BOYER'S MODERN HOUSEWIFE. * Trim artistic ambition of Alexis Soyer, of
the Reform Club, shines out here in a twofold capacity. Not content with novelty of matter in his receipts, he has aimed at novelty of structure and style in his mode of presenting them. The Modern Housewife is the most dramatic of cookery-books ; carried on by dialogue, correspondence, and a certain artful arrangement by which two-thirds of an epic—" action "—is introduced into the di- dactic work. We begin with breakfast, luncheon is made an episode, and dinner becomes a " middle "; the book stopping short of any " end,"— which is probably an artistical intimation that there should be no termi- e The Modern Housewife, or Menagere. Comprising nearly one thousand Receipts for the economic and judicious Preparation of every Meal of the Day, with those of the l'iunierY and Sick-room, and minute Directions for Family Management in all Its branches. Illustrated with Engravings. By Alexis Soyer, Author of " The Gastro- non& Regenerator." Published by Simpkin and Marshall.
nation to good living, but when the day is over you should feed again to- morrow.
What critics call the "fable" runs thus in The Modern Housewife. Mrs. B—, the Hortense of the correspondence, is a capital manager; treating her husband and her husband's friends to such meals and such dishes that it excites applause at the treats, and some wonder how they can be done for the money. Mrs. L—, whose signature is Eloise, has been stopping with Mrs. B—, and moots the subject; when a general dialogue ensues, and Hortense undertakes to furnish her friend with her receipts, not set down haphazard, but properly placed under the heads of the meals to which they respectively belong. These form the text as it were ; and they arc accompanied, when necessary, by explanations de omnibus, moral, statistical, botanical, economical, or historical, with touches in which the enthusiastic experience of Alexis speaks out in his own person, like the chorus of old. Besides text and particular com- mentary, letters of a larger and more general kind, at least from the pen of Hortense, are introduced, taking a broad survey of the broader parts of the subject, and expounding the principles of meals, as well as the sections of which they consist. Thus, in The Modern Housewife the reader has drama, philosophy, and the art of good living, all in one. See how closely the last two go together; and what a range of know- ledge is necessary in the perfect cook, who would procure as well as dress his materials. Had his illustrious predecessor possessed the science of Soyer, he might have been saved from falling upon his own sword, and the Court of Louis he Grand from eating fish done by an inferior artist. "Great surprise has been expressed upon the number and cheapness of red mullets that have been in the London market this season (1849); it arises from a circumstance which, though trivial in itself, shows the necessity that exists for some means of giving instructions to fishermen, so as to enable them to prosecute their avocations with more facility and certainty: in no class of industry are the people that are employed in it so ignorant as in this, and it is the duty of a pa- ternal government to see that the resources of the country are properly developed. I would have a person appointed to see that the food of ourpublic institutions is not wasted in cookery, (as I suggested in my former letter) and be capable of affording instruction by lectures or otherwise to the different classes who provide that food. The circumstance to which I allude originated with a well-known gentleman in the West of England, who, noticing that the mackerel and red mul- let arrived on the coast together, and that there was a large fishery of the former and none of the latter, endeavoured to find out the reason: he ascertained that the red mullet obtained its food from the mackerel, and consequently they swam lower; he therefore directed the fishermen to have a deeper seine net, by which means they will be enabled to take both kinds at the same time. As science and chemistry are now lending their aid to assist the different branches of our manu- facture, I cannot see the reason why they should not do so in so important an ar- ticle as that of food."
This commentary relates to natural history applied. Now see what a range of reading and an inventive logic is necessary to take an historical survey of " sauce." The idea of offering a reward for the rediscovery of that lost art the composition of Garum is good, if it is made bona fide but has not Alexis already discovered it in his mind, and contemplated doing the epicures as well as their dishes?
"In all ages and countries at all removed from barbarism, where fish has formed an article of diet, sauces of various kinds have been an accompaniment. With the Romans, in the time of Lucullus, great care was observed in their prepara- tion; amongst others which they used, and the most celebrated, was the Gar= and the Muria.
" The Garum was the sauce the most esteemed and the most expensive; its composition is unknown. This is a subject well worth the attention of the epi- cures of the present day; they should subscribe and offer a premium for that which, in their opinion, may resemble it: it is a subject well worthy the attention of the Professors of our Universities. Perhaps some leaf yet undiscovered, that may have escaped the conflagration of Alexandria, might throw some light upon so interesting a subject. It appears that mushrooms entered greatly into ita com- position; and that parts of mackerel, or of that species, formed another. The question is, at what time of the year were mushrooms in season there ; and if at that period mackerel, or what species of mackerel, have soft roes ; as I think it probable that they entered into its composition, as an island near earthagtna, where they were caught, was called Seombraria, and that which was prepared by a company in that town, and which was considered the best, was called Gar= Sociorum. " The Muria was the liquid in which the tunny was pickled, and no doubt very similar to our essence of anchovies. Those most generally in use at the present day are the following; in addition to which there are various kinds made and sold in bottles, some of which are much cheaper to buy than to make."
We could easily extend these extracts, on topics from this high range of science to such a practical problem as " Should a steak be turned more than once in cooking?" or a list of "anti-cholera" good things : but we forbear. The reader, if a family man, bad better get the book, and try it,—that is, by reducing its directions to practice. " The proof of the pudding is in the eating," is a canon of criticism applicable to all dishes, To this criticism The lodern Housewife must be brought before it can be determined whether the author has succeeded in establishing his lofty principle, which is really " first-rate cookery for the middle class."
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