Another favourite dish at the tables of our forefathers, was a PIE of stupendous magnitude, out of which, on its being opened, a flock of living birds flew forth, to the no small surprise and amusement of the guests.
“Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie;
When the pie was open’d, the birds began to sing—
Oh! what a dainty dish—’t is fit for any king.”
This was a common joke at an old English feast. These animated pies were often introduced “to set on,” as Hamlet says, “a quantity of barren spectators to laugh;” there is an instance of a dwarf undergoing such an incrustation. About the year 1630, king Charles and his queen were entertained by the duke and dutchess of Buckingham, at Burleigh on the Hill, on which occasion Jeffery Hudson, the dwarf, was served up in a cold pie.—See Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting, vol. ii. p. 14.
The BARON OF BEEF was another favourite and substantial support of old English hospitality.
Among the most polished nations of the 15th and 16th centuries, the powdered (salted) horse, seems to have been a dish in some esteem: Grimalkin herself could not escape the undistinguishing fury of the cook. Don Anthony of Guevera, the chronicler to Charles V., gives the following account of a feast at which he was present. “I will tell you no lye, I sawe such kindes of meates eaten, as are wont to be sene, but not eaten—as a HORSE roasted—a CAT in gely—LYZARDS in hot brothe, FROGGES fried,” &c.
While we are thus considering the curious dishes of olden times, we will cursorily mention the singular diet of two or three nations of antiquity, noticed by Herodotus, lib. iv. “The Androphagi (the cannibals of the ancient world) greedily devoured the carcasses of their fellow-creatures; while the inoffensive Cabri (a Scythian tribe) found both food and drink in the agreeable nut of the Pontic tree. The Lotophagi lived entirely on the fruit of the Lotus tree. The savage Troglodyte esteemed a living serpent the most delicate of all morsels; while the capricious palate of the Zyguntini preferred the ape to every thing.”—Vide Warner’s Antiq. Cul. p. 135.
“The Romans, in the luxurious period of their empire, took five meals a day; a breakfast (jentaculum;) a dinner, which was a light meal without any formal preparation (prandium); a kind of tea, as we should call it, between dinner and supper (merenda); a supper (cæna), which was their great meal, and commonly consisted of two courses; the first of meats, the second, what we call a dessert; and a posset, or something delicious after supper (commissatio).”—Adam’s Rom. Antiq. 2d edition, 8vo. 1792, p. 434 and 447.
“The Romans usually began their entertainments with eggs, and ended with fruits; hence, Ab ovo usque ad mala, from the beginning to the end of supper, Horat. Sat. i. 3. 6; Cic. Fam. ix. 20.
“The dishes (edulia) held in the highest estimation by the Romans, are enumerated, Gell. vii. 16, Macrob. Sat. ii. 9, Martial. v. 79, ix. 48, xi. 53, &c., a peacock (PAVO), Horat. Sat. ii. 2. 23, Juvenal. i. 143, first used by Hortensius, the orator, at a supper, which he gave when admitted into the college of priests, (aditiali cænd sacerdotii,) Plin. x. 20, s. 23; a pheasant, (PHASIANA, ex Phasi. Colchidis fluvio,) Martial. iii. 58, xiii. 72, Senec. ad Helv. 9, Petron. 79, Manil. v. 372; a bird called Attagen vel-ena, from Ionia or Phrygia, Horat. Epod. ii. 54, Martial. xiii. iii. 61, a guinea-hen, (avis Afra, Horat. ib. Gallina Numidica vel Africana, Juvenal, xi. 142, Martial, xiii. 73); a Melian crane; an Ambracian kid; nightingales, lusciniæ; thrushes, turdi; ducks, geese, &c. Tomaculum, (ἁ τεμνω,) vel Isicium, (ab inseco;) sausages or puddings, Juvenal. x. 355. Martial. 42. 9, Petron. 31.”—Vide ibid. p. 447.
That the English reader may be enabled to form some idea of the heterogeneous messes with which the Roman palate was delighted, I introduce the following receipt from Apicius.