Prose halieutics; or, Ancient and modern fish tattle / Fraser's magazine.
- Charles David Badham
- Date:
- 1854
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Prose halieutics; or, Ancient and modern fish tattle / Fraser's magazine. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
547/578 page 533
![various cheeses^ to which we may probably add a spe- wine-glass,’ is biaKprjo-rov, ‘thoroughly good:’ then there was the KpLfiavov, or breast-shaped loaf; the dp,o\yatr], or shepherd’s goat- milk bread; the kov8v\yj, made of milk, honey, and cheese; the rvpovLTrjs, recommended for children; and Cyprus bread, which acted, says Eubulus, on a hungry man as the magnet on a needle. The ancients generally ate their bread hot, a practice recommended by the faculty, not on the score of health, but as most agreeable to the palate, and perhaps as not unlikely to bring * grist to their mill.’ We dare not enlarge the catalogue, lest the reader should become crusty over so long a note, but will con- clude with a bit of advice from that doughty authority in dough, Archestratus, who says, ‘ If you want an agreeable succession of fancy breads, you must take a Phoenician or a Lydian baker into your establishment, and you will then have no difficulty in se- curing a constant supply ;’ to which Athenseus adds, from his own knowledge, that any Cappadocian baker would give equal satis- faction. # The ancient cheesemonger kept a large stock in trade: he had cows’ milk cheese and ewes’ milk cheese, and what is more unusual nowadays, mares’ milk cheeses (Hippace), ranged in rows to suit the different tastes of his customers. Some of the former, as the Nemausium, were eaten like our Bath and cream cheeses, fresh; others improved by keeping ; some were smoke- dried ; Dalmatian cheeses enjoyed a great reputation at Borne, as did also, says Pliny, those of the Centronian and Ligurian provinces; an Apennine cheese, made, like some in Wales, of ewes’ and cows’ milk mixed, was also in favour ; the Bithynian curd was so salt as to require considerable soaking in vinegar be- fore it was fit to be used. The cheeses from Prance, in Pliny’s day, had a physicky flavour, and were therefore, we presume, not much asked for. Lucca, so famous now for its oil, was once fa- mous for the size of its cheeses, which, says Pliny, often reached ‘ ten stone.’ Of Greek cheeses the Sicilian ranked first, and next those from Achaia: they were made of ewes’ milk, and called, from the reputation they enjoyed, ‘ Jove’s milk.’ Those curd cheeses called ‘ provature,’ or buffalo’s eggs, the sale of which is now immense, were probably as well known to ancient as they are to modern Borne. They are formed by first kneading the fresh curd till it has been deprived of all redundant moisture (when it becomes ductile and stringy); afterwards the mass is broken up](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24974456_0549.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
