or cream, 2 ozs. loaf sugar pounded, ^ glass of white wine, the yolks of 2 eggs and white of 1, with i a spoonful of flour. Mix all well to¬ gether and boil in a mould, well buttered or floured, for 23 minutes.
TO DRESS MACARONI.
Boil it until it is tender, and do not use too much. Strain it off, and put to- it grated cheese, pepper, and a little cream. Boil them all together, until the cheese is stewed quite soft, then put it on a dish and brown it.
Feb. i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
39
NOTES OF THE MONTH.
The Neapolitan journals state that 550,000 kilogrammes of capitone were im¬ ported into Naples during the Christmas week. The capitone is a large, greasy, and most repulsive looking eel, brought principally from Comacchio, not far from the Adriatic. The lagoon in which it is situate is 140 miles in circumference, and here is carried on an extensive pisciculture, from which about a million of pounds of capitone are taken annually for the supply of our Christmas tables. What the baron of beef or the boar’s head is to the Englishman, the capitone is to the Italian. It is more than a luxury, it is a positive necessity ; even the poorest man must have it at all costs, and they are not trifling at times. For many years there has not been so large a quantity imported into Naples as this year, and possibly this fact may account for the great tranquillity which has prevailed, for in its presence all party passions are stilled, and, as one of our journals observes, men of the extreme Right and extreme Left will readily clasp hands over this dish. — Times.
We have received from Prof. Gulliver, F.R.S., the hon. secretary of the East Kent Natural History Society, a most interesting account of a recent meeting of that society, in which some very valuable information was given on certain fishes which are but little known and cared for. As the proceedings of the whole evening would take up too much of our columns, we select (from the Kentish Gazette) the remarks which were made on the edible sharks, or what are known as “Canterbury gurnets”: — “Risso, the ichthyologist of Nice, says that the por- "beagle is good eating, and thus much used and esteemed by the people of the Mediterranean. Some of the smaller members of the shark family afford an almost constant and very bountiful supply of valuable food to the poor people of the Shetlands and Hebrides and other parts, and at Canterbury may occasionally be seen loads of skinned fresh fish, each about 18 in. long and 2 in. thick. They are commonly brought up Northgate into the city, where they are sold, under the fictitious name of ‘gurnets,’ as cheap food, which is said to be agreeable and wholesome. They belong to a small species of shark, known at Hastings as Robin Hursts, elsewhere as rough Hounds, and to naturalists as the small spotted Dog-fish — Scyllium canicula. At Canterbury these fish always arrive decapi¬ tated, gutted, and skinned, probably to conceal what they really are, and to serve the cabinet-makers, who are said to use the skins to smooth down or polish the surface of their work. This fish, under the name of morghi , is commonly used in the west of Cornwall for soup, which is much liked by the natives. The Picked Dog-fish or Hoe ( Spinax acanthias ), so abundant as to be contemptuously rejected on the Sussex coast, is considered valuable as diet in the Scottish islands, where these fish are dried for this use, and a large and profitable quantity of oil obtained from their livers ; and in the west of England the same fish is used and much valued as excellent aliment, both , fresh and salted, by the fishermen and others. The smooth-hooped or skate-toothed Shark ( Mustela Icevis ), a fish about a yard long, is esteemed as delicate food in the Hebrides. And indeed, when we con¬ sider the constant abundance of food and oil for man offered by the small sharks, it seems lamentable that they are so much despised and wasted on most parts of our coasts.”
40
The Food Journal.
[Feb. i, 1872.
NOTICES OF BOOKS.
“The Garden.” Edited by William Robinson. — We congratulate the lovers of horticultural literature (and their numbers increase rapidly) on the accession of this new periodical, which will go far to induce a real taste for gardening in many who have hitherto not been impressed with its charms. The illustrations are admirable, and have a piquancy and individuality which are sure to meet with great favour. Mr. Robinson aims, we are glad to see, at bringing gardens to us in our cities, and enabling everybody, however humble, to cultivate a few flowers at an expense and trouble which are merely nominal when compared with the exceeding pleasure and good to be derived from them. When we see what is done in Paris and other cities, we may hope that London will soon be brightened up a little more, and even Leicester Square be raised by the magic aid of flowers and shrubs to a respectability amongst squares which it has hitherto never attained.
“ Free Trade in Sugar.” By J. B. Smith, Esq., M.P. — In this little pamphlet Mr. Smith hits the Customs Department hard, and especially that part of it which is engaged in sampling the sugars. It is singular that, amidst all the reformations that have been introduced as regards general duties, sugar is the only article on which classified duties are levied in this country. The Customs profess to levy the duty on the quantity of extractable crystallisable saccharine matter which it contains, and which, they say, can be ascertained by its colour. Mr. Smith shows the utter delusion of this standard, and tells us that the revenue has suffered, in two years, the loss of 446,374/., in addition to the costly expendi¬ ture of collecting the duties by this system. The only object of its continuance appears to be for the benefit of the piece makers, without whom the British con¬ sumer would be far better off, as they simply force spoilt sugars into the market to fill their own pockets, and in this unfair monopoly they are upheld by the present laws.
“Report of the Sanitary Committee of the Commissioners of Sewers on Spurious Tea.” — After having perused this brief epitome of the proceedings which the Commissioners instituted against the importers of rotten tea, we scarcely know which feeling is uppermost in our minds, admiration at the ingenuity with which our laws have been framed, so as to give the least possible protection to the public and the greatest possible latitude to thieves and adultera¬ tors, or hopelessness at the apparent impossibility of ever effecting a reform. The minister who attempts it will have an Augsean task before him ; and he will have to commence it with an amount of determination which, we fear, does not belong to the present legislature. One of the most surprising things is that, in the face of official statements, such as are contained in this pamphlet, a new periodical has actually ventured to question whether there really is adulteration of our articles of consumption, or whether it is a canard , invented simply to create a sensation.
4i
THE
FOOD JOURNAL.
SCHOOLING IN ITS BEARING ON HOUSEHOLD
WORK.
Household economy depends not only on great things, but concerns itself with all kinds of odds and ends — with the scraps that may be made serviceable inside the house and outside the house, with all the many and sundry uses of which every object is capable during its working life, and in every part of it. As a cocoa palm can be turned to all kinds of use in a tropical hamlet, so every joint of meat that comes into a house has a long story of rightful service ; but unfortunately it is not always the moral uses, which are looked after and turned to profit by the good housewife, as those of material objects. Her dripping is worked up in the house in pleasant shapes, and none but the waste fat goes out of it, and is then sold for the behoof of her pocket; but how about the chubby-cheeked urchins who have eaten the dripping toast with relish ; how about the comely girls ? Much of their schooling goes to waste writh a carelessness that would set a sharp tongue wagging, if it was shown in the kitchen.
Even in a workman’s house, where everything is carefully bestowed by the wife (and it is hard work to do so), that which has an immediate money price is more regarded than that which has not. A woman lays out her week’s money from the salary, the shop till or the wages, with the most careful eye to the greatest benefit, even from ^he uttermost farthing. She looks, indeed, that Robert and Mary shall have all the lessons that are bargained for in the school teaching, and shall not be cheated into extra holidays for school children and school teachers ; and, when the satchel is brought home, she cares whether the books are neat, torn, or dogseared, but she has no weight or measure for that which is brought back in the knowledge-box, and which ought to be made to bear fruit in the house, though she understands what has been done in the sewing-class.
She has an unpleasant surmise, and so has the father, that thoagh folks cannot well get on without reading and writing, that
E
42
The Food Journal.
[March i, 1872.
which is taught in school is of small practical worth in the boy’s aftertrade or calling. This must be so, because schoolmastership in England has been very little of a craft up to this time, and the schoolmaster has had as little thought of what he ought to teach as the children or fathers of what is to be learnt. Hence the neglect of so many common and needful things which can be made serviceable in daily life. From want of knowledge of their remote application, many branches of teaching that have an immediate practical bearing on the habits of the child are treated as outside matters or accomplishments ; and too often the moral uses of all these things have been left out of sight.
Singing is not only good for psalm-singing, but it is good for training and discipline; and yet, although its. value is so well seen in the infant school, it seldom gets beyond it. There can, nevertheless, be no reasonable doubt that, according to the nature of the human mind, singing acts, not only as an art, but acts in its public exercise by bringing together, in concert and harmony, a number of minds unconscious of the influence. Hence results a training of one portion of the faculties of the mind to common and united action for order, the basis of co-operation, whether in the senate or the political association, the workshop, the trades union, or the household.
Drill is more material in its operation ; it works directly on the body and the limbs, exercising a number of muscles ; while singing brings into play but few of these, though acting largely on the lungs, and also on the nervous system. The special discipline of the drill on individual and concerted action must be very valuable.
Drawing, again, put off to the last, should begin with the youngest child, and should always include some drawing from natural objects — a subject on which great ignorance prevails. It is well to offer these remarks, because very few, and particularly amongst the humblest classes, have ever been taught drawing as an early educational process. It embraces the drawing with chalk or charcoal, and not necessarily with pencil and paper, of common objects, apples, carrots, potatoes, of elementary forms of lines, and circles, and letters, which become a part of drawing. They put William Sykes in the way of doing to some profit what it is in his nature to do on a park paling or barn door, to the detriment of their appearance.
All these matters of drawing, drill, and singing, if duly applied in the schooling of earliest childhood, will powerfully help in forming habits of value in the household and throughout life. That first law of Heaven, Order, is especially cultivated, and comes into the house-
March x, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
43
hold wants at every hour with boy or girl. To go a little higher, there is many a tradesman’s household which begins the morning in dirt, and keeps to it. True, the meat is of good*quality, of fair price, and well cooked ; but there is wanting the higher enjoyment of real comfort. The table is perpetually untidy, and the homeliness that attaches to each inmate is that of the pigstye.
This may not be altogether the fault of the housewife, who may yearn for tidiness ; but her own eye and hand are untrained, nor have her husband or the children better habits, mental or muscular. In the first place, they are perhaps ungainly. She or her maid throws down the knives and forks after a fashion, and there is an accustomed place for everybody ; but the organisation is that of individual disorder, and by the end of the meal a clean table cloth, that wras badly laid at first, is unfit for any invited % guest. Tom’s dirty knife has been here, and Susan’s dirty spoon has been there, and so it is throughout the day at bed and board. The poor woman works hard, but when she makes the beds she leaves them as untidy as she found them, and does not put by the things that are left strewn about the floor, for which there is no nail, and which nobody would hang up, if there was one.
The household is the groundwork, after all, of teaching. It begins with the mother as the first teacher, as the earliest and greatest mistress of thought and speech, and the school can never be more than a helpmate, unless to a widowed home. The school with all its clergymen, its bible readings, its young lady Sunday teachers, and its elderly lady patronesses and scolders, cannot teach morality and religion as the household ought to do, and seldom replaces or displaces its good or evil teaching. The school must nevertheless make its way into the house, and make its way felt, and that is by acting with it, by going with the grain, not against it.
It is in the lower rather than the higher branches of training that this harmony of action most truly consists. It is a very good thing for the school to send home Tom with his copy book, but a better still if he can be sent home so as to give as little trouble as may be, and to be helpful as an inmate. Now, an untidy child makes trouble and work, and the hands are busy in scattering dirt and slovenliness, which should otherwise be applied to make more com- forts. The schoolmaster or mistress may set the child to read out of the spelling book lessons on the worth of order, cleanliness, and tidiness, but these never tell like the ingrained habits, which are the steady result of slow and constant practice.
Drawing by training the eye to observation improves one faculty,
e 2
44
The Food Journal.
[March i, 1872.
and by training the hand to the careful record of observation it culti¬ vates order. The child who is taught to know what a straight line is and what are parallel lines, can judge of straightness and parallelism, but not without training. The girl so taught will make none the worse stitcher and sewer, for she will better understand common work, and be readier at fine work. She will be earlier prepared for cutting out materials and for a knowledge of form. She will lay the tablecloth and set the things straighter and better. She will clean the room in a more orderly way and so will she make the beds. In the kitchen she will cut bread carefully, and vege¬ tables straight and square enough to satisfy all the philosophy of Laputa, and with practical comfort. She will make what she has to wear look better and more tidy, and having a sharp eye for rags and tears, she will keep her clothes more carefully. She will perform less work in doing disorderly things twice over, and the more work in effecting what is truly useful.
The world is slow at perceiving that a girl thus taught may make a better housemaid and the better do housework. A great difficulty in large schools is that they cannot be made good training places for cooking and household work, but their very constitution gives them advantages for maturing those habits which are the ground¬ work on which special knowledge is to be applied.
This knowledge of childhood, this habitual and instinctive prac¬ tice, is of service through life. The boy who is made more orderly at home becomes more useful to himself and others throughout his career. It is a great qualification to avoid giving trouble to others, because it is emancipation from dependence, and a step towards independence. He who wants much, particularly of small things, cannot well be independent. Cobbett was quite right in his empiric -rules for independence and in recommending economy of servants, for he is the greatest master who is master of himself rather than of many servants.
What a sight is that of soldiers encamping ! Each man suffices for himself and gives no trouble to others, but helps all. There is a regular and systematic co-operation, tents arise on the moorland, food is being cooked, and in a short time comfort reigns around with a feeling of security, and at night each man sleeps under canvas as soundly as though no enemy were nigh. This may be seen even with well trained Tartars. They come upon the ground, the horses and camels are hobbled, the girls go out to seek water, the women make bread in their kneading troughs, the boys gather wood, and a wandering horde has by sundown become a settled community.
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
45-
In all schools there should be so much of humdrum physical work as will full up time, and not strain the' brain, and thus the mental profit will be the greater. The workshop succeeds the house¬ hold, and the boy who has sat down to a well-ordered dinner table at home, and slept in a tidy bedroom, will be steady in the factory, and will keep his tools and bench neatly. Each thing will be in its place when wanted, and be put away when not wanted ; so the time of himself and others will be saved. His apprenticeship may not be really shorter, but it will lead more rapidly to proficiency. He will have more fellowship, will be less ready to grumble or quarrel with his shopmates, and more eager to help.
These are qualities on which reading and writing will not sit worse but better ; and yet, instead of engaging all time, they may be taught in half-time. Indeed, it is not the time given to learning with which we ought truly to be concerned, but with the real result obtained. It is like fattening an ox, where it is of no good reckoning up the pounds of cake put into him, but the pounds of meat and fat which have been grown on his carcase ; the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the proof of schooling is in what is really learned.
We are still far from having a sufficient supply and degree of teaching power to get the full effect, and we are obliged to put one teacher to scores of children. It is good, then, to employ part of the school time in those pursuits where one teacher can deal with many ; this is particularly the case in drill, for one helps another, and a fault shows itself at once in what ought to be the straight line. In music this is attainable to a great de¬ gree, and it can also be effected with drawing, for one master can set the class going; still, with drawing, much depends on the faults being pointed out to each learner.
In fact the whole matter resolves itself into obtaining practical results from practical objects, availing ourselves of the small uses, even of great things, and making our charity begin at home. Teaching begins with the feeding of the baby, for the mother teaches it even to feed, and teaching begins at home. It should be combined with the home and brought back to the home through life. The boy should become sailorly, workmanlike, and soldierly, and the girl thrifty and a good housewife.
Hyde Clarke.
A sample of brandy has been sent to us by Messrs. W. Jackson & Co., of Dockhead, with a request for an analysis. As we are always anxious to give credit where credit is due, we have much pleasure in stating that our analyst has reported it to be an excellent sample, of full strength, and free from any adulteration. We accordingly give the article our unqualified approbation.
46
The Food Journal.
[March i, 1872.
COOKERY PAPERS.
No. 8. — FISH — (Continued).
Some species of fish are more digestible than others — as, for in¬ stance, haddock, whiting, smelts, cod, soles, turbot, and such¬ like — than salmon, pilchards, sprats, eels, and many other fish the characteristic of which is the oily or fatty nature of their flesh. But in cod-fish and some others the liver is the only organ which contains any oily or fatty matter. Rich fish are apt to disturb the stomach and prove stimulant to the general system. Thirst and an uneasy feeling are frequently produced by them in certain constitutions ; and this has led to drinking spirits with this class of food. Hence the proverb “ brandy is the Latin for fish.” There appears to be a generally received opinion that crimped fish is better than that which is not crimped — that it keeps longer, is firmer, and has a pleasanter flavour. It certainly commands a higher price, and so universally accepted an opinion must, I think, have some foundation in fact. Nevertheless, 1 would suggest that much of the virtue which is attributed to crimped fish arises from the fact that it is seldom that any but the best fish of its kind is crimped. Hence I would look upon the crimping more as a brand or trade-mark than in itself pro¬ ductive of any good results. Crimping is calculated to facilitate the cooking of large pieces of fish ; it allows the water to operate upon a larger surface, and the heat more equally and readily to radiate through all parts at once. Cod-fish, though more digestible than salmon, is not so much so as haddock or whiting, which has been termed the “ chicken of the sea.” The sole is dis¬ tinguished for its tenderness, delicacy, and easy digestibility. Boiled sole is more suitable to a weak stomach than fried sole All fish when boiled is more digestible than when fried. The gelatinous skin of the turbot is especially unfit for delicate stomachs. “By drying, salting, smoking, and pickling, the digesti¬ bility of fish is greatly impaired, though in some cases their savoury, stimulating, and even nutritive properties may be aug¬ mented.”
Lobsters and crabs have been known to produce violent colic, nausea, giddiness, depression, and nettle-rash, these effects de¬ pending upon some peculiar susceptibility of particular persons. Lobsters are frequently sold insufficiently boiled, and in this state they are not nearly so wholesome as if thoroughly cooked. “ Raw
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
47
oysters are more digestible than cooked ones, because the heat coagulates and hardens the albumen and corrugates the fibrine which in this way are less easily dissolved by the gastric juices.” Raw oysters rarely disagree even with convalescents and dyspeptics, though there are, of course, exceptions to the rule. A medical man states — “They do not agree with persons who are subject to indi¬ gestion, and gouty and dyspeptic persons are often violently dis¬ ordered by them. They are more wholesome to such persons when well stewed.” Another writer, in a treatise on diet, states, that, “when eaten cold they are frequently distressing to weak stomachs.” Oysters have been known to bring on convulsions when eaten by women soon after confinement. Many of the sauces eaten with fish are very indigestible compositions, and so the fish itself is frequently charged with ill-effects which are solely due to the sauce. Oyster sauce is too often made so badly that both sauce and oysters are indigestible. The skin of the eel is frightfully indigestible, and was at one time used for making size. Invalids should eat all fish boiled, not fried ; and oily fishes may always be considered more difficult of digestion than others. The flesh of the male fish, especially of the salmon and herring, is better eating than that of the female. The flesh of fish when out of season is unwholesome, and productive of much evil ; it will remain flabby, semi-transparent, and bluish, after being cooked, and is in its greatest perfection for food at the period of the ripen¬ ing of the milt or roe, because after the fish has spawned it is out of condition, and is soft, flabby, and inferior in flavour. There is a white curdy matter, very plainly seen between the flakes of fresh- boiled fish, which imparts much flavour to the fish. The excellence of the salmon at Killarney, broiled over an arbutus fire, or cooked on arbutus skewers, is doubtless due to the presence of a large quantity of this curdy substance, the fish being cooked as soon as caught. For this matter, which is defined as “a film of albumen produced by the coagulation of the serous juices intervening between the muscular layers,” evaporates rapidly after the fish is dead ; therefore fish are eaten in pqrfection only directly after they are caught. Though not apparently visible, because of the close texture of the flesh of some fish, its presence and absence has nevertheless, I think, much to do with the flavour of all kinds of fish, and is undoubtedly most prononce when per¬ fectly fresh. Hence it is somewhat inconsistently asserted by some culinary artists that a cod-fish, or a turbot, or skate, are all the better for being kept a day or two after they are caught. I must dissent from such an opinion. The serous juices, of which
48
[March i, 1872.
The Food Journal .
this curd is the tasty evidence, undoubtedly constitute the nourish- ing properties of fish. Meat kept too long most certainly loses the major portion of its nourishing qualities, although its tender¬ ness is augmented ; so with fish — though still wholesome, it has lost its serous juices, and is no longer so nourishing or of so good a flavour as when quite fresh, though it may be more tender. All cookery books advise the use of fresh meat in the making of soups, beef-tea, etc., because the longer meat is kept, so much the more its nourishing property is diminished. Hence, arguing from the same premises, the fresher fish is, by so much the more are its nourishing properties present. And this brings me to another part of my subject. It is, I think, in the present day an undis¬ puted fact that a fish diet is not, comparatively speaking, a nutri¬ tive one. Fish is not so nourishing as meat, though there is strong presumptive evidence that it possesses no inconsiderable nutritive qualities ; for when boiled down it produces at least a gelatinous substance. Dr. Kitchener says — “ Shellfish, from ap¬ proaching to the nature of animal jelly, are the most nutritious, but not always the most easily digested/’ Fish is less satisfying to the appetite than meat, poultry, or game, and, as it contains a larger proportion of water, it is obviously less nourishing. On the other hand, a medical man states that he has known several instances of persons who felt no weakness from a Lent diet, composed almost entirely of fish ; and further, that there are several instances of villages inhabited by fishermen, who live almost exclusively on a fish diet, in whom no diminution of health or vigour appears. I have myself, when discoursing with fishermen on this point, been answered : “ The fish transferred direct from the net to the kettle is as different, as regards nourishing properties, from the fish one, two, or three days old, which is purchased in our markets and fishmongers’ shops, as chalk from cheese.” A fish diet, however, has beensaid to produce or augment skin diseases, especially leprosy and elephantiasis. There are some fishes which at times have been used without ill-effects as wholesome food, and at others have been productive of the most alarming results. The following, according to Dr. Letheby, are always poisonous : “ The yellow-billed sprat ( Clupea l/iryssa), the toad, or bladder fish (Aplodactylus punctatus, or Tetradon of Cuvier), and the grey snapper ( Coracinus fuscus major ) ; and that being eaten by large fish, not in themselves poisonous, they render them poisonous too, as the Baracosta and various species of perch, the conger eel, dolphin, globe-fish, and many others.” A Cook.
[to be continued.]
March i, 1872. J
The Food Journal .
49
FOOD SUPPLY IN ZANZIBAR.
The natives of the eastern coast of Africa, extending over a belt of land more northerly than that occupied by the true Kaffirs, and yet more southerly than the zone which is inhabited by the natives of unmixed Arab descent, have food customs which differ from both races.
The publication of Captain Burton’s recent work on Zanzibar, replete as it is with information on all other topics, comprises so many interesting facts with regard to the food supply of the district, that we have no hesitation in drawing our readers’ attention to it at some length.
As the list of Zanzibarian fauna and flora is not extensive, so the articles of diet are not numerous. The small monkey ( Cerco- pithecus griseoviridis ) and a large species of frugivorous bat (probably a Pteropus) are pronounced delicious by curious gourmands. The wild boars are pigs left by the Portuguese ; strangers, mistaking the position of the tusks, and ignorant of the fact that the true masked hogs are not found in eastern Africa, have confused them with the Chceropotanius. The Antilope Saltiana is common ; its musky flesh resembles that of the rat. The wild duck, mallard, widgeon, snipe, and sand-piper are also plentiful. When fewer ships visited the port, a sandspit near Zanzibar was covered with bay turtle ( Chelone esculentaj, which the negroes were too indolent or too ignorant to catch. The iguana, since the days of the Periplus , has been common. The fish supply is variable as the climate ; sometimes it is excellent, at other times none but the poorest will eat it ; and there are many species (as, for instance, the green-boned garpikes, Esocidoe) which have the reputation of causing stomach pains and vomiting, if not of being actually poisonous. There are also skates, soles (which are small and not prized), and red and grey mullet, excellent in July, August, and September. The “mangrove oyster” is found growing on all the trees of the island, and a small well- flavoured rock oyster, a favourite relish with Europeans, is caught about Chumbi Island. The Crustacea are not common on the eastern coast, though large crayfish are frequently found, and the Arabs consider them wholesome for invalids. Captain Burton gives a recipe how to cook these and other crabs, after the fashion of the Slave Coast, and thinks that this may be useful in England
50
The Food Journal.
[March i, 1872.
for lobsters, crabs, and crayfish. The meat taken out after boiling is pounded and mixed with peppers and seasoning. It is then restored to the shell, and served “ piping hot.” Another kind of shellfish, a soft crab, when cooked, seems to melt away, no meat remaining within ; a third, also soft, is red, even before being boiled.
So much for the aboriginal fauna ; the domestic animals are very scanty, and few thrive except apes. Cattle brought to Zanzibar die after the first fortnight, unless protected from sun, rain, and dew, and fed with dry fodder. The wet grass given to cattle at Zanzibar leads to the impression, as in the Concan and at Cape Coast Castle, that the grass is poisonous. The Banyans of Zanzibar, Aden, and Maskat, who keep cattle for religious purposes, never sell their beasts, and religiously oppose their being slaughtered. Bullocks cost from $8 to Si 6, and are generally to be bought. Sheep are principally the black-faced Somali variety with short round knotted tails, which lose fat from rich grazing, but in their own desert country thrive upon an occasional blade of grass growing between the stones. The excessive purity of the air doubt¬ less favours assimilation and digestion, and, as the diet of the desert Arab proves, life under such circumstances can be supported by a minimum of food. The Somali sheep are the cheapest, averaging from $1 to $3. There is also a Mrima race, with rufous, ginger-coloured hairy coats, and lank tails like dogs. Others, again, have a long, massive caudal appendage, like Syrian or Cape wethers. These cost S2 to $5, and are considered a superior article. As a rule, Zanzibar mutton, like that of the Brazil, is much inferior to beef, and presents a great contrast with the celebrated grain-fed mutton of India. Goats’ flesh is preferred to mutton in Zanzibar. There, as on the continent, fowls may be bought in every village, the rate being six to twelve for the dollar, for which a few years ago thirty-six were to be obtained. They are lean, from want of proper food, and miserably small, the result of breeding-in; the eggs are like those of pigeons. Yet they might be greatly improved, for the central regions of Africa show splendid birds with huge bodies and the shortest possible legs. Capons are prepared by the blacks of Mayotta and Nosi-be. Captain Burton asks the sensible question, “ How is it that the modern English will eat hens, when their great-grand¬ fathers knew how to combine the flavour of the male with the tenderness of the female bird ?” The Muscovy duck, originally from Rio de la Plata, has of late years been naturalised. It is a favourite of the Africans, “who delight in food which gives their
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
*
51
teeth and masticatory apparatus the hardest and the longest labour.”
The flora of Zanzibar exhibits a greater range of variety than the fauna. The Arabic saying that the “ date and the cocoanut cannot exist together,” is literally correct; the palmiferous vegeta¬ tion of Zanzibar chiefly consists of the cocoa, upon which depends much of its material wealth. The cocoa grows in a broad band around the shore, and on the continent it follows the streams as far as sixty miles inland. This useful tree supplies, besides meat, wines and spirits, syrups and vinegar, cords, mats, strainers, tinder, fire¬ wood, houses and palings, boats and sails — briefly, all the wants of barbarous life. Coffee was once tried on the island, but the clove soon killed it; now, not a parcel is raised for sale, for the berry, which was large and flavourless, was not found to keep well.
In the Brazils the richest lands are given to coffee, the next best to sugar, and the worst to cotton and cereals. The Zanzibar coast, from Mombasah to Mozambique, produces small quantities of coffee. Coffee brought from Southern Arabia to Angola by the Jesuits was spread, probably by the agency of birds, to 300 leagues from the coast. It has long been “ monkeys’ food,” but it is now worked by the ex-slaves. The oil palm ( Elceis Guineensis ) is found on the island of Pemba, and at other places near Zanzibar. The late Sayyid planted cinnamon and nutmeg trees, which flourished well on some soils, though the latter takes nine years, it is said, before bearing fruit, and gives trouble. The cacao shrub (chocolate) thrives well on the western coast, but has never been tried in Zanzibar.
The mango, orange, banana, and pineapple are common at Zanzibar, but, with the exception of the banana and plantain, are, of course, all seedlings. Engrafting is not practised, and wall fruit is unknown.
The mango, originally imported from India, and as yet unplanted in the central regions, is of many varieties. These, with care, might rival the famous produce of Bombay ; even in their half-wild state the flavour of turpentine, so characteristic of the mango, is hardly perceptible. The cooling, antibilious and antiseptic oranges are plentiful from May to October. Bananas at Zanzibar are of two varieties, red and yellow, but are not remarkable for delicacy of taste. In the highlands of the interior, as Usumbara and Karagwali, the Musa sapientwn may be considered the staff of life. The plantain, however, of the variety in India called “ horse plantain,” is a coarse kind, sometimes a foot long, and full of hard black seeds. Europeans fry it in butter. It bears throughout all the year in
52
[March i, 1872.
The Food Journal,
Zanzibar, but it is not common in May and June. The pineapple of the New World grows almost wild in every hedgerow and bush, the crown being stuck in the ground and left to its fate, wherever the place may be. The poor in Zanzibar are compelled to eat large quantities of the Fanas, or “Jack” of India, the nuts of which are roasted and eaten with salt. Some Europeans have learnt to relish the evil savour, and all declare the “Jack” to be very wholesome. The breadfruit was introduced from the Seychelles Islands ; the young plants, however, were soon uprooted and strewn about the fields.
Almost all English vegetables will grow in the island, but they require shade, and should be planted, as at Bourbon, the Mauritius, and Nicaragua, between rows of cool bananas. Here lettuces, beetroots, carrots, patatoes and yams flourish ; cabbages and cauliflowers have never been tried, but cruciferous plants in general seldom thrive in the tropics; on the other hand, cucumbers and gourds are plentiful. The Arabs make from the seeds of the cucumber an oil of a most delicate flavour, which Captain Burton, who is himself a gastronome, states is superior to the best Lucchese olive oil. “ In London I have vainly asked for cucumber oil ; the vegetable is probably too expensive, and the seeds are too small to be thus used at home. About Lagos, on the Slave Coast, however, there is a cucumber nearly a foot long, with large pips, which might be sent northwards ; and I commend this experiment to the civilized lover of oil.”
Wheat, barley, and oats here run to straw. Rice is the favourite cereal ; but that of Eastern Africa is not so nutritious as that of the Western Coast. The hardest-working of the African tribes, the Krumen, live almost entirely upon red rice and palm oil. Maize is a favourite article of consumption, and a little is grown in the island. The cassava, or manioc, which tastes like parsnips or wet potatoes, is a common article of food amongst the poorer classes. The Wasawahili have fifty ways of preparing it. Burton remarks, “ Full of gluten, this food is by no means nutritious, and, after a short time, it produces that inordinate craving for meat, even the meat of white ants, which has a name in most African languages.”
Upon the whole it may be said that the rank, damp climate of Zanzibar produces food in abundance, and that the raw material is not lacking, from which, with civilization, a much greater series of comestibles may be produced. The deficiencies, however, are chiefly observable in the animal food of the district, which is very imperfect.
C. Carter Blake, F.G.S.
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
53
■
■
THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASSES.
No. 4. — Germany.
The nationality of Germany is now so extended, and ranges through so many countries, each of which has its physical differences of people, industries, resources, and climate, that it is utterly impos¬ sible to treat the working classes as a whole ; and we must there¬ fore, as before the Franco-Prussian war, look at the subject with regard to its old divisions, commencing with Prussia proper. Agriculture absorbs a large number of the population of the provinces of the old Prussian monarchy, for we find that, accord¬ ing to the census of 1867 (the first thoroughly complete one ever taken in Prussia), millions of people are more or less depen¬ dent upon the soil, either as landowners, labourers, or their families. The labourers are of two classes : those who have a permanent engagement, and those who contract to work only for a certain period (Tagelohner) ; these again are subdivided, some contracting for two or three years, others merely jobbing about. The former are usually married, and are bound to provide assistants, con¬ stituting, in fact, a kind of gangwork. The latter are not so comfortably situated as those who are permanent members of the farm, although more money is earned by the Tagelohners, who receive at least 20 per cent, more wages ; but this again is counterbalanced by the enforced idleness in the winter months, in which the savings are frequently swallowed up. The wages of a general farm servant vary according to the province, and a great proportion is paid in kind. For instance, in Westphalia the wages of a man are from 3/. to 7/. io^., and of a maid 3/. to 4/. io,r. In addition to board, the man will get a pair of boots and three shirts, and the maid a pair of shoes and some flax with which to make underclothing. The shirts, we fear, do not get as much washing as they should do; for we learn that it is the local custom to wash linen only two or three times a-year. The board is generally good, and consists in the morning of milk porridge and dumplings; at midday, the same, with potatQes, peas, beans, and sometimes “ bubble and squeak ;” while in the evening the porridge is varied with herring or potato soup. Meat is added three times a week, either £lb. of bacon or -£lb. of some other meat, and on Sundays baked fruit and dumplings. The man gets 141b. of bread with 1 lb. of butter or lard per week, and the maid has 10 lb., with 12 oz. of butter or lard ; and it is considered that this board is worth about
54
The Food Journal.
[March i, 1872.
10 guineas a -year. The social condition of the agricultural labourers in Prussia is rapidly improving throughout the whole of the kingdom, though very far from perfection as yet. They are said to be immoral, drunken, and rather too much addicted to thieving, a peccadillo which is not thought much of unless the culprit is found out. The contract system of labour induces the immorality by causing overcrowding in the cottages. A great deal of what was written in Mr. Harris-Gastrell’s report on the tenure of land in Prussia might stand for an English labourer in the shires. “ The wives are obliged to work daily throughout summer and autumn, and on many properties in winter also. They go very early to work, get half an hour before midday to prepare the dinner, and return to work till sunset. The children consequently come badly off ; often there is no older child to take charge of the little ones, who are left to themselves in the house, and the result is a great mortality amongst the young. The education of the labourer is defective, and he has not sufficient* inducement to retain what he may have learnt. Often two or three families live in the same small dwelling, sometimes with only one room for sleeping, living, and cooking. Few men, and yet fewer women, have any idea of housekeeping ; they live from hand to mouth, and if the wife be not a good manager, the wolf is always at the door.” Substitute Dorsetshire for Prussia, and the description need not be altered one whit, except that the Prussian labourer is better fed than his English brother.
Of the artisan population, by far the most important and numerous section may be classed amongst miners and operatives engaged in factories. In many respects these last are treated by their em¬ ployers fairly and properly, except in the matter of the hours of labour, which are far too long. In the manufactories of Lower Silesia, exclusive of the time allowed for breakfast, dinner, and the afternoon meal, the period of labour averages from 11 to 12 hours a-day, being an hour longer in summer than in winter. Indeed in some of the cloth works the operatives (women included) work no less than from 12 to 13 hours, and some for 16 hours a-day. In a large State spinning factory at Berlin the usual hours of labour are from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., allowing half an hour for breakfast and the same for dinner. The Silesian manufacturers have been attacked on this score for their want of thought in overworking their people ; but they defend themselves with a certain naivete by saying that the people like it, or, in other words, that they prefer over¬ work when employed in piecework, and that, in fact, the system of over-hours is prevalent in all the trades throughout the kingdom.
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
55
The employment of children under 12 in factories and works is forbidden, and those who are under 14 are not allowed to work more than six hours a-day, and those under 16, ten hours a-day, which is just one hour longer than our noble British workman has re¬ cently pronounced himself able to bear. Au rcste , the factory opera¬ tives in general, while perhaps better off physically than those in England, do not appear to have advanced much in the cultivation of mutually friendly terms with their employers — “all that they consent to recognise being the necessity of earning the means of subsistence.” The wages, of course, vary not only with the nature of the factory, but also with the position held by the employe. In the cloth works at Grunburg, Silesia, the weekly wages (for 12 hours per day work) were —
s. d. s. d.
For Hand-machine spinners . 7 6 to 10 6
Pattern weavers . 12 o ,, 15 o
Power-loom workers (women) . . . . 46,, 60
Boys and girls . . . 36,, 50
In the silk, woollen, and ribbon factories the hands may be said generally to earn from \os. to 12^. 6 d. for men, and about 9$. for women; though the wages are considerably higher in the more technical departments and for skilled operatives.
The weavers are generally very badly paid, and particularly in some districts. For instance, silk weavers make from 12 s. 6 d. to 15J. per week; but coarse linen weavers in the district of Bolkenheim only earn 2 s. 6 d. per week, and linen and cotton weavers in the district of Glatz from 3 \d. to \\d. per day. It is difficult to understand how body and soul can thus be kept together, even with German frugality.
As usual, the wages in the large towns, such as Berlin, are better than those in the country.
|
S. |
d. |
s. |
d. |
|||
|
Coopers get . |
0 |
to |
15 |
O |
a-week |
|
|
Bookbinders . |
. 10 |
0 |
12 |
O |
5 > |
|
|
Compositors . |
. G |
0 |
||||
|
Turners . |
6 |
21 |
O |
5? |
||
|
Tanners . |
. 12 |
0 |
y> |
G |
O |
> > |
|
Glaziers . |
. . 10 |
6 |
12 |
O |
>> |
|
|
Painters . |
. G |
0 |
18 |
O |
||
|
Masons . |
6 |
>> |
13 |
6 |
||
|
Mechanics . |
0 |
15 |
0 |
>> |
||
|
Tailors . |
0 |
15 |
0 |
|||
|
Shoemakers |
6 |
|||||
|
Carpenters . |
6 |
>> |
13 |
6 |
>> |
Bakers come rather badly off, for, while the wages are not, on the average, above 4 s. 6 d. a-week (with board and lodging), they are employed for nineteen consecutive hours.
5^
The Food Journal ’
[March i, 1872.
The dwellings of the artizans are not as they should be. In the large towns they live almost exclusively in lodgings, and even the small tradesman seldom inhabits a house of his own ; whereas in the country the reverse is the case. But nowhere does the accommodation keep pace with the rent, which in the towns is about 12 per cent, of the entire annual income. In the district of Memel the houses are of one story, built of mud, and sometimes of grass, containing one dwelling room and an unfloored sleeping room. In Konigsberg the houses are built for two, or sometimes for four families ; in Bolken- heim (where many weavers dwell) the rooms are barely high enough to allow one to stand upright in, and the windows are not more than 2 ft. square ; in Pless, several labourers’ families (from ten to fifteen persons) live together in one room. Berlin itself does not figure very creditably, for we find that in 1867 the number of overcrowded dwellings, with six or more persons living in one room, and ten or more persons living in two rooms, amounted to 1 5,574, occupied by 111,280 people, living in 16,289 rooms, the average being six to seven inhabitants in one room.
A general exception to this state of things is to be found amongst the miners and ironworkers, who hold a better position in the king¬ dom than most other operatives, in consequence of their interests being attended to by the Government officials, whose duty it is to superintend the coal mines, iron and salt works. “ The great im¬ portance naturally attached to the conservation of so able and staunch a race of workmen has induced both the State and the private owners of the large works to provide suitable dwellings for them, and to take such care of their comfort and well-being as to make their lot an enviable one, in comparison with many of their fellow-labourers.” In Upper Silesia, however, the miners are generally Poles, and such a dissipated and improvident set of men that the managers have resorted to the plan of paying the wages to the wives rather than the husbands — an idea which might be acted upon with great benefit in our English coal districts. The average daily wages in the Government coal mines are —
$. d . s. d.
For Carpenters . 1 9
Cutters . 1 9
Drawers . 1 5 to 1 8
Hauliers . 1 7
and in the ironworks —
Smelters . . , 4 2 9 to 3 o
Puddlers . 4 o
Moulders . 2 7 to 3 o
Engine-men . 1 9 ,, 2 o
Cokemen . 1 3 ,, 1 6
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
57
The dwellings in the mining districts are far superior to artizans’ dwellings in other parts of the kingdom. The three royal coal mines of Heinitz have three enormous sleeping houses to ac¬ commodate 800 men, who pay is. 6 d. a month for a bed and towels, and the use of half a press. The Miners’ Union has also done a great deal in promoting mining colonies, by selling, at cost price, or leasing at a moderate rent, one-sixth of an acre of land to anyone who will build a house upon it. Money for this purpose is advanced at 4 per cent., to be deducted from the wages, with a present of from 22/. io.?. to 30/. as a premium for building. Other¬ wise co-operative building societies do not appear to be very prosperous in Prussia, and the houses of the operative classes generally are ill-built, ill-ventilated, and overcrowded, the expenses of rent varying from il. per annum in the country to 15/. in the town.
The cost of provisions varies as much in the different provinces as do wages and rent, as will be seen by the following statement*, each family being supposed to represent a household of four : —
In the province of Posen (circle of Adelnau), the annual cost is. 27/., the diet consisting of rye, potatoes, cabbage, millet, peas, grits, meat, and butter.
In the province of Pomerania (circle of Oels) the cost is only 1 1 /._„ including beer and brandy, but very little meat.
In the circle of Neurode it is 15/., and in that of Pless 13/.
In the province of Westphalia (circle of Koesfeld) the diet is. bread, meat (very little), milk, coffee, chicory, butter, potatoes, at a cost of 7/. io.s\, whereas in the Rhenish province (circle of Essen) the expenses run up to 26/. $s. ; the cost of provisions differing, even' in the northern and southern portions of this circle, to the amount of 25 per cent.
The average price of wheat throughout the provinces is from 8s.. to 9^. 4 d. the scheffel (very little more than a bushel).
Phillips Bevan, F.R.G.S.
German Preserved Beef. — Although the public is becoming quite fami¬ liarised with Australian preserved meat, and the consumption of this food is increasing to a most material extent, the importation of preserved beef from Germany is a decided novelty. At recent public sales a large quantity of this, beef was offered, but it did not seem to find favour with buyers, and was nearly all withdrawn. 1,01 1 tins, each containing ij lb. of meat, were, however, dis¬ posed of, the price being 5 d. per lb. — The Grocer.
F
58
The Food Journal.
[March i, 1872.
THE LORD MAYOR’S DINNER, 1871.
Turtle soup, it is well known, is not on this occasion counted by tureens ; the Lord Mayor’s banquet is “ a feast of reason and a flow” — of turtle. A visit to the crypt below Guildhall, which is the kitchen whence issue the huge barons of beef, the hundreds of turkeys, capons, hams, tongues, and other delectable dainties pro¬ vided for this monster entertainment, will explain the vast scale on which the caterer for the Lord Mayor’s dinner conducts his opera¬ tions. Turtle soup may be seen in tanks. Barons of beef which have already been at the fire nine hours, will not be injured by a few more hours’ roasting — one whole day being the period allotted to them. The range fire for roasting in this kitchen is, I believe, the largest in the world. The poultry apparently is too numerous for calculation, except by the medium of mathematics ; and the pies would cover a croquet lawn of reasonable dimensions. Lobsters, prawns, and fish appear to be as plentiful in the Guild¬ hall crypt as blackberries on a hedgerow. The night previous to the feast is occupied with furnishing the mighty tables, through¬ out their prodigious length, with the necessary knjves, forks, .glasses, etc., and all the passages leading to the crypt will be found littered with plates, dishes, and other crockery, together with epergnes, candelabra, and the rest of the table furniture. There were provided for this, the greatest of our civic feasts, 14 turtles, weighing 1,067 lbs.; two or more barons of beef; ten sirloins; two or three rounds of beef, and four saddles of mutton ; four quarters of lamb ; 100 turkeys ; 320 head of poultry; 100 tongues; 70 hams ; 65 pigeon pies, and 65 other pies of a more com¬ plicated character; 180 pheasants, and two or three dozen brace of partridges and grouse; 150 lobsters; 12 lbs. of prawns, and 66 dishes of fish and entrees; 250 jellies and creams; 300 ice puddings and moulds of ice ; 800 mince pies ; maringues, pastry, gateaux, bon-bons, preserved and dried fruits, and other little kickshaws ad libitum. The dessert was composed of fruit cultivated chiefly in the hothouses of Mr. Willmott, at Isle- worth. It consisted of 136 pines; grapes — black Hamburgh and white muscat — being placed around the base of each epergne, which was crowned with a pineapple. There were hundredweights of filberts, bushels of walnuts, pears, apples, and other fruits in
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
59
unlimited numbers. Covers were laid for upwards of 700 guests. It would be interesting to know, after the guests had “worked their own sweet will” upon this Brobdignagian supply of luxuries, what was the value and amount of “the fragments that were left?” What becomes of them ? So liberal an amount of good is sup¬ plied, that an immense quantity of remnants must be left, besides dishes entirely untouched. Hospitality is a virtue which cannot be too highly esteemed, but “ the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” Who are my Lord Mayor’s dogs ?
P. L. H.
THE CHICK PEA.
The Chick Pea ( Cicer arietinum) is a plant largely cultivated in the South of Europe, as well as in India and other eastern countries where it is called gram . It is an annual herbaceous plant, belong¬ ing to the papilionaceous division of the natural order LeguminoscE, and has white or rose coloured flowers, which are succeeded by hairy pods from an inch to an inch and a half long, and about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, usually containing three or four, but sometimes only one seed about the size of a common pea, but with a more or less wrinkled surface ; they vary, how¬ ever, both in size, shape and colour. The plants are extensively cultivated in most countries where the winters are not too severe, the seeds being sown in autumn. Experience, however, has shown that it is too tender a plant for field culture in this country. In climates suited to its growth the seeds are found to be a very useful article of food. In India they are used in a variety of ways. Ground into flour or meal, excellent puddings and cakes are made, and the meal mixed with sesamum oil and sugar candy produces a favourite Indian sweetmeat. Roasted or parched whole, they form a convenient food for carrying on journies. At one time small quantities of these seeds were brought into this country from Turkey, and ground and sold as pea meal; they have also been employed as a substitute for coffee, and are even now so used in Italy and some parts of the South of France; they moreover, form an ingredient in soups. It is in India, however, that the plant has the greatest economic value, for besides the numerous applications
f 2
6o
The Food Journal .
[March i, 1872.
to which the seeds are put, the leaves are also used as a vegetable, and the whole plant is considered a good fodder for horses. Per¬ haps the most interesting product of the plants is the acid that is obtained from them and used by the natives as a valuable medi¬ cine. When the plants are two months old and about a foot or eighteen inches high, the upper ends of the twigs are nipped off to enable the plant to throw out a greater number of branches, and consequently to increase the seed produce. When the pods begin to form, it is considered time to collect the acid which exudes from the glandular hairs that cover the leaves, first appearing like drops of dew and ultimately forming into crystals. During the night these dew drops are deposited on the leaves in great abundance, and are collected in the early morning by spreading a fine muslin over the plants ; this is allowed to remain the whole of the following day and night, when it becomes saturated with the acid which is wrung out of it and bottled ready for use. In the process of wring¬ ing the cloth the acid acts so powerfully upon the hands, that it is necessary to wash them immediately. The oldest plants yield the strongest acid and it is also of a deeper red colour than that obtained from young plants. The acid, however, becomes stronger by keeping, and is considered by the natives a sure cure in cases of indigestion or pains in the stomach. A teaspoonful taken in a glass of water is a dose for an adult, and it is said to effect a cure in two or three hours. The acid is so sharp that the mere fact of walking through a gram field is sufficient to destroy a good pair of boots.
John R. Jackson, A.L.S.
A Good Dinner. — The late Mr. Walker, author of “The Original,” was a gourmet who made simplicity his rule and was opposed to all “ barbaric orna¬ ments ” of modern dinners. He described a dinner which was given at the Athenaeum Club, and which was composed of the following dishes, viz. : — 6 oysters, a water souchee of flounders, with brown bread and butter, a grouse with French beans to follow, a bottle of claret, and a cup of coifee. Mr. W. M. Thackeray, substituting fresh herrings for flounders, highly approved of Mr. Walker’s repast, which seems to deserve the notice of persons who desire to combine economy with frugality. In connection with this matter, it may be stated that the cost of the Guildhall dinner and wines on Lord Mayor’s Day, 1871, was 1,122/.
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal '.
61
THE SANITARY CONDITION OF THE "BLACK
COUNTRY.”-Part hi.
Wolverhampton. — Since the publication of the article on this town in the Food Journal of January, an abatement of the epidemic of small-pox has happily set in, and it may now be hoped that the worst trial of this unfortunate district has passed. Too much, however, yet remains to be done, before the sanitary condition of the town can be considered in a merely tolerable, not to say satisfactory, state. Notwithstanding the diminution of the epidemic, the death-rate for the week ending on January 6th, was no less than 59 per 1,000 per annum; and the Wolverhampton paper ( Midland Counties Express ) for January 13th says that the death- rate for the week ending on the latter day will be exceedingly heavy. A rather curious dispute is going on between the Local Government Board, on the one hand, and the Wolverhampton Town Council on the other. This dispute arises from the action of the council in the matter of re-vaccination. The dreadful ravages of small-pox caused a complete panic in the town, and the council earnestly called attention to the acknowleged benefits of re-vaccination for adults, at the same time passing a resolution authorising practitioners, not public vaccinators, but otherwise duly qualified, to vaccinate all applicants, and to charge their fees to the Town Council. Large numbers of persons have been re-vaccinated under this arrangement, and the decree of the Council remains in force at the present date, though in direct defiance of the communication of the Local Government Board. The allega¬ tions of the Local Government Board are : —
1. That the resolution of the Town Council authorising all the medical men in the town to perform primary and re-vaccination, and to charge the Council is. 6 d. and is. per case respectively, was unnecessary, the guardians of the parish being, by law, the proper vaccinating authority.
2. That the interests of the public health are likely to suffer by the interference of the Council with the duties of the guardians.
3. That the duty of the Council lies in the provision of proper hospital accommodation, and in seeing to the efficient disinfection of houses and things.
These remarks of the Local Government Board led to some very
6 2
March x, 1872.
The Food Journal
warm discussion at the meetings of the Council, but no definite understanding has yet been arrived at.
The appointment of Medical Officer of Health in Wolverhampton still remains on a merely temporary footing, and is, in fact, nothing more than the result of the present state of panic. It is impossible to resist quoting a certain Mr. Lees, as his remarks show that many persons are quite ignorant of the proper functions of an officer of health, who should prevent rather than cure disease. Mr. Lees said, as a conclusive reason to his mind against the permanent appointment of an officer of health, that “ he would take his share of the responsibility of voting any expenditure that may be neces¬ sary for stamping out small-pox, but he did object to spending money on an officer when there was nothing 'for that officer to do.”
Does that gentleman suppose that there ever has been, or ever will be, a time when a filthy town like Wolverhampton will leave an officer of health with nothing to do ? Even Mr. Lees must feel satisfied, at present, that the officer has enough to do. No wonder that towns thus governed are ravaged by disease.
It would appear that very serious danger has arisen through the removal of many children born in the workhouse previously to their being vaccinated, such children very often escaping vaccination altogether. In the “Black Country ” there is a vast canal traffic, and a considerable number of the population belong to the class of boatmen and their families. These people may be said almost to live on board their canal boats, and the greatest difficulty is always experienced in ensuring the vaccination of the children.
As a natural consequence, the infantile mortality amongst the boat people is shockingly high. It should be mentioned to the credit of the Duke of Bridgewater’s Trustees, that they sent a sum of money to their manager at Wolverhampton, to be devoted to paying for the vaccination of the boatmen’s children. One of the public vaccinators made it his business to visit the boats, but the boatmen all refused to let their children be vaccinated.
The following case will show how this dreadful disease is propa¬ gated from district to district : —
“Information was telegraphed to Wolverhampton that there was a case ot small-pox in a boat that was coming up. The boatman, finding that the autho¬ rities were aware of it, passed his boat through the locks in the dead of the night, and got to Tipton, but the authorities there had also taken precautionaiy mea¬ sures.”
On January 12th, a resolution was carried by the guardians to the effect that no children born in the workhouse should in future be allowed to leave until after proper vaccination. This regulation
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
63
will remain in force so long as the present epidemic of small-pox lasts.
Bilston. — Bilston is a township in the parish of Wolverhampton, and also part of the Parliamentary borough of the same name. Municipally, Bilston is independent of Wolverhampton, and is under the control of a local governing body, called the Bilston Town Com¬ missioners ; but the poor-law is administered by the guardians of Wolverhampton, who act for the whole of this great parish. The town of Bilston is one of the most important in the “Black Country,” and contains a population of over 24,000 persons. Bilston does not appear separately in the reports of the Registrar-General, but by the courtesy of the Clerk to the Bilston Commissioners I have, been furnished with the returns of deaths for the twelve months: from January to December, 1871. These returns show 568 deaths, or about 24 per 1,000. The site of the town is rather elevated, and extends for about a mile and three-quarters in length, the old road from London to Holyhead passing through it. Bilston is about two and three-quarter miles south-east of Wolverhampton, and the same distance north-west from Wed- nesbury. There is no ground of complaint as to the religious and educational accommodation in the town. The various denomina¬ tions have sufficient churches and chapels, and the National Schools are stated to be large enough to receive some 1,400 or more children. A movement is at present on foot to erect a town hall and also to establish a free library. For both these objects con¬ siderable voluntary subscriptions have been received, so that only a part of the expense will fall upon the general rates.
As no special reports, either on behalf of the Local Government. Board or the Town Commissioners of Bilston, were forthcoming,, the writer of the present article visited the place for the purpose of satisfying himself, by personal observation, of its sanitary condition. The results of his inspection are such as he regrets to have to publish, though they are only what he expected from the state of the neighbouring towns already reported upon.
The general aspect of Bilston is extremely repulsive, by reason of the dirty condition of the streets and courts, the prevalence of dense smoke from the numerous ironworks, and the huge accumu¬ lations of slag and pit refuse visible on all sides of the town. There is noticeable amongst the working classes a general appearance of physical debility, marked by the extremely unhealthy complexion of the skin, and the want of brightness and prominence in the eyes. No one could spend a day walking through the back streets and courts of Bilston without being [painfully impressed by this almost
64
The Food Journal .
[March t, 1872.
universal appearance of physical degeneration amongst the poorer classes of the population. The bulk of these people seem to be always in a low state, ready to fall easy victims to any epidemic. The wonder is that the epidemic of small-pox at Wolverhampton has not already spread over Bilston. As it is, there are enough cases here to cause anxiety. The people of Bilston seem to use tap water from the mains of the South Staffordshire Water¬ works Company almost universally, very few pumps being visible in the town. Many complaints are made of the frequent stoppage -of the Company's supply, especially on Saturdays. These stoppages .-are the source of much hardship and inconvenience to the poorer inhabitants, who have no means of storage ; and it is to be hoped *that the Town Commissioners will move energetically in the matter,
. and see that the Waterworks Company keep up a more constant supply.
It is impossible for any language adequately to describe the ’ horrible condition in which the greater part of this town exists. Nothing short of personal observation could convey to the mind a , full picture of the squalid filth in which too many of the population live, or rather languish, on the verge of pauperism and disease.*
J. Beverley Fenby, C.E.
[to be continued.]
The question whether acorns are a suitable food for pigs seems to meet an affirmative answer in the fact that around Lisbon the natives depend largely upon the acorn crops, not only for feeding pigs, but for fattening them for the Lisbon market. Last year, in consequence of a severe drought which prevailed, the acorns did not ripen properly, and the produce consequently was very scanty. Large herds of swine had therefore to be fattened on other food, and several thousands in the neighbourhood of Lisbon, and particularly to the south of the Tagus, were fed on damaged Indian corn purchased at low prices. Fat pigs fed on acorns are exported from Lisbon to Spain, but the failure of the acorn crops considerably reduced the numbers. The flesh of pigs fed on acorns is said to be of excellent quality, though that fed on Indian corn is superior.
* At the weekly meeting of the Wolverhampton Guardians, held on Friday, February 16th, the following extraordinary disclosures were made: — A woman from Bilston applied to the Board for compensation for clothing which had been destroyed by order of the medical officer of the district. In this woman’s house a very bad case of small-pox had occurred, and the bed and bedding had been tom up and deposited in the Bilston Brook, which flows past the railway station. This brook flows into a stream which forms part of the supply of the Birmingham Waterworks Company. Comment on such conduct as this is needless.
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal.
65
CHEAP DISHES. — Part II.
IV. — Pea-Soup.
I told my readers, at the outset of these papers, that every receipt which I shall give them has been tried and proved at my own table, under the liberal though economical directions of my own wife. They may therefore rely upon the success of each dish, and at the same time will not look for the extraordinary variety given in cookery- books, which are too often mere compilations from other com¬ pilations, and too theoretical for the ordinary cook or practical housewife. For pea-soup, for example, our method is as follows : — Take the liquor in which any fresh meat has been boiled — mutton, beef, or pork — put into it one large carrot, one large turnip, one large Spanish onion, one pint of peas ; after boiling five hours add one pound of salt pork; boil the whole for three hours (making eight in all); then take out the pork and cut it into small squares like dice, season with pepper and salt, strain the soup, put it back in the pan again to boil, put in the squares of pork with a tablespoonful of Harvey’s sauce, two spoonsful of ketchup, and a saltspoonful of extract of beef ; boil for ten minutes to make thoroughly hot, and send to table. Eat it with dried mint according to taste, and small squares of toast.
Many receipts are given to make pea-soup without meat, but I do not recommend such soup even to the poorest family. One pound of meat is the smallest quantity that can be used for a gallon of soup. Of course all good housewives make use of bones and liquor (in which meat has been boiled) for soup; but the continual keeping up of the stock-pot is a mistake. Some cooks throw pieces and bones into stock for weeks and months together. The pot should be thoroughly emptied and cleaned in winter at least once in a week, and in summer once in two days. The other day I came across some small parcels of so-called “pea-soup” in squares on the prin¬ ciple of extract of this and extract of that, so common and now and then very useful. I presented a square to my wife ; it cost and was warranted to make a quart of soup. My wife found it useful as an addition to her own soup ; but she preferred a pint of peas at the same price.
66
The Food Journal ’
[March i, 1872.
V. — A Sweet and Pretty Dish.
Stew six good baking apples in the oven with a little sugar and water ; then take out the apples, put them into a glass or silver dish with a little bright jam on the top of each apple ; stick them full of peeled almonds, and pour custard over the whole. The custard is made with two eggs, half a pint of milk, six lumps of sugar, some grated nutmeg, and a few drops of vanilla.
VI. — A Cheap and Capital Salad.
Take one pennyworth of mustard-and-cress, two pennyworth of watercress, two pennyworth of cooked beetroot, and a fourpenny head of celery; cut the beet into small dice squares; take a glass or silver dish, pile the beet into pyramids, do the same to the celery and watercress, and arrange all round the dish ; heap the mustard into a pile in the centre; boil two eggs hard ; take out the yolks, and mix them with a little mashed potatoe, a tablespoonful of vinegar, half a tablespoonful of Harvey’s sauce and ketchup, pepper and salt, two tablespoonsful of milk, the same of oil, a saltspoonful of sugar ; pour this over the whole, and you will be well satisfied with the result.
VII. — Brawn.
Get a pig’s head (y. 6 d.\ four pig’s feet (3 d. each), and one cow-heel (iod.); put them into a stewpan with as much water as will cover them ; add a teaspoonful of peppercorns, a little parsley, an onion with two cloves stuck into it, and a slice of bacon. Stew for eight or ten hours, until all the meat falls from the bones ; then take out of the pan, put them into a large dish, and carefully remove all the bones, both great and small ; cut the meat to pieces, add pepper, salt, and nutmeg, and turn it into a brawn-tin ; leave it all night, and in the morning it will be firm and ready for table. This will last for a week for an ordinary family taken at breakfast or lunch. It is best eaten with a little mustard and vinegar.
My objection to the Oxford and other brawns that one buys at shops is their toughness. The dish which I have just described is soft and toothsome, sufficiently firm, however, to cut into nice tempting slices. If you wish to be specially luxurious and ex¬ travagant, you can buy an ox-tongue (5^.), cut it up into solid squares, and add it to the above. I relish my brawn better without this, feeling that the dish is just as good and considerably cheaper, though when company is staying in the house the ox-tongue is occasionally added. A brawn-tin costs y. 6 d.\ but an ordinary basin will do just as well.
Osiris.
March i, 1872.]
The Food Journal .
67
FOOD RESOURCES OF THE UPPER YANG-TSZE.
The impetus given to steam navigation and commercial enterprise by the success of the Suez Canal, taken in connection with the black cloud lately hovering over our diplomatic horizon in China, suggests the present as a fitting time for calling public attention to the continued exclusion of foreign vessels from the waters of the upper Yang-tsze Kiang. Recent events have shown that the Chinese Government is as conservative and unscrupulous as ever — that so far from aiding the progress of commerce, protecting and fostering the ministers of religion and civilisation, and meet¬ ing the representatives of Western nations in a spirit of fairness and equality, it studies to accumulate obstacles in the way of trade ; it has attempted to crush missionary efforts ; it loses no oppor¬ tunity of heaping insult and contumely on the heads of our am¬ bassadors and consuls, and treats the Tientsin Convention of 1858 with undisguised contempt. Under such circumstances, reticence of speech becomes a condonation of the grievances complained of, and only offers a fresh target to the musketry of Chinese craft, of which the Mandarins in power are never slow to take advantage.
In all ages and in all lands the first step towards the develop¬ ment of a country undoubtedly consists in the formation of high¬ ways, and the adoption on them of rapid, safe, and frequent means of communication adapted to the difficulties of the situation, and modified to meet the requirements of population and the exigencies of heavy transit. Nowhere in the world has this want been more thoroughly supplied, up to a certain point, than in China, inter¬ sected as that vast empire is with canals, threading together its. network of rivers, creeks, and magnificent lakes ; but, whilst the water-way in itself is superb, the boats which plough its surface are as obsolete in regard to efficiency as the people who use them are antique in their habits and ideas.
Although not as yet open to foreign vessels, the waters of the upper Yang-tsze are navigable by sea-going ships for at least 363 miles above Hankow, and fully 1,000 miles for suitable tug- steamers. It will probably be interesting, therefore, to the readers of the Food Journal to learn something concerning the food and other resources of the upper portion of this noble river, that they may be in a position to judge of the enormous trade from which the
68
The Food Journal.
[March i, 1872.
foreigner is at present excluded. Premising that when the terms right or left are used in allusion to the banks of the river the traveller is supposed to be stationed in the middle of the stream, looking towards its embouchure, we shall get on board a junk at Hankow, and proceed up the Yang-tsze Kiang.
About thirty miles above Hankow occurs a singular loop in the river, which sweeps round a curve of the same distance, the two extremities of the horse-shoe thus formed being apart from each other less than half a mile, and separated by a flat neck of land which is often flooded to the depth of a few feet. In however amiable a frame of mind the traveller may have started, at this point his temper receives its first rude shock. Consulting his chart, he sees the great curve depicted, and, leaving his junk for a time, he seems to satisfy himself that the water route across the half- mile isthmus is practicable, so he determines to jilt Farmer’s Bend, as the detour is called, and shun Ashby Island by a bold short cut. Returning and overcoming the opposition of his boatmen, the vessel is punted along until within about 100 yards of the upper reach, when it sticks fast probably on a submerged lime-kiln (a circumstance which happened to the writer on his first voyage), and his progress is delayed some hours. Here, then, is an open¬ ing for a capitalist in the good time coming. A canal of half