THE

ART OF COOKERY:

IN IMITATION OF

HORACE'S ART OF POETRY.

WITH SOME

LETTERS TO DR. LISTER AND OTHERS,

Occafioned principally by

THE TITLE OF A BOOK published BY THE DOCTOR,

Being the

Vorks of APICIUS COELIUS, concerning the Soups and Sauces of the Ancients.

WITH

AN EXTRACT OF THE GREATEST CURIOSITIES CONTAINED IN THAT BOOK,

Humbly infcribed to

THE HONOURABLE BEEF-STEAK CLUB.

FIRST PRINTED IN 1708.

Dr. Lifter's book only 120 copies were printed in 1705. It was reprinted at Amfterdam, in 709, by Theod. Janf. Almeloveen, under the title of "Apicii Cœlii de Opfoniis et Condimentis, five Arte Coquinaria, Libri Decem. cum Annotationibus Martini Lifter, è Medicis Domefticis Sereniffimæ Majeftatis Reginæ Annæ, et Notis felectioribus, variifque Lectionibus integris, Humelbergii, Barthii, Reinefii, A Van Der Linden, et aliorum, ut et variorum Lectionum Libello. Editio Secunda." Dr. Afkew had a copy of each edition.

VOL. VI.

T

THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER.

Ir is now-a-days the hard fate of fuch as pretend | the laying a stress upon improper words will make to be authors, that they are not permitted to be the most correct piece ridiculous. Falle concord, mafters of their own works; for, if fuch papers tenfes and grammar, nonfenfe, impropriety, and (however imperfect) as may be called a copy of confufion, may go down with fome perfons; but them, either by a fervant or any other means, it fhould not be in the power of a bookfeller to come to the hands of a bookfeller, he never con- lampoon an author, and tell him, "You did fiders whether it be for the perfon's reputation to "write all this: I have got it; and you fall come into the world, whether it is agreeable to "ftand to the feandal, and I will have the benc his fentiments, whether to his style or correctness," fit." Yet this is the prefent cafe, notwith or whether he has for fome time looked over it; nor doth he care what name or character he puts to it, fo he imagines he may get by it.

It was the fate of the following Foem to be fo used, and printed with as much imperfection and as many mistakes as a bookfeller that has common fenfe could imagine fhould pass upon the town, efpecially in an age fo polite and critical as the prefent.

ftanding there are above threefcore faults of this nature; verses transposed, some added, others al tered, or rather that should have been altered and near forty omitted. The author does not va lue himself upon the whole: but, if he fhews hit efteem for Horace, and can by any means pro voke perfons to read fo useful a treatife; if he fhews his averfion to the introduction of luxu which may tend to the corruption of manten and declares his love to the old British hospitality charity, and valour, when the arms of the family the old pikes, mufkets, and halberts, hung up i the hall over the long table, and the marrow bones lay on the floor, and "Chevy Chace"

Thefe following Letters and Poem were at the prefs fome time before the other paper pretending to the fame title was crept out and hey had elfe, as the learned fay, groaned under the prefs till fuch time as the fheets had one by one been perufed and corrected, not only by the author," but his friends; whofe judgment, as he is fenfible he wants, fo is he proud to own that they fometimes condefcend to afford him.

For many faults, that at first feem fmall, yet create unpardonable errors. The number of the verfe turns upon the harfhnefs of a fyllable; and

The old Courtier of the Queen's" were place over the carved mantle-piece, and the beef brown bread were carried every day to the poor he defires little farther, than that the reader would for the future give all fuch bookfellers as are be fore fpoken of no manner of encouragement.

LETTERS

ΤΟ

DR. LISTER AND OTHERS.

DEAR SIR,

LETTER I.
To Mr.

E happiness of hearing now and then from a extremely delights me; for, I must confefs, ft of my other friends are fo much taken up ch politics or fpeculations, that either their pes or fears give them little leifure to perufe h parts of learning as lay remote, and are fit y for the closets of the curious. How bleft are at London, where you have new books of all ts! whilst we at a greater distance, being deute of fuch improvements, muft content ourves with the old ftore, and thumb the claffics if we were never to get higher than our Tully our Virgil.

You tantalize me only, when you tell me of e edition of a book by the ingenious Dr. Lifter, hich you fay is a treatife De Condimentis et Opis Veterum, "Of the Sauces and Soups of the Ancients," as I take it. Give me leave to ufe expreffion, which, though vulgar, yet upon is occafion is juft and proper: You have made y mouth water, but have not fent me whereithal to fatisfy my appetite.

Dispatch it, therefore, to us with all speed; for I expe& wonders from it. Let me tell you; I hope, in the first place, it will, in fome measure, remove the barbarity of our prefent education: for what hopes can there be of any progress in learning, whilft our gentlemen fuffer their fons, at Westminster, Eaton, and Winchester, to eat no thing but falt with their mutton, and vinegar with their roast beef, upon holidays? what extenfiveness can there be in their fouls; efpecially when, upon their going thence to the univerfity, their knowledge in culinary matters is feldom enlarged, and their diet continues very much the fame; and as to fauces, they are in profound ignorance?

It were to be wished, therefore, that every family had a French tutor; for, befides his being groom, gardener, butler, and valet, you would lee that he is endued with a greater accomplishment; for, according to our ancient author, Quot Galli, tatidem coqui, "As many Frenchmen as you

dergo the fatigues of our fleet and armies

have, fo many cooks you may depend upon;" which is very useful, where there is a numerous iffue. And I doubt not, but, with fuch tutors, and good housekeepers to provide cake and fweetmeats, together with the tender care of an indulgent mother, to fee that the children cat and drink every thing that they call for; I doubt not, I have raised a thousand notions to myfelf, only fay, but we may have a warlike and frugal om the title. Where could fuch a treafure lay gentry, a temperate and auftere clergy; and fuch id? What manuscripts have been collated? Un-perfons of quality, in all stations, as may best uner what emperor was it written? Might it not ave been in the reign of Heliogabalus, who, 1ough vicious, and in fome things fantastical, yet was not incurious in the grand affair of eating? Confider, dear Sir, in what uncertainties we nuft remain at prefent. You know my neigh-jugular of a carp, f as the blood may iffue thence our Mr. Greatrix is a learned antiquary. I hewed him your letter; which threw him into uch a dubiousness, and indeed perplexity of mind, hat the next day he durft not put any catchup in is fib-fauce, nor have his beloved pepper, oil, and emon, with his partridge, left, before he had feen Dr. Lifter's book, he might tranfgrefs in ufing mething not common to the ancients.

Pardon me, Sir, if I break off abruptly: for I am going to Monfieur D'Avaux, a perfon famous for eafing the tooth-ach by avulfion. He has promifed to fhew me how to ftrike a lancet into the

with the greatest effufion; and then will inftantly perform the operation of ftewing it in its own blood, in the prefence of myself and several more virtuofi. But, let him ufe what claret he will in the performance, I will fecure enough to drink your health and the reft of your friends.

I remain, Sir, &56.
Tü

very much in the dark. It is very probable, that the public ufe of them came in about the fame time that the Egyptians made ufe of jaries. I find, in the preface to the "Third Part of Mo

dern Reports," that the Chaldees had a great efteem for the number TWELVE, becaule "there were fo many figns of the Zodiack: from them this number ca ne to the Egyptians, and "fo to Greece, where Mars him felf was tried for

a murder, and was acquitted." Now it doc. not appear upon record, nor any frone that I have feen, whether the jury clubbed, or whether Mar treated them, at dinner, though it is most likely that he did; for he was a quarrelsome fort of a perfon, and probably, though acquitted, might be as guilty as Count Koningsmark. Now the cuf tom of juries dining at an eating-houfe, and hav ing glaffes of water brought them with tooth tinged with vermilion fwimming at the top, bring ftill continued, why may we not imagine, that the tooth-picks were as ancient as the dinner, the dinner as the juries, and the juries at least as the grand-children of Mitzraim? Homer makes his heroes feed fo grofsly, that they seem to have had more occafion for skewers than goofe-quill. He s very tedious in defcribing a fmith's forge and an anvil; whereas he might have been more polite, in fetting out the tooth-pick-cafe or painted far-be of Achilles, if that age had not been fo barbarous as to want them. And here I cannot but costder, that Athens, in the tinc of Pericles, whea it flourished moft in fumptuous buildings, and Rome in its height of empire, from Auguftus down to Adrian, had nothing that equalled the Royal or New Exchange, or Pope's-head Alley, for cu riofities and toy-fbops; neither had their fenate any thing to alleviate their debates concerning the af fairs of the univerfe, like raffling fometimes a Colonel Parfon's. Although the Egyptians often extended their conquefts into Africa and Ethiopia, and though the Cafre Blacks have very fine teeth; yet I cannot find that they made ufe of any fuch inftrument: nor does Ludolphus, though very exact as to the Abyffinian empire, give any ac count of a matter fo important; for which he a to blame, as I fhail fhew in my Treatife of " Forks "and Napkins," of which I thall fend you an El fay with all expedition. i thall in that Treatife fully illuftrate or confute this paffage of Dr. Heylin, in the third book of his "Cofmography," where he fays of the Chinese, "That they eat "their meat with two ticks of ivory, ebony, cr "the like; not touching it with their hands a "all, and therefore no great foulers of linen. "The ufe of filver forks with us, by fome of our

I AM a plain man, and therefore never afe com-
pliments; but I must tell you, that I have a great
ambition to hold a correfpondence with you,
efpecially that I may beg you to communicate
your remarks from the ancients concerning den-
tifcalps, vulgarly called tooth-picks. I take the ufe
of them to have been of great antiquity, and the
original to come from the inftinct of Nature,
which is the best mistress upon all occafions. The
Egyptians were a people excellent for their philo-
fophical and mathematical obfervations: they
fearched into all the fprings of action; and,
though I must condemn their fuperftition, I can-
not but applaud their invention. This people
had a vast diftrict that worshipped the crocodile,
which is an animal, whofe jaws, being very ob-
long, give him the opportunity of having a great
many teeth; and his habitation and bufinefs lying,
moft in the water, he, like our modern Dutch
whitfters in Southwark, had a very good fto-
mach, and was extremely voracious. It is cer-
tain, that he had the water of Nile always ready,
and confequently the opportunity of washing his
mouth after meals; yet he had farther occafion
for other inftruments to cleanfe his teeth, which
are ferrate, or like a faw. To this end, Nature
has provided an animal called the icbneumon, which
performs this office, and is fo maintained by the
product of its own labour. The Egyptians, feeing
fuch an ufeful fagacity in the crocodile, which they
fo much reverenced, foon began to imitate it,
great examples eafily drawing the multitude; fo
that it became their conftant custom to pick their
teeth, and wash their mouths, after eating. 1
cannot find in Martham's "Dynafties," nor in
the "Fragments of Manethon," what year of the
moon (for I hold the Egyptian years to have been
lunar, that is, but of a month's continuance) fo
venerable an usage first began; for it is the fault
of great philologers, to omit fuch things as are
moft material. Whether befoftris, in his large
conquefts, might extend the use of them, is as un-
certain; for the glorious actions of those ages lay

Whofe tenter-grounds are now almost all built upon.

fpruce gallants taken up of late, came from hence into Italy, and from thence into Erg "land." I cannot agree with this learned Dochot in many of thefe particulars. For, first, the ufe of thefe flicks is not fo much to fave linen, as cut of pure neceflity, which arifes from the length of their nails, which perfons of great quality in thofe countries wear at a prodigious length, to prevent all poffibility of working, or being ferviceable to themfelves or others; and therefore, if they