STUEdEON. 471 



spiced; unless, indeed, it be the same roes converted 

 into red or black caviare; the liver, too, is excellent, 

 though requiring a little gall mixed with it, to overcome 

 its sweetness, and prevent cloying the stomach. Cuvier 

 confirms Albertus' opinion as to the taste of the flesh, 

 which he compares to French veal, the very best of 

 meat ; and this, though a high, is not an undeserved 

 comphment. 



Platiaa considers ' chine of sturgeon delicately salted, 

 just as it reddens under the operation, as the ne plus 

 ultra for an epicure/ It is to be put into a stew-pan, 

 and kept constantly moist with a basting of oil and 

 vinegar, and when thoroughly impregnated with this 

 mixture, to be served up in the same sauce. The same 

 author, who recommends a short delay before cooking 

 when the sturgeon is fresh, prefers stewing to any other 

 mode of dealing with it. ' For this purpose,' says he, 

 ' place your fish in equal parts of water, wine, and vine- 

 gar, with a sprinkHng of salt, and simmer over a slow 

 fire as long as if it were veal.' The proper condiment 

 to serve with sturgeon so cooked is a white sauce, fla- 

 voured with ginger ; or an onion sauce, mixed with 

 French mustard, which is itself a composition very mild, 

 and by no means like our biting Durham meal. Kent- 

 man rejects aU white and recommends a brown sauce, 

 made up of sugar, pepper, ginger, cloves, a handful of 

 Corinth currants, and the pulp of any dried fruits, cher- 

 ries, plums, or grapes, etc. Some eat it, like Pubhus 

 Gelo, with 'shrimp' sauce; and this was probably a 

 usual mode with ancient traiteurs of celebrity in Rome's 

 sturionic days, when this fish was carried round to the 

 guests at banquets with an accompaniment of flutes and 

 trumpets, by attendants wearing crowns. 



