CEPHALOPODS AS FOOD. 99 



salt, bread-crumbs, saffron, and a soupcon of new honey or 

 sugar. 



" Jersey Method of Cooking Cuttle- Fish Boil them for ten 

 minutes, then take them out, and the skin will come off like a 

 glove, leaving the fish like so many sticks of horseradish. Then 

 boil them for an hour longer ; take them out and cut them up, 

 and fry them with onions. Some prefer slices of bacon fried 

 with them instead of onions, and served up with milk sauce. 

 They are plentiful about October, and large ones are sold in the 

 market at a penny each. 



" The Italians fry cuttles in oil ; they taste like skate. 



"In Normandy a dish of cuttle-fish is divided in the centre by 

 a slice of toast; on one side of the toast is a mass of cuttle-fish 

 stewed with a white sauce, and on the other, a pile of them beau- 

 tifully fried, of a clear even color, and without the slightest 

 appearance of grease. The flour of haricot-bean, very finely 

 ground, and which is as good as bread-crumbs, is added. 



" Weymouth Recipe for Cooking ''Scuttle.' 1 Cut off the head 

 and feelers, and take out the white bone ; then boil for a short 

 time till tender, general!}' ten minutes or so will suffice. It is 

 said to taste like lobster." 



Contrast these recipes with that of the cook in Alexis' " Wicked 

 Woman:" 



" Now these three cuttle-fish I have just bought 

 For one small drachma ; and when I have cut oft' 

 Their feelers and" their fins, I then shall boil them, 

 And cutting up the main part of their meat 

 Into small dice, and rubbing in some salt 

 (After the guests already are set down), 

 I then shall put them in the frying-pan, 

 And serve up hot towards the end of supper." 



Athenceus II, hk. 7, c. 1 24. 



" Good-sized polypus in season 

 Should be boiled, to roast them's treason, 

 But if early, and not big, 

 Roast them ; boiled ain't worth a fig." 



Alhen&us, DeipnosopMsts /, bk. 1, c. 8, p. 8. 



Alexis speaks thus of cooking the Teuthis: 



" I took the teuthides, cut off their fins, 

 Adding a little fat, I then did sprinkle 

 Some thin shred herbs o'er all for seasoning." 



Athen. DeipnosopMsts. 



