A CORONATION DINNER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7434, 21 June 1902, Page 4

A CORONATION DINNER.

* 4) GEORGE THE SECOND'S BANQUET IN WESTMINSTER HALL. (Compiled for the "Star" by G.W.) ■ ' k At this time when the Coronation of King Edward VII. and its attendant banquets are so much under discussion, it is interesting to read of the coronation dipner of King George H., which is described in a cookery book of that period. The writer of this book evidently looked on the art of cookery as the firat and noblest of all arts, as be tells us in his > dedication and preface. The dedication runs thus: — "To tbe Rt. Hon. Wm. Anne Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, etc., is dedicated this Treatise on the Noble Art and Mystery of Cookery." In bis preface, tho author, Mr Charles Carter, sometime cook to bis Majesty and several noblemen, declares (even as long ago as 1731, when his book was published) that another book on cookery may be deemed unnecessary, "but when it is considered," he Bays, "that variety and novelty are no small part of the cook's art, and every ingenious artist constantly introducing new-/ experiments to gratify the taste of that part of mankind, whose splendid circumstances make them emulous to excel in the delicacies of this mystery, especially when they exert their wealth and its magnificence to entertain their friends with grand, sumptuous repasts ; it will be allowed that no art can, with more justice^ challenge a right to a kind reception than treatises of this nature." The author also laments the' slighting! of English cooks in the following terms: — "It is due to the assuming ignorance ol some and impolitic reservedness of others that a good English oook is often slighted, and some of our most hospitable noblemen cannot think themselves well served till they have sent to a neighbouring Kingdom for a cook, who, indeed, by the poverty ol his country and the variousness of humour of its flippant inhabitants, is pushed so much more upon his invention, that he may sometimes be allowed to surpass with his mimicking vivacity the sounder-taught native." But. to return to the coronation dinner, which is included in 'Mr Carter's Treatise. A diagram is given showing the arrangement of the three tables and the dishes placed thereon, and further on many of the recipes are given which Were used in making them. At each of the three tables covers were laid for forty-six persons, and on each board the viands were exactly similar. The banquet consisted of four " corses," the first being an Olio Podreda, or Spanish Olio, a very substantial soup composed of beef, mutton, pork, veal and twelve different sorts of fowl, of which as many as thirty-six of one kind were included, and every kind of vegetable known. The. second corse consisted of Chickens Deffinator, Comport of Teal, Turkies a da Cream, Bombards and Fricandoos, Rost Salmon whole, a' Patty Bisque, Geese a la D'obe, Rost Venison iiji joynts, Beef Trembleur, Chine Mutton, Venison Pasty or Pye and Ham and Chickins'. Of course, in every case there were several dishes of each sort on the tables. HL Corse.— Wild Fowl. Chickins Rost. Soles Marrinate. Tame Fowl. Woodcoks, Snipes. Wigeons. Pheasants. Partridges. Soles, fry'd. Duck. Teal. Smelts, fry'd. Turkies Polts, Rost and Larded. Buttered Crayfish. Pullets Rosfc. Quailes. IV. Corse.— Ohecker'd Jellys. Coller'd Veal. Jellys in Colours. Crabbs. Crocante. Cheesecak Tortes. Collefed 3eef. Lobsters, rost. Potted Vonison. Oollered Pig. Seed and Ribbon Jelly. Slict Tongues. Crayfish. Sturgeon. JUlys in Colours. Blemange. Fruits. Sweetmeats, wett andl dry, arranged in pyramids. From the names of the dishes, it would seem that a dinner of that period was not vastly different from one of the present day, but the manner of cooking has certainly changed. . To give the recipes complete would take too much space, so a few extracts must suffice. The directions for roasting a salmon whole commence:.— "First take your salmon, and scale him alive, and open him at the first fin," etc., then follow directions for the rest of the process. " Lay it to a pretty good fire, and baste ib with thick butter and claret wine ; season your stuff you baste it withal mighty well; draw it up thick, and when it is roasted dish it, head it off with a corlio, and lay it about with spiteockt eels and oysters broiled in their shells, and so serve it away hot." Lobsters roast are also cooked aUvej, the shells being lightly cracked first. The directions for a venison pye sounds disagreeable:— "First raise your coffin four square, thick and high, and of such bigness as you may require." Then follow directions for cutting up the venison, and then " lay all in the bottom, and band it over with a thin sheet of larden. Lay a b°r der round the edge, and so close it and bake it, and endore ib with egg, or wash it over with a little thin fresh blood." The directions for a Beef Pye an Blood are unsavoury to a degree, and several oi the dishes are nob such, as could be placed on a dinner table in these days. The sweet dishes made of salt fish, eels, lobsters, sheeps' trotters and such things, hardly appeal to our taste either. Salt-fish Pye, sweet, is made of salt cod, minced, to which is added "1 doz. yolks of e^gs boiled hard, a handful of spinaob and parsley minced, and seasoned with cloves, -mace, ginger, cinnamon, rose-water, sack, orange-water, musk and amber, to which is added' currants, raisins, citron, orange, lemon, candy'd, worked up with yolks of ecrgs thick butter and cream. Make your coffin; fill it;, lay eringo roots over, and suckets (lollies) and close it, and bake it; when bak'd, put over a sweet leer (sauce), dish it, and put round i& preserved fruits, suckets and chewets." We are left to guess what chewets are, also Attlets, Bombards, Coolios, Banniett Torts, Padolets, Rockampuffs, Cuscassoes, Pulpatoons, Powdoes or even Sattoots, all jof which are mentioned in various places. / A Crayfish Pottage is made of 300 crayfish and 2 carps, the shells of the crayfish being pounded small in a mortar, and added to the dish, probably with a view to assist digestion. Fricassy of Frogs and Snails sounds nice —"take of the fine, bright yellow frogs that are new springs, and fley them, etc." •To make Good Wigs you take flower, butter, sugar and carrpway seeds, and "Make them in bigness as you think fit, and bake on iron plates far quarter-hour. " Potted Otters, Badgers and Young Bears" are extremely useful recipes, too, -and the directions for making a Lumber Pye are, to say the least, amusing. " Take a'Phillet of Veal and mince ib raw, mince 41b of beef-suet; mince a good handful of spinach, a little parsley and a little thym«, season with sugar, sack, orange-flower and rose-water, salt, cloves, mace, cinnamon, ganger, musk and amber ; put to this a pound of citron, lemon and orangado, work it up with yolks of eight eggs, and spread it abroad in a tray. When you look over the making a Lumber Pye,' you will know bow to use it." The final direction is a marvel of simplicity. "