Preface
The sustentation of the body, and the repairing of its waste by an adequate supply of wholesome and nutritious daily food, is a subject of general importance, and necessarily occupies a large share of attention. But all nations have not the advantages of skilful cattle-breeders, slaughter-houses, well-supplied meat and poultry markets, and butchers’ shops graced with all the tempting joints of beef, mutton, and pork, which gladden the eyes of an Englishman, and keep up his stamina for labour. The traveller, the settler, and the savage, must be content to put up with what they can most readily obtain, and to avail themselves of many an unusual article of food, which would be rejected under more favourable circumstances, and with a greater choice for selection.
The subject of Food, in a physiological point of view, has been often discussed. Popular and learned treatises on all the art and mysteries of Cookery have been sold by thousands. We have had pleasant details furnished us too on the Food and the Commissariat of London.—But with respect to the animal substances, eaten by other people in foreign countries, we have known little—except from mere scraps of information.
The basis of the present volume is a lecture on the Curiosities of Food, which I delivered at several of the metropolitan literary institutions. Having been favourably received,—from the novelty of the subject, and the singularity of the specimens from my private museum by which it was illustrated,—I have been led to believe that it might prove generally interesting in a more amplified shape.
In order, however, to bring the details within a convenient compass, I have limited myself to a description of the Curiosities of Animal Food; but should the work be well received, I may follow it up hereafter by a companion volume, on the Curiosities of Vegetable Food.
In the arrangement of the materials for this work, one of two modes of description was open to me, either to dress up the details in characteristic pictures of the food-customs and viands in use in different quarters, and by different people; or to group the whole scientifically under natural history divisions. As the subject is curious and striking enough in its simplicity without the aid of fiction or embellishment, I have preferred adopting the latter arrangement, and have followed it as closely as the miscellaneous character of the selections and quotations would permit.
Many of the articles of food named are so outrageously repulsive, and the consideration of the subject, in a collected form, is altogether so new, that I have preferred citing authorities in all instances, so as to relieve myself from the charge of exaggeration, or the imputation of untenable assertions. For this reason, and from the varied and very extended nature of the field of enquiry, I can claim no merit for original writing in this work. I have merely desired to present the public with a readable volume; and I think its perusal will show that in this, as in other cases, truth is often stranger than fiction.
After a perusal of these pages, it can scarcely be said that, ‘there is nothing new under the sun,’ for many of the articles of food which I have described as being served up in different parts of the world, will be certainly new to many. Probably, some of the hints thrown out will make the fortune of any restaurateur in the city or at the west-end, who chooses to dish up one or more of the reputed delicacies, under a proper disguise, and with a high-sounding name.
P.L.S.
8, Winchester Street, Pimlico,
December 1858.
Insects furnish many good Delicacies—Fairy Cates, 292. Coleoptera—Larvæ or Grubs of Beetles eaten in various localities—Roman Epicures used to Fatten them, 293. Goliath Beetles eaten in Africa—Turkish Women cook Beetles in Butter to fatten themselves, 295. Orthoptera—Locusts extensively eaten in Africa and Arabia—Modes of Collecting and Cooking them, 296. Animals and Birds feed greedily on them—Descriptions given by various Travellers, 300. Locusts eaten in Eastern Asia—Grasshoppers tried and found to be good eating—A Grasshopper Roast in California, 304. Neuroptera—Termites, or White Ants, eaten by the Africans and South American Indians—Yellow and Red Ants in Brazil—Ants Distilled for Brandy in Sweden—Cocoons of the Wood Ant collected and sold for Feeding Birds, 305. Caviar of Insect Eggs in Mexico—Axayacat—Mode of Collecting—Cakes and Bread, called Hautle, made from them—Curry of Ants’ Eggs, 306. Hymenoptera—Bees eaten in Ceylon—Caterpillars of the Butterfly—Silk-worm Chrysalids Bugong Moth, a great Delicacy to Natives of Australia—Sage-Apples or Galls, in the Levant, 311. Hemiptera—The Cicada or Chirping Flies eaten in America and Australia—Caterpillars eaten like Sugar Plums, 314.
ARACHNIDA.
Spiders eaten in Various Quarters as Centipedes are in others, 316.
CRUSTACEA.
Flesh of Crustaceans Difficult of Digestion—Varieties of Consumed—Land Crabs—Their Habits—Varieties—Mode of Cooking them—An Ingredient in the Famous ‘Pepper-pot,’ 316. Abundance of Land Crabs at the Bahamas—mentioned by Virgil—Mason Crab of Chile eaten, 321. The Lobster—Where principally Caught—Preserved Fresh Lobsters, 322. Salted Lobsters—Pond or Saltern, for keeping them, at Southampton—A Tale with a Moral, 327. Turning Lobsters on their Backs, 328. Live Crablets eaten by the Chinese, 329. Shrimps and Prawns—Enormous Consumption of them—Instructions for Cooking them, 350. Dried Prawns and Shell-fish—Large Trade in them in the East, 332. Balachong or Gnapee, 333.
MOLLUSCA, &c.
Oysters—‘Natives and Scuttlemouths’—Racoon or Parasitic Oysters, 334. Large Trade in Oysters in America, at New York, Baltimore, Boston, and New Orleans, 335. Bottled Oysters at the Cape—Mussels—’Old Maids’—Scallops—Clams and Clam Digging—Largely used for Bait, 342. Periwinkles—Large Consumption of, in London—Whelks, Boiled and Pickled, 345. Snails a Fashionable Article of Diet—Roman Taste for them—A Snail Pie—The Vineyard Snail—Modes of Dressing them, 346. Attempt of Two Philosophers to relish them, 347. Snail Soup—The Parrot’s-bill Barnacle eaten, 349. Annelida—Palolo, a Pacific Delicacy, 350. Diet of Worms—Cuttle-fish eaten, 352. Arcas and Monodonta eaten—Sea Eggs or Urchins, 353. Holothuria—the Sea Slug Soup of the Chinese—Bêche-de-mer or Tripang, 354. The Times’ Correspondent’s Opinion of this Dish, 355. Extensive Fisheries for the Animal, 356. Details of the Preparation and Statistics of the Trade, 358. Varieties and Prices, 364.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Ignorance as to some of our Common Food—Ox Tongues—Polonies—Confidence inspired by the Pie-man eating one of his own Pies, 367. We eat many things which would be refused by others, 368. Bounty and Wisdom of the Creator in providing for Man—Difficulty of determining what are Food Delicacies, 369. New Varieties of Food may be Provided Artificially—Fresh Hides of Cattle a Delicacy in Java—Buffalo Hides and other Skins made into Jellies at Home—Buckskin Breeches, boiled and stuffed with Sea-weed for Food—Resumé of the Dainties of Different People—Verification of the Proverb—‘One half the world does not know how the other half lives.’