Aspic
There are most elaborate receipts for making aspic jelly, and on great occasions let these receipts be followed. But as it comes constantly into use, and ought to be ever at hand, it is necessary to make the preparation as simple and easy as possible. Boil down calves' feet with a faggot of potherbs (Faggot, No. 6). When this is Aspic ready, add to it for final flavour sherry or Marsala, and some tarragon vinegar in which a faggot of ravigote herbs have boiled. Test the strength of the jelly, clarify it with white of egg, and strain it through a jelly bag. It And now it may be asked, Why is it called aspic? There is upon this point the most curious ignorance, although the explanation lies upon the surface. Most Englishmen think it must have to do with the asp, and the more readily since they remember the question of Cleopatra, bitten by the snake-" Have I the aspic in my lips?" Even Frenchmen, who ought to be better informed, make a similar mistake. The great lexicographer, M. Littré, who has produced the standard dictionary of the French language-a monument of learning-says that aspic is so called because it is cold as a snake, which is proverbially cold! The absurdity of this must be evident if it is remembered that aspic is sometimes served hot; and yet one way or another all the dictionaries connect it with the asp. It has in truth nothing to do with anything so venomous. means lavender-in old French, espic or spic; in good old English, spike, lavender-spike, and spikenard. Lavenderspike is to be found in the sauces of Roman cookery; it is mentioned among the pot-herbs used in France five hundred years ago; one of the spikes-the spikenard of Spain -is in English books of the same period mentioned as a flavouring ingredient of Hippocras; and a couple of centuries ago Parkinson, the botanist, describes a decoction of lavender, horehound, fennel, and asparagus, which was considered a wonderful tonic-a stomachic, a cure for the toothache, for epilepsy, for faintness, but most of all potent in the maladies of women. To come down still later, at the time of the French Revolution the great master in the art of distillation was Dejean, who wrote a book on the subject. His thirty-second chapter is devoted to the preparation of waters, spirits, and extracts of aspic, thyme, basil, and sage. Later still, Grimod de la Reynière, in one Ass of the volumes of his Almanach des Gourmands, has a chapter on sauces and their names. He comes to the sauces named from vegetables à la ciboule, à l'aspic, à la ravigote, au fenouil. He, the most learned authority of his time on cookery, has no notion that aspic is other than the well-known plant. Lavender, however, is not a good seasoning, and it dropped out of account while still the name remained. In the present day the French cooks, when they propose to aspiquer a sauce, mean only to put lemon-juice or reduced vinegar into it. And so in the course of time it has come about that aspic belongs to the long list of things which, like houses dispossessed of their first owners, retain names no longer their own-cervelas without brains, orgeate without barley, blancmanger without fowl, galantine without galingale, cheesecakes without curd, pomatum without apple, Julienne without wood-sorrel, bisque without wood-pigeon, marmalade without quince, vinegar without wine. Many times in the following pages it will be necessary to refer to this curious list.
Ass. Few persons are aware that this excellent animal contributes of its flesh to the sausages of Bologna and of Lyons, which they enjoy so much. Such unobtrusive merit ought to raise him high in the opinion of mankind. It is said that Lyonnese and Bolognese, coming to London, have been known to rush to the City, to Ironmonger Lane, to extend their acquaintance with the good little beast. They read the name of the street Irons manger l'âne. The lower classes of the French are so assured of the excellent qualities of the ass, that, knowing the marvellous properties of laudanum for soothing and setting to sleep, they ask the chemists for it under the name of "l'eau d'ânon."
AURORA sauce appears in many books, and must be mentioned here because it will be looked for; but it is useless and has no meaning beyond its name.
Badminton Like a lobster boiled the morn From black to red begins to turn.
The coral of lobster added to English sauce makes Aurora -something pretty to look at; but what is it to taste? The taste of coral is so insipid that it must be helped out with essence of shrimps or of anchovies: in which case, however, the sauce were much better called after the shrimp or the anchovy.