Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1876 — The Food of the Ancients. [ARTICLE]

The Food of the Ancients.

The diversity of substances which we find in the catalogue of articles qf food, is as great as the variety with which the art or the science of cookery prepares them. The notions of the ancients on this important subject are worthy of remark. Their taste regarding meat was various. Beef they considered the most substantial food; hence it constituted the chief nourishment of their athletes. Camels’ and dromedaries’ flesh was much esteemed, tlieir heels more especially. Donkey flesh was in high repute, and the wild ass brought from Africa was compared to venison. In more modern times we find Chancellor Cupret having asses fattened 'for his table. The hog md tho wild boar appear to have been held. in high estimation. Their mode of killing swine was refined in barbarity as epicurism. Pigs were slaughtered with red-hot spits, that the blood might lost: stuffing a pig with assafeetida was a luxury. Young bears, dogs, and foxes (the latter esteemed when fed on grapes), were also much admired by the Itomans, who were also so fond of various birds that some consular families assumed the names of those they ipost esteemed. Crttiusfteilfl us -how to- drawn fowls in Falernian wine, to render them more luscious and tender. Pheasants were brought over from Colchis, and deemed at one time such a rarity that one of the Ptolemies bitterly lamented his never having tasted any. Peacocks were carefully reared in the island of Samos, and sola at such a high price that Varro informs us they fetched yearly upwards of SIO,OOO of our money. The guinea-fowl was considered delicious; but the Romans knew not the turkey, a gift which we moderns owe to the Jesuits. The ostrich was much relished; Heliogabalus delighted in their brains, and Apicius especially commends them. The modern gastronome is, perhaps, not aware that it is to the ancients he ow’es his fattened duck and goose livers—the inestimable foies gras of France. The swan was also fattened by the Romans, who first deprived it of sight; and cranes were by no means despised by TEe people of taste. While the feathered creation was doomed to form part of ancient delights, the waters yielded their share of enjoyments, and several fishes were immortalized. The carp was educated in their ponds, and rendered so tame that he came to be killed at the tinkling of his master’s bell or the sound of his voice. The fame of the lamprey' is generally known; and sturgeon was brought to table with triumphant pomp; but the turbot, one of which was brought to Domitian from Ancona, was considered such a splendid present that this Emperor assembled the Senate to admire it. The red mullet was held in such a distinguished category among genteel fishes, that three of them, although of small size, were known to fetch upward of $1 ,000. They were more I appreciated when brought alive, and gradually allowed to die, when theßomans feasted their eyes in the anticipated delight of eating them, by gazing on the dying creatures as they changed color like an expiring.4olphin. " Snails were also a great dainty) Fulvius Herpinus was immortalized for the discovery of the art of fattening them on bran and other articles; and Horace informs us that they were served up, broiled upon silver gridirons, to give a relish to wine. Oysters were brought from England to Rome, and frozen oysters were much extolled. Grasshoppers, locusts and various insects were equally acceptable to our gastronomic legislators.— Exchange.