received with avidity, not only would have found it impossible to introduce improvements in this art, but would also have had to divest themselves of the deepest rooted of all prejudices. The Greenlander, quoted by Lord Bolingbroke, is an exemplification of this. He, after he had feasted on all the dainties that civilised Europe could boast, returned with delight to his guts and garbage. Besides, as it is not the most refined class of civilised society that practises cookery, but, on the contrary, the rank of cooks sinks in proportion as the scale of civilisation is elevated; we have every reason to argue, that a country, though less refined than another in the arts generally (placing neither at the extreme), should be more refined in cookery. The English, though unrivalled in their application of steam to washing, cannon, sailing, &c., feed on raw vegetables and ill-dressed beef; while the poor and ignorant boatmen on the Nile fry fish and dress pigeons, when they can get them, in a style that Beauvillier might be proud of.

It is not, then, in the idea of reducing cookery to its original form, that I have been so particular about eastern receipts, and adapted some of their methods to our own dishes; but with the same view that I have borrowed from the cookery of other nations to improve our own, by adopting every thing in which they excel.

In many branches others have had more opportunities of improvement than ourselves; and we import many foreign articles which are sometimes lost upon us, from not knowing the best modes of preparing them. Indian corn*, for example, was brought over in the scarcity of 1800, but was of little use to our fastidious palates, as there was not a single traveller or merchant intelligent, humane, or interested enough to inquire into the way of grinding and dressing it. Yet, in Languedoc, this same Indian corn is the food of the rich, and the luxury of the poor.

From the fertility of the soil on the banks of the Ganges, and the uninterrupted mildness of the climate, the Hindoos have a constant supply of rice, vegetables,

For long voyages, I should advise a small mill to be taken, and well kiln-dried grain to be carefully stored in charred chests, interspersed with strong-smelling dry sweet herbs or seeds, which could be sifted out before grinding. Indian corn keeps well in the grain, but not long in the flour.

cocoa-nuts, &c. Thus, not being compelled to hunt wild beasts for their sustenance, or to feed cattle on the produce of the summer for their own support in winter, the "placid inhabitants of the Indian plains" would never have thought of devouring animals having life like themselves. In after times, when they found such to be the practice of their neighbours, they made a moral duty of their abstinence by the doctrine of Metempsychosis, which, though believed by the Druids of the Teutonic nations, by the Etruscans, and the Egyptians, has affected for a continuancy the practice of India alone, because there only that practice is not generally repugnant to utility. The consequences of famine, indeed, are awful; but, like persecution, they tend to strengthen rather than to weaken the prejudices.

As in every country something stimulating has been found necessary, the Indians, whose diet otherwise is simple and little heating, have from time immemorial been in the habit of consuming, in large quantities, the pepper and sweet herbs that their soil has provided for them. On the same ground we may suppose that spices were very grateful to the ancient Egyptians, as their drink was only the expressed juice of the half-ripe grape, the sorbet (Hossrûm) of the Musselmens (see receipt.) They had few cattle, and used little or no animal food*, as may be inferred from the otherwise unaccountable populousness of the country; hence their aversion for shepherds. The carcasses even of their animals were exposed or buried in an island. Spices were their first, and have ever continued their chief article of import; and such as have never seen those of Arabia, cannot form the least conception of their perfume and flavour.

The cookery of the wandering Arabs has, like that of the Indians, undergone little or no change since the earliest times. Their food is meat broiled whole, rather than roasted, the instant it is killed, when it has more flavour and goút than we can imagine.

The fleshpots of Egypt were not the Egyptian pots, but the pots of the Jews, who were feeders of cattle, and consequently an abomination to the Egyptians. To this day, though the Egyptians use cows to raise water, they never eat beef; and now, in Upper Egypt, things are so much altered, that there is little or no bread, corn, or rice. And although their religion permits the use of animal food, the prejudice is still rooted against beef, which the Egyptians at one time held sacred in their religious rites.

Their chief excellence is in the treatment of milk. They dress and preserve their meat in it; milk sours, but never putrefies. The koumiss of the Calmucks, and their spirits from mare's milk, are well known. The Arabs preserve and tender their meat in milk. (See receipt.)

There is, however, an admirable style of cookery, which I suppose we must have taken from the Levantines, at the time of the Crusades, of mixing all sorts of sweets with meats. It was in practice 100 years ago in England; it still is in some families in Scotland; but there are not any traces of it in France or Italy: yet it seems probable that it passed through those countries to us, and very improbable that they should have disused it had they ever known it. The only way I can account for it is by supposing that we had more meat than they had on which to make the experiment. It is more easy to account for its disuse in England, being here affected by the same causes that have produced the decline of that cookery which we now term French. The French and Italians, and also many families in this country, use sugar in soups, vegetables, &c.; but this is very different from the minced pies we so greedily devour about Christmas; the only vestige we retain of the Turkish fashion of sweet ragouts (yaughs), and stuffing whole animals with sweet puddings.*

We have certainly taken, at least, our cubbubs from the Levantines. "Cubbub" means nothing more or less than roast. They say cubbubed mutton, or any thing else; but the original dish, of which ours is an imitation, is meat cut into small pieces about the size of a large walnut, and roasted on wooden skewers, alone or with onions between them; and if for sweet, with dates, dried apricots, &c.

On opening Dr. Hunter's Culina accidentally, at the last page (quite in the oriental style), I was not a little pleased at finding the following admirable receipt, so different from the English style; there being some obsolete words in it, he has thus rendered it :

Sugar was first used as food by Baldwin II. on his return from Jerusalem to Laodicea, during a scarcity. Eau-sucrée has long been in vogue among the French. It is considered in the East the first of cordials, and a specific for all diseases; and, as the Orientalists are great enemies to innovations of all sorts, this must have been a very ancient practice amongst them. A Roman poet, describing the nations that assisted Autony, distinguishes the Easterns as those that drank the sweet juice of the reed.

A delicious Dish.

Take good cow's milk and put it into a pot; take parsley, sage, hyssop, savory, and other good herbs; chop them and stew them in the milk; take capons, and after half roasting them, cut them in pieces, and add to them pines, clarified honey, and salt; colour with saffron, and serve up. Nothing but prejudice could call any thing in this receipt disgusting.

This dish is completely Turkish. The sweet herbs (the milk is in the Arab style), the saffron, the capons; the making of which is a constant practice in the East, and of which we have no trace among our nations anterior to the time of the Crusades; but, above all, the sweets, the honey, and the pine kernels, which are richer and stronger than almonds, and must have been imported, as they never bear fruit more towards the north than the 43°, all proved to me that our travelled forefathers had not been proof against the dainties of the East. The dish I have tried, and, even without capons, I can affirm that it well merits its title. But what was my surprise, on turning the page for the connexion, to read as follows: "Whoever looks into the Forme of Cury,' as compiled "about 400 years ago, by the master cook of Richard "the Second, will be highly disgusted with the dishes "there recorded. Much, therefore, is due to those who "have brought forward the culinary manners of the pre"sent age, in opposition to the nauseous exhibitions of "former times. For example:" then follows (will the reader believe me?) the above-mentioned Delicious Dish."

The Turks use the finest spices; rice, saffron, and sweets, profusely, in most of their meat dishes. Every sort of food that is presented to women is invariably sweet;

* The Turks, like the Jews, have been forbidden pork, probably from the same reason. The Levantines far surpass us in the healthiness and excellence in dressing meats, though their unceremonious manner in presenting it, the way they squeeze it in their hand, &c. is at first not very agreeable to strangers, who do not take into consideration their frequent ablutions: besides, the true amateur of good living knows how much higher flavoured meats are from the hand than in any other mode. We, from prejudice, go into other countries in the proud superiority of our own customs and manners; and as the vulgar first attract our notice, we generally mistake their manners for those of the country. Were one of our fashionables to go down into one of our remote counties, and see a boor stuff a large wooden or horn spoon, full of some coarse food, into his wide open mouth, with his eyes shut, it were odds if he ever again ate with a spoon; declaring, perhaps, that pretty tapering fingers were expressly made to feed man more delicately.

and the men keep them always supplied in their harems with confections, and all sorts of nuts, &c., to prevent them as much as possible from contentions.

Dr. Clark, when he saw labels scattered about in the seraglio, thought that they were for liquors prepared in secret; but they were for different compounds of eausucrée, flavoured with various fruits and flowers, the manufacture and consumption of which is one of their chief employments. For the curiosity of it, I have given a specimen of a dinner such as the art of the Seven Towers can produce. I had it from an eastern lady, who several times was admitted to the distinguished honour of dining with the sultanas.

The ground of Hindoo cookery is rice; to it are added peppers and sweet herbs, with a great deal of turmeric, probably from its antibilious properties, as, though it gives flavour to the whole, it is rather disagreeable by itself: they also use ghee, or oiled butter.

The cooking of meat in curry is a practice confined to the Europeans.

Curry is excellent for bilious habits, and the best substitute for such stimulants as spirits and fermented liquors.

It is as pernicious as it is bad taste, to drink wine or spirits immediately after curry. Our Indians, though they drink arrack punch with turtle, drink water with curry.

Curry Powders.

A number of curry powders have found their way into this country from the East; and I never have found any bad that were made after such receipts.

It is those that are compounded in this country for sale, which, to increase the quantity and gain, are often made of bad seeds, leaving the result to turmeric and cayenne. Therefore, as it is an easy matter to manufacture those powders in all their different combinations, those that use them generally in their families ought to do so, and be careful of the compounds upon account of health, as well as of cayenne, which is often coloured with red lead. Therefore it ought to be made at home, as well as the others, if it were even to cost as much;