[306-*] Probably a contraction of “haut ragoût.”
[308-*] The proverb says, “Of all the fowls of the air, commend me to the shin of beef; for there’s marrow for the master, meat for the mistress, gristles for the servants, and bones for the dogs.”
[309-*] The remotest parts of the world were visited, and earth, air, and ocean ransacked, to furnish the complicated delicacies of a Roman supper.
“Suidas tells us, that Pityllus, who had a hot tongue and a cold stomach, in order to gratify the latter without offending the former, made a sheath for his tongue, so that he could swallow his pottage scalding hot; yea, I myself have known a Shropshire gentleman of the like quality!!”—See Dr. Moffat on Food, 4to. 1655.
“In the refined extravagance of the tables of the great, where the culinary arts are pushed to excess, luxury becomes false to itself, and things are valued, not as they are nutritious, or agreeable to the appetite, but in proportion as they are rare, out of season, or costly.”—Cadogan on Gout, 8vo. 1771, p. 48.
[309-†] “Cookery is an art, appreciated by only a very few individuals, and which requires, in addition to a most studious and diligent application, no small share of intellect, and the strictest sobriety and punctuality.”—Preface to Ude’s Cookery, p. 6.
[310-*] This suet is not to be wasted: when it comes from the oven, take out the beef, and strain the contents of the pan through a sieve; let it stand till it is cold; then clarify the fat as directed in [No. 83], and it will do for frying, &c.
[312-*] If you have no broth, put in half a pint of water, thicken it as in the above receipt, and just before you give it the last boil up, add to it a large spoonful of mushroom catchup, and, if you like, the same quantity of port wine.
[313-*] “It must be allowed to muse gently for several hours, inaccessible to the ambient air, and on the even and persevering heat of charcoal in the furnace or stove. After having lulled itself in its own exudations, and the dissolution of its auxiliaries, it may appear at table with a powerful claim to approbation.”—Tabella Cibaria, p. 47.
[313-†] “‘C’est la soupe,’ says one of the best of proverbs, ‘qui fait le soldat.’ ‘It is the soup that makes the soldier.’ Excellent as our troops are in the field, there cannot be a more unquestionable fact, than their immense inferiority to the French in the business of cookery. The English soldier lays his piece of ration beef at once on the coals, by which means the one and the better half is lost, and the other burned to a cinder. Whereas, six French troopers fling their messes into the same pot, and extract a delicious soup, ten times more nutritious than the simple rôti could ever be.”—Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, vol. vii. p. 668.