614 ANCIENT COOKERY. 



HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 



ANCIENT COOKERY. 



Very often is a history locked up in a word. It is certain that the words 



in which our ancestors expressed their thoughts come down to us and help 



to influence our thoughts. The structure of our language has been greatly 



influenced by the ancient languages, and the Greek and Eoman classics are 



considered so important that they are made textbooks in our schools. Is it 



not possible that our cookerj^ may also have the same stamp, and that as 



unconsciously as we press into service the classic thought and the classic 



word, we may also follow the classic taste in classic recipe ? As our words 



have come down to us in mother tongue from generation to generation, as 



the son speaks like his sire, so the daughter cooks like her mother, using 



styles and condiments, dishes and recipes, that her mother used before her. 



Where did they originate? So far as our observation goes, women are 



not given to devising new dishes. It is true that changes come, perhaps 



through accident, perhaps through stress of circumstances, but often with 



as little thought as might be given to the gradual change of a word. But 



f classical literature has had an important influence on our modes of thought, 



s it not much more probable that classical cookery may have had quite as 



mportant an influence on our modes of living, and through them upon our 



health? 



We have reason to believe that primeval cookery was exceedingly simple. 

 Our first glimpse of it is in the patriarchial tent of Abraham, where Sarah 

 kneaded "fine meal" and made cakes upon the hearth, which were served 

 with the dressed calf and butter and milk. For aught we can see in the 

 text, the patriarch himself cooked the calf, and if he did so, he was justified 

 by noble company. His own grandson is represented as making a pottage 

 so seductive as to beguile his brother of the birthright The heroes of Homer 

 did their own cooking, Achilles turned the spit. Their exact methods of 

 cooking are not very carefully recorded, and it is probable that the women 

 did the most of the culinary work, yet the mention of many such circum- 

 stances seems to indicate that it was done with very little art and upon 

 occasion by those who needed it. Roasting meat before the fire or seething 

 it in a pot, and baking cakes in the hot ashes on the hearth were probably 

 for ages the highest achievements in that line — wholesome cookery indeed ! 

 Shall we say that it were better if we had never departed therefrom ? Is it 

 true that man in this respect, in his best estate, is a barbarian, or shall we 

 take the results of a long experience in waywardness and learn how to come 

 back to nature intelligently and permanently ? 



The first gross violation of nature we find in the leaven which apparently 



