THE COOKING OF VEGETABLES. 



369 



THE COOKING OF VEGETABLES. 

 By Dr. Bonavia, F.R.H.S. 



I think it wiH perhaps be best if I first give some reasons why, in modern 

 times, it is an advantage to devote more attention to the Art of Cookery 

 than was the case in former days in the United Kingdom. 



In times gone by, the very justly famous " roast beef of Old England " 

 required only so much art in the cook as to ensure its being done "to a 

 turn," for when so treated it was the choicest, the most delicious, and 

 the most satisfying kind of food one could possibly obtain in civilised 

 life. This beautiful article of olden times required neither sauces nor any 

 form of condiment to make it palatable. When nicely roasted, its own 

 exquisite juice and its own streaky fatness, with the addition of an honest 

 Potato, were all that was required to make it a repast fit to place before a 

 king. It is possible that such a delicious viand is still to be met with at 

 the banquets of the Lord Mayor of London, and other such like feasts to 

 which persons of distinction may be invited. This superb roast beef was 

 perhaps even more exquisite when eaten cold next day. 



But what is the case now, at all events, where ordinary mortals are 

 concerned ? I shall briefly give my own experience. On one occasion I 

 was staying for some time in a London boarding-house. The roast 

 beef the residents got was the most tasteless I had ever eaten. It was 

 imported frozen beef one day, and imported frozen mutton the next. 

 Then came Christmas, and the landlady was inspired to give her boarders, 

 as a very great treat, a joint of " prize beef," from one of the oxen exhibited 

 at the Islington Show. It was veritably a " great treat ; " for a bit of the 

 famous "roast beef of Old England " had for once made its appearance 

 again on the table. In Worthing, as in most places also, nothing but 

 invasion beef and mutton can be had ; at one Christmas, however, a 

 butcher rashly undertook to show us what " prize beef " was like, and so 

 I had an opportunity once more of obtaining a piece of the " old article," 

 and truly delicious it was. Unfortunately, the butcher never repeated 

 the experiment. 



The fact is, it does not pay breeders and butchers to supply first-class 

 beef or mutton in competition with the shiploads of frozen meat that 

 come from various quarters. In the Standard of May o, 1003, it is 

 stated that in 1870 imported beef and mutton were in proportion of 7 lbs. 

 per head of the whole population ; now it is 84 lbs. per head. Imports 

 have lowered prices and profits, in some years perhaps to well-nigh 

 vanishing point. 



How they managed matters 300 years ago is more than one can tell. 

 Mr. Harrison Weir, in ' Our Poultry,' p. 279, says that 800 years ago, in 

 London, the best pig or goose could be had for sixpence, a capon for 

 threepence, and a chicken for one penny. In France they have a fowl — the 

 "pouiarde " — which is the most exquisitely flavoured bird, when properly 

 cooked, that I have ever tasted. Nothing like it is to be had in this 



