The pantropheon or, history of food, and its preparation, from the earliest ages of the world / A. Soyer.

  • Alexis Soyer
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The pantropheon or, history of food, and its preparation, from the earliest ages of the world / A. Soyer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    34/593 page 8
    present day, particularly if they were offered to him in the order in- dicated hy Macrobius. The text of that writer, as it is handed down to us, may be imperfect or mutilated ; again, he may have described the supper of Lentulus from memory, regardless of the order prescribed for those punctilious and learned transitions to which a feast owes all its value. Let us, we would say, in addressing our culinary colleagues, avoid those deplorable lacunes; let us preserve for future generations, who may be curious concerning our gastronomic ponip, the minutiae of our memorable magiric meetings, prompted, almost without exception, by some highly civilising idea—a love of the arts, the commercial propa- gaudism, or a feeling of philanthropy. The Greeks and Komans— egotists, if there ever were any—supped for themselves, and lived only to sup; our pleasures are ennobled by views more useful and more elevated. We often dine for the poor, and we sometimes dance for the afflicted, the widow, and the orphan. Moreover, a most important ethnographical consideration seems to give a serious interest to the diet of a people, if it be true, as we are convinced it is, and as we shall probably one day endeavour to demon- strate, that the manners of individuals, their idiosyncrasies, inclinations, and intellectual habits, are modified, to a certain extent, as taste, climate, and circumstances may determine the nature of their food; an assertion which might be supported by irrefragable proofs, and would show the justness of the aphorism: Tell me what thou eatest, and I will tell thee who thou art.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3