MUSCOVY FOR THE TABLE ©

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Muscovy; Muscovy duck

Those unfamiliar with Muscovys may refer to my previous article.

Our Muscovy drake, Ralph, approximately 1 1/2 years old.

Muscovy flesh was noted to be excellent in flavor.  Dixon wrote that the flavor was excellent if killed just before fully fledged [having wing feathers sufficient enough to enable the bird to fly], but it took longer in achieving growth for the table than the common duck.  “The flesh is at first high flavoured and tender, but an old bird would be rank and the toughest of tough meat.”

Most potential poultry growers eventually get down to brass tacks and ask about the meat harvested from this breed.  Muscovy meat is thinner-skinned, less fat, and deep red, often compared to beef in flavor and tender.  A Muscovy carcass is heavy for its size and the breast is larger than a Pekin.  Muscovy eggs are rich in flavor and excellent for baking.

1920. T. G. Carey, a Muscovy breeder in Australia said of his “aquatic fowl” they have more flesh upon their body than any other poultry. “. . . learn how to relish the juicy Muscovy duck-meat with green peas, and the trial must convince him or her how remunerative this proposition [raising Muscovys] may prove.” –

Robert Schomburg pronounced wild Muscovy flesh, “excellent eating”.  –

1904. W. Summers likewise noted that Muscovy were, “the best table fowl of any of the water-fowl variety”.

Marguerite N. de Freltas replied to a previously published comment in “Pacific Poultry Craft” advising that anyone reporting on fowl should have kept them long enough to know their habits and worthiness before submitting information to magazines and disagreed wholeheartedly with the writer of the previous article.  “. . . we eat the drakes at two years and consider them very fine—they are not ‘hard, dry nor rank’.  On the contrary, the family all decided that the last one we ate was better than the previous one of seven months. . . I can cook one of my birds at two years, and . . . it will be very good to eat”.  Dec. 1914.

Recipes specifying Muscovy are rare, probably because, as Todd Goodholme noted, Muscovy was among the various breeds, “which are very fine for the table” and as such any of the better breeds was suitable for preparation.  After all, chicken recipes do not specify a particular breed.  His recipes were noted suitable for any type of duck.

William Gibson likewise discussed Muscovys, and, under that heading, we find in his index, “To cook [a Muscovy].—See Duck”.

The following recipe from “Good Housekeeping” did specify using a Muscovy.

“The best duck for ordinary occasions when such luxuries as canvas back, red head, and teal are not to be thought of is a young Muscovy drake.  Choose a fat tender one; there is too little meat on a duck for it to be worthwhile to take the trouble to cook a tough stringy one.  Rub it well inside and outside, first with plenty of fine salt and black pepper, then give it a second rubbing with finely pounded sage, marjoram, and savory all equal quantities, pounded together, and sifted free of stalk and stem.  Always add a dash of cayenne inside and out to any meat or game that is being seasoned.  Make a stuffing of bread crumbs (either corn or wheat bread as preferred, that is a matter of taste. . .) about a pint, or more, according to the size of the duck in a bowl with a teaspoonful of powdered sage, marjoram, savory and black pepper, a small onion minced, or grated, which is better, two tablespoons of fresh butter, and enough sweet cream to moisten it into as soft a mass as can be handled. . . Stuff the duck well and sew it up, dredge it with flour and put it in a pan with half a pint of water, and half a pint of red wine, have the oven very hot, so the duck will cook quickly and be a rich brown when only about half done, for ducks are eaten quite half raw!  Baste it well with flour and butter on a larding mop, and pour over it from time to time the liquid in the pan.    When the ducks are taken up if the gravy is not thick enough add a little flour and sage rubbed together and allow it to come to a boil, then add a wine-glass full of walnut or mushroom catsup, a spoonful of sugar or currant jelly, the juice of half a lemon, a good dash of red pepper, and serve very hot.”

STEWED WITH GREEN PEAS.  [Goodholme]  Half roast the duck; skin it, and put it into a stew-pan with a pint of beef gravy [stock], a few leaves of mint and sage cut small, pepper and salt, and half an onion shred as fine as possible.  Simmer a quarter of an hour, and skim clean; then add about a quart of green peas.  Cover tightly and simmer about half an hour longer.  Add a tablespoonful of butter and as much flour, and give it one boil and remove from fire; serve with the peas around it on the dish.

DUCK RAGOUT.  1866.  Half roast a duck, then score the breast in three places at each side, lightly strew mixed spices and cayenne into each cut, and squeeze lemon juice over the spices.  Stew the bird till tender in good brown gravy; take it out and keep it hot; add one or two finely-shred shallots to the gravy, also a glass of red wine, and pour the gravy over the duck.

ROAST MUSCOVY DUCK.  1919.  (Served with apple sauce).  Clean a Muscovy duck, season with salt and pepper, and stuff with a piece of celery and two shallots chopped very fine.  Put the duck in a roasting pan with a sliced onion and carrot, add a little water, and put in a hot oven.  The water will evaporate quickly, and the fat from the duck will be sufficient to roast it.  Baste often.  When done place the duck on a platter, remove the fat from the pan, add one cup of stock and a spoonful of meat extract, boil for five minutes, and pour over the duck.

TO DRESS A DUCK WITH JUICE OF ORANGE.  1723.  Roast the Duck, till it is half enough; then take it up, lay it in a Dish, and cut it up so as to leave all the Joints hanging to one another.  Then take Salt and Pepper pounded, and put between every incision; also, squeeze in some Juice of Orange.  Then lay the Duck in a Dish upon the breast, and press it hard down with a plate; set it over the Stove for a little time; then turn the Breast upwards again, and serve it hot in its own Gravy.

Should your experience with Muscovys resemble ours, you will have quiet but friendly companions and their offspring should furnish your table with fine dining.  As always, Blissful Meals.

See:  – “The Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary. . .”.  London.  1723.  – Hirtzler, Victor.  “The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book”.  Chicago.  1919.  – Philip, Robert Kemp.  “The Dictionary of Daily Wants”.  London.  1866.  – “Good Housekeeping”.  Feb. 1890.  – “Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making”.  1881.  – Goodholme, Todd S.  “Goodholme’s Domestic Cyclopaedia of Practical Information”.  New York.  1889.  – “Ducks and Geese”. Published by Reliable Poultry Journal Publishing Company.  1904.  Schomberg, Robert.  “Report of the Third Expedition into the Interior of Guayana”.  1837.  Queensland Agricultural Journal”.  May 1920.  – Brown, Edward.  “Races of Domestic Poultry”.  1906.

© May not be reproduced without the permission of the author.

ROUEN DUCKS: Their Origins and Qualities©

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Rouen duck

America has gone chicken crazy.  Every suburban housewife has 3 hens in the back yard and homesteaders seem to fixate on chickens when we value our other poultry as much, sometimes maybe more, than chickens.

I love our colorful Rouen ducks.  I’m currently caring for seven hatched just two days ago by two Rouen hens.  After a dog and raccoon killed some, our flock had dwindled to three hens and a drake so I’m thrilled to add seven little brown and yellow balls of fluff.

There are two schools of thought as to the origin of the name.  One is that it was bred from wild and tame ducks in the area of Rouen, France, and the other is that Rouen is simply a corruption of the word Rhone or Roan duck.  I had several ancestors that went from Normandy to England with William the Conqueror so I tend to favor the probable Norman origin for them while agreeing the English were, at least in part, responsible for improving them.  Where do these ducks rank in the hierarchy of historic poultry?

First, for the uninformed, what does a Rouen look like?  I can find no better description than the one from “Farmer’s Bulletins” published in 1917.  After noting the duck derived its name from the city in northern France, the author noted it was equal in size and standard weights to the Pekin.  “The eyes are dark brown and the head and upper part of the neck of the male are green, with a white ring around the neck, while the back is gray mixed with green near the neck, shading into a lustrous green near the tail.  The lower part of the body is gray and the breast is claret colored.  The tail and wings are gray and brown mixed with some green, while the wings have a wide purple bar with narrow white bars on either side of the purple, which are exposed when the wing is folded.  The shanks and toes are an orange or orange-brown color.  The duck is barred on the wings similarly to the drake, but the color of the plumage of her body is brown with penciling in all sections.  This breed has very handsome markings…”.

The Rouen was commonly found around Normandy and were taken to Paris where they were plucked and drawn for market.  “The Rouen duck used to pay a duty double that of the dabbling duck.  This difference arose not only from its size, which in fact is larger, but again, on account of the quality of its flesh…The ducks…are finer in Normandy than in any other canton in France.  The English come often to purchase them alive in the environs of Rouen, to enrich their farm-yards…”.  The author went on to say there was quite a lucrative trade in coasting-captains returning to England with a load of ducks which were always sold at a profit.  (1810)

“The large, fine species, called the Rouen duck, suits well in the environs of Rouen, on the banks of the Seine…”, read the opening line in a discussion of this duck penned by Walter Dickson in 1838 and copied by Peter Boswell in “Treatise on the Poultry-Yard”, published in 1841.

The “Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture” said in 1863 that the family of ducks was a numerous one but only the mallard; common farm-yard duck; Aylesbury; Rouen; Musk [“sometimes improperly called Muscovy”]; Black East India Duck, Wood Duck and Mandarin Duck were worthy of discussion.

The author said, “The Rouen Duck has for a long time been as distinguished in France as is the Aylesbury in England.  It is the largest, and, in some respects, the best duck of all our domestic varieties, though less beautiful in form than the Aylesbury.  Its color is pleasing, closely resembling the wild Mallard.  These ducks have broad, clumsily-built bodies, and when highly fattened they are very ungainly in their movements.  They are remarkably quiet, easily fattened, and are most excellent layers of very large eggs, and have no equal for the table in the domestic family of ducks.  The adult Rouen not unfrequently reaches from twelve to fifteen pounds per pair.  They are emphatically a “puddle-duck,” seeming to care less for water exercise than most other varieties….

For amount of care and feed the Aylesbury and the Rouen yield the greatest profit…”.

Saxton wrote in 1859 that the Rouen duck of France was abundant and fine, especially in Normandy and Languedoc, “where duck liver pies are considered a great delicacy”.

The Rouen remained much appreciated as a meat duck into the 20^th century.  “Few, if any, ducks fatten more readily.  The flesh is extremely delicious, the Rouen acknowledging few equals and no superiors in this respect.  While they do not mature quite as quickly as the Aylesburys, they attain equal weights.  They are thoroughly hardy…”.  – May, 1891.

The Rouen’s negative trait, if the reader considers it so, is that its pin feathers are darker than the white Pekin or Aylesbury.  Rouens were supposedly being raised in England by about 1800, but some claim it wasn’t until about 1850 that D. W. [Daniel Waldo] Lincoln of Worcester, Mass. introduced Rouens to the U.S.

This author made a rather thorough search for a period [published in the 19^th century] account connecting Daniel Waldo Lincoln to the Rouen duck and found nothing earlier than 1947 when Paul Ives made the statement in his book, “Domestic Geese and Ducks”.  He gave no source for the information, and by his own admission, rather assumed the date to be so based on the fact that he neither found the Rouen shown at the first Boston Poultry Show in 1849 or at the New York State Fair.  He gave no source, or even a hint, for how he connected the duck to D. W. Lincoln.

In the absence of any mid-19^th century documentation, this author questions the validity of Lincoln as the first to import the Rouens, yet the statement has been passed on by one author after another with none noting an original source other than Mr. Ives.

Governor Levi Lincoln, called “farmer Lincoln”, when chosen Governor of the Commonwealth in April 1825, was the father of Daniel Waldo Lincoln, mayor of Worcester for two terms.  Daniel, born Jan. 16, 1813, was named for his paternal uncle, Daniel Waldo Lincoln, who died unmarried in April 17, 1815.  His uncle is remembered for his oration for the creation of the Bunker Hill Society in 1808.  Daniel was, “President of B. and A. R. R. [railroad]; killed by the cars at New London, Conn., 1^st July, 1880”.  Levi and Daniel were officers of the Worcester Agricultural Society for numerous years.

In closing let’s examine another statement about Rouens from “The Poultry World”.  “To the one who desires to combine hardiness, prolificacy, quiet disposition, excellent table qualities, and exquisite plumage, in a word, great beauty and general utility, the Rouen duck makes a strong bid for favor”.

© – Victoria, Thehistoricfoodie

Sources:

“Saxton’s Rural Hand Book”.  1859.  Richardson, H. D.  “Domestic Fowl and Ornamental Poultry”.  1851. Dickson, Walter.  “Poultry:  Their Breeding, Rearing, Diseases, and General Management”.  1838. A Treatise on the Breeding, Rearing, and Fattening of Poultry”.  1810.  “The Poultry World”.  May, 1891.  Loring, James Spear.  “The Hundred Boston Orators Appointed by the Municipal Authorities”.  1852.  Rice, Franklin Pierce.  “Worcester of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-eight”.  1899.  Ives, Paul.  “Domestic Geese and Ducks”.  1951 edition.  New York.

 

A STEW-STOVE: Forerunner of the Cook Stove.©

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potager, stew-hole, stew-stove

The top photo is the stew-stove at Jefferson’s Monticello, 19th century, the illustration is from Scappi, 16th century. In the illustration the stew-stove is placed against the wall on the right and pans sit on the openings.

Today’s post, like yesterday’s, is an exploration of an antiquated cooking term, i.e. a stew-stove or stew-hole. I first took notice of this term while perusing (for the millionth time) Hannah Glasse’s “The Art of Cookery”, and decided to investigate the era and frequency in which it was used.

Henry Neumann [1808] defined stew-hole as, “a small stove in a kitchen-hearth on which anything is put to boil or stew”. It was still found in Edward Gray’s dictionary published in 1900. The stew stove or stew hole was in use by the 16th century, sometimes made of brick and clay, and at other times possibly stone and/or tile. The stoves allowed variance in temperature when cooking in multiple pots. They were first an adjunct to the fireplace, then free-standing, and eventually led to the creation of the cast-iron stove.

While some domiciles had multiple stories and multiple hearths, the stew-hole was always in the kitchen, probably the first or lowest floor as evidenced by this remark. “Fire-Hearths. On the kitchen floor, One kitchen grate, fire place, Stew-hole, Hot-hearth”. (1700’s England)

A stew-hole stove was a permanent fixture. It was a raised structure, usually brick, that allowed the cook to stand while preparing food instead of squatting or bending down to an open hearth at floor level. The stoves had openings a pot was set into and they were heated by a fire underneath. The stoves often had grates which the pots sat on and which held the pots steady over the opening. Some stoves had a grate upon which a fire was built, with the ashes falling below while others had hot coals from a larger fire at the bottom moved up to where they were needed under the pots. By the earliest part of the 19th century the openings in the brick stew stove could range in number from one to as many as eight as were used at Monticello.

One notation seems to have referred to a hole with a dirt bottom, possibly constructed much the same way as the bean-hole in America. “Feb. 10, 1844.—A large eel was found to-day in the stew-hole at Bottisham Hall, deeply imbedded in the mud. The weather this month has been very severe.” For the eel to burrow into the mud, the stew-hole had to be open to the ground underneath.

Several 18th century cookery books instruct setting soup or other dishes that needed long slow simmering, “over a slow fire or stew-hole”. Some of the books contained the same recipe, namely Crawfish Soup which called for the use of the stew-hole and it is possible those accounts may be more indicative of the freedom with which writers copied the work of others during that era than of the commonality of the stew-hole in 18th century kitchens.

John Perkins told the cook she could keep soup warm until it was served by setting it over the stew-hole. “…strain it, and toast some bread; cut it in small, lay the bread in your dish, and pour in the soup. If you have a stew-hole, set the dish over it for a minute, and send it to table”.

Boiled fish was another item that was kept warm until it was served by setting them over a stew-hole.

English/French dictionaries use the word potager to mean stove and that term was commonly used in Canada as well as France. (Yes I do know the word also referred to a garden)

Its efficiency while using less fuel was one of the attributes of the stew-stove, but having used such a stove, I can say that the distance between the grate that held the fire or coals and the bottom of the pot determines how effectively the stove performs. That distance was too great in the one I used and it took much too big a fire to get hot enough for cooking.

Sources:
Neumann, Henry. “A New Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages”. 1808. London.
Cotgrave, Randle. “A French and English Dictionary”. London.
Gray, Edward, Iribas, Juan L. “A New Pronouncing Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages”. 1852 and 1900 editions. NY.
Glasse, Hannah. “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Simple”. 1784. London.
Perkins, John. “Every Woman Her Own House-Keeper”. 1796. London.
Farley, John. “The London art of Cookery, and Housekeeper’s Complete Assistant”. 1800. London.
“The Complete Family-Piece; and, Country Gentleman, and Farmer’s Best Guide. 1737. London.
Carter, Susannah. “The Frugal Housewife or Complete Woman Cook”. 1796. London.
“Outing” magazine. Vol. 47. Dec. 1905.
“The Angler’s Guide: Containing Easy Instructions for the Youthful Beginner”. 1828. London.
Carter, Charles. “The London and Country Cook”. 1749. London.
“The Statutes at Large Passed in the Parliaments Held in Ireland, From the Third Year of Edward the Second, A.D. 1310, to the Thirty-eighth Year of George the Third, A.D. 1798, inclusive.” 1798. Dublin.
Jenyns, Leonard. “Observations in Natural History: With an Introduction on Habits of Observing as Connected with the Study of that Science.” 1846. London.
Millars. “Letters from Italy”. Vol. II. 1777. London.

A Few Stray Facts About Drink in 18th Century France ©

Chocolate pot

Yet another in a series of research projects to document what would be most appropriate for Ft. Toulouse in the first half of the mid-18^th century. 

*  “As early as 1664 a tax was levied on sugar imported by France, but it was considerably lower than taxes on other crops and did not deter cane production.  In 1665 the French government placed a high import tariff on sugar from non-French areas, which benefited Guadeloupe.  For most of the eighteenth century the French market was protected from foreign sugar imports”.  Much of that sugar was used in drinks. 

*  In 1685, Sieur Monin, a celebrated doctor of Grenoble, France, first recommended café au lait as a medicine. 

*  In 1669, “coffee in France was a hot black decoction of muddy grounds thickened with syrup”.

*  In 1702, coffee in the American colonies was being used as a refreshment between meals, “like spirituous liquors”.  In 1711, the infusion idea in coffee making appeared in France.  It came in the form of a fustian [cloth] bag which contained the ground coffee in the coffee maker, and the boiling water was poured over it.  This was a decided French novelty, but it made slow headway in England and America, where some people were still boiling whole roasted beans…

*  By 1760, the decoction, or boiling, method in France had been generally replaced by the infusion, or steeping method.

*  In 1763, Donmartin, a tinsmith of St. Bendit, France, invented a coffee pot, the inside of which was “filled by a fine sack put in, in its entirety”, and which had a tap to draw the coffee.  The 1800, De Belloy’s original French drip method appeared.

*  “From the beginning, the French devoted more attention than any other people to coffee brewing”.  From the late 18^th century into the early 19^th, the French were granted a great many patents for brewing methods, most of which are still in use today.

*  In the 18^th century, both coffee and sugar were bought at the apothecary’s shop and the use of coffee is said to have caused an increase in sugar use because the ladies of Paris, “used to put so much sugar in the coffee that it was nothing but a syrup of blackened water”. 

*  “The best coffee, in the western part of the world, is made in France, where this beverage is in universal request”.

*  In 1822, the quantity of cocoa imported into French colonies was 314,829 kil. compared to 29,444 in England, and 5,705 in the U.S.

*  In 1753, the countries trading with France ranked in the following of importance:

Imports:  The Levant, Spain, Italy, Holland, England, Switzerland, Savoy, the Baltic, Germany, & Flanders.

Exports:  Spain, Holland, Italy, the Baltic, Germany, the Levant, England, Flanders, Portugal, Switzerland.

*  “About the middle of the last century [17^th century], the Dutch sold tea at Paris at thirty shillings a pound which they had bought in China for eight-pence a pound.”  (published July 1787)

*  “Formerly, the taste in this particular was improving and extending; and at one time tea found its best market in France”.  At the time of publication, 1832, the author predicted the use of tea in France would again rise.

*  “The bourgeois of Boulogne have commonly soup and bouillé at noon, and a roast, with a salad, for supper; and at all their meals there is a desert of fruit.  This indeed is the practice all over France.  On meager [meatless] days they eat fish, omelettes, fried beans, fricassees of eggs and onions, and burnt cream.  The tea which they drink in the afternoon is rather boiled than infused; it is sweetened all together with coarse sugar, and drank with an equal quantity of boiled milk.”  [published in 1766, these customs had probably changed little over the previous several years]

*  Smollett found the tea, chocolate, cured neats tongues, and Bologna sausages to be excellent in France.

*  “Each European race has chosen one special beverage of this class:  Spain and Italy delight in chocolate; France, Germany, Sweden, and Turkey in coffee; while Russia, Holland, and England drink tea”.  – The Friend.

*  “In 1720, the consumption was so much augmented, that the French, who had hitherto brought home only raw-silk, porcelain, and silken manufactures from China, began to import considerable quantities of tea into France…”  – Hanway.

*  In 1728, la plus ancienne chocolaterie de France in Paris was selling chocolate to patrons.

*  R. Brookes wrote The Natural History of Chocolate published in 1730.  He discussed its early use in Europe.

*  “The new drink [chocolate] was introduced by monks from Spain into Germany and France, and when in 1660 Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain, married Louis XIV, she made chocolate well known at the Court of France”.  – Cocoa and Chocolate.

*  Chocolate was still being prepared in much the same way the Spaniards became aware of it in the New World during the 18^th century, and there are accounts describing the making of it in the mid-18^th century, including the French.  Napoleon was credited with inventing a chocolate mill to facilitate the preparation which he was very fond of.  “The mill is a round stick with a wheel on the end of it.  The stick passes through the lid of the chocolate pot.  Turning the protruding end of the stick between the palms of the hands turns the wheel within the pot while the chocolate is cooking and prevents any sediment from forming.  These mills are scarcely ever seen in this country except in antique shops.  Housewives use a cream whip for the same purpose, when they want an extra good cup of chocolate”.  [published history 1916]

SOURCES: 

Hoy, Don R.  Agricultural Land Use of Guadeloupe.

Clarendon, George William Frederick Villiers (Earl of).  First Report on the Commercial Relations Between France and Great Britain. 

The Country Magazine.  For the Years 1786 and 1787.  Vol. I.  1787.

Martin, Robert Montgomery.  The Past and Present State of the Tea Trade of England and of the Continents of Europe and America.  1832.  London. 

Smollett, Tobias George.  Travels Through France and Italy.  1766. 

The Friend.  Nov. 17,1867.  Philadelphia.

Hanway, Jonas.  A Journal of Eight Days Journey from Portsmouth to Kingston.  Vol. II. 

Knapp, Arthur.  Cocoa and Chocolate.  Their History from Plantation to Consumer. 

Boston Cooking School.  American Cookery.  Vol. 20.  Feb. 1916.

Mid-18th Century Foods in France, As Seen by Smollett©

In 1766, Tobias Smollett published an account of his family’s time spent in France some few years earlier, and rather than give the reader a long interpretation of what he found, the author will, instead, pass it on in his words (and in his spelling) for the truest picture of what he experienced.  The article is a continuation of blog articles on influences of foods prepared in French Louisiana prior to the French and Indian war.

I have likewise two small gardens, well stocked with oranges, lemons, peaches, figs, grapes, corinths, salad, and pot-herbs…It is very difficult to find a tolerable cook at Nice.  The markets at Nice are tolerably well supplied.  Their beef, which comes from Piedmont, is pretty good, and we have it all the year.  In the winter, we have likewise excellent pork, and delicate lamb; but the mutton is indifferent.  Piedmont, also, affords us delicious capons, fed with maiz; and this country produces excellent turkeys, but very few geese.  Chickens and pullets are extremely meager.  I have tried to fatten them, without success.  In the summer they are subject to the pip, and die in great numbers.  Autumn and winter are the seasons for game; hares, partridges, quails, wild-pigeons, woodcocks, snipes, thrushes, beccasicas, and ortolans.  Wild boar is sometimes found in the mountains;  it has a delicious taste, not unlike that of the wild hog in Jamaica; and would make an excellent barbecue, about the beginning of winter, when it is in good case:  but, when meager, the head only is presented at tables.  Pheasants are very scarce.  As for the heath game, I never saw but one cock, which my servant bought in the market, and brought home; but the commandant’s cook came into my kitchin, and carried it off, after it was half plucked, saying, his master had company to dinner.  The hares are large, plump, and juicy.  The partridges are generally of the red sort; large as pullets, and of a good flavor:  there are also some grey partridges in the mountains; and another sort of a white colour, that weigh four or five pounds each.  Beccasicas are smaller than sparrows, but very fat, and they are generally eaten half raw.  The best way of dressing. Them, is to stuff them into a roll, scooped of its crum; to baste them well with butter, and roast them, until they are brown and crisp.  The ortolans are kept in cages, and crammed, until they die of fat, then eaten as dainties.  The thrush is presented with the trail [entrails], because the bird feeds on olives.  They may as well eat the trail of a sheep, because it feeds on the aromatic herbs of the mountain.  In the summer, we have beef, veal, and mutton, chicken, and ducks; which last are very fat and flabby.  All the meat is tough in this season, because the excessive heat and great number of flies, will not admit of its being kept any time after it is killed.  Butter, and milk, though not very delicate, we have all the year.  Our tea and fine sugar come from Marseilles, at a very reasonable price.

Nice is not without variety of fish; though they are not counted so good in their kinds as those of the ocean.  Soals, [soles, flounder] and flat-fish in general, are scarce.  Here are some mullets, both grey and red.We sometimes see the dory, which is called St. Pietro; with rock fish, bonita, and mackerel.  The gurnard appears pretty often; and there is plenty a kind of large whiting, which eats pretty well; but has not the delicacy of that which is caught on our [English] coast.  One of the best fish of this country, is called ‘le loup’, about two or three pounds in weight; white, firm, and well-flavoured.  Another, no-way inferior to it, is the ‘moustel’, about the same size, of a dark grey colour, and short, blunt snout, growing thinner and flatter from the shoulders downwards, so as to resemble a soal at the tail.  This cannot be the mustela of the antients, which is supposed to be the sea lamprey.  Here too are found the vyvre, or, as we call it, weaver; remarkable for its long sharp spines, so dangerous to the fingers of the fishermen.  We have abundance of ‘soepie’, or cuttle-fish, of which the people in this country make a delicate ragout; as also of the ‘polype de mer’, which is an ugly animal with long feelers, like tails, which they often wind about the legs of the fishermen.  They are stewed with onions, and eat something like cow heel.  The market sometimes affords the ‘ecriviesse de mer’, which is a lobster without claws, of a sweetish taste; and there are a few rock oysters, very small, and very rank.  Sometimes the fishermen find under water, pieces of hard cement, like plaster of Paris, which contain a kind of muscle, called ‘la datte’, from its resemblance to a date.  These petrefactions are commonly of a triangular form, and may weigh about twelve or fifteen pounds each; and one of them may contain a dozen of these muscles, which have nothing extraordinary in the taste or flavor, though extremely curious, as found alive and juicy, in the heart of a rock, almost as hard as marble, without any visible communication with the air or water.  I take it for granted, however, that the enclosing cement is porous, and admits the finer parts of the surrounding fluid.  In order to reach the muscles, this cement must be broke with large hammers; and it may be truly said, the kernel is not worth the trouble of cracking the shell.  Among the fish of this country, there is a very ugly animal of the eel species, which might pass for a serpent:  it is of a dusky black colour, marked with spots of yellow, about eighteen inches, or two feet long.  The Italians call it ‘murena’; but whether it is the fish which had the same name among the ancient Romans, I cannot pretend to determine.  The antient murena was counted a great delicacy, and was kept in ponds, for extraordinary occasions.  Julius Caesar borrowed six thousand for one entertainment:  but I imagined this was the river lamprey.  The murena of this country is in no esteem, and only eaten by the poor people.  Craw-fish and trout are rarely found in the rivers among the mountains.  The swordfish is much esteemed in Nice, and called ‘l’empereur’, about six or seven feet long:  but I have never seen it.  They are very scarce; and when taken, are generally concealed, because the head belongs to the commandant, who has likewise the privilege of buying the best fish at a very low price.  For which reason, the choice pieces are concealed by the fishermen, and sent privately to Piedmont or Genoa.  But, the chief fisheries on this coast, are of the sardines, anchovies, and tunny.  These are taken in small quantities all the year:  but spring and summer is the season when they mostly abound.  In June and July, a fleet of about fifty fishing boats put to sea every evening about eight o’clock, and catch anchovies in immense quantities.  One small boat sometimes takes in one night twenty-five rup, amounting to six hundred weight; but it must be observed that the pound here, as well as in other parts of Italy, consists but of twelve ounces.  Anchovies, besides their making a considerable article in the commerce of Nice, are a great resource in all families.  The noblesse and bourgeois sup on salad and anchovies, which are eaten on all their meager days.  The fishermen and mariners all along this coast have scarce any other food but dry bread and a few pickled anchovies; and when the fish is eaten, they rub their crusts with the brine.  Nothing can be more delicious than fresh anchovies fried in oil:  I prefer them to the smelts of the Thames.  I need not mention, that the sardines and anchovies are caught in nets; salted, barreled, and exported into all the different kingdoms and states of Europe.  The sardines, however, are largest and fattest in the month of September.  A company of adventurers have farmed the tunny-fishery of the king, for six years; a monopoly, for which they pay about three thousand pounds sterling.  They are at a very considerable expense for nets, boats, and attendance.  Their nets are disposed in a very curious manner across the small bay of St. Hospice, in this neighbourhood, where the fish chiefly resort.  They are never removed, except in the winter, and when they want repair:  but there are avenues for the fish to enter, and pass, from one inclosure to another.  There is a man in a boat, who constantly keeps watch.  When he perceives they are fairly entered, he has a method of shutting all the passes, and confining the fish to one apartment of the net, which is lifted up into the boat, until the prisoners are taken and secured.  The tunny fish generally runs from fifty to one hundred weight; but some of them are much larger.  They are immediately gutted, boiled, and cut in slices.  The guts and head afford oil:  the slices are partly dried, to be eaten occasionally with oil and vinegar, or barreled up in oil, to be exported.  It is counted a delicacy in Italy and Piedmont, and tastes not unlike sturgeon.  The famous pickle of the ancients called garum, was made of the gills and blood of the tunny, or thynnus…

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