Food and Flavor: A Gastronomic Guide to Health and Good Living

FOOD AND FLAVOR




                            FOOD AND FLAVOR

                          A GASTRONOMIC GUIDE
                       TO HEALTH AND GOOD LIVING

                                  BY

                            HENRY T. FINCK

    "_The destiny of nations depends upon what and
    how they eat._"

    _Brillat-Savarin._

  [Illustration: Illustrated by Charles S. Chapman]

                       NEW YORK--THE CENTURY CO.
                                 1913




                          Copyright, 1913, by
                            THE CENTURY CO.

                       _Published, April, 1913_




                                  TO
                            LUTHER BURBANK
                                  AND
                            HARVEY W. WILEY
                              THE TWO MEN
                          WHO HAVE DONE MOST
                        TO MAKE OUR DAILY FOOD
                         PALATABLE AND HONEST




                               CONTENTS


                                                                 PAGE

    I UNGASTRONOMIC AMERICA                                         3

    Mark Twain's Patriotic Palate--Food Missionaries in the Far
    West--Are Women to Blame?--The Danger in our Food--Why the
    Candy was not Eaten--Dr. Wiley's Poison Squad--Condiments
    versus Chemical Preservatives--Scotched, not Killed.

    II VITAL IMPORTANCE OF FLAVOR                                  40

    Sensual indulgence as a duty--Gladstone and Fletcher--The
    harm done by soft Foods--Epicurean delights from plain
    Food--How flavor helps the Stomach--An Amazing Blunder--A
    new Psychology of Eating.

    III OUR DENATURED FOODS                                        65

    Foul Fowl--The French way versus the American--Why do we
    Eat Poultry?--Is cold storage a Blessing?--Spoiling the
    American Oyster--"Smoked" ham, bacon and fish--Flavor in
    Butter--Sweet Butter versus Salt.

    IV THE SCIENCE OF SAVORY COOKING                              117

    Desirable raw foods--Flavor as the guiding principle--The
    Philosophy of soup-making and eating--Wherein lies the
    value of vegetables?--Broiling, roasting, baking,
    frying--Combining the flavors of meats and vegetables--Savory
    food for everybody--Meat-eating of the future--The folly
    of vegetarianism--When to use condiments and sauces--Cook
    books.

    V A NOBLE ART                                                 152

    The social caste of cooks--Royalty in the kitchen--Rossini,
    Carême and Paderewski--Looking down on others--Does cooking
    Pay?

    VI THE FUTURE OF COOKING                                      171

    School girls like it--Boys and soldiers as cooks--Traveling
    cooking schools--English school dinners--Progress in
    America--Teaching the art of eating--Real epicurism is
    economical--Fireless cookers--Private versus community
    kitchens--Scientific electric cooking--Importance of
    variety in foods.

    VII FRENCH SUPREMACY                                          210

    Kitchen alchemy--Seven hundred soups--Savory
    sauces--Profitable poules de Brese--Digestive value of
    sour salads--Escarole, tomatoes, artichokes, alligator
    pears--Vegetables as a separate course--Paris
    restaurants--Russian and American influences--Provincial
    local flavors--The world's greatest market places--Model
    market gardens--Mushrooms and truffles--Training trees for
    fancy fruits--Bread crust versus crumb--How the best butter
    is made--Cheese as an appetizer.

    VIII EPICUREAN ITALY                                          309

    The cradle of modern cookery--Olive oil and Sardines--Fried
    fish and fritto misto--Macaroni, the real staff of
    life--Cooked cheese in place of meat--Birds, tomato paste
    and garlic.

    IX GERMAN AND AUSTRIAN DELICACIES                             339

    A cosmopolitan cuisine--Delicatessen stores--Sausages and
    smoked ham--Live fish brought to the kitchen--Game and
    Geese--In a Berlin market--Vienna bread and Hungarian
    flour--German menus on sea and land--German, Swiss and
    Dutch cheeses.

    X BRITISH SPECIALTIES                                         394

    Thackeray's little sermon--Dr. Johnson and Samuel Pepys--The
    Roast beef of old England--Southdown mutton--Wiltshire
    bacon--Fair play for pigs--Grouse and grilled sole--Covent
    Garden market scenes--Marmalades, jams and
    breakfasts--Restaurants, cakes, and plum pudding.


    XI GASTRONOMIC AMERICA                                        452

    Sweet corn and corn bread--Griddle cakes and maple
    syrup--Apple pie and cranberries--Turkeys, guinea fowl and
    game--Lobsters, scallops, crabs, and fishes--Vegetables
    steadily gaining ground--The fruit-eaters' parad