22 French Cookery. [Jult, 



quintessence of the meat in which the casserole has carefully and cau- 

 tiously performed its duty. All the vegetable kingdom, moreover, is 

 put into play ; and turnips, carrots, celery, asparagus, onions, cloves, 

 tomata, cucumbers, lentils, chicoree, chestnuts, and (save the mark !) 

 cabbage, gently meander through and mix with the soups, into which 

 the taste or the caprice of the cAe/" shall fling them. 



Among the best, if not the best of French soups, we reckon the pure 

 des carottes ati ris — so rich, so red, and so racy. How gently does the 

 carrot appear to have insinuated itself into the bouillon, " incarnadining," 

 the multitudinous broth, and making the brown " one red" — orient as 

 the first tint of " russet-clad morn," or as the first glow of the gently 

 expanding rose. Ever dear and honoured Latter, it was at thy restaurant, 

 at the corner of the Rue Castiglione, that we last indulged ourselves, 

 even to a gentle satiety, (which cheered but did not pall) in a carrot soup. 

 Here is a soupe a la reine not at all to be despised, resembling our white 

 soup in colour, and in a great proportion of the materials it may fairly 

 rival it, if made by a good cook. To those who rejoice in croides, we 

 may remark that they are always better managed in France than in 

 England, and that they never in the former country give to the soup, in 

 technical phrase, a colour " trop ombre.''' A puree cle gibier is fit for 

 the " private eating" of any lad among them all ; but in order to make 

 it as it should be made, you must put down three pounds of shced lean 

 beef, four partridges, two pounds of veal, two pounds of sliced ham, a 

 pheasant or two, carrots, onions, four heads of celery, three cloves and 

 a small nosegay of fennel. With such materials, it must be your own 

 fault if you have not a good soup. 



In the matter of fish and in the preparing of it, as well as the dress- 

 ing, the French are inferior to the Dutch and English. ]\Iuch, but not 

 all of this, is owing to our proximity to the sea ; to the number of our 

 sea-ports ; to the fearlessness of our fishermen ; and to the rapidity with 

 which we convey the fish to market. Some of it also is due to our 

 cleanliness, and to the art of crimping, which we owe to Holland. All 

 the larger fish, be it observed, are best when simply boiled. This holds 

 good of turbot, salmon, haddock, plaice, and John Dory. In dressing 

 these one has only to follow nature ; no scope whatever is given to the 

 fancy or imagination of the cook. Hence the success of the English 

 and the Dutch. The way is plain and straightforward, and lo ! they 

 walk in it a mcrveille. Not so, however, with frying : this requires 

 taste and judgment, and accordingly, though tlie fish be on all hands 

 admitted to be inferior to the English, you eat your whiting and your 

 sole with more satisfaction at Paris, than you do in London. And 

 wherefore? Because your sole frite is more crust, and crisp, and curdy; 

 more mellow, tender, and full of juice. In truth, it appears ripe, and 

 wears the light brown, autumnal tint of dropping fruit: — 



" the embrowning of the fruit (read ^sh), which tells 



How rich, within, the soul (read sole) of sweetness dwells." 



Yet we have never eaten a turbot, even at the Rocker lancale, with the 

 same gusto as in London. The fish in Paris comes a long way by land- 

 carriage ; and land-carriage is " a whoreson destroyer" of your fish. 

 The native of the deep becomes soft and flabby, and a mere starveling 

 to what he was in the sea ; and besides a turbot in Gaul is like good 

 words sung to a " filthy tune " They give you the fish, which is the 



