256 THE COOKERY OF THE PHEASANT 



custom sanctions for the goose. It is a graceful tribute 

 to the frequenter of the wheat fields, in which he laid 

 on the luscious fat and picked up his staple subsistence. 

 An old gourmand of our acquaintance used always to 

 aver that bread sauce was the best of vegetables. We 

 are far from going so far as that, and though undeni- 

 ably a good thing, very much depends on the making. 

 Simple as it may sound and seem, its satisfactory 

 projection demands talent scarcely inferior to that of 

 the scientific roaster. As you have it in almost all 

 hotels and too many clubs of the highest preten- 

 sions, it tastes not unlike the poultice it resembles. 

 The bread sauce seems to be an English fancy ; 

 the pheasant when simply roasted abroad is gene- 

 rally sent up with a service of watercress ; or some- 

 times there is a surrounding of slices of lemon, 

 as lemon is always squeezed into the gravy. The 

 lemon, as we think, comes in better when the bird has 

 been either pique (larded), or barde (enveloped in 

 bacon). Of course in the latter case you strip off the 

 covering, and certainly thefumet is not only admirably 

 preserved, but sublimated by the subdued flavour of 

 the pig. We have already spoken our mind as to 

 meritorious sauces, but in no case can we approve of 

 sauce Pdrigueux. And the crucial test is that though 

 it may commend itself to vitiated palates, there are 



