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Article ENGLISH DIET IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. ← Page 3 of 5 →
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English Diet In The Seventeenth Century.
names , yet not one has ever been taken in the manner—apprehended with" Th' innocent milk in its most innocent mouth ;" and for its kitchen virtues , hear Doctor Muffett : — "In Hippocrates " time , the hedgehog was not of the best account among the Grecians , which he commended for an excellent nourishment . Nay ( as some
affirm ) it nourishetli plentifully , procureth appetite ancl sleep , helps consumption , palsy , dropsy , stone , and convulsion . " Thus , many of the evils done by pig are undone b y hedgehog : ancl yet Monsieur Cochon is stuffed with savoury stuffing , and served in state , being to that end reared with tenderness , when Clod Eschinus is " knocked over the mazzard" with a knobstick , and calumniated , dies in a ditch . But the original sin of the hedgehog is its liness—to that crime is traceable its
ug bad name : it is the victim of its scurvy coat . It matters not that it does good service to the husbandman , clearing the fields of worms ancl caterpillars , nay , sometimes killing snakes—it is charged with milk-stealing , and though it be guiltless of a drop , it is killed , and rots with a bad name . Such is the work of calumny ! However , if we are the means of rescuing even one hedgehog from destruction , we have not writ in vain !
FOWLS . —Doctor Muffett tells us that Caius Firmius , being recovered of a fever by chickens' flesh , in the eleventh year after the second Carthaginian war , made a law that nothing but chickens or pullets fed in the camp should be brought to him at his meals . "We moreover learn that Boleslaus , the Duke of Silesia , deeming cock-chickens the only heroic food , did eat " thirteen at a meal . " The Doctor recommends that they be sauced with " sorrel and sugar , or with a little butter and
grape verjuice . " CAPONS . —Muffett is loud in his praise of these " of seven or eight months' age" before all meats . However , all capons are not alike excellent : mark the distinction made by the Doctor . "To cram capons or any bird , and to deprive them pf all li ght , is ill for them and us too " And then the Doctor exclaims , " Great is the diversity betwixt a crammed—I may saya strangled and captive caponand betwixt a
, , gentleman capon , feeding himself fat without art . " Next for the etymology of capon . Muffett likes that of Fritagius best of all . " Caponem dieimus , quasi caput omnium . '" " Wecall it a capon , " saith he in the Latin , " because it is caput omnium , the head or chief of all other meats "
PEACOCKS . —These are to be stuffed with nettles , and then buried in sand , or hung in a cold dry place , with a great weight at their heels . Plutarch reports that an old cock , or an old peacock , or any hard flesh , hanging but one night on a fig-tree , waxeth very tender by morning . GEESE . —We here light upon a fact which we earnestly recommend to the attention of Shakspearean commentators , though we cannot but regret that that amusing race of discoverers and wits is become almost
extinct . However , sure we are , that hacl some of these ingenious men been acquainted with Jason Pratensis , we should have had a flood of light let in upon the crooked character of Sh y lock . For Jason Pratensis , as quoted by Muffett , says , " that tlie Jews have so hard a flesh , so foul a skin , so loathsome a savour , and so crooked conditions , because—they eat so many geese ! Indeed , their exceeding watchfulness , miserly disposition , and blackness of flesh , argue a melancholick constitution ; yet being taken whilst they are young , green-feathered ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
English Diet In The Seventeenth Century.
names , yet not one has ever been taken in the manner—apprehended with" Th' innocent milk in its most innocent mouth ;" and for its kitchen virtues , hear Doctor Muffett : — "In Hippocrates " time , the hedgehog was not of the best account among the Grecians , which he commended for an excellent nourishment . Nay ( as some
affirm ) it nourishetli plentifully , procureth appetite ancl sleep , helps consumption , palsy , dropsy , stone , and convulsion . " Thus , many of the evils done by pig are undone b y hedgehog : ancl yet Monsieur Cochon is stuffed with savoury stuffing , and served in state , being to that end reared with tenderness , when Clod Eschinus is " knocked over the mazzard" with a knobstick , and calumniated , dies in a ditch . But the original sin of the hedgehog is its liness—to that crime is traceable its
ug bad name : it is the victim of its scurvy coat . It matters not that it does good service to the husbandman , clearing the fields of worms ancl caterpillars , nay , sometimes killing snakes—it is charged with milk-stealing , and though it be guiltless of a drop , it is killed , and rots with a bad name . Such is the work of calumny ! However , if we are the means of rescuing even one hedgehog from destruction , we have not writ in vain !
FOWLS . —Doctor Muffett tells us that Caius Firmius , being recovered of a fever by chickens' flesh , in the eleventh year after the second Carthaginian war , made a law that nothing but chickens or pullets fed in the camp should be brought to him at his meals . "We moreover learn that Boleslaus , the Duke of Silesia , deeming cock-chickens the only heroic food , did eat " thirteen at a meal . " The Doctor recommends that they be sauced with " sorrel and sugar , or with a little butter and
grape verjuice . " CAPONS . —Muffett is loud in his praise of these " of seven or eight months' age" before all meats . However , all capons are not alike excellent : mark the distinction made by the Doctor . "To cram capons or any bird , and to deprive them pf all li ght , is ill for them and us too " And then the Doctor exclaims , " Great is the diversity betwixt a crammed—I may saya strangled and captive caponand betwixt a
, , gentleman capon , feeding himself fat without art . " Next for the etymology of capon . Muffett likes that of Fritagius best of all . " Caponem dieimus , quasi caput omnium . '" " Wecall it a capon , " saith he in the Latin , " because it is caput omnium , the head or chief of all other meats "
PEACOCKS . —These are to be stuffed with nettles , and then buried in sand , or hung in a cold dry place , with a great weight at their heels . Plutarch reports that an old cock , or an old peacock , or any hard flesh , hanging but one night on a fig-tree , waxeth very tender by morning . GEESE . —We here light upon a fact which we earnestly recommend to the attention of Shakspearean commentators , though we cannot but regret that that amusing race of discoverers and wits is become almost
extinct . However , sure we are , that hacl some of these ingenious men been acquainted with Jason Pratensis , we should have had a flood of light let in upon the crooked character of Sh y lock . For Jason Pratensis , as quoted by Muffett , says , " that tlie Jews have so hard a flesh , so foul a skin , so loathsome a savour , and so crooked conditions , because—they eat so many geese ! Indeed , their exceeding watchfulness , miserly disposition , and blackness of flesh , argue a melancholick constitution ; yet being taken whilst they are young , green-feathered ,