Part 16
‘After a brief interview, they politely invited me to partake of the supper they had already bespoken, informing me, at the same time, that they considered themselves peculiarly fortunate in having procured an excellent dish,--in fact, a great delicacy--in a place where they expected to meet with but indifferent fare. What this great delicacy was, they did not attempt to explain; and, having without hesitation accepted of their invitation, I felt no inclination to make any farther inquiries.
‘When the hour of supper arrived, the principal dish--and, indeed, almost the only one upon the table--appeared to me to be a dish of good-sized eels fried. I being the guest of my new acquaintances, had the honor of being the first served with a plate of what the person who presided called ‘Musical Jack.’ ‘Musical Jack,’ thought I, is some species of eel peculiar to the Mississippi and its tributary waters; and taking it for granted that it was all right, I forthwith began to ply my knife and fork. ‘Stop,’ said the individual that occupied the bottom of the table, before I had swallowed two mouthfuls. ‘You, sir, have no idea, I presume, what you are eating; and since you are our guest for the time being, I think it but right that you should have no cause hereafter to think yourself imposed upon. The dish before you, which we familiarly call ‘Musical Jack,’ is composed of rattlesnakes, which the hunter who accompanies us in our tour of exploration was so fortunate to procure for us this afternoon. It is far from the first time that we have fared thus; and, although our own hunter skinned, decapitated, and dressed the creatures, it was only through dint of coaxing that our hostess was prevailed upon to lend her frying-pan for so vile a purpose.’
‘Although curiosity had on many occasions prompted me to taste strange and unsavoury dishes, I must confess that never before did I feel such a loathing and disgust as I did towards the victuals before me. I was scarcely able to listen to the conclusion of this short address, ere I found it prudent to hurry out of the room; nor did I return till supper was over, and ‘Musical Jack’ had either been devoured or dismissed their presence.
‘As far as I recollect the circumstance, there was nothing peculiar or disagreeable in the flavour of the small quantity I ate; and when the subject was calmly discussed on the following day, one of the party assured me he was really partial to the meat of the rattlesnake, although some of the other members of his party had not been fully able to conquer their early-conceived antipathies towards this snake; but that during their long journey they had been occasionally prevailed upon to make trial of a small quantity of the flesh, and were willing to own that had they, been ignorant of its nature, they should have pronounced it of a quality passably good.
‘Ever afterwards in my visits to Kaskaskia, I narrowly examined every dish of a dubious character that was placed before me, in order to satisfy myself that it was not ‘Musical Jack.’’
Dr. Lang, in one of his works, gives us an account of snake cooking in Australia:--
‘One of the black fellows took the snake, and placing it on the branch of a tree, and striking it on the back of the head repeatedly with a piece of wood, threw it into the fire. The animal was not quite dead, for it wriggled for a minute or two in the fire, and then became very stiff and swollen, apparently from the expansion of the gases imprisoned in its body. The black fellow then drew it out of the fire, and with a knife cut through the skin longitudinally on both sides of the animal, from the head to the tail. He then coiled it up as a sailor does a rope, and laid it again upon the fire, turning it over again and again with a stick till he thought it sufficiently done on all sides, and superintending the process of cooking with all the interest imaginable. When he thought it sufficiently roasted, he thrust a stick into the coil, and laid it on the grass to cool, and when cool enough to admit of handling, he took it up again, wrung off its head and tail, which he threw away, and then broke the rest of the animal by the joints of the vertebræ into several pieces, one of which he threw to the other black fellow, and another he began eating himself with much apparent relish. Neither Mr. Wade nor myself having ever previously had the good fortune to witness the dressing of a snake for dinner by the black natives, we were much interested with the whole operation; and as the steam from the roasting snake was by no means unsavoury, and the flesh delicately white, we were each induced to try a bit of it. It was not unpalatable by any means, although rather fibrous and stringy like ling-fish. Mr. Wade observed, that it reminded him of the taste of eels; but as there was a strong prejudice against the use of eels as an article of food in the west of Scotland, in my boyhood, I had never tasted an eel, and was therefore unable to testify to the correctness of this observation. There was doubtless an equally strong prejudice to get over in the case of a snake, and for an hour or two after I had partaken of it, my stomach was ever and anon on the point of insurrection at the very idea of the thing; but, thinking it unmanly to yield to such a feeling, I managed to keep it down.’
In a paper which I published in the _Journal of the Society of Arts_, in October 1856, (vol. 4, p. 872,) I entered very fully into a description of the various snakes which are met with in different countries, poisonous or harmless, and to that paper I would refer those who wish to obtain descriptive details--scientific or general--not bearing on the subject of food, at present under our consideration.
The consumption of frogs is not, as is very often supposed, confined to the French. It is now also indulged in, to a considerable extent, by Americans; and frogs appear to command a high price in the New York market. An enthusiastic writer tries to convince us, that the only objection to frogs as an article of diet is a mere prejudice on the part of those who have never eaten them. ‘In what respect are they worse than eels? The frog who swallows young birds and ducklings is surely as clean a feeder as the snake-like creature that dines on dead dogs, and makes the celebrity of the ait at Twickenham. Or is a frog less savoury than a rat? And yet what a price was paid for rats at the siege of Kars! If the garrison could only have been supplied with lots of frogs--literal or metaphorical--the Russians would never have taken the place. Again, does a snail--the large escargot, which people are so fond of in Paris--appear more tempting than a frog? Or that animal picked out of its shell with a pin, and called, in vulgar parlance, a winkle. ‘Away, then,’ as indignant orators say, ‘away, then, with this cant of false delicacy and squeamishness, and the very first opportunity you have, _O lector fastidioso!_ order _A Dish of Frogs_. They are quite as good as whitebait, when assisted by a flask of Rhenish.’
The _Athenæum_, also, recently came out in favour of frogs. ‘There is no reason,’ it remarks, ‘why we should eschew frogs and relish turtle; still less is there for our eating one or two of the numerous edible funguses, which our island produces, and condemning all the rest.’
The green or edible frog (_Rana esculenta_) is a native of Europe, some parts of Asia, and also of Northern Africa. It is in high request on the Continent for its flesh, the meat of the hind quarters, which is alone used, being delicate and well tasted. In Vienna, where the consumption of these frogs is very considerable, they are preserved alive, and fattened in froggeries (grenouillières) constructed for the express purpose.
In America, the flesh of the huge bull-frog (_R. pipiens_, Harl.; _R. mugiens_, Catesby,) is tender, white, and affords excellent eating. Some bull-frogs weigh as much as half-a-pound, but the hind legs are the only parts used as food. They make excellent bait for the larger cat-fish.
In the Antilles, another huge bull-frog is reared in a state of domestication for the table. It is the _Rana ocellata_, Linn; _R. gigas_ of Spix; _Cystignathus ocellatus_, Wagler.
Toads seem also to be eaten by the French, though unwittingly. Professor Dumeril used to relate, in his lectures at the Jardin des Plantes, that the frogs brought to the markets in Paris are caught in the stagnant waters round Montmorenci, in the Bois de Vincennes, Bois de Boulogne, &c. The people employed in this traffic separate the hind quarters and legs of the frogs from the body, denude them of their skin, arrange them on skewers, as larks are done in this country, and then bring them in that state to market. In seeking for frogs, these dealers often meet with toads, which they do not reject, but prepare them in the same way as they would frogs; and, as it is impossible to determine whether the hind quarters of these creatures, after the skin is stripped off, belong to frogs or toads, it continually happen that great numbers of the supposed frogs sold in Paris for food are actually toads.[18]
This account of the mode of bringing the frogs to market, in Paris, does not tally with that given by my friend, Mr. F. T. Buckland, in his _Curiosities of Natural History_; he says:--
‘In France, frogs are considered a luxury, as any _bon vivant_ ordering a dish of them at the _Trois Frères_, at Paris, may, by the long price, speedily ascertain. Not wishing to try such an expensive experiment in gastronomy, I went to the large market in the Faubourg St. Germain, and enquired for frogs. I was referred to a stately-looking dame at a fish-stall, who produced a box nearly full of them, huddling and crawling about, and occasionally croaking as though aware of the fate to which they were destined. The price fixed was two a penny, and having ordered a dish to be prepared, the _Dame de la Halle_ dived her hand in among them, and having secured her victim by the hind legs, she severed him in twain with a sharp knife; the legs, minus skin, still struggling, were placed on a dish; and the head, with the fore-legs affixed, retained life and motion, and performed such motions that the operation became painful to look at. These legs were afterwards cooked at the _restaurateur’s_, being served up fried in bread crumbs, as larks are in England; and most excellent eating they were, tasting more like the delicate flesh of the rabbit than anything else I can think of. I afterwards tried a dish of the common English frog, but his flesh is not so white nor so tender as that of his French brother.’
The Chinese seem also to appreciate frogs, for Mr. Fortune, in describing a Chinese market, says--
‘Frogs seemed much in demand. They are brought to market in tubs and baskets, and the vender employs himself in skinning them as he sits making sales. He is extremely expert at this part of his business. He takes up the frog in his left hand, and with a knife, which he holds in his right, chops off the fore part of its head. The skin is then drawn back over the body and down to the feet, which are chopped off and thrown away. The poor frog, still alive, but headless, skinless, and feetless, is then thrown into another tub, and the operation is repeated on the rest in the same way. Every now and then the artist lays down his knife, and takes up his scales to weigh these animals for his customers, and make his sales. Everything in this civilised country, whether it be gold or silver, geese or frogs, is sold by weight.’
According to Seba and Madame Merian, the negroes eat the flesh of the Surinam toad (_Pipa Surinamensis_).
Frogs or toads of an enormous size (_Crapaux_) are very numerous in Dominica, and much esteemed as an article of food; the flesh, when fricasseed, being preferred by the English, as well as French, to chickens; and, when made into soup, recommended for the sick, especially in consumptive cases.
Wallace, in his _Travels on the Amazon_, tells us, ‘his Indians went several times early in the morning to the gapo to catch frogs, which they obtained in great numbers, stringing them on a sipo, and boiling them entire, entrails and all, and devoured them with much gusto. The frogs are mottled of various colours, have dilated toes, and are called jui.’
The eating of frogs seems to be indulged in in the Philippines, for a traveller tells us that--
‘After the rains there may generally be procured, by those who like them, frogs, which are taken from the ditch round the walls in great numbers, and are then fat and in good condition for eating, making a very favourite curry of some of the Europeans, their flesh being very tender.’[19]
FISH.
More than two-thirds of our globe being covered by the waters of the ocean, and of the remaining third a great part being washed by extensive rivers, or occupied by lakes, ponds, or marshes, these watery realms, teeming with life, furnish man with a great variety of food. Some of these have already passed under consideration in the reptilia, and others in the great class mammalia, as seals, morses, and manatees, which can remain at no great distance from the sea, together with whales, which never leave it, though constantly obliged, by the nature of their respiration, to seek its surface.
Mollusca, crustacea, annelides, and zoophytes are almost peculiar to this element, having but few scattered representatives on earth; but, amidst all its varied inhabitants, there are none more exclusively confined to its realms, none that rule them with such absolute sway, none more remarkable for number, variety of form, beauty of colour, and, above all, for the infinite advantages which they yield to man, than the great class of fishes. In fact, their evident superiority has caused their name to pass as a general appellation to all the inhabitants of the deep. Whales are called fish, crabs are called shell-fish, and the same term is used to denote oysters; though the first are mammalia, the second articulata, and the third mollusca.
Milton has well described the abundance of fish--
----‘Each creek and bay, With fry innumerable swarm and shoals Of fish, that with their fins and shining scales, Glide under the green waves; * * * * * * part single, or with mate Graze the sea-weed, their pasture, and through groves Of coral stray; or sporting, with quick glance, Show to the sun their way’d coats dropp’d with gold.’
The modes of preserving fish are various; they are salted and dried, smoked and potted, baked or marinated, preserved in oil, and pounded in a dry mass.
Several savage nations possess the art of preparing fish in a great variety of ways, even as a kind of flour, bread, &c.
Dr. Davy, commenting upon the remarkable facts respecting the exemption of fish-eating persons from certain diseases, suggests that there is undoubtedly something in the composition of fish which is not common to other articles of food, whether vegetable or animal. He believes this consists of iodine. He says, that in all instances in which he sought for this substance in _sea fish_ he has found it; and also traces of it in migratory fish, but not in _fresh-water fish_.
The trials he made were limited to red gurnard, mackerel, haddock, common cod, whiting, sole, ling, herring, pilchard, salmon, sea-trout, smelt, and trout.
The experiment was as follows.--He dried and charred, lixiviated, reduced to ashes, and again washed from a quarter of a pound to a pound of fish.
A good deal of limy matter was afforded from the washings of the charcoal of the sea fish.
The saline matter was principally common salt, had a pretty strong alkaline reaction, and by the blue hue produced by starch and _aqua regia_, afforded a clear proof of the presence of iodine. Only a slight trace was detected in the fresh-water salmon, sea-trout, and smelt. In the spent salmon descending to the sea, only just a perceptible trace was observable, and no trace in either parr or trout.
Dr. Davy states further, that he has detected it in an unmistakable manner in the common shrimp; also in the cockle, mussel, oyster, crab, &c.; nor is this remarkable, considering that it enters into the greater part of the food of fishes.
He observes, also, that cod liver oil is well established as an alterative or cure of pulmonary consumption, and as this oil contains iodine, the inference is, that sea fish, generally, may be alike beneficial. The practical application of this inquiry is obvious. A suggestion is also made as to the efficacy of drying fish, even without salt, the drying being complete to the exclusion of even hydroscopic water, for the use of the explorer and traveller.
The inference as to the salutary effects of fish depending on the presence of iodine, in the prevention of tubercular disease, might be extended to _goitre_, which it is known has already yielded to iodine. This formidable complaint appears to be completely unknown to the inhabitants of sea-ports and sea-coasts. Respecting another and concluding question, viz., the different parts of fish, it is to be remarked that, so far as experiments have gone, the effects will not be the same from all parts of the fish, because the inorganic elements are not the same. The examples chosen are the liver, muscle, roe, or melt. In the ash of the liver and muscle of sea-fish, Dr. Davy always found a large proportion of saline matter, common salt, abounding, with a minute portion of iodine, rather more in the liver than the muscle, and free alkali, or alkali in a state to occasion an alkaline reaction, as denoted by test-paper; whilst in the roe or melt there has been detected very little saline matter, no trace of iodine, nor of free alkali; on the contrary, a free acid, viz., phosphorus, analogous to what occurs in the yolk of an egg, and in consequence of which it is very difficult to digest either the roe or melt of a fish, or the yolk of an egg. The same conclusion on the same ground is applicable to fresh-water fish, viz., the absence of iodine.
A very common North American dish is chowder, which is thus prepared:--
Fry brown several slices of pork; cut each fish into five or six pieces; flour, and place a layer of them in your pork fat; sprinkle on a little pepper and salt; add cloves, mace, and sliced onions; if liked, lay on bits of the fried pork, and crackers soaked in cold water. Repeat this till you put in all the fish; turn on water just sufficient to cover them, and put on a heated bake pan lid. After stewing about 20 minutes, take up the fish, and mix two teaspoonfuls of flour with a little water, and stir it into the gravy, adding a little pepper and butter. A tumbler of wine, catsup, and spices will improve it. Cod and bass make the best chowder. In making clam chowder, the hard part of the clam should be cut off and rejected.
Fish glue consists almost wholly of gelatine; 100 grains of good dry isinglass, containing rather more than 98 of matter soluble in water.
Isinglass may be obtained from many fish. Jackson states, that the sounds of cod afford it; and that the lakes of America abound with fish, from which the very finest isinglass may be obtained. This substance is best prepared in summer, as frost impairs the colour, and deprives it of weight and of gelatinous principle.
It is made into jellies and blanc-manger, by the cook and confectioner, and with some sort of balsam, spread on silk, forms the court-plaister of the shops.
Fish maws are the dried stomachs of fishes, like our cod’s sounds, which being considered a great luxury by the Chinese, and as possessing strengthening and aphrodisiac properties, are brought over in the junks from the Indian islands.
Crawford states, that they often fetch upwards of £14 per cwt. in the Canton market. The exports of fish maws from Bombay average from 1500 to 2500 cwts. per annum; from Madras, about 50 cwts.; and from Bengal about 4,000 lbs.
Caviar is the common name for a preparation of the dried spawn, or salted roe of fish. The black caviar is made from the roe of sturgeon, and a single large fish will sometimes yield as much as 120 lbs. of roe. A cheaper and less prized red kind is obtained from the roe of the gray mullet, and some of the carp species, which are common in the rivers, and on the shores of the Black Sea. Caviar is principally consumed in Russia, Germany, and Italy, by the Greeks, during their long fasts, and also in small quantities in England. Inferior caviar is made into small, dry cakes. One thousand cwt. of caviar has been shipped from Odessa in a single season, and from Astracan, about 30,000 barrels. The produce of caviar from the Caspian sea, some years ago, was as much as a million and a half of pounds.
A preparation called botargo is made on the coasts of the Mediterranean from the spawn of a kind of fine mullet of a red color. The best is said to be made at Tunis, but it is also common in Sicily.
The dried roe of an enormous species of shad, which frequents the great river of Siak in Sumatra, constitutes an article of commerce in the East. According to Dr. Richardson, very good bread may be made from the roe of the pollack, an ocean fish (_Gadus pollachius_), found on both sides of the Atlantic, and in the Indian seas: on the British coasts it is often termed the cod-fish; and when young, the whiting pollack. In North America, this fish is so plentiful that it is salted and sold by the quintal like cod or ling.
The Chinook Indians of the Columbia rivers are very fond of herrings’ roes, which they collect in the following manner:--They sink cedar branches to the bottom of the river, in shallow places, by placing upon them a few heavy stones, taking care not to cover the green foliage, as the fish prefer spawning on anything green, and they literally cover all the branches by next morning with spawn. The Indians wash this off in their water-proof baskets, to the bottom of which it sinks; this is squeezed by the hand into little balls and then dried, and is very palatable.
The large roe of the Callipeva fish, already alluded to, is considered a delicacy in the West Indies. The mode of curing it differs widely from that in which the roe of the sturgeon and the sterlet is prepared.
The following is the account given by Goldsmith, in his _History of the Earth and Animated Nature_, of the way in which the latter is manufactured:--
‘They take the spawn, and freeing it from the small membranes that connect it together, they wash it with vinegar, and afterwards spread it to dry upon a table; they then put it into a vessel with salt, breaking the spawn with their hands, and not with a pestle. This done, they put it into a canvas bag, letting the liquor drain from it. Lastly, they put it into a tub with holes at the bottom, so that if there be any moisture still remaining, it may run out; then it is pressed down and covered up for use.’