Friday, September 7, 2012

Eighteenth Century French Cuisine

From an Englishman's point of view. (Now this is delightful.)
The markets at Nice are tolerably well supplied.  Their beef, which comes from Piedmont, is pretty good, and we have it all the year.  In the winter, we have likewise excellent pork, and delicate lamb; but the mutton is indifferent.  Piedmont, also, affords us delicious capons, fed with maiz; and this country produces excellent turkeys, but very few geese.  Chickens and pullets are extremely meager.  I have tried to fatten them, without success.  In the summer they are subject to the pip, and die in great numbers.  Autumn and winter are the seasons for game; hares, partridges, quails, wild-pigeons, woodcocks, snipes, thrushes, beccasicas, and ortolans.  Wild boar is sometimes found in the mountains;  it has a delicious taste, not unlike that of the wild hog in Jamaica; and would make an excellent barbecue, about the beginning of winter, when it is in good case:  but, when meager, the head only is presented at tables.  Pheasants are very scarce. (Read entire post.)
Share

1 comment:

The North Coast said...

What a great post- made me hungry just to read it. It strikes me that Smollet and others of that time not only had pretty varied diets, but know where their food came from, while we moderns often have NO IDEA where the processed stuff we buy in supermarkets comes from.