FOOD AND FEEDING. 481 



ducks, deviled whitebait, meringues, and Nesselrode puddings, if we 

 hadn't been so persistently overdosed in our earlier years with things 

 that we didn't want and knew were indigestible. 



Of course, in our existing modern cookery, very few simple and 

 uncompounded tastes are still left to us ; everything is so mixed up 

 together that only by an effort of deliberate experiment can one dis- 

 cover what are the special effects of special tastes upon the tongue 

 and palate. Salt is mixed with almost everything we eat — sal sapit 

 omnia — and pepper or cayenne is nearly equally common. Butter is 

 put into the peas, which have been previously adulterated by being 

 boiled with mint ; and cucumber is unknown except in conjunction with 

 oil and vinegar. This makes it comparatively difficult for us to realize 

 the distinctness of the elements which go to make up most tastes as 

 we actually experience them. Moreover, a great many eatable objects 

 have hardly any taste of their own, properly speaking, but only a 

 feeling of softness or hardness, or glutinousness in the mouth, mainly 

 observed in the act of chewing them. For example, plain boiled rice 

 is almost wholly insipid ; but even in its plainest form salt has usually 

 been boiled with it, and in practice we generally eat it with sugar, 

 preserves, curry, or some other strongly flavored condiment. Again, 

 plain boiled tapioca and sago (in water) are as nearly tasteless as any- 

 thing can be ; they merely yield a feeling of gumminess ; but milk, in 

 which they are oftenest cooked, gives them a relish (in the sense here 

 restricted), and sugar, eggs, cinnamon, or nutmeg are usually added 

 by way of flavoring. Even turbot has hardly any taste proper, except 

 in the glutinous skin, which has a faint relish ; the epicure values it 

 rather because of its softness, its delicacy, and its light flesh. Gela- 

 tine by itself is merely very swallowable — we must mix sugar, wine, 

 lemon-juice, and other flavorings in order to make it into good jelly. 

 Salt, spices, essences, vanilla, vinegar, pickles, capers, ketchups, sauces, 

 chutneys, lime-juice, curry, and all the rest, are just our civilized expe- 

 dients for adding the pleasure of pungency and acidity to naturally 

 insipid foods, by stimulating the nerves of touch in the tongue, just as 

 sugar is our tribute to the pure gustatory sense, and oil, butter, bacon, 

 lard, and the various fats used in frying to the sense of relish which 

 forms the last element in our compound taste. A boiled sole is all 

 very well when one is just convalescent, but in robust health we de- 

 mand the delights of e^g and bread-crumb, which are after all only 

 the vehicle for the appetizing grease. Plain boiled macaroni may 

 pass muster in the unsophisticated nursery, but in the pampered din- 

 ing-room it requires the aid of toasted parmesan. Good modern 

 cookery is the practical result of centuries of experience in this direc- 

 tion ; the final flower of ages of evolution, devoted to the equalization 

 of flavors in all human food. Think of the generations of fruitless 

 experiment that must have passed before mankind discovered that 

 mint-sauce (itself a cunning compound of vinegar and sugar) ought to 



TOL. XXTI. — 81 



