Tea at Trianon: On Grilling and the Love of God

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, August 9, 2021

On Grilling and the Love of God

From The Catholic Gentleman:

One of my favorite pastimes is grilling meat. While I am very much an amateur, I find the flavor of grilled meat to be far superior to meat cooked in any other way. Grilling is the polar opposite of perverse modern forms of cooking, barely worthy of the name, like heating something in a microwave. Grilling is a process, and enjoyable one at that.

I also refuse to use a gas grill, though I won’t deny their convenience. There is something authentic and even primal about cooking with hardwood charcoal. At the very least, it is certainly more challenging to control the temperature and make sure the heat is distributed easily, and I enjoy a good challenge.
Heating a charcoal grill usually involves building a pyramid shape with the coals or in placing them in a metal chimney to heat up. Sparks burst forth like small fireworks as the charcoal begins to warm and catch fire. As the fire grows, the heat is usually located in the center of the pyramid, where it increases in intensity and begins to spread outward to the coals on the periphery. Before long, all the coals are pulsing with heat, and cooking can commence.

Recently, while heating my grill to cook some chicken, I watched the warmth and light in the center of the pyramid spreading outward toward the cold, black coals on the edges. And in these warming coals, I saw a parable. For fire, with its light and heat, is never content to stay in one place. It is compelled by its very nature to spread itself as far as possible. Indeed, fire never ceases to communicate warmth and light to its surroundings—it always spreads. (Read more.)