After this historical deduction of the Ars coquinaria, which I have endeavoured to make as short as possible, it is time to say something of the Roll which is here given to the public, and the methods which the Editor has pursued in bringing it to light.
This vellum Roll contains 196 formulæ, or recipes, and belonged once to the earl of Oxford [50]. The late James West esquire bought it at the Earl's sale, when a part of his MSS were disposed of; and on the death of the gentleman last mentioned it came into the hands of my highly-esteemed friend, the present liberal and most communicative possessor. It is presumed to be one of the most ancient remains of the kind now in being, rising as high as the reign of king Richard II. [51]. However, it is far the largest and most copious collection of any we have; I speak as to those times. To establish its authenticity, and even to stamp an additional value upon it, it is the identical Roll which was presented to queen Elizabeth, in the 28th year of her reign, by lord Stafford's heir, as appears from the following address, or inscription, at the end of it, in his own hand writing:
'Antiquum hoc monumentum oblatum et missum
est majestati vestræ vicesimo septimo die mensis
Julij, anno regni vestri fælicissimi vicesimo viij ab
humilimo vestro subdito, vestræq majestati fidelissimo
E. Stafford,
Hæres domus subversæ Buckinghamiens.' [52]
The general observations I have to make upon it are these: many articles, it seems, were in vogue in the fourteenth century, which are now in a manner obsolete, as cranes, curlews, herons, seals [53], porpoises, &c. and, on the contrary, we feed on sundry fowls which are not named either in the Roll, or the Editor's MS. [54] as quails, rails, teal, woodcocks, snipes, &c. which can scarcely be numbered among the small birds mentioned 19. 62. 154. [55]. So as to fish, many species appear at our tables which are not found in the Roll, trouts, flounders, herrings, &c. [56]. It were easy and obvious to dilate here on the variations of taste at different periods of time, and the reader would probably not dislike it; but so many other particulars demand our attention, that I shall content myself with observing in general, that whereas a very able Italian critic, Latinus Latinius, passed a sinister and unfavourable censure on certain seemingly strange medlies, disgusting and preposterous messes, which we meet with in Apicius; Dr. Lister very sensibly replies to his strictures on that head, 'That these messes are not immediately to be rejected, because they may be displeasing to some. Plutarch testifies, that the ancients disliked pepper and the sour juice of lemons, insomuch that for a long time they only used these in their wardrobes for the sake of their agreeable scent, and yet they are the most wholesome of all fruits. The natives of the West Indies were no less averse to salt; and who would believe that hops should ever have a place in our common beverage [57], and that we should ever think of qualifying the sweetness of malt, through good housewifry, by mixing with it a substance so egregiously bitter? Most of the American fruits are exceedingly odoriferous, and therefore are very disgusting at first to us Europeans: on the contrary, our fruits appear insipid to them, for want of odour. There are a thousand instances of things, would we recollect them all, which though disagreeable to taste are commonly assumed into our viands; indeed, custom alone reconciles and adopts sauces which are even nauseous to the palate. Latinus Latinius therefore very rashly and absurdly blames Apicius, on account of certain preparations which to him, forsooth, were disrelishing.' [58] In short it is a known maxim, that de gustibus non est disputandum;
And so Horace to the same purpose:
'Tres mihi convivæ prope dissentire videntur,
Poscentes vario multum diversa palato.
Quid dem? quid non dem? renuis tu quod jubet alter.
Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumque duobus.'
Hor. II. Epist. ii.
And our Roll sufficiently verifies the old observation of
Martial—ingeniosa gula est.
[Addenda: after ingeniosa gula est, add, 'The Italians now eat many things which we think perfect carrion. Ray, Trav. p. 362. 406. The French eat frogs and snails. The Tartars feast on horse-flesh, the Chinese on dogs, and meer Savages eat every thing. Goldsmith, Hist. of the Earth, &c. II. p. 347, 348. 395. III. p. 297. IV. p. 112. 121, &c.']
Our Cooks again had great regard to the eye, as well as the taste, in their compositions; flourishing and strewing are not only common, but even leaves of trees gilded, or silvered, are used for ornamenting messes, see No. 175 [59]. As to colours, which perhaps would chiefly take place in suttleties, blood boiled and fried (which seems to be something singular) was used for dying black, 13. 141. saffron for yellow, and sanders for red [60]. Alkenet is also used for colouring [61], and mulberries [62]; amydon makes white, 68; and turnesole [63] pownas there, but what this colour is the Editor professes not to know, unless it be intended for another kind of yellow, and we should read jownas, for jaulnas, orange-tawney. It was for the purpose of gratifying the sight that sotiltees were introduced at the more solemn feasts. Rabelais has comfits of an hundred colours.
Cury, as was remarked above, was ever reckoned a branch of the Art Medical; and here I add, that the verb curare signifies equally to dress victuals [64], as to cure a distemper; that every body has heard of Doctor Diet, kitchen physick, &c. while a numerous band of medical authors have written de cibis et alimentis, and have always classed diet among the non-naturals; so they call them, but with what propriety they best know. Hence Junius '[Greek: Diaita] Græcis est victus, ac speciatim certa victus ratio, qualis a Medicis ad tuendam valetudinem præscribitur [65].' Our Cooks expressly tell us, in their proem, that their work was compiled 'by assent and avysement of maisters of phisik and of philosophie that dwellid in his [the King's] court' where physik is used in the sense of medecine, physicus being applied to persons prosessing the Art of Healing long before the 14th century [66], as implying such knowledge and skill in all kinds of natural substances, constituting the materia medica, as was necessiary for them in practice. At the end of the Editor's MS. is written this rhyme,