PISH SAUCES. 73 



All the relishes of the ancients were liquid sauces; 

 of solid zests, like botargue and caviare, they knew 

 nothing: and the reader being probably much in the 

 same predicament, we proceed to enlighten him, and to 

 show how they are made. The first and more delicate 

 of the two, called botargue in Italy, but ootarichos in 

 Greece, is derived, with its half-modern, half-ancient 

 nomenclature, from that country. A comparatively re- 

 cent invention, it is procured by salting within their 

 membranes the roes of several species of fish, particu- 

 larly those of the basse and the grey mullet, leaving 

 them to imbibe the brine for twenty-four hours, and 

 afterwards applying, as in the process for baking Norfolk 

 biffins, a steady graduated pressure. When all the 

 superfluous moisture is thus got rid of, they are high- 

 dried in the chimney, and stowed away in binns full of 

 bran. The above delicacy fetches a good price; hard 

 drinkers are in the habit of using it to spur a jaded ap- 

 petite, to excite thirst, and to improve the flavour of the 

 wines. Caviare is a similar preparation, of uncertain but 

 not very ancient date, devised by the people of the North 

 for like purposes, and manufactured chiefly out of the 

 roe of huso sturgeon. The process is thus described by 

 Platina : — ' Wash and clean, salt and dry the roe, then 

 again moisten it in a mixture of wine and vinegar, and 

 when soft enough to admit of easy manipulation, break 

 it up carefully with the hand, and pressing out all re- 

 dundant moisture, dry it finally in the open air, when it 

 will be fit for use.^ The best way to serve it is to hold 

 a small piece before the fire for a few seconds, melting 

 it upon toast. If too salt for use, a little washing in 

 tepid water will not impair the flavour, and it may be 

 served up thus prepared with a forced meat of pot-herbs, 

 onions, and peppercorns. The extent to which both bo- 

 targue and caviare have been patronized abroad, though 

 scarcely known but by name in England, is very great : 



