Italian gluttony always gave a cold reception to this dish, which they owed to the Greek cooks, and which their magiric writers have not sufficiently studied.
Aristotle knew of two species of scate;[XXI_167] Pliny speaks of them;[XXI_168] Lacépède enumerates thirty-nine species.[XXI_169]
That celebrated naturalist, Buffon’s pupil and competitor, assures us that several eastern nations consider the smoke arising from the eggs of scates, thrown on burning coals, and inhaled by the mouth and nostrils, as an excellent remedy against intermittent fever.[XXI_170] It would cost but little to make the experiment.
SALMON.
It is reported that the salmon was thus named on account of its frequent leaping.[XXI_171] It has been sung by Ausonius.[XXI_172] Its absence left a chasm in the delights of Greece, and it was late before it became known in Rome. Pliny is the first of Latin authors who name it.[XXI_173] Ichthyophagy will cherish the memory of this laborious author. He speaks with praise of the salmon taken in the Garonne and Dordogne. He extols those of the Rhine, but he seems to give a decided preference to those magnificent fishes covered with a silvery mail, which disport in the limpid waters of that picturesque and beautiful Aquitaine.[XXI_174][L]
Two centuries ago, there was such a great quantity of salmon taken in the rivers of Scotland, that, instead of being considered a delicate dish, it served commonly as food for servants, who it is said, stipulated sometimes, that they should not be obliged to eat that common, tasteless aliment more than five times per week.[XXI_175]
SEPIA, or, CUTTLE-FISH.
Pliny has extolled the constancy of conjugal affection in the cuttle-fish, and the courage with which the male defends his companion in the moment of danger.[XXI_176] The poet Persius describes its flight, protected by the thick, black liquid with which it blinds its enemies. Apicius, struck more by its succulent qualities, opens this fish, empties it, and stuffs it with cooked brains, to which he adds raw eggs and pepper; he then boils it in a seasoning of pepper, alisander, parsley seed, and cooked wine, mixed with honey, wine, and garum.[XXI_177] Thus prepared, the cuttle-fish passed at Rome as an estimable dish, and which might be offered at an unpretending repast.