1831.] French Cookery. 21 



customs of St. Petersburgh, Vienna, and Paris speak in favour of this 

 practice ; but our own opinion is, that when one is really sure of a good 

 dinner, the eating of oysters is a fraud on the appetite. At all events 

 these light troops should only be allowed to skirmish in the stomach in 

 small numbers, and their impetuosity should be restrained by a quantum 

 sufficit of vln clc Grave Montrachet or vin de PouiUy — or better still by a 

 glass of dry IMadeira, Johanisberg or Hockheimer. As to the Chablis — 

 ■which is drank in France with oysters, for our own parts we have always 

 thought it a petty-larceny liquor. 



To soup let all honour and glory be due. It is liquid meat ; and if 

 good of its kind would create a soul under the ribs of death. Of soups, 

 according to the best authorities {yaclvxAmgBotdllons, Purees, and Potages) 

 there are 127 "i the Cuisine Frangaise. Of these, however, the best 

 are as follows : Pure des CaroUes au Ris, une bisque d'ecrivisses, une 

 jMiage a la reiiie, vne julienne, anx pointes d'asperges, and un consomme de 

 volatile. ]Mock-turtle, ox-tail, and hare soup one can have in France, 

 but, with the exception of the latter, they are rarely suitable to our 

 English taste. 



It has long been a question with us, whether the French or English 

 soups claim the pre-eminence ; and even as yet we are unable to come to 

 a decision; but there can be no doubt that the French must bear away 

 the palm on the score of variety, if they do not obtain it on that of ex- 

 cellence. Though it must be admitted that a good, ox-tail is a strong, full 

 bodied, mellow soup, yet it will also be conceded that it is often in Eng- 

 land too highly seasoned, and fitted only for the palates of those 

 ■whose lives have been gently saddened under a tropical sun. A mock- 

 turtle soup, when well made, is better, to our taste at least, than a real 

 turtle — and this is a dish which is rarely, if ever seen, in a genuine French 

 house. Mock-turtle may, however, be obtained at Paris, at Mountain's, 

 an English pastrycook in the Rue Mont Tabor ; and also at Ibbotson's, 

 a Scotchman's in the Rue CastigUone. Hare soup is a dish worthy Diana 

 herself. We have eaten it in a rough and home-spun state in Scotland, 

 and found it marvellously recruiting : but we have never found it palmy 

 and perfect except at Paris. There only have Ave discovered the alembi- 

 cated essence of hares, who had the good fortune to be took on the 

 sunny banks of Falromey, or the heights and fastnesses of Dauphirte ; of 

 hares who, even when grated in the pipkin, gently simmered forth, 

 for " even in our ashes live our -wanted fires," the satisfaction which they 

 felt at the noble uses to which they were turned. When, however, 

 we have enumerated the three last-named soups as the products of 

 England, we fear that our " occupation" is wholly " gone." True, one 

 hears of gravy soup and mutton broth, but these are in general so exe- 

 crably bad, unless at the first private houses, that they may be very fitly, 

 and not at all too severely, denominated hog's-wash. There is another 

 soup (pea), which we hope may last as long as the v/ooden walls of Old 

 England ; but that is only to be had good on ship-board, and we would 

 almost undergo a tossing in the Bay of Biscay, to obtain such a plate of 

 it as we have had the honour of eating off Douglas, Isle of I\Ian, on 

 board his majesty's yacht the Royal Charlotte. 



The soups of France, though not so strong and seasoned, or spicy as 

 those of England, are infinitely more various, light and succulent ; if 

 we except an English white soup made by a first-rate artiste. The 

 French bouillon, too, is generally better, and contains the very soul and 



