Host and Guest

by A. V. Kirwan

On the table spread the cloth,

Let the knives be sharp and clean,

Pickles get and salad both,

Let them each be fresh and green.

With small beer, good ale, and wine,

O ye gods! how I shall dine!”

I by no means mean to imply that our neighbours, the French, have not a greater variety of ways of dressing their roasts for first and second courses than we have; all I mean to assert is, that our simple roasting of venison, beef, mutton, and game, is better than the French. The material to work upon is incomparably better. Toujours perdrix, however, is sure to pall on the palate, and our object should be to vary our mode of dressing these excellent materials. Till schools of cookery become more general, it will not be safe for a host, with an ordinary plain cook, to set before his guest a filet de bœuf, sauce à la poivrade, a salmi of partridge, or a filet de canard sauvage.

It would even be a dangerous experiment in many cases to essay a loin of veal à la Béchamel, fillets of fowl à la tartare, a common fricassée of chicken, or a braized saddle of lamb à la jardinière.

It is perhaps unnecessary to say that pork, veal, and lamb should be done well; turkeys and fowls should have no red in them, but game should be somewhat underdone.

I have already said that the time necessary to roast a joint depends on a variety of circumstances, of which an experienced male or female cook will be the best judge. The following table, however, very nearly approximates to the exact time, supposing a coal fire to be employed:—