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French Cookery (Those dishes which we only)

those dishes which we only need employ occasionally. English receipts for stews, hashes, harricots, fricassees, &c., originally French though they may be, are numerous enough, and, when well made, equal in flavour to many of the much-vaunted modern French entrées ; but when ill-made, the fault lies not in the cookery, but in the cook, who is thought nothing of if she confines her attention to English dishes, and consequently neglects them in the attempt to reach beyond her limited powers. Do we ever see a Frenchman refuse a fine haunch of mutton or venison when he has the chance? It is true that he requires a differently-flavoured sauce to that which is the customary one in this country; but it is not against these that the complaint is made , but against our barbarous method of roasting and boiling joints . Plain melted butter may be his abomination, and so it is of many Englishmen; nevertheless, it is the foundation in France, as well as in England, of very many good sauces. What I wish to have understood by those who now submit to be called barbarous in cookery, is the fact, that, except in making too free use of our splendid butcher's meat, we are not in point of science behind the French. Our principles of cookery are quite as well-founded as theirs (saving always the aforementioned frying-pan); and we have no reason to submit to the alleged superiority which they claim. They are fonder of acids than we are; but that is no scientific discovery. They also indulge in a greater variety of flavours than we do; but that, again, is no improvement in science, for it only tempts the stomach to do that which the Englishman is already too prone to do without-namely, to eat too much. I am, therefore, at a loss to know in what the pre-eminence consists; and I can only come to the conclusion that it is undeserved. The English of the last century were bigoted in thinking themselves superior to all other nations; but in the latter half of this they seem determined to run into the opposite extreme, and come to the conclusion that they are only fit to wash the dishes for their neighbours' chefs de cuisine. 1119. The argument which I have maintained in the preceding paragraph is still farther supported by the fact, that almost all the French terms used in their cookery are easily translated into English by synonyms, showing that they have had a previous or parallel existence, and been named in this country as well as in France. If it were otherwise, instead of being merely adopted here by the cook and his patrons, they would become part of the English vocabulary, in the same way as many French words in other departments, such as envelope, ennui, hauteur, &c. U