24 French Cookery. [^July, 



and bettei' dressed too, than in England. You have a green salad — a 

 sallad of cucumber — a sallad of beet-root with celery, and a salade de 

 chicoree. All these are moUified under the hands of an ingenious and 

 judicious artist by the force of one sage maxim — II fuut avoir la salade 

 bienjaligue. What a word isfoliguc I How perfectly pure, idiomatic, 

 and untranslateable ! How difficult to pay such a " coinage of the 

 brain" in hard specie ! 



Vegetables come in under the head, entremets ; and here, too, French 

 superiority is great. The choux-f.eurs an Jus and the ciils d'artickaux d 

 Valleinande, are significantly tender and nutritive ; but it is in spinach that 

 French science more broadly glares out. The management of spinach is, 

 indeed, a primary test of a scientific artiste, and under the hands of so 

 dear and valued a person, we could dine on spinach any day for a month 

 to come. Of the dessert we shall say nothing, but in the coinpottes 

 and hons-bo7is, the Gauls beat us hollow. 



Among the vegetables we had well nigh forgotten mushrooms — the 

 delightful champignons an sauce blanche, which Nero called the flesh of 

 the gods. How smooth and easily do they glide " in tartareo specu !" 

 their transit is soft and velvety to the palate, and the sensation may be 

 compared to treading on a bed of odorous flowers. 



But we have detained the reader too long from the works under 

 review. 



The first of these, the Phi/siologie du Goiit, is the production of 

 Brillat Savarin, and had at Paris a remarkable success. The style 

 is often quaint and humorous ; and now and again full of learned 

 conceits. It is a mesne between the manner of our Sterne and Mon- 

 taigne. 



It is, however, more a theoretical than a practical work. It treats 

 of the senses, of taste, of appetite, of the nutritive qualities of viands, 

 and their chemical effects ; of sleep, of diet, &c. Interspersed are 

 various elucidatory anecdotes, and separate chapters are accorded to 

 fish, game, truffles, wines, coffee, chocolate, &c. In such a work of 

 course there must be a deal of surplusage, but we have found in it 

 much that is new : and which might be profitably introduced into our 

 cookery books, whose barbarous simplicity — for instance, " Take a 

 hare," " take a leg of mutton," — is still persevered in, to the shame of 

 well instructed natives, and to the wonder of all foreigners. 



The Code Gourmand is a vif and pleasant little work, and may be 

 pronounced perfect in its kind. It treats of every thing concerning 

 the " Re cebar,ia," and of many other things to boot. We have a 

 chapter on invitations, on the manner of serving, on the guests, on 

 toasts, on table songs (des Chansons de TableJ, on awkwardness, on 

 story tellers, &c.j on the manner of behaving to the persons next you, 

 &c., and there are thre? long chapters on breakfast, dinner, and supper. 



Le Cuisinier Roi/ale, is a most useful and practical work, adapted to 

 all ranks. It contains 1,100 receipts, all excellent in their way, and 

 prefixed are nine plates, with designs, to facilitate to the tyro the serving 

 of a dinner of from twelve to sixty com t'er/*. Le Cuisinier Koi/ale is a 

 work which should be in every family. 



There remains but La Cuisiniere de la Campagne et de la Ville, which 

 should be the manual of good managers. This work contains the 

 practice of carving, simplified by excellent plates. In it may also be 

 found directions for arranging and building a cellar, and rules for 



