63 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



had recourse toj baking, boiling, grilling, frying, or stew- 

 ing, according to their kind. The extempore sauces 

 employed in the stewpan were very Tarious; and that 

 indefatigable gourmet, Apicius, has left a volume of re- 

 ceipts for making them, highly creditable to his taste 

 and memory. They are chiefly of an agrodolce* cha- 

 racter, and some are almost identical with that far- 

 famed, thick, graveolent gravy, in which wild-boar and 

 porcupiae are stiU stewed down throughout Italy — con- 

 stituting, in fact, the national dish. In this farrago li- 

 belli of Apician receipts, the following ingredients, vari- 

 ously combined, constantly occur: — wine, musk, vinegar, 

 oU, honey, raisins, nuts, pine-kernels, almonds, lemon 

 and orange juice, spices of divers kinds, bread, cheese, 

 eggs, and a variety of pot-herbs, particularly parsley, 

 iharjoram, rosemary, and rue. 



We shall cite here but one receipt for cooking, en 

 papillottes; if the reader wants more, we refer him to the 

 ancient. Soyer himself: — 



Mix mint, pennyroyal, cummin, peppercorns, bruised nuts, and 

 honey; pound all together, and of the mixture make a stuffing; 

 fill your fish with this, stitch up the opening, then WTap inpaper, 

 and fry in oil over a moderate fire. Pour over it some alec and 

 serve. 



Thus the practice of dressing fish en papillotes ob- 

 tained before such paper as we have was known. What 

 would not these Romans have given for a single quire 

 of British Bath, in days ere French paper-manufacturers 

 had established themselves along the banks of the no 

 longer ' taciturn Liris,' and the Carteia di Fibreno, the 

 present usual affix of the stationers in southern Italy, 

 was a signboard yet undreamt of? The Eomans how- 



* Agrodolce, as its name imports, is a blending of sweets and 

 sours, and is made by stewing in a rich gravy, prunes, Corinth 

 currants, almonds, pine-kernels, raisins, vinegar and wine. 



