The grey falt of France (which there at table is altogether in every thing made ufe of) is incomparably better and more wholefome, than our white falt. This I the rather mention, because it feems not yet to enter fully into the confideration and knowledge of our people; who are nice in this particular to a fault. But I must take leave to tell them, that our falt fpoils every thing that is intended to be preferved by it, be it fifh or flefh. For whether boiled from the inland falt-pits, or the fea water, it is little lefs than quicklime, and burns and reefes all it touches; fo that it is pity to fee so much good fifh, as is caught upon the northern line of coaft, particularly the cod and ling, and herring, now of little value, which were formerly the most eftcemed commodities of England. It is certain, there is no making good falt by fierce and vehement boiling, as is ufual; but it must be kerned either by the heat of the fun, as in France; or by a full and over-weighty brine, as at Milthrope in the Wafhes of Lancashire; for in no other place in England I ever faw it right made; but yet that is not there understood to purpofe; for they alfo boil the brine, which poffibly by fome flight artifice might be brought to give its falt without stress of fire. In lent the common people feed much on white kidney beans, and white or pale lentils, of which there are great provifions made in all the markets, and to be had ready boiled. I was well pleafed with this lentil; which is a fort of pulfe we have none of in England. There are two forts of white lentils fold here, one fmall one from Búrgundy, by the cut of Briare; and another bigger, as broad again, from Chartres; a third alfo much larger, is fometimes to be had from Languedoc. Thofe excepted, our feed fhops far exceed theirs, and confequently our gardens, in the pulfe-kind for variety; both pea and bean. The roots differ much from ours. There are here no round turnips, but all long ones and fmall; but excellently well tafted, and are of a much greater ufe, being proper for foups alfo; for which purpose ours are too ftrong: we have indeed of late got them into England; but our gardeners understand not the managing of them. They fow them here late after midfummer; and at martinmas or fooner, before the frost be gin, they dig them up, cut off the tops, and put them into fand in their cellars, where they will keep good till after Eafter, nay till Whitfuntide: whereas, if the froft take them, they are quite fpoiled; and that piece of ill husbandry makes them to be despised here; having loft their tafte, and they foon grow fticky in the ground. The fandy plains of Vaugerard near Paris are famous for this fort of moft excellent root. the fame manner they keep their carrots. After After we had been two or three days' journey in France, we found no other turnips, but the navet; and ftill the nearer Paris the better. Thefe as I faid, are small long turnips, not bigger than a knife-haft, and most excellent in foups, and with boiled and ftewed mutton. I think it very strange that the feed fhould fo much improve in England, as to produce roots of the fame kind fix or ten times as big as there; for I make no queftion but the long turnips, of late only in our markets, are the fame. The potatoe is fcarce to be found in their markets, which are fo great a relief to the people of England, and very nourishing and wholesome roots; but there are stores of Jerufalem artichokes. They delight not fo much in cabbage as I expected, at least at the feason, while we were there, from December to Midfummer. I never faw in all the markets once fprouts, that is, the tender shoots of cabbages; nor in their public gardens any reserves of old stalks. The red cabbage is esteemed here, and the favoy. But to make amends for this, they abound in vast quantities of large red onions and garlick. And the long and fweet white onion of Languedoc are to be had also here. Alfo leeks, rockhamboy, and shallots are here in great use. It It has been obferved, that the northern people of Europe much delight in cabbage, as the Ruffes, Poles, Germans, &c. It is certain, the cabbage thrives beft in cold countries, and is naturally a northern plant, and the keel is to be found wild upon the maritime rocks, as I have feen it at Whitby, and the cold ripens it, and makes it more tender and palatable. The fouthern people are pleafed with the onion kind, for the fame reafon, for that the great heats meliorate them, but give a ranknefs to the cabbage. The leeks are here much smaller, than with us; but to recompenfe this, they are blanched here with more care and art, and are three times as long in the white part, which is by finking them early fo deep in mellow earth. There is no plant of the onion kind fo hardy as this, and fo proper for the cold mountains, witness the use the Welsh have made of them from all ages; and indeed it is excellent against spitting of blood, and all diseases of the throat and lungs. Though the lettuce be the great and univerfal fallad, yet I did not find they came near our people, for the largenefs and hardness of them; indeed, about a week before we left Paris, the long Roman lettuce filled their markets, which was imcomparable, and I think beyond our Silefian. April and May the markets were served with vast quantities of white beets, an herb rarely used with us, and never that I know of, in that manner for foups. The leaves grow long and large, and are tied up, as we do our Silefian or Roman lettuce to blanch, and then cut by the root. The ftalks are very broad and tender, and they only are ufed, stripped of the green leaves. They cook thofe ftalks in different manners. The afparagus here are in great plenty, but for the first month they were very bitter and unpleasant; from whence that proceeded I cannot guefs; afterwards I did not much perceive it. They are fo great lovers of forrel, that I have feen whole acres of it planted in the fields; and they are to be commended for it; for nothing is more wholefome, and it is good to fupply the place of lemons, against the fcurvy, or any ill habit of the body. But after all, the French delight in nothing fo much as mushrooms, of which they have daily, and all the winter long, ftore of fresh and new gathered in the markets. This furprised me; nor could I guefs, where they had them, till I found they raised them on hot beds in their gardens. Of forced mushrooms they have many crops in a year; but for the months of Auguft, September, October, when they naturally grow in the fields, they prepare no arti ficial beds. They make in the fields and gardens out of the bar of Vaugerard (which I faw) long narrow trenches, and fill thofe trenches with horse dung two or three feet thick, on which they throw up the common earth of the place, and cover the dung with it, like the ridge of a house, high pitched; and over all they put long ftraw or long horse litter. Out of this earth fprings the champignons, after rain; and if rain comes not, they water the beds every day, even in winter. They are fix days after their springing or first appearance, before they pull them up for the market. Cn fome beds they have plenty, on others but few, which demonstrate they come of feed in the ground; for all the beds are alike. A gardener told me, he had the other year near an acre of ground ordered in this manner, but he loft a hundred crowns by it; but moftly they turn to as good profit as any thing they can plant. They destroy their old beds in fummer, and dung their grounds with them. 13 They They prepare their new beds the latter end of August, and have plentiful crops of mushrooms towards christmas, and all the fpring, till after March. I faw in the markets the beginning of April, fresh gathered moriglios, the first of that kind of mushroom, that I remember ever to have feen: though formerly I had been very curious and inquifitive about this kind of plant, and had diftinguifhed and described thirty species of them growing in England; yet I do not remember ever to have found this fpecies with us; it is blackifh, and becomes much blacker when boiled, whence probably it had its name; but there are fome few of them that are yellow. They are always of a round pyramidal figure, upon a fhort thick foot-ftalk. The footftalk is fmooth, but the outfide of the mushroom is all deeply plated and wrinkled like the infide of a beafts maw. The moriglio fplit in two from top to bottom is all hollow and smooth, foot, stalk, and all. In this hollowness is sometimes contained dangerous infects. The tafte raw, is not ungrateful, and very tender. This mushroom seems to me to be produced of the tree kind. This fort of mushroom is much esteemed in France, and is mostly gathered in woods at the foot of the oaks. There were fome of them as big as turkey eggs. They are found in great quantities in the woods in Champagne, about Reims, and Noftre Dame de Lieffe. They string them, and dry them; and they seem to me to have a far better relish than the champignons. The French fay, there are no bad moriglios; but there are bad mushrooms. At first I was very shy of eating them; but by degrees, and that there was fcarce any ragouts without them, I became pleafed with them, and found them very innocent. I am perfuaded the harm that comes from eating them, is from the noxious infects and vermin that feed upon them, and creep into them. I have often found them full of fuch animals. Poffibly the garden or forced mushrooms, being that is done in winter, and in the spring, may be much freer of this mischief, at what time insects are dead, or not much stirring, than the wild mushrooms of August. The city is well ferved with carp, of which there is an incredible quantity spent in the lent. They are not large, and I think are the better for it, but they are very clean of mud, and well tafted. They have a particular way of bringing fresh oyfters to town, which I never faw with us; to put them up in ftraw baskets of a peck, fuppofe, cut from the fhell, and without the liquor. They are thus very good for ftewing, and all other manner of dreffing. There is fuch plenty of macreufe, a fort of fea ducks, in the markets all lent, that I admire, where they got fo many; but these are reckoned and esteemed as fish, and therefore they take them with great industry. They have a rank fishy taste, yet for want of other flesh were very welcome. I remember we had at our treat at the king's charge at Versailles, a macreufe pie near two feet diameter, for it was in lent; which being high seasoned, did go down very well with rare burgundy. There is a better argument in Leewenhoeke for birds participating fomething of the nature of fish, though their blood is hot, than any the council of Trent could think of, and that is that the globuli of the blood of birds are oval, as those of fishes are; but this will take in all the bird kind which alfo in time thofe gentlemen may think fit to grant. As for their flesh, mutton, and beef, if they are good in their kind, they come little fhort of ours, I cannot fay they exceed them. But their veal is not to be compared with ours, being red and coarfe; and I believe no country in Europe understands the management of that fort of food like the English. This was once proper to Effex; VOL. IV. H but but now it is well known, that nothing contributes more to the whiteness and tendernefs of the flesh of calves, than often bleeding them, and giving them much food of milk and meal, befides fucking the dam. By much bleeding the red cake of the blood is exhausted, and becomes all white ferum or chyle. The fame effect cramming hath upon poultry, fo as the blood is well near all chyle; and the livers of geese, so fed by force, will become for the fame reason, vastly great and white and delicious. I cannot but take notice here of a great prejudice the French lie under, in relation to our flesh. It is generally faid amongst them, that our meat in England will not make so strong broth as the French by a third part. If they fay not fo falt and favoury, and strong tafted, I agree with them; and yet the French meat is never the better. For first their meat is moftly leaner and more dry, and (which is all in all in this matter of foups) is long kept before it be fpent, which gives it a higher and falter tafte; for as meat rots, it becomes more urinous and falt. Now our people, by custom, covet the frefheft meat, and cannot endure the least tendency to putrefaction; and we had good reason to do fo, because our air is twice as moift as theirs, which does often cause in the keeping of meat a muftiness, which is intolerable to all mankind. Whereas the air of France being fo much drier, keeping of meat, not only makes it tender, but improves the taste. So that could we fecure our meat, in keeping it from that unfavory quality, it would far outdo the French meat, because much more juicy. I do not remember I eat of above two forts of flefh, but what we have as good or better in England, and that was of the wild pigs, and the red legged partridge. Of. these laft I eat at St. Cloud, taken thereabouts; as to bignefs, they are much degenerated from thofe in Languedoc, and lefs; but far excel the grey partridge in taste. As for their fruits, our journey was in the worst time of the year, from December to Midfummer, fo that we had little fave winter fruits; fome few bon chritens we tasted, not much better than ours, but fomething freer of ftones. The Virguleus pears were admirable, but to our forrow they did not laft long after our arrival. The Kentish pippin, as we call it, was here excellent; but two other forts of apples stock the markets. The winter calvil or queening, which though a tender and foft apple, yet continued good till after Eafter. Alfo the Pome d'Apis, which is ferved here for fhew, more than ufe; being a small flat apple, very beautiful, very red on one fide, and pale or white on the other, and may ferve the French ladies at their toilets for a pattern to paint by. However this tender apple was not contemptible after Whitsuntide; and which is its property, it never fmells ill, though the ladies keep it (as fometimes they do) about them. I never met with any thing peculiar in their fweetmeats but a marmalade of orange flowers; which indeed was admirable. It was made with thofe flowers, the juice of lemons, and fine fugar. The Wines follow, and Water to drink. The wines about Paris are very small, yet good in their kind; thofe de Surene are excellent fome years; but in all the taverns they have a way to make them into the fashion of Champagne and Burgundy. The tax upon wines is now fo great, that whereas before the war they drank them at retail at five-pence the quart, they now fell them at is. 3d. the quart, and dearer, which has enhanced the rates of all commodities, and workmen's wages; and also has caufed many thousand private families to lay in wines in their cellars at the cheapest hand, which used to have none before. The The wines of Burgundy and Champagne are moft valued, and indeed not without reafon; for they are light and eafy upon the ftomach, and give little disturbance to the brain, if drawn from the hogfhead, or loose bottled after their fashion. The most esteemed are Vin de Bonne of Burgundy, a red wine; which is dolce piquante in fome measure, to me it seemed the very best of wine I met with. Volne, a pale Champagne, but exceedingly brifk upon the palate. This is faid to grow upon the very borders of Burgundy, and to participate of the excellency of both counties. There is another fort of wine, called Vin de Rheims, this is also a pale or grey wine; it is harsh, as all Champagne wines are. The white wines of value are those of Mascon in Burgundy. In March I tafted the white wines called Condrieu, and d'Arbois, but found them both in the muft, thick and white as our wines use to be, when they first come from the Canaries; very fweet, and yet not without a grateful flavour; they clear towards fummer, and abate much of the flavour and fweet tafte. Thofe wines thus in the muft are called in the prints Vin des Liquers. There is a preparation or rather stifling of the white wine in the muft, used in Burgundy and elsewhere, which they call Vin Bouru; it gives a sweet taste, and it is foul to the eye; thofe also are called Vin des Liqueurs. This is only drunk a glass in a morning, as an equivalent to brandy. Vin de Turene en Anjou of two years old, was one of the best white wines I drank in Paris. Gannetin from Dauphine: this is a very pale and thin white wine, very like the Verde of Florence, sweet, and of a very pleasant flavour, especially while it is Des Li queurs. The red wines of Burgundy, Des quatres feuilles, as they fay, or of four years old, are rare; but they are esteemed much more wholesome, and are permitted to the fick, in some cases to drink of; they are fine, and have a rough but found taste; not pricked, as I expected. The term Des quatre feuilles is ufed alfo to Folne, or any other fort of wine, which is kept any time. There are also in efteem ftronger wines at Paris, as Camp de Perdris. Cofte Bruflee, both red wines from Dauphine, of very good taste, and hot upon the ftomach. De l'Hermitage upon the Rofne. But the most excellent wines for strength and flavour are the red and white St. Lau rence, a town betwixt Toulon and Nice in Provence. This is a moft delicious Mufcat. These are of those sorts of wines, which the Romans called Vinum Paffum, that were made of half fun dried grapes: for the grapes (especially the white Mufcadine grapes) being usually fooner ripe than the common grapes of the country, called Efperan, viz. the latter end of Auguft, (as I have feen them in the vintage at Vic, Mirabel, and Frontiniac, three towns near the fea in Languedoc, where this fort of wine is made) they twift the bunches of grapes, fo breaking the ftalks of them, that they receive no longer ́any nourishment from the vine, but hang down and dry in the then violently hot fun, and are in few days almost turned into raisins of the fun; hence, from this infolation, the flavour of the grape is exceedingly heightened, and the strength and oiliness, and thick body of the wine is mightily improved. I think the red St. Laurin was the most delicious wine I ever tafted in my life. |