The curiosities of food, or, The dainties and delicacies of different nations obtained from the animal kingdom / By Peter Lund Simmonds.

  • Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund), 1814-1897.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The curiosities of food, or, The dainties and delicacies of different nations obtained from the animal kingdom / By Peter Lund Simmonds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    19 natural history of man; as it shows how instinct and necessity have led him to adopt different customs, and to make use of different articles of consumption in dif- ferent climates. Among the ordinary domestic animals, there is little of novelty in the food they supply to man. But I may notice in passing, before proceeding to an investigation of unusual or extraordinary articles of consumption, a few things that may not be generally known. Jerked beef, or tasajo, as it is termed in Cuba, is imported to the extent of 200 to 350 thousand quintals a year into that island, for feeding the slaves on the plantations. That imported from Buenos Ayres and Itlonte Video is preferred for consumption on the sugar estates, to that which is received from Rio Grande, Venezuela, Campeachy, and the United States, it being more sub- stantial, coming in larger and thicker pieces, better cured and salted, and also of handsomer appearance. The class imported from Venezuela and Campeachy, comes in thin pieces called rehenque, which is not generally liked, and only bought in small parcels, for consumption in the city of Havana. The beef which is cured in the River Plate, from December to i\Iay, or in summer, is preferred in Cuba, by reason of its being more nutritive than that which is cured in the other or winter months; the colour is yellowish, and it keeps a longer time. In South America, the jerked beef is called charqui, and when salted, and smoked or dried in the sun, sesina. The commerce is very large in this species of provision. The mode of preparing it in Chili is as follows:— Wlien the horned cattle are sufficiently flit, or rather at the killing season, which is about the mouths of February