Marketing
Marketing.—The following observations condensed from two series of articles in that inestimable journal The Queen, will indicate what is in season during each month of the year; they will also contain suggestions as to the best mode of marketing and the signs and symptoms by which the quality of foods may be judged. Obviously remarks on the latter heads when once made will not need repetition.
January.
Meat.—Of meats, beef and mutton are of course in season all the year round; pork only in the cold weather. Veal can be had at any time, but it is cheaper in late spring and summer; and even lamb as an article of luxury can be bought as early in the year as this. Doe venison can be bought this month. The greatest difficulty a young housekeeper has to encounter is that of going to choose meat at the butcher’s. No rules without experience in applying them are likely to be of great value. Good beef should be red, with a purplish hue where it has been lately cut. If it is very brilliant scarlet or very pale, it is not good. The fat should be opaque, not transparent, and should be abundant on the ribs and under the sirloin; there should be plenty of white or yellowish suet inside the animal, and even on the lean joints there should be specks of fat mixed up with the meat. It should not waste much in cooking, though this has to do with the stove as well as the meat, and it should not be watery—lying, for example, in a pool of moisture on the block. All this may have to do with the wholesomeness of the meat, as these are the indications to show that the animal was in good health when it was killed, and that it was not “knocked on the head to save its life.” Even for those who do not like any fat with meat, a lean joint should be ordered, not a joint that would be fat on a healthy animal. This does not apply to the preposterously fat beasts killed about Christmas time, that are scarcely in a state of health from repletion, and the meat is too rich to be very wholesome, and far too fat to be economical. The yellow colour of the fat in Christmas beef is caused by feeding on oilcake instead of green food. Then, as regards the tenderness of meat, it should be fine grained, and should not have thick strips of sinew or gristle running through it. All meat has some in some parts, of course; for instance, in the coarse end of the ribs (i.e. the ribs nearest the tail) there is a strip of gristle about 1½ in. under the skin. It is there always, and is very tough and prominent in old meat. Butchers often cut it out, and it should be cut out before cooking; but it is better still to insist on having the first cut of the ribs (i.e. the shoulder end). All these indications are, it may be easily seen, comparative rather than absolute, and an inexperienced housewife walking into a butcher’s shop will be puzzled to know exactly how red, what tinge of purple, what proportion of fat, and what thickness of gristle she is to be prepared to expect. It is for each woman to decide whether she will choose her own meat or leave it to the butcher’s choosing. At any rate, the butcher will do his part of the bargain better if he clearly understands that his customer knows good meat from second rate, and will not overlook shortcomings in quality or weight. The meat should be weighed frequently, if not invariably, and the butcher should not be allowed to send more than is ordered, or less than he charges for. Comparatively few butchers kill their own meat. They buy at the dead-meat markets such parts of such animals as they have the best sale for. A first-class butcher in a wealthy neighbourhood, only buys the best meat and the prime joints; but a butcher in a poor neighbourhood, with a low-class trade, finds a ready sale for coarser inferior meat, and in some town slums it seems as though every animal had at least 6 heads and a corresponding number of internal arrangements. The coarse meat may be perfectly wholesome; it would be in a respectable shop; but, being coarse or tough, it commands a much less price in the wholesale market, the sales at which, and the ruling prices, are quoted constantly in the daily papers. The price given is at per stone of 8 lb. Retail buyers can often make an excellent bargain in the meat markets, either by arranging with a salesman to have a certain quantity delivered once or twice a week, or by going to the market themselves. On a Saturday night, or on any night in bad keeping weather, meat of all kinds can often be bought at much less than its usual price. Against this has to be set the trouble, the value of the time, the railway fare, and the possibility of an inexperienced person being taken in.
Beef is no doubt the cheapest meat to buy. It is most satisfying, and there is least bone. The prime joints of beef, and the leg and loin of mutton are usually about the same price, and in these there is not much difference; but the cheaper joints of mutton are very bony, while the cheaper joints o£ beef can be quite solid meat with no bone at all. These solid pieces of beef are what economical people should buy, instead of ribs and sirloins, and rump, for every day household use. They are far less fat than the more expensive joints, and therefore they waste less in cutting at table as well as in cooking. Ribs of beef cut to greater advantage for a large party if the bone is taken out and the meat rolled. The cheaper joints are the thick flank, “leg of mutton piece” (part of the shoulder), the shin, clod, and sticking piece. Of these the last three are only fit for stewing or braising, as the meat is tough, though it is wholesome and nourishing. It is very suitable for economical pies and puddings, but needs separate stewing first. Of mutton the leg is most economical, though the shoulder is generally lower in price. Breasts of mutton are sometimes sold at a very low price, and may then be cheap for stewing or braising. On the whole, the fillet is probably the most economical joint of roasting veal; the breast is better fitted for stewing, but it should be considerably lower in price than the leaner and less bony joints.
Fish.—Cod is now at its cheapest; soles, more or less in season all the year; lemon soles, which are rather less round in shape, less firm in texture, and about half the price of the black soles; haddocks, skate, conger, hake, herrings, plaice, ling, all of which are among the cheapest of fish; whiting, halibut, oysters, lobsters, crabs, shrimps; with shell-fish, such as winkles, whelks, and mussels, all are in season. Turbot, smelts, brill, flounders, and sea bream, red and grey mullet, are also to be recommended. Rhine salmon puts in an appearance this month, and, taken in conjunction with early cucumber, is delicious in flavour if extravagant in cost.
Game and Poultry.—Turkey is never better than at this season; but we may recommend our readers, if they wish to taste turkey in perfection, to eschew the larger specimens, and pin their faith on a hen turkey of 7-9 lb. in weight. Among birds eaten with the trail, the golden plover is perhaps one of the best when skilfully dressed, either as a roast or en salmis. Larks, excellent either roasted, en caisses, or as an adjunct to rump-steak pudding, are also abundant; while from America are imported the savoury pinnated grouse and succulent canvas-back duck—not to be eaten except with currant jelly and celery salad. Grouse went out in December, but there remain fowls, chickens, geese, pheasants, partridges, wild ducks, hares, rabbits, capercailzies, snipe, and woodcock.
Vegetables.—Broccoli, cabbage, savoys, spinach, Scotch kale, and sprouts for green; the green part of leeks is also useful as a garnish. Celery, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, and turnips for white vegetables. Lettuce, endive, beetroot, cresses, and forced cucumbers for salad. Potatoes can be bought at 50s. to 60s. a ton, according to size and quality. There is no economy in buying very small potatoes, as even at a low price, they are dear in the long run. Small consumers will find it more economical to buy by the sack of 168 lb. or the bushel of 56 lb. They should be kept in the dark and covered so that frost cannot reach them. Every week until new potatoes come in, the old ones grow dearer, and it is more difficult to get them good. A rough skin is said to indicate a mealy potato, and a smooth skin a waxy one; but that is not a sure guide, and the best way is to boil a sample and watch the result. There are few potatoes that cannot be made good by appropriate cooking, but some are good anyhow. Salsify—better known and appreciated in France and in America than in this country—an excellent vegetable, susceptible of varied treatment at the hands of a skilful cook—is also to be obtained.
Fruit.—Not now very plentiful. American apples, by the lb. or barrel, can be had in plenty, but they are not cheap. Apple chips can be used for all cooking purposes where fresh apples are employed, and are no doubt the cheapest substitute for fresh fruit. Medlars, pears, and hothouse grapes are the only home-grown fruits. American grapes, sent over in barrels of sawdust, and oranges are so familiar that we almost forget they are foreign. This is pre-eminently the season for dried and crystallised fruits of all kinds. Old raisins (which can, of course, be bought at a much cheaper rate than any new crop) are better than new for cake and pudding making, as the skins are less tough, and large cake bakers commonly buy their year’s stock late in the season.
February.
Meat.—Beef, mutton, pork, and in a lesser degree veal are all in season, and lamb begins to appear frequently on our tables; but neither lamb nor veal has yet attained its highest flavour.
Fish.—Turbot and brill are still seasonable, and are much alike, though turbot is considered the better, and is the dearer of the two. The flesh should have a yellowish tinge, and these, like all other flat fish, should be preferred when they are thick in proportion to their size. Turbot keeps well for a few days, and should be hung up by its tail, not laid flat. Other fish are still in season that were in the markets last month. The lists of the London fish markets give the following names: Soles, plaice, sturgeon, eels, conger, skate, haddocks, sprats, halibut, herrings, whiting, mackerel, hake, roker, coal fish, smelts. As much fish is caught and brought to London that should be left in the sea, it does not follow that all the prices quoted are of fish in full season. There are names in the list quite unfamiliar to some readers, but there is not one that does not belong to a fish that, good of its kind and well cooked, is fit to set before any one. We often should fare better and save money if we lengthened our list. Codfish, haddock, plaice, flounders, and the ever-welcome sole are in fine condition, but herrings and mackerel are not to be recommended. Smelts, whitings, and red mullet are still in season. Of late years the conger-eel has taken up a position formerly denied to him, and although in bad odour, on account of his cheapness, he is not a bad fish when carefully dressed, and, above all things, makes an excellent soup. Shell-fish are scarce, dear, and—with the exception of oysters—are not so good as later in the season. Salmon is never finer than during this month.
Game and Poultry.—Game is on the wane. Grouse, pheasant, and partridge are over, and game imported from the forests of Norway and the prairies of Illinois but inadequately fills the place of our home-grown birds. In default of these come swimming and wading fowl, woodcock, snipe, and golden plover. Wild duck holds its own, and always presents an appetising morsel. Of all Lenten fowl, the curlew holds the chiefest place, and affords an admirable dish either as a roast or en salmis. The godwit is also an excellent bird. Larks are to be had, and, in default of ortolans, are agreeable if diminutive. Hares are still to the fore, and rabbit is to be obtained, and may be roasted, smothered in onions, or best of all exhibited in a curry.
Barndoor poultry waxes scarce and dear. Turkeys no longer abound as at Christmas, and guinea-fowl are found the best substitute. Spring chickens present but a diminutive appearance, while geese and ducks are becoming rare.
Vegetables.—Seakale and rhubarb can be added to the list of vegetables, but they are still costly, though before the end of the month forced rhubarb will be common.
Fruit.—Oranges are now at the lowest prices, and very plentiful. It is a time of year when bottled and tinned fruits are in great request, both for dessert and for cooking.
Apples, with the exception of the reinette and other varieties of russets, are becoming scarce. France and America, however, send us lady-apples, and a few choice pippens, such as the famous Newtown variety.
Breadstuffs.—Good flour should have a very slight yellow tinge, should not feel gritty between the fingers, and it should be adherent, so that a handful pressed together retain its shape. There should be no mouldy smell nor acid taste. The best test of all is to bake a loaf of bread, always granted that the character of the flour is not to be held liable for shortcomings of cook or yeast. The very fine and white pastry flour makes the best-looking and also delicious-tasting bread, and is much to be preferred for puff paste and rolls; but for family use seconds flour and seconds bread is better, for not only is it cheaper, but it is more nourishing, because it contains less starch and a larger proportion of bone and flesh forming material. Rice is added in making bread, sometimes because it is cheaper than flour, at other times because it retains water. Bread made so is heavier and of closer texture. Potatoes are used only in small quantity, to assist the action of the yeast. Alum enables flour to be used that without it could not make passable bread.
As it cools, bread begins to lose weight. This may be stopped by throwing a thick cloth over the loaves, but the crust thereby becomes heavy. No private person would need to do this, but as household bread is sold by weight, and every customer may demand a full 4 lb. to each quartern, or 2 lb. to an ordinary loaf, it is sometimes in the baker’s interest to do so. When bread is left at the house it is not customary to weigh it, but the humbler housekeepers who fetch their bread take care to have a slice thrown in as makeweight if the scale does not turn at 2 lb. or 4 lb. Fancy bread is never sold by weight.
It is customary to allow about 1 lb. baker’s bread a day for each person. Two people would eat a half-quartern loaf between them. Of course, individual appetites vary, and if there is great abundance of other food, the bread bill may be diminished; but (though, of course, there should be no idea of stinting the supply) 1 lb. a day is an ample allowance, and if more is consumed there is probably some waste going on, new loaves being begun before the old are finished, and pieces of bread thrown into the dustbin or hog-tub. This is as unnecessary as it is undesirable. Half a stale loaf can be made fresh by warming it through in the oven. Slices of bread should not be cut till they are needed; but if they are cut, they can be made into puddings or fritters for the nursery tea or kitchen supper, much more popular and wholesome, and no more costly, than the monotonous bread and butter and bread and cheese. Smaller pieces can be dried and pounded for cutlets or fish; soaked in cold water or milk, they come in for rissoles and stuffing.
March.
Meat.—Pork is not seasonable in hot weather, and is not often seen on table after this month. Beef, mutton, and veal are obtainable as usual, and lamb can also be had, though it will be dear for a few weeks yet.
Fish.—Slightly salted and smoked haddocks are consumed in enormous quantities in London. Fresh or smoked, they are always a low-priced fish. There is not much to be remembered in choosing such fish, except that they should be large and thick; the smaller ones are all bone and skin. They should be scalded to draw out the salt and to make them soft, a preliminary to cooking that is often forgotten.
Perhaps nothing varies in quality and price so much as fish. It must be in season, as it is always tasteless and insipid, sometimes actually unwholesome, at other times. Fish out of season should not be bought, however cheap it seems to be. It is always in best condition just before spawning, when it is filled with roe. Afterwards it loses the store of fat, and becomes poor and watery. It must be fresh, and this is not easy of detection to the inexperienced. The smell is a guide; but fish kept on ice may not smell disagreeably, yet it may have been a long time out of the water, and as soon as it is taken from the ice it will begin to decompose, and in a few hours of warm weather will be quite uneatable. It should be bright and red about the gills and eyes, not dull and brown; but this also is an appearance that the fishmongers know how to give the fish long after nature has taken it away. It should not have been knocked about or bruised; the scales should be all there. A large fish is usually to be preferred to a small one, provided it be not old and coarse fleshed, and consequently tough, for the small contain a greater proportion of bone. The flesh should, with some few exceptions, have a bluish tinge when freshly cut. It should be firm, though not tough; but the firmness has something to do with good cookery. Salt enough to make the water like weak brine, or a little vinegar, tends to make the flesh of boiled fish firm.
In choosing any shell-fish, the great thing to be considered is the weight in proportion to size. The heavier they are the better; the lighter fish are apt to be watery. Of lobsters choose those with broadest tails. The very large lobsters, hoary with white incrustations on the shell, are often old and tough.
Cod is a winter fish, flourishing best in the coldest waters. Whitebait is brought into town each afternoon for the late dinners of fashionable London, as it loses its freshness even in a few hours, especially when the warm weather of June and July comes. Smelts when fresh are brown on the back and silvery-looking. They are not so plentiful now as in late autumn.
Monday is a dangerous day to go marketing, because perishable goods may have been kept from the Saturday before. For the same reason, on Saturday night fish may often be bought very cheap, because, though it is perfectly good at the time, it will not keep for 36 hours.
All oily fish must be perfectly fresh, and they do not generally keep long or well. Salmon trout, for instance, is said never to be eaten in perfection except by the fisherman, and many cases of poisoning with mackerel have been sufficiently severe to be noticed in the papers, while mild cases of discomfort due to that cause are known to every one. Mackerel lives but a very little time after it is taken out of the water. There are two mackerel fisheries, one in the spring and one in the autumn, and the fish are sometimes sold even in London at a very low price; in the fishing villages a score or more can be bought for a shilling. Nothing like this price is to be met with in town, but yet they are among the cheapest foods as soon as the fishing boats are in full work; and tons will be sold this month and next from barrows in the streets, often excellent fish, though they cost about a quarter of what we pay at the fishmonger’s. It should be bright and silvery looking, not bruised about the head.
Of salmon, it is usual to allow about ½ lb. for each person, if a handsome piece is wanted for boiling; less will do if a large party is to be provided for, but more is needed for a dinner of 2 or 3 persons. The middle of the fish costs more than the head and shoulders, and the tail less than either. Salmon goes farther than most kinds of fish, but only very seldom is it a cheap food. A curdy appearance between the flakes generally denotes a good fish. Turbot and the smaller species of the same genus are in prime condition. Brill is an admirable fish when chicken-turbot is not to be had. Soles are firm and white as ever. Salmon, now in splendid condition, has to endure the rivalry of the dainty trout. Towards the end of the present month shad begin to ascend the Severn and some of the rivers of France. This delicate fish is never better than when simply grilled. Eels are now in season, and may be served either as a stew, a spatchcock, or à la tartare.
Game and Poultry.—Goslings are to be found, and in the opinion of many are much more agreeable in their youthful beauty than in the mature and adipose condition of stubble-fed geese. Guinea-fowl are always good, great and small, and perhaps are best when nipped in the bud as mere eggs—a delicious morsel to a delicate palate.
Very little game is to be had, and that little consists, besides hares, of aquatic birds, woodcock, snipe, plover, widgeon, and teal, together with curlew.
Vegetables.—The vegetable market shows signs of spring. Forced cucumbers appear to keep salmon company. Spring salads take the place of winter. Artichokes from France are tolerably plentiful, and that excellent vegetable—sorrel, which forms such an agreeable addition to shad or to a fricandeau, is to be seen in our markets, although at present it finds but little favour in the sight of English cooks. Covent Garden imports sweet potatoes for the benefit of American customers, and custard-apples from the island of Madeira. New potatoes, carrots, turnips and parsnips are more abundant than in the preceding month. Portugal sends green peas, and imported asparagus becomes less costly.
Fruit.—We should be badly off for fruit if it were not for oranges, which are actually cheaper than English apples in the apple season. Now is the time to make marmalade, as Seville oranges are plentiful. If oranges or any other fresh fruit have to be kept, they should be in the dark, and laid on wood, not on a plate or dish. It is better to put them in rows, and not heap them up. Grapes are still in the market, flanked by apples and pears of the most durable kinds, and early strawberries.
April.
Meat.—Grass lamb is the meat of the season.
Fish.—Whitebait is a choice natural product. It is supposed that this delicious fish can only be obtained, either “plain,” “devilled black,” or “devilled red,” in true perfection at those excellent hostelries which by its means have attained celebrity. No greater mistake exists. It is within the power of every gentleman to have as good whitebait at his own table as he can obtain elsewhere. Fresh bait, ample flouring, and boiling—absolutely boiling—lard will solve the problem in the most satisfactory manner.
Salmon is getting cheaper—if not better—and plump chicken-turbot is still in. The gigantic but rather coarse halibut remains, with plaice and flounder. Dainty brook-trout and larger specimens of the same genus, from the Irish lakes, present an agreeable spectacle; while the gurnet is in great force. Whiting is yet in season, but mackerel and herring are better later on. Oysters take their leave.
Game and Poultry.—Spring chickens, ducklings, goslings, and guinea-fowl but feebly replace the juicy birds of the autumn and winter months.
Vegetables.—Among the prime vegetables of the month asparagus holds the chiefest place, and is always delicious. To those who have not yet tasted it we may recommend cold asparagus, with plain salad-dressing, as a breakfast dish without a peer. Green peas, early French beans, seakale, sorrel, spinach, succulent mushrooms, early carrots, and baby turnips are plentiful.
Fruit.—Pines, melons, oranges, hothouse grapes, peaches, nectarines and strawberries, and a few durable apples and pears apart—fruit is scarce; but delicious tarts can be made of green peaches and apricots.
May.
Meat.—Veal and lamb are in full season, and sweetbreads are in great request. As the supply is always limited, butchers not seldom try to pass off bullock’s sweetbread—i.e. the pancreatic gland—on their customers. True sweetbread is a gland in the neck of the young animal only. This should not be tolerated, as bullock’s sweetbread is coarse-flavoured and hard, and needs long and careful washing and cooking before it comes to table. It can, however, be made very palatable with care, and is occasionally worth buying as a change, under its rightful name, and at a legitimate price. Brains parboiled in salt and water to harden them are another good substitute for sweetbreads, and offer one more change from the perpetual joint and fowls that are on every table.
Game and Poultry.—A young fowl has large feet, knees, and neck in proportion to its size, and its thighs look white or pinkish. An old one has thin, scraggy legs and purplish tinge on its thighs; the scales look hard and horny, and often there are long hairs on the skin. If the beak is on, it should be soft, and so with the breast bone, which is frequently broken by the poulterer to give the bird a plump appearance. The length and size of the claws is another indication of age; the size is little or no guide, as that depends on the variety and the feeding. The small-boned, short-legged varieties are generally said to be the best. A very fat bird is to be avoided, for it wastes much in cooking, and even what remains of the fat cannot be eaten. Birds that are kept in the dark and crammed previous to killing become very fat, but the flesh loses flavour and firmness, and they are far inferior to barndoor fowls. Cleanliness is also essential to the production of a well-flavoured fowl; the same may be said of ducks, now as ducklings to be eaten with the earliest green peas. Full-grown ducks are better in late summer or autumn. Their age can be judged from the appearance of the feet, and by the pliability of the bill. The down that covers them may be an indication of youth, but it may also be put on by the poulterer with a sprinkling of gum.
Chickens, turkey poults, ducklings, goslings, and guinea-fowl dispute supremacy, but very little is to be said for any of them. The pigeon is possibly the best bird procurable during May. Plover’s egg, always delicious, even when eaten under difficulties, seems to gain in beauty when presented in the form of an aspic.
Fish.—May is the true mackerel month. The herring too puts in an appearance during the month of May, and is a thoroughly delicate fish. The only valid accusation against the herring is on account of his innumerable bones, but this is not the true reason of his being voted unfashionable. Unfortunately, the herring is too cheap, and, in consequence of this defect, is in the habit of haunting vulgar localities, and thus excluding himself from the refined society that he is so well qualified to exhilarate.
Whiting and smelts still appear, but are practically superseded by whitebait. The Salmonidæ are in grand condition. Salmon, salmon trout, lake and brook trout prevail on our dinner-tables; but the most delicate member of the entire family is rarely seen. Either from scarcity, the distance of the lakes from the metropolis, or from some other cause, the beautiful silvery char seldom reaches London. Small as he is, he has all the richness of the salar, and possesses a delicacy all his own. Turbot now ceases, and codfish has retired. Brill, gurnet, soles, plaice, and flounders are in season. Oysters having departed, other shell-fish improve much in quality. Lobsters and crabs now lose much of the dryness that is so conspicuous a fault with them during the winter months.
Vegetables.—Vegetables are now plentiful and cheap. In warm seasons that are yet sufficiently damp they grow quickly, and the fibre is less woody and hard than that of vegetables grown in cold or dry weather. With the warm weather comes the difficulty of transport, but it is not yet so great as in July and August, when the plants are full of sap and ferment quickly under a hot sun. Gardeners have a habit of keeping vegetables for a few hours in a hot bed or greenhouse before sending them to the kitchen. They have some idea that it improves the quality—an idea that is wholly erroneous, and should be combated. Potatoes are often laid in the sun for a few hours to dry, but they should never be allowed to lie long enough for fermentation to set in. All withered vegetables should have the stalks freshly cut, and the ends should then be put in a bowl of water, just as withered flowers would be treated. Through the stalks they suck up water enough to fill their shrunken cells, and make them green and stiff once more, but to plunge the entire plant under water is a mistake, and after a few hours of such treatment the water is often perceptibly warm, and the leaves bruised and decaying. Of course this does not apply to washing vegetables and salads, which cannot be too thorough and complete, especially of the vegetables that many housekeepers buy off barrows in the streets.
Asparagus is now in great perfection, and green peas wait upon the insipid duckling. Unless young, quickly grown, freshly gathered, and properly cooked, green peas are apt to be a failure, and when four important conditions have to be fulfilled the chances are naturally against success. Summer cabbages, cauliflowers, spinach, young carrots, turnips, and potatoes are all to the fore; nor do salads fail to keep pace with these, as cabbage, lettuce, summer endive, and corn-salad are to be had in profusion.
Fruit.—The weak point of May is fruit, as almost the only good fruit that can be obtained at a reasonable price is the orange. Strawberries are to be bought for money, but in this instance the open-air-grown fruit is far preferable to the productions of the hothouse.
June.
Meat.—Lamb is now in fine condition, and, besides the ever-welcome fore-quarter, supplies admirable material for entrées of various kinds. Lamb’s head, either baked and served upon a mince or stewed with green peas, will always find legions of admirers.
On the subject of veal mankind is by no means so unanimous as on that of lamb, and in this country especially veal is generally denounced as unwholesome. Although it is unfortunately the custom to allow calves to grow unreasonably large before the day of sacrifice, and to compensate the loss of whiteness by phlebotomy, thereby losing much of the tenderness and succulence of the meat, veal is after all one of the most valuable materials for the production of dainty dishes. Calf’s head is susceptible of various treatment and the ears are esteemed choice morsels. Tongue, liver, sweetbread and feet have their several admirers. Breast of veal, either stuffed or curried, is a good dish, and so is the fricandeau well larded and served with mushrooms, peas, spinach, or—best of all—with sorrel. To the various forms of paupiettes, escalopes and cutlets there is verily no end, and to sum up its qualifications, veal makes an excellent roast. This latter remark, however, applies only to the loin. The huge mass called in English fillet of veal is one of the most tasteless and barbarous of joints.
Buck venison is in season from the middle of this month until September. It is one of those delicacies of the table that is not very often bought in the open market, and no one looks a gift horse in the mouth. Lean venison is scarcely worth eating, and is often sold at a very small price; the fat should be thick and abundant, clear and bright looking; the hoof smooth and close. In cool weather a haunch may hang for a fortnight, and it should be kept perfectly dry by wiping with cloths. Tastes, however, differ greatly as to the length of time that venison should be hung, and indeed “high” meat or game is actually in a state of decomposition, and it has been known to produce symptoms of poisoning in persons unaccustomed to its use. It begins first to decompose near the bone, and its state can best be ascertained by running a skewer into the middle of the joint.
Fish.—Lobster, whiting, trout, eels, and salmon, continue in season. The tiny Thames flounder is exceedingly sweet in flavour, and although lacking the firmness of the sole has peculiar merit of its own, either accommodated in sootje, or fried in perfect style.
Game and Poultry.—Goslings and half-grown geese—called in many country places green geese—are in season from now to September. The 29th of that month is a fixed date when every one knows that geese are in season to continue so until early spring. Ducks have no such date in their history; and, beginning in April or May as ducklings at a high price, they grow larger and cheaper all through the summer until the decline and disappearance of green peas. The age of both these birds may be guessed from the toughness of pinion, beak, and feet; from the deep orange or red colour of the feet of an old goose, those of a young bird being yellow; from the downy appearance of the feathers, and the size of the quills. A duck or goose, especially if not very young, is better for hanging a day or two, but it must not be in the least high, as the abundant fat would be rank. Rabbits, that is wild rabbits, are out of season. A few are seen in the shops, for they are not protected by game laws, but careful housekeepers know better than to buy them. Tame rabbits are fattened for market all the year round, though it is in winter that they are imported and sold in largest quantities.
Chickens are larger, and turkey poults assume respectable dimensions; but the great event of the present month is the advent of quail, wheatear, and ortolan. These delicious birds are doubly welcome at the present moment, as they afford inestimable relief from the insipid sameness of spring banquets. Of all game birds the quail is the most dainty, and combines in the highest degree delicacy of texture, beauty of form, and subtle aroma.
It is generally admitted that of all small birds the ortolan is the best, although some fastidious epicures affect to prefer the becafico and the reed-bird. Caught in great numbers in the south of France, ortolans are subjected to a preliminary process of fattening before the day of doom. Perhaps the most refined method of cooking ortolans is the traditional one of wrapping them in a vineleaf and simply roasting them. Johannesberg is the wine of all others which has the greatest sympathy with the tiny bird of the sunny south. Wheatears abound on the great South Downs of England, and these plump morsels may be dealt with in the same fashion as their foreign compeer.
Eggs.—During spring and early summer eggs are cheap and good. Those of the plover, turkey, and guinea-hen are exquisite in flavour, and always command a comparatively high price; but the productions of the barndoor fowl, the game-fowl, the bantam and Cochin China are to be obtained at a very moderate price, while the choice vegetables now in season suggest varieties of omelet but little known to the English cuisine. Eggs should be put by for winter use during this month or next. Recipes for preserving them are given on p. [117]. Fresh eggs are not easy things to choose. It is quite easy to distinguish a distinctly bad egg, because, on holding it to the light, it is seen to be opaque, and a fresh egg is transparent; but there is no such visible difference between a new-laid egg and one that is some days or weeks old. The actual difference consists in the evaporation of water and its replacement by air, so that at one end there is a large air bubble in a stale egg. This is often enough to cause a rattling of the yolk if it is shaken close to the ear. Sometimes the yolk is seen to be settled on one side. The comparative weight is a sure test, for the air is lighter than the water, and a stale egg floats in brine where a fresh one sinks; but the drawback of this test is that the salt and water are not available in the market. Dissolve 2 oz. kitchen salt in 1 pint water. When a fresh-laid egg is placed in this solution it will descend to the bottom of the vessel, while one that has been laid on the day previous will not quite reach the bottom. If the egg be 3 days old it will swim in the liquid, and if it be more than 3 days old it will float on the surface, and project above the latter more and more in proportion as it is older.
Vegetables.—Green vegetables of all sorts are now at their best. Green peas, asparagus, summer endive, spinach, and sorrel. New potatoes are plentiful, and though really inferior to the ripe tuber, are greatly preferred by many persons pretending to taste.
As is fitting in summer, salads are to be found in great abundance, and perhaps the best of these is the Cos lettuce; for plain salad or for mayonnaise of fish or fowl no better basis exists. Lobster, crab, salmon, trout, sole or chicken mayonnaises form an agreeable interlude in any repast, and the prevailing fashion of serving a plain salad with roast meat is both healthful and appetising. In all salads compounded of Cos lettuce it should never be forgotten that tarragon vinegar is indispensable, as this pleasant condiment relieves the flavour of the lettuce in the most agreeable and refreshing manner.
Fruit.—At present rhubarb and gooseberries are the only fruits available for kitchen purposes. Apricots have even descended to street barrows; they are imported, and of the hard variety generally used for cooking. By the end of the month we shall be thinking of jam, and it is not amiss to issue an early warning against the idea that damaged or over-ripe fruit is good for jam.
Early raspberries, cherries, currants, apricots, peaches and nectarines are to be obtained, but the strawberry is master of the situation. Some pretend that the flavour of the wild strawberry is superior to that of the finest cultivated varieties. Strawberries make an excellent beginning for the day, and never taste better than when plucked and eaten at once. One great advantage the strawberry unquestionably has over other fruits—it may be eaten at any time and in any quantity “without compunction.”
July.
Meat.—The fiery temperature of the dog-days renders necessary some departure from the national system of alimentation. Even the carnivorous Briton turns aside with weariness, if not absolute loathing, from huge masses of tough beef and tasteless mutton, and sighs for a break in the monotony of our insular cuisine. There is veal it is true, but the fatted calf is not relished by everybody, and grass lamb, although now in superb condition, has lost the charm of novelty, and, like salmon, is viewed askant during the torrid days of July.
Red-deer venison is the flesh of a thoroughly wild animal, and possesses a high flavour, but is unfortunately not free from a certain dryness and toughness of fibre, resulting from “too high training” or superabundance of exercise; while buck venison is a delicious compromise between the wild flavour of “beasts of venerie” and the luscious products of artificial feeding.
By many epicures the neck of a fine buck is held in almost equal estimation with the haunch. Lovers of tit-bits linger affectionately over a venison fry; this prime delicacy must be ordered of venison dealers a few days in advance, especially if the weather be very hot.
Large joints—excepting in the case of venison which is readily convertible into stews and hashes—are not to be recommended, and a recourse to “kickshaws” is almost unavoidable.
Game and Poultry.—Entrées of fowl are always dainty and wholesome. Quail and ortolan still supply the roast, which in this month receives an important addition in the leveret—the avant-courier of the game season.
A guinea-fowl well hung is the nearest approach to a pheasant that the season affords. Then there are turkey poults, green geese, ducks, wild ducks, wheatears, and plenty of poultry, besides rabbits.
Fish.—The fish for the month are salmon and salmon trout, which will not be cheaper or better than now; grey and red mullet, which was in ancient Rome prized above all fish, and is still thought a delicacy; prawns, shrimps, crayfish, most often used for soup or garnish to other fish; mackerel, still abundant, but not so good as it was some weeks ago; fresh haddocks, conger, whiting, herrings, eels, soles, plaice, turbot, Thames flounders—the cheapest of flat fish, and sometimes muddy-flavoured, though a good flounder makes not a despicable dish. A large number of ling, hake, or white salmon, coalfish, roker, and other little-known fish find their way to the less fashionable quarters of London, and are sold at a low price.
At the best tables trout take the place of salmon, while chicken-turbot and whitebait supply an agreeable variety, and the much-vilified mussel partly fills up the vacancy left by the secession of the oyster. The John Dory is now in fine condition, and yields to no fish in the sea for fineness of texture and delicacy of flavour. It is unhappily the custom to stuff the Dory with an over-rich stuffing and serve him with a potent sauce. This treatment effectually destroys the fine flavour of a fish which requires no stronger condiment than caper-sauce.
Vegetables.—Of vegetables we have a great abundance. Green peas are plentiful and cheap, and the later varieties will keep our tables supplied for many weeks yet. French beans, said to be in season when beef is in perfection, broad beans, artichokes, cauliflowers, cabbage, carrots, marrows, outdoor mushrooms if the weather is propitious, outdoor cucumbers for the next 10-12 weeks, and salad of all kinds grown quickly and crisp in summer weather, new potatoes at their best, all belong to July.
Fruit.—Walnuts should be ready for pickling at the beginning of this month. They should be so soft that a pin easily penetrates them. This is a good time to make all sorts of pickles; but it is cheaper to buy them than to buy all the materials. Ketchup can be made of the shell when the walnuts are ripe in September.
What fruit ripens this mouth depends greatly on the part of England where one looks for it. In the large markets, where much foreign fruit comes, the seasons are not definitely defined, and all sorts of fruits are to be found out of their proper season. Much, probably more than half, of the peaches and nectarines and better kinds of fruit grown for sale, are grown in houses, or at least with some protection of glass. Without it they will hardly ripen in the north of England, and everywhere the uncertainty of spring weather, and the fatality of a wet frost while the fruit is setting, make the glass almost a necessity where the crop is raised for profit.
The cry of “cherry ripe” is still familiar, and the subacid fruit is exceedingly grateful to a parched palate. Strawberries are on the wane, but raspberries, currants, and gooseberries take their place. On the good qualities of raspberry and currant tart it is needless to dilate.
August.
Game.—The great events for the fashionable and dining world during the coming month are, no doubt, the commencement of grouse shooting on the 12th, and of black-cock shooting on the 21st. At one time, when it was less customary for gentlemen to sell game, a great part of that sold in shops was obtained in some questionable manner. Perhaps even now there will be some who do not think of marketing for grouse, but wait until a present comes from friends at a Scotch or Yorkshire moor. From whatever source grouse are obtained, the housekeeper ought to know if they are old or young birds, in order to avoid the old in case of purchase, and to cook the young and hang the old in case of gift. It is comparatively easy to distinguish the two when lying side by side. The undeveloped plumage, the smooth legs, the short spur are conspicuous. The old birds are usually larger than the young, and the bones of the pinion and thigh stiffen with age. They are not so easy to distinguish apart, except by practice. The old birds not only are improved by longer hanging, but require longer to cook, so that it is better not to serve old and young on the same day. Except for this addition, the meat supply remains as for last month.
Vegetables.—Some of the summer vegetables are past their best days, but their place is speedily taken by others. Vegetable marrows can be cut and hung up for winter use, and French beans are still tender enough for pickling, though the length of time they will continue so depends on getting a due proportion of rain with summer sunshine. In dry seasons vegetables are always stringy and tough.
Fruit.—Gooseberries, raspberries, and currants will not last the month out in the warmer parts of England. Even if they are kept from the birds they drop from the trees as soon as they are perfectly ripe, and there is so much other fruit that they are not missed. Strawberries are nearly over, although a few late varieties are still fit for table. But there is no scarcity of fruit for those who have money in pocket. The market lists comprise peaches, nectarines, apricots, greengages, melons, grapes, green figs, early pear and apples, pine-apples, oranges, lemons.
Groceries.—With regard to groceries, there are two very distinct points to be debated. In the present day no hints on marketing are in any way complete without some consideration of the advantages and disadvantages connected with retail shops and co-operative stores. It will be conceded by every one that the stores are not well adapted for the sale of goods involving great latitude of choice. Nor, as a rule, have they large trade in articles of an exceptionally perishable character. Rapidity of distribution is one of the conveniences that customers at stores have decided they prefer not to pay for. Housekeepers, as well as servants, who are accustomed to have a boy to call daily for orders, and return in an hour’s time with the order, though it be only 6d. worth of sugar or 1 lb. of steak, often have an insuperable objection to the stores. The fact is that the stores make heavier demands upon their foresight than people can meet. None of us is so long-sighted in her household arrangements that she would like to be wholly dependent on the stores. The country shops exist for the benefit of even the most uncompromising adherents of the stores, and, that being so, it is just as well to remember that if no one ever deals with the shops they may some day die of inanition, and that during a slow decline they must deteriorate. It is, no doubt, a remembrance of these facts that induces many persons to deal with local tradesmen, even though they make no tangible difference in their prices for ready money. And then the competition of the stores has brought into existence the ready-money shops. Some are well known to all. There is no reason why they should not sell as well and as cheaply as the stores if they adhere strictly to the “no credit” system, if they spend no more than the stores do on rent in a fashionable neighbourhood, advertisements, ground-floor space, plate-glass windows, and such unnecessary luxuries. But the difficulty of enforcing ready-money payment is very great where the bulk of the customers are weekly wage-earners, liable to be thrown out of work at any time through ill-health, winter weather, depression of trade. It would not be necessary to insist on the want of thrift that makes these people live always on the wages of the week to come, instead of on the wages of the week gone by, if this were a habit solely confined to the uneducated classes. But it seems the ordinary custom of most persons earning limited incomes—and it is productive of so much misery that the one hint for housekeepers of all degree needing most to be pressed home is that to make a practice of paying ready money is the only way to ensure good value, either in the goods purchased or in comfort gained.
September.
Meat.—As for the meat market, buck venison goes out, and pork is again seasonable. It need scarcely be said that fresh pork is eaten all the year round by a section of the public. All meat ought to be very cheap. The highest prices for mutton always mean for Southdown, of which there is only enough to supply a small percentage of customers. Not a twentieth part of the mutton killed is Southdown, so that butchers cannot fairly quote the prices given for it as a justification of exorbitant retail prices of mutton in general. Southdown sheep carry most of their weight in the hind quarter, and the Leicester and other coarser sheep are heavier in front, and this also must be allowed for in quoting market prices, as the fore quarter is always cheaper than the leg and loin.
Ham must not be too new. The best manufacturers keep their hams for some months before they send them out; but people in a small way of business cannot afford to turn over their money so slowly, and it never would answer to keep cheap hams. If the consumer has no place to keep them, it is often possible to make arrangements to have them kept a month or two at the shop. Ham and bacon must be hung up in a warm but airy place, and they are generally tied in canvas or paper bags. They are often hung in a kitchen, which does very well if it is not too warm. There is much fashion and fancy as to choice of different parts of bacon. The streaky covering of the rib bones, corresponding to the thin flank of beef and breast of mutton, is preferred for boiling, and commands a high price, strangely enough, because that is one of the cheapest parts of other meat. A leaner part is the back, or part of the gammon. The cheapest is the fore hock or fore end, for boiling or family use. Part of the thick flank is very good for boiling. To choose bacon, a knife or skewer should be run in close to the bone, and, when withdrawn, should have no strong, rancid smell. The bacon should not have yellow, “rusty” patches.
Game and Poultry.—Partridge-shooting begins with the month. Much the same hints must be given to distinguish old from young as for grouse. The tough, hard beak is characteristic of last year’s birds; the under half of the beak breaks or bends if a young bird is held up by it. There is also in the breast plumage of an old bird a mark shaped like a horseshoe. They should have dark-coloured bills and yellowish legs. French partridges, with the beautiful grey and brown plumage, are not considered so good eating; they are slightly larger.
September witnesses the advent of the stubble-goose in all the glory of sage and onions and apple-sauce, but many prefer gosling, or tender adolescent “green” goose, to the plump stubble-fed bird. This animal must of course be roasted to get rid of his superabundant fat; but in Ireland a curious dish, called a goose-pie, is often consumed by the robust inhabitants, and boiled goose is sometimes eaten in the rural districts.
Fish.—Net-fishing ended last month, but line-fishing still goes on. Good takes of herring are reported from the Scotch coast, and before the month is out the Cornish fishermen will be drawing their harvest of pilchards from the sea, packing and curing them for foreign exportation. This yearly exportation of pilchards is one of the unaccountable food customs of England. We send them to the Mediterranean, and we import sardines in oil. Sardines are eaten everywhere, and yet the two fish are so much alike that many persons believe them to be the same in different stages of growth; and in appearance and flavour they both strongly resemble herrings, which are eaten in England far more than any other fish. It is said of herring, pilchard, and sardine, that if you hold them up by the dorsal fin, one tilts its head up, the other its tail up, and the third swings even.
Oysters are again in the market. Small ones with fairly smooth shells are the best, though it may be advisable to buy the larger and less delicate fish at a lower price for scalloping or cooking.
In a country admirably supplied with lobsters the tiny crayfish cuts an insignificant figure, except in the eyes of those who by foreign travel have become awakened to its rare merit. To be thoroughly appreciated, the crayfish should be eaten hot, and “accommodated” à la bordelaise.
Among true fishes grey mullet holds the chiefest place during the present month. This excellent fish may be cooked in various ways—boiled, broiled, or au vin blanc. John Dory holds his position, but salmon is gone and codfish is hardly yet in season; turbot and brill are good in September, and the latter fish is no insignificant rival to the turbot.
Vegetables.—This month sees many of the winter’s potatoes out of the ground, and stored in a dry dark place for winter. In choosing them it should be remembered that large deep eyes cut to waste. Champions, for instance, are good, but on this account not economical. A rough-skinned potato is generally floury; but there are many exceptions to this rule. Small potatoes are seldom economical, even at a low price, the waste in peeling being so great. The best way to try them is by cooking a few in various ways.
As the golden tints of summer are succeeded by the brown hues of autumn, a certain falling off in vegetables begins to make itself felt; but ripe potatoes, scarlet tomatoes, creamy cauliflowers, and abundant artichokes console us in some measure for the asparagus, peas and beans of earlier days. Summer salads are scarce, while the celery and endive of winter have not yet appeared. Cold cooked cauliflower makes an excellent salad, and potato salad is well known in America and in Germany. The comparative cheapness of artichokes at this season is a strong inducement to indulge in one of the most delicate of all possible salads. Cut up and served either with plain salad dressing, or better still with a rich mayonnaise, artichoke bottoms present a delicious dish, and if a little cooked and finely minced truffle be added, the salad gains much in elegance and flavour.
It is a delusion to suppose that the small button mushrooms are the only variety worthy of careful cookery. The huge field mushrooms are excellent when toasted and eaten for breakfast, with a little pepper, salt, and butter, and a slice of well-made dry toast.
Fruit.—Stone-fruit of all kinds is to be had in abundance. Peaches and plums, apples and pears, form the basis of many charming tarts, pies, and puddings. West Indian pines are to be bought at a low price, and as the tropical fruit lacks the high flavour of hothouse fruit, it is perhaps eaten to the best advantage when sliced and dressed with wine, sugar, and a little orange or lemon juice. Magnificent melons of all sizes, shapes, and colours, from the huge green rosy-hearted water melon, and the rocky-looking Dutch variety to the elegant “cantelupe,” the dainty “nutmeg,” the recherché “green fleshed,” and the tiny “golden drop.” In this country it is but too common to regard the melon simply as a dessert fruit, to be eaten with sugar and accompanied by wine. Eaten in this way the melon is excellent; but perhaps the true use of the melon, like that of most fruits, is to form the initial dish of the day. In America it is customary to begin breakfast with a melon seasoned with pepper and salt.
The apple crop is commencing in most parts of the country; but winter apples will not be picked until quite the end of the month.
Buying at the Stores almost necessitates buying in large quantities. Whether it is wise to do this more than one is compelled must depend to some extent on the facilities for keeping groceries. If they are anything tolerable, it will not be amiss to give a large order for necessaries at the beginning of the month or quarter, when last month’s earnings or income have just been paid. Some groceries improve by keeping, as, for instance, candles and soap, which harden by exposure to the air, and so do not waste in use.
Many others are no worse for keeping. Under this head come all the groceries that are sent out in air-tight tins and bottles, and these are also delightfully independent of a bad store-room; and the greater number of the rest will keep without harm in wood or earthenware for any reasonable length of time. The things that do harm with keeping are those that are artificially dried, such as oatmeal and maize meal, which readily take up moisture from the surrounding air and turn bitter. Salt, and, to some extent, sugar, have the same disagreeable absorbent power, but they can easily be dried, and return to their former condition. Cheese is another thing that improves with keeping in a damp place, or closely covered; but, as the process of ripening is really a careful cultivation of mites and mould, and, as mould is fatal to most food, it is not wise to buy a store of cheese and keep it in the store-room.
To choose groceries is not always an easy thing. One would need to qualify for a buyer in the grocery trade to do it well. But a few hints every one can pick up, and every one will find useful. The quotations in the daily newspapers will not help us much, for those paragraphs bristle with trade terms, and are barely intelligible to the outsider. A grocer selects sugar by the taste and smell; to the average housekeeper all sugars smell alike. Mites are common in moist sugar, less so in crystallised, and they may be detected by dropping a pinch into water; the sugar sinks and the mites float. Presently the sugar dissolves, and the sediment may fairly be taken for sand or other adulterant. The profit on the sale of cane sugar has of late been extremely small; in fact, cane sugar has often during the past year sold for less than it cost to bring it to England. The chief adulterant used is grape sugar, which is made from starchy matter. Grape sugar has much less sweetening power than cane sugar—5 parts of the former doing the work of 3 of the latter—and it crystallises with difficulty. The sugar prepared from beet, of which much is used in England, is cheaper, and therefore it also may be said to be used as an adulterant, when it is passed off for cane sugar; but the two sugars nearly resemble one another, and there is no reason to suppose that beet sugar is unsuitable for preserving. There is, however, this difference in the two sugars—i.e. that the treacle drained off from beet sugar has an unpleasant flavour, and so cannot be used as cane treacle is. Lump sugar and crystallised sugar are least likely to be adulterated, and are therefore better to buy than ordinary moist sugar.
Rice is sold under many names. Aracan is the lowest priced, and that grown in Rangoon is not much dearer. Patna rice is recommended for curries, because it is said to keep its shape better when boiled, and occasionally Carolina, which is very large grained, is spoken of. True Carolina is seldom met with in this country; there is but a limited supply, and little of that leaves America; selected Patna does duty under its name. The rice that swells most in cooking is the best. Rice is like potatoes, and different sorts develop different tendencies, and need different treatment. Good Rangoon is generally cheapest for household purposes, and good rice broken is more advantageous than inferior rice whole. Tapioca used to be an article of luxury, but is now as cheap as sago, which it strongly resembles in taste and nourishing power. Corn-flour can always be recommended. To ensure having a genuine article it is well to order the brand of an established house.
October.
Meat.—The grosser viands, supplied by the butcher, are in great perfection. Beef, mutton, and veal are all to be recommended, and lamb has been replaced by pork. Esteemed coarse and indigestible by many, the flesh of youthful swine yet possesses rare merits.
Game and Poultry.—Pheasants come into the market. Ude says they should “be eaten when blood runs from the bill, generally 6-7 days.” Cooked quite fresh, they have not much more flavour than a fowl; but the time of keeping depends on the weather. In damp, warm weather nothing keeps long or well. The birds should be plucked just before cooking; always hung in the feathers. The development of the spur in the cock bird, and of the wing feathers in both cock and hen, show the age. The hen is smaller, but generally thought better.
Hares are plentiful. Many are brought from abroad. The average weight of a hare is about 5-7 lb., but it is not a suitable dish to serve for a large party, as, except for the slices on either side of the back, there are no choice morsels to be carved from a hare. There are few dishes that it is so hard to carve well. An old hare should be well hung, and jugged rather than roasted. It may be distinguished from a young one by its size, by the much-spread cleft in the upper lip, by the rough and blunted claws, and by the comparatively small size of the knee joints. A hare should hang some time, “better not paunched or skinned, but if paunched, it should be wiped inside every day, and sprinkled with pepper and ginger.” Some persons advise that an old hare should lie for a time in vinegar and water. Vinegar always has the effect of softening the fibres of meat, and so making it less tough. It is for this reason that vinegar is often added to boiled meat or stew.
Rabbits are also very plump and good, and barndoor poultry is abundant. Capons, ducks, geese, and young turkeys crowd the markets. By no exercise of the culinary art can the tame duck be made to rival her wild compeer, but she is nevertheless very toothsome when “accommodated” aux olives.
Fish.—Among the fishes of the present month may be found John Dory, grey mullet, and red mullet. During October turbot is very fine. A sigh of regret must, however, be exhaled over the persistence of English people in accompanying this delicate fish with the rich stew popularly known as lobster sauce. Hollandaise sauce and caper sauce are much to be preferred, for one reason among others, that they permit the epicure to taste the fried smelts or fried oysters, with which every turbot should be served.
Smelts, soles, whiting, skate, eels, and the famous Dublin Bay haddock are now in season; but although codfish is supposed to be “in” from September to March, the true gourmand will reserve the pleasure of discussing that magnificent dish—cod’s head and shoulders with oyster sauce—until at least November. Sea bream, a fish in good condition during the autumn and winter, only requires to be properly understood and properly dressed to be thoroughly appreciated.
Vegetables.—Potatoes need be covered only when there is fear of frost; but they must never be exposed to the sun, especially when they are washed and freed from the particles of earth that cling to their skins. They should be turned over, and any diseased ones picked out from time to time.
The common way of buying potatoes is by weight or by measure. Small consumers almost always buy by weight, but it is not in any way a good plan. It is dear. 2d. a lb. is not an uncommon price; 9s. a bushel is almost unheard of. Last year it was easy to get very fair potatoes at 1s. 6d.-2s. a bushel of 56 lb. There must be few households where a bushel of potatoes could not be eaten while they were good, and they would keep very well in a sack at the bottom of a cupboard, if no better placed offered. In larger quantities they can be had cheaper than by the bushel. Just as with carrots, or onions; they are cheapest soon after they are dug out of the ground; and carrots keep well in any outhouse or cellar that is fairly dry, stacked a few inches from the ground, and covered when the frost comes. Per bushel the price is very moderate; but they make a considerable item in housekeeping expenses when they are bought one or two at a time from the greengrocer’s stall. Onions are even easier to keep, for they do not dry up as carrots are apt to dry in the kitchen cupboard, nor sprout so soon as carrots if they are too damp.
Vegetables are also sold by the sack or by the stone of 8 lb. Local customs vary much. The actual weights and measures are standard the same over all the country; but what is sold by weight in one county is sold by measure in another. One needs be a ready reckoner to turn pounds into gallons, stones into bushels or sacks, quarts into pecks. And it is easy to see that a given measure does not contain the same weight of any two things. A gallon nominally holds ⅛ of a corn bushel, which is 7 lb. Practically a gallon measure of fruit may weigh anything over 5½ lb. Sometimes though the measure is spoken of, the weight is given. Of course, the larger the fruit, the less advantageous to the purchaser to measure instead of weigh. The disadvantage may be enough to compensate for the great waste of small potatoes, small apples, or other fruit.
To pass over the truffle when discussing the luxuries of October would be an unpardonable omission. The diamonds of the kitchen are never in more superb condition than at present. On their immense value, from their faculty of communicating an incomparable flavour to everything with which they are associated, it is needless to dilate. France rejoices in no less than 4 species of truffles; and of these priority of place is universally granted to the black truffle of Périgord.
Apart from the important position occupied by truffles in sauces, salads, farces, and entrées, the truffle possesses the admirable faculty of enhancing the flavour of Burgundy about fifty per cent.
With the exception of peas, beans, and asparagus, almost every vegetable is in season. Artichokes, tomatoes, aubergines, cardoons, cauliflowers, Brussels sprouts, and winter spinach may all be had.
Fruit.—Lovers of fruit may rejoice in late peaches and plums, early apples and delicious pears. Grapes are also abundant; and the advent of ripe walnuts is enthusiastically hailed.
Plums can be kept many weeks if wrapped in thin paper and laid singly on wood. Damsons and bullaces hang through the early frost, and can be kept through November, laid out on wooden trays. They are besides the most suitable fruit for bottling and preserving for tarts, and are greatly in demand, and generally much dearer than cooking plums.
Mulberries and blackberries are plentiful, but the former travel so ill that they have not much place in the markets. Blackberries are seldom sold except in country and seaside towns. The American blackberry, having a larger and fuller-flavoured fruit, and more serrated leaves, has been introduced into this country, and promises to be a valuable addition to our list of autumn fruits.
The best way of keeping ripe nuts is in an earthenware crock covered, in a cellar, where they remain quite moist up to Christmas. Those who have forgotten to make walnut pickle in July can turn the shells into good ketchup now.
Chestnuts are generally sent to our markets from abroad, and, there being little demand for them except as luxuries, they are dear. The Spanish chestnut grows and ripens well in many parts of England; but most of the trees are valued chiefly for their ornamental appearance, it not being worth while to plant trees for the sake of the nut harvest.
November.
Fish.—At the head of the fish list is the cod, which has never quite disappeared from the market, though its season is from November to March. It is best in cold, frosty weather, and caught in high latitudes. The Dogger Bank is the fishing ground best known by name, but there are several different species brought to the London market, which perhaps accounts for the great variety in the quality of this fish. A thick head, red gills, bright eyes, flesh bronze-shaded where it is cut, are all indications of a good and fresh fish. It should besides be elastic to touch, with a stiff back and tail, which shows that it is likely to be firm-fleshed. It will crimp only when it is very fresh. The sound and liver are both esteemed. Cod liver is a very suitable food to buy for an invalid, if it should happen to be relished, as it is both nourishing and digestible.
The following are mentioned as fish in season; Barbel, brill, carp, cod, dace, eels, haddocks, herrings, ling, perch, pike, plaice, skate, smelt, soles, sprats, tench, whiting, cockles, mussels, crabs, lobsters, oysters. In this country fresh-water fish do not form an important article of food. Their excellence depends almost entirely on the character of the stream in which they are caught. Like all fresh-water fish, the larger they are the better. Shell-fish are also among the foods that vary most according to special conditions of their life. Well-known instances of mussels having proved poisonous when taken from the copper sheathing of an old pier, and of shrimps that caused symptoms of poisoning because they were caught at the outlet of a sewer, have originated a belief that to eat any cheap shell-fish is dangerous to health. But there seems no foundation for the belief.
Meat.—There is nothing new to be said about meat this month. Beef, mutton, veal, doe venison, pork are in season. Small pork, with a thin rind, a fair amount of fat, finely-grained lean, and small bones is to be chosen for roasting; bacon pork is fatter and larger. The quality of pork depends on the food that has fattened it.
Game and Poultry.—Birds are never more plentiful than in November. Partridges, pheasants, grouse, wild duck, teal, plover, dotterel, woodcock, snipes, widgeon, ducks, geese, turkeys, fowls, are all in season. The best turkeys are said to be fattened in Norfolk. At any rate, most persons will agree that those fed and fattened in England are preferable to those sent from Ireland, France, or Belgium. The number consumed in England at Christmas is very much greater than the number fattened in this country. The best indication of youth is the absence of spur and the smooth skin, soft and silky to touch, which with age becomes hard and wrinkled. As to plumpness, that may be felt by the breast and thighs. It is not quite easy to see if a fowl is plump, for either it has its feathers on or else it is trussed, and the skill of the poulterer is used to give the bird its best possible appearance. With this aim it is pressed into a round plump shape, a thin layer of fat is laid over the breast, known as the leaf, and supposed to come out of the bird, but quite as often fetched from the butcher’s shop, and even white down is powdered over and secured with a little gum. A hairy turkey, with reddish or purplish thighs and back, is likely to be old, so is one of unusually large size. The chief attainment of a successful poultry breeder is to get size and youth together, but it is only the successful who accomplish it.
Partridges and pheasants are much cheaper than last month. It is no longer quite so easy to distinguish old birds from young, as the plumage is gradually developing. One sign of youth is that the penfeathers are pointed in a young, rounded in an old bird. It happens very often that wild duck, widgeon, teal, and sometimes the common plover are sold at a very low price in the London markets, or are hawked about the streets. All these birds are apt to be coarse-flavoured, rank, and fishy. It is rare that a widgeon is anything else. Teal is the best of the three, and a good wild duck is not to be despised. The most of them are caught in the fens of Lincolnshire, where they abound. All these birds have soft pliable legs and feet while they are fresh, and the legs very soon dry and stiffen. They should be eaten as fresh as possible, for keeping only develops the oily flavour. Of plovers there are two kinds, the golden and the grey, the latter being the commoner and the former the better kind. Neither is so commonly seen on fashionable tables as plovers’ eggs, for which, however, the eggs of other semi-aquatic birds are often substituted.
Coals.—A few words about coals may not be unacceptable to some housekeepers. They always last longer if they are kept in a well-ventilated coal-cellar. Shut up, they give off gas, which helps forward their speedy consumption, and is also unwholesome to the inmates of the house. Country people cannot do better than keep the coals out of doors—that is, if they can so arrange that they are not likely to be stolen to any large amount. If they are wetted, so much the better, for they burn slower, and make less dust. By far the cheapest way is to have a truckload (about 7 tons) direct from the colliery; in that way they cost several shillings a ton less. The coalheaver is one of those public functionaries who comes in for a good share of general abuse. As coals are sold by weight, the most obvious way of delivering short measure is by wetting them, when a given bulk weighs more. It is also easy to fill the sacks less than full. A respectable coal merchant would not lend himself to any such practices. Of course, with connivance of the servants, it is easy to deliver any quantity of coals a sack or two short; but that might equally be said of any other goods. Coke helps much to economise coal, and should be purchased of the gas company. Briquettes made of coal-dust are very cheap and most enduring fuel; they are sold by special agents.
December.
Meat.—All meats are in their primest condition in this month.
Game and Poultry.—Barndoor poultry specially challenges attention during the present month. Deliciously plump, fat, well-fed capons come from the Eastern counties.
To the enormous turkeys so popular at Christmas-tide we cannot accord unqualified admiration, as they are terribly apt to be dry and tasteless—not to say stringy. Smaller turkeys than those in fashion at the present moment yield a far greater amount of satisfaction. Perhaps the best way to deal with a turkey of exaggerated dimensions is to boil and serve it with celery sauce or oyster sauce, both excellent accompaniments to any kinds of boiled poultry.
Towards the end of the month doe venison puts in an appearance. Hares and wild rabbits are still very good, and even tame rabbits, when very fat, are by no means to be despised. Rabbits are often sold skinned and trussed for table, and in that state they are not so easy to choose well. The claws should be smooth and sharp, the knee joints large, the ears soft; when it is old its fur turns grey. If fresh it will be supple and moist, with a blue tinge on the flesh. Wild rabbits have more flavour; tame are whiter, fatter, and more delicate. Fowls, geese, pigeons, teal, turkeys, widgeon, wild duck, larks, ortolans, partridges, pheasants, plovers, quails, snipe, woodcock, and swan are all in season just now, and at no time is there so much choice of birds. Pigeons vary much; to waste and to fatten is with them only the work of hours. They should not be fully fledged when they come to table, and the fillets should be bright red; when old these darken to purple and the legs are thin.
Grouse are getting scarce, and are but feebly replaced by capercailzie and ptarmigan. Partridges and pheasants are still in prime condition, and all sorts of water-fowl are in great abundance. Woodcock and snipe, having had ample time to recuperate after their migration, are now superbly plump, while to those who cannot afford such expensive luxuries the golden plover affords a tolerable substitute. The lark also affords a toothsome morsel.
Fish.—Codfish is now in its prime; the perennial sole still appears in many shapes on well-appointed tables; while sturgeon, turbot, skate, whiting, and the delicious smelt contend for notice. Red mullet also charms the eye and palate.
Vegetables.—The vegetable world, albeit less generous than in the summer months, still affords sufficient luxuries. Brussels sprouts, spinach, savoys, and Scotch kale, rival in tenderness the excellent greens so much sought after at Christmas. Carrots are still good; while cardoons and salsify—a root which has curiously enough, like cardoons, dropped out of fashion in England—are also to be obtained. Radishes, endive, and beetroot supply salads, and celery is in prime condition.
Forced seakale and beans are already in the market. Broccoli, parsnips, celery, artichokes, turnips, leeks, onions, sorrel, beet, winter salads, are the commonest vegetables.
Fruit.—For fresh fruits we have apples and pears home-grown, and apples, oranges, tomatoes, grapes from abroad, and hothouse pineapples and melons. In dried fruits the choice is endless. Raisins, currants, and sultanas are but three names given to many different kinds of dried grape. They should be plump and moist, and have few or no stones in their skins. Large cake-makers often pour boiling water on them to make them swell and look plump in the cake. The relative prices vary a good deal. As a rule, currants cost less than raisins or sultanas; but then they are not so nourishing nor so sweet, and they do not go so far. The best raisins are generally sold on the stalks for table fruit, and they are to be preferred for cooking. From raisins one passes by an easy transition to almonds. Jordan almonds are about double the price of the Valencia, which, however, serve very well for many purposes. The best are long and oval-shaped, the commoner kind rounder and flat. Bitter almonds come from Mogador. Peach nut oil is often used to flavour in their stead, but should be used with great care, as it is a poison; indeed, many persons cannot eat anything flavoured with bitter almonds, even though the flavouring is not at all strong. Green almonds and pistachio nuts are very much liked by some persons, but they are not imported in large quantities, possibly because they soon turn rancid.
All kinds of French and Portuguese plums are said to improve by keeping. The various kinds of tinned fruits have, to some extent, driven these out of popular favour.
Supplementary Literature.
F. R. Hogg: ‘Indian Notes.’ London. 1880. 5s.
Dr. R. Riddell: ‘Indian Domestic Economy and Receipt Book, with Hindustan romanized names; comprising numerous directions for plain wholesome cookery, both Oriental and English; with much miscellaneous matter, answering all general purposes of reference connected with household affairs likely to be immediately required by families, messes, and private individuals residing at the Presidencies or out-stations.’ Calcutta and London. 8th edition, 1877. 6s.
The Queen. London, weekly. 6d.