Aldrich
Dean Aldrich was a Doctor of Divinity, and the great master of logic at Oxford. His name is attached to the following verses, which are however only a translation :- There are, if I do rightly think, Five reasons why a man should drink :
Good wine, a friend, or being dry, Or lest you should be by-and-by, Or any other reason why.
The real author was a Romish priest, who wrote in Latin,- Si bene commemini, causæ sunt quinque bibendi :
Hospitis adventus; præsens sitis; atque futura; Aut vini bonitas; aut quælibet altera causa.
Allemande It is something to know that such cogent reasons for drinking are sanctioned by masters of logic and of theology. ALEXANDER or ALISANDER. - This plant is almost forgotten, though it may still be found in Covent Garden. It belongs to the parsley and celery order, and was at one time much used as a salad, but it fell into neglect when the Italians brought celery into vogue towards the end of the seventeenth century. The French called it "persil de Macédoine," because it was supposed to have come from Macedon. For this reason alone it is mentioned here. The French authorities are much puzzled to explain how a medley of vegetables or of fruits should now be called a Macedon-" une Macédoine." Their explanations are conjectural, are wholly insufficient; and even if nothing better could be substituted for them must be discarded as much too ridiculous and far-fetched. Amid these guesses it is well to keep hold of fact, even though the fact may not seem to give us any assistance. And the fact is that 200 years ago the word Macédoine in French cookery meant not what we now understand-a medley, but simply the parsley of Macedon, or, in English, the Alexander. In a cookery book entitled Le Cuisinier Méthodique, and published in 1662, the eighth chapter is devoted to salads. One of the receipts is headed "Persil de Macédoine;" another "De Macédoine cuit; " a third "De racines de Macédoine." The next is for celery, and is dismissed with this one direction-"De mesme façon que la Macédoine." That is the oldest use of the word I can find. The book is in the British Museum.
ALLEMANDE-that is, Sauce Allemande, or Sauce of Almayne. In old English and in old French cookery there was always a broth of Almayne, but it gives one no idea of what is now understood by the Almayne sauce, which is nothing else than Velvet-down thickened with yolks of eggs, say four to a pint, smoothed with a pat of Allspice the freshest butter, and flavoured with lemon-juice; sometimes also, but not always, with essence of mushrooms. How this sauce got its name is not quite clear; but it is plain that, not only have the Hollander and the German long been more or less confounded together as Dutchmen (Deutsch), but also that the sauce Allemande or sauce of Almayne is of the same character as the well-known Dutch sauce or sauce Hollandaise, and is probably an attempt to improve upon it. Now, Dutch sauce has a reputation among epicures of being at once the best and the most useful of all the sauces, while at the same time it has all the simplicity for which Mynheer is renowned. It is nothing but butter and eggs, with a little water. Suddenly, no doubt, it entered into some Frenchman's brain to improve upon this simplicity, and to refine upon the Dutch. He dismissed the water, and put Velvet-down instead of it, and, finding the result too rich, he reduced the quantity of butter. Make a note of this therefore: that Dutch and Almayne sauce are but different forms of the same idea. In Dutch or Holland sauce there is good water; in German or Almayne sauce there is the finest Velvetdown. Note another point: the Poulette sauce is another form of the same idea. If the Almayne may be described as an attempt to improve upon Holland sauce, the Poulette may be described as a mock Almayne. In true Holland sauce there is no flour. But the mock Almayne, known as Poulette, attempts by means of flour to simulate the effects of the Velvet-down introduced into true Almayne.