PREFACE
The innate love of change in man is visible even in the kitchen. Not so very long ago soup was an exception in English houses—almost a luxury. A dish of vegetables—as a dish and not an adjunct to meat—was a still greater rarity; and even now plain-boiled potatoes, peas, cabbages, etc., are the rule. When we read of the dishes, fearfully and wonderfully made, in the old Italiannovelle, we wonder whence the present Italians got their love of vegetables and maccaroni.
Sacchetti tells us that in the fourteenth century a baked goose, stuffed with garlic and quinces, was considered an exquisite dish; and when the gonfalonier of Florence gave a supper to a famous doctor, he put before him the stomach of a calf, boiled partridges, and pickled sardines. Gianfigliazzi’s cook sent up a roasted crane to his master as a delicacy, saysBoccaccio; and a dish of leeks cooked with spices appears as a special dish in the rules of the chapter of San Lorenzo when the canons messed together. Old Laschi, author of that delightful bookL’Osservatore Fiorentino, moralises on the ancient fashion of cooking in his pleasant rather prosy way: ‘It would not seem that the senses should be subjected to fashion; and yet such is the case. The perfumes, once so pleasing, musk, amber, and benzoin, now excite convulsions; sweet wines, such as Pisciancio, Verdea, Montalcino, and others mentioned by Redi in his dithyrambic, are now despised; and instead of the heavy dishes of olden times, light and elegant ones are in vogue. Whoever characterised man as a laughing animal ought rather to have called him a variable and inconstant one.’
The dinner which set all Siena laughing for days, given to a favourite of PiusII.by a Sienese who substituted wild geese for peacocks, after cutting off their beaks and feet, and coloured his jelly with poisonous ingredients, forms the subject of one of Pulci’s tales:—
‘Meanwhile it was ordered that hands should be washed, and Messer Goro was seated at thehead of the table, and then other courtiers who had accompanied him; and they ate many tarts of good almond paste as a beginning. Then was brought to Messer Goro the dish on which were the peacocks without beaks, and a fellow was told to carve them. He not being used to such office gave himself vast trouble to pluck them,[1]but did it with so little grace that he filled the room and all the table with feathers, and the eyes, the mouth, the nose, and the ears of Messer Goro, and of them all. They, perceiving that it was from want of knowledge, held their peace, and took a mouthful here and there of other dishes so as not to disturb the order of the feast. But they were always swallowing dry feathers. Falcons and hawks would have been convenient that evening. When this pest had been removed many other roasts were brought, but all most highly seasoned with cumin. Everything would however have been pardoned if at the last an error had not been committed, which out of sheer folly nearly cost Messer Goro and thosewith him their lives. Now you must know that the master of the house and his councillors, in order to do honour to his guest, had ordered a dish of jelly. They wanted, as is the fashion in Florence and elsewhere, to have the arms of the Pope and of Messer Goro with many ornaments on it; so they used orpiment, white and red lead, verdigris and other horrors, and set this before Messer Goro as a choice and new thing. And Messer Goro and his companions ate willingly of it to take the bitter taste of the cumin and the other strange dishes out of their mouths, thinking, as is the custom in every decent place, that they were all coloured with saffron, milk of sweet almonds, the juices of herbs, and such like. And in the night it was just touch and go that some of them did not stretch out their legs. Messer Goro especially suffered much anguish from both head and stomach....’[2]
[1]Peacocks were skinned, not plucked, before cooking, and the skin with the feathers was put on to the roasted bird, and the tail opened out before placing the dish on the table. The ‘fellow’ ought to have cut the stitches and drawn off the skin, instead of plucking the feathers.
[1]Peacocks were skinned, not plucked, before cooking, and the skin with the feathers was put on to the roasted bird, and the tail opened out before placing the dish on the table. The ‘fellow’ ought to have cut the stitches and drawn off the skin, instead of plucking the feathers.
[2]SeeL’Osservatore Fiorentino,vol.vi.p.108.
[2]SeeL’Osservatore Fiorentino,vol.vi.p.108.
A company of Lombard pastrycooks came to Tuscany in the sixteenth century, and introduced fine pastry into Florence. We find the first mention of it in Berni’sOrlando Innamorato, where it is mentioned among the choice viands.Laschi says, ‘the epoch of CharlesV.is the greatest of modern times, for the culture of the spirit induced the culture of the body.’ But he does not mention vegetables or herbs at all. For them we must go back to the ancients. Bitterly did the Israelites, when wandering in the desert, regret ‘the cucumbers and the melons we did eat in Egypt’; though old Gerarde says, ‘they yield to the body a cold and moist nourishment, and that very little, and the same not good.’ Gerarde is however hard to please, for he says of egg-plants, under the old English name of Raging or Mad Apples, ‘doubtless these apples have a mischievous qualitie, the use whereof is utterly to be forsaken.’
Fennel, dedicated to St. John, was believed to make the lean fat and to give the weak strength, while the root pounded with honey was considered a remedy against the bites of mad dogs. If lettuce be eaten after dinner it cures drunkenness; but Pope says:—
If your wish be rest,Lettuce and cowslip wine,probatum est.
Sorrel is under the influence of Venus, and Gerarde declares that also ‘the carrot servethfor love matters; and Orpheus, as Pliny writeth, said that the use hereof winneth love.’ Flowers of rosemary, rue, sage, marjoram, fennel, and quince preserve youth; worn over the heart they give gaiety. Rosemary is an herb of the sun, while Venus first raised sweet marjoram, therefore young married couples are crowned with it in Greece. While
‘He that eats sage in MayShall live for aye.’[3]
[3]For interesting information about plants seePlant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, by R. Folkard, Jun. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, London, 1884.
[3]For interesting information about plants seePlant Lore, Legends, and Lyrics, by R. Folkard, Jun. Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, London, 1884.
Sweet basil is often worn by the Italian maidens in their bosoms, as it is supposed to engender sympathy, and borage makes men merry and joyful.
For years English friends have begged recipes for cooking vegetables in the Italian fashion, so I have written down many of the following from the dictation of our good Giuseppe Volpi, whose portrait, by Mr. A. H. Hallam Murray, adorns this little book, and who has been known to our friends for over thirty years.
I must also acknowledge, with thanks, thecourtesy of Sigri. Fratelli Ingegnoli of Milan, who have permitted me to use and translate what I needed from their excellent little bookCome si Cucinano i Legumi.
Janet Ross.Poggio Gherardo,Florence.