- Take three pounds of beef, beat fine in a mortar,
- Put it into the swan—that is, when you’ve caught her.
- Some pepper, salt, mace, some nutmeg, an onion,
- Will heighten the flavour in Gourmand’s opinion.
- Then tie it up tight with a small piece of tape,
- That the gravy and other things may not escape.
- A meal paste (rather stiff) should be laid on the breast,
- And some “whitey brown” paper should cover the rest.
- Fifteen minutes at least ere the swan you take down,
- Pull the paste off the bird that the breast may get brown.
THE GRAVY
- To the gravy of beef (good and strong) I opine
- You’ll be right if you add half a pint of port wine;
- Pour this through the swan—yes, quite through the belly,
- Then serve the whole up with some hot currant jelly.
- N.B.—The swan must not be skinned.
This poem has been attributed to Mr. George Keech, chef of the Gloucester Hotel at Weymouth—of course a famous breeding place for swans.
The following recipe for making a “soft” cheese is said to be by Dr. Jenner:—
- Would you make a soft cheese? Then I’ll tell you how.
- Take a gallon of milk quite fresh from the cow;
- Ere the rennet is added, the dairyman’s daughter
- Must throw in a quart of the clearest spring water.
- When perfectly curdled, so white and so nice,
- You must take it all out of the dish with a slice,
- And put it ’thout breaking with care in the vat,
- With a cheese-cloth at bottom—be sure to mind that.
- This delicate matter take care not to squeeze,
- But fill as the whey passes off by degrees.
- Next day you may turn it, and do not be loth
- To wipe it quite dry with a clean linen cloth.
- This must be done you cannot well doubt,
- As long as you see the whey oozing out.
- The cheese is now finished, and nice it will be,
- If enveloped in leaves of the green ashen tree.
- Or what will do better, at least full as well,
- In nettles just plucked from the bank of the dell.
In praise of the best food in the world—plain British roast and boiled—Mr. G. R. Sims has dilated in his weekly columns; a verse from his perfectly correct and strict “Ballade of New-Time Simpson’s” is well worth quoting:—
They do not call the saddle “selle”
That you with currant jelly eat;
Boiled fowl’s not à la Béchamel.