A Scratch Team of Essays, Never Before Put Together; Being Reprints from the Quarterly and Westminster Reviews, on the Kitchen and the Cellar Thackeray Russia Carriages, Roads, and Coaches (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883. Excerpt: ... tion in relation to their food and wines. W omu that it were in our power to say that there has been since that day real progress as well in that Art as in the Science of Cookery in England It would be unreasonable to expect that material prosperity should bring in its train the plain and See "Quarterly Review" article on "Gastronomy and Gastronomers," in July 1835, and article on Mr. Walker's "Original," in February 1836. simple refinement of taste due to other conditions than those of mere wealth. Our present object being entirely practical, we do not propose to go into the history of cookery. Nor, indeed, is it necessary to do so; for it would be difficult, if not impossible, to improve on the general sketch, given by the author of the "Art of Dining," of the history of cookery from the earliest period up to 1789; and his account of the celebrated cooks of the Empire and the Restoration is one of the most interesting contributions to the literature of the subject. A glance'at the present state of gastronomical science will show us that the French, while still very perfect in it, are scarcely on a par with their forefathers of the period of the Restoration; nor shall we accept the Cafe Anglais, the Cafe Voisin, good as its cellar is, still less the Maison Doree of the present day, in place of the Freres Provengaux, Philippe's, and Ve'four's of the past. If we turn northward to Belgium we shall find much that is good in cooking and eating known, if not universally practised, whilst in reference to wine the Belgians surpass all other countries in their intimate acquaintance with, and accurate knowledge of, the best vintages of Burgundy. In Great Britain we may hope that we are on the path of progress, some elements of race not unfavourable to gastronomi...