Table traits, with something on them

TABLE TRAITS,

  WITH

  SOMETHING ON THEM.

  BY

  DR. DORAN.

  “Je suis aujourd’hui en train de conter; plaise à Dieu que cela ne
  soit pas une calamité publique.”--BRILLAT SAVARIN.

  LONDON:

  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET;

  OLIVER & BOYD, EDINBURGH; HODGES & SMITH, DUBLIN;

  AND TO BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS, AND AT THE RAILWAY STATIONS.

  1854.




  LONDON:

  R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.




  TO

  THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

  HENRY, EARL OF HAREWOOD,

  IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF BY-GONE

  HAPPY YEARS,

  THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED

  BY

  THE AUTHOR.




BILL OF FARE.


                                                                    PAGE

  The Legend of Amphitryon--a Prologue                                 1

  Diet and Digestion                                                   9

  Water                                                               14

  Breakfast                                                           26

      Materials for Breakfast                                         31

      Corn, Bread, &c.                                                36

      Tea                                                             48

      Coffee                                                          57

      Chocolate                                                       64

  The Old Coffee Houses                                               67

  The French Cafés                                                    80

  The Ancient Cook and his Art                                        86

  The Modern Cook and his Science                                     99

  Pen and Ink Sketch of Carême                                       114

  Dinner Traits                                                      123

  The Materials for Dining                                           136

  A Light Dinner for two                                             169

  Sauces                                                             190

  The Parasite                                                       219

  Table Traits of Utopia and the Golden Age                          230

  Table Traits of England in the Early Times                         244

  Table Traits of the Last Century                                   260

  Wine and Water                                                     282

  The Birth of the Vine, and what has come of it                     287

  The Making and Marring of Wine                                     303

  Imperial Drinkers and Incidents in Germany                         312

      An Incident of Travel                                          313

  A few odd Glasses of Wine                                          324

  The Tables of the Ancient and Modern Egyptians                     341

  The Diet of Saints of Old                                          353

      The Bridal and Banquet of Ferques                              372

  The Support of Modern Saints                                       377

  The Cæsars at Table                                                394

  Their Majesties at Meat                                            412

  English Kings at their Tables                                      442

  Strange Banquets                                                   467

      The Castellan Von Coucy                                        473

  Authors and their Dietetics                                        487

      The Liquor-loving Laureates                                    508

  Supper                                                             513




TABLE TRAITS,

WITH SOMETHING ON THEM.




THE LEGEND OF AMPHITRYON.

A PROLOGUE.

“_Le véritable Amphitryon est l’Amphitryon où l’on dîne._”--MOLIÈRE.


Among well-worn illustrations and similes, there are few that have
been more hardly worked than the above line of Poquelin-Molière. It is
a line which tells us pleasantly enough, that he who sits at the head
of a table is among those “respectable” powers who find an alacrity
of worship at the hands of man. I say, “at the hands;” for what is
“adoration” but the act of putting the hand to the mouth (as expressed
by its components _ad_ and _os_, _oris_)? and what worship is so common
as that which takes this form, especially when the Amphitryon is
amiable, and his altar well supplied?

But such a solution of the question affords us, after all, no
enlightenment as to the mystery of the reality of Amphitryon himself,
whose name is now worn, and sometimes usurped, by those who preside
at modern banquets. Was he real? is he a myth? was he ever in the
body? or is his name that of a shadow only, employed for purposes of
significance? If real, whence came he? What does classic story say of
the abused husband of Alcmena?

Amphitryon was a Theban gentleman, who had two nephews, fast young
men, who were slain by the Teleboans.