Volume 1

The epicure's almanac [for 1841-43] ... containing a choice ... receipt ... for every day of the year / [Benson E. Hill].

  • Hill, Benson E. (Benson Earle), 1795-1845
Date:
1841-1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The epicure's almanac [for 1841-43] ... containing a choice ... receipt ... for every day of the year / [Benson E. Hill]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTION. ♦— Although it may be said that no apology or expla- nation is required, from one who attempts to serve others, from the result of his own experience, still I feel that I shall prove to the purchasers of this slight manual, the value of the directions it contains, if I account, however briefly, for the way in which I became initiated into the mysteries of “culinary chemistry.” That I was born in a city renowned for good eating, I have already recorded; and was, as a child, accus- tomed to the comforts of a “good man’s board.” I left the luxuries and delicacies of home to munch mut- ton at Marlow, and feed at Woolwich on beef and stick-jaw, for such was the inelegant, but appropriate name applied to the baked suet-puddings, given as a bonus by the housekeeper of the Royal Military Academy. Leaving these for the Artillery mess, where, if a man does not get his dessert, he is sure of his three courses, I must have been deficient in taste had I not acquired some little judgment as a gourmet, or, to quote the learned Mr. Walker, an Aristologist. From this daily banquet, which would have shamed