| Show FIT FOR EPICUREANS Mrs John Sherwood Discusses American Game Etc THE CHOICEST PRODUCTS Freparinc Woodcock Snipe Ducks and Plover for the Table Fabulous Profusion Pro-fusion of the City Market For THE SUNDAY HERALDCopyrighted HE AMOUNT of game and flsn which our great country and extent ex-tent of sea coast gives us tho variety var-iety of climate t from Florida to 41 i Maine from San Francisco to Boston 6 Bos-ton which the remarkable re-markable network of our railway communications I allows us to em V plo lall this makes tho American market in any great city almost al-most fabulously profuse Then our steam ships bring us fresh artichokes arti-chokes from Algiers in midwinter and figs from the Mediterranean while the remarkable remark-able climate of California gives us four crops of delicate fruit a year There are those however who find the fruits of California Cal-ifornia less finely flavored than those of the eastern states The peaches of the past are almost a lost flavor oven at tho north The peach of Europe is a different and far Inferior fruit to our peach It lacks that essential flavor which to the American palate pal-ate tells of the best of fruits It is well for the purposes of gastronomical gastronomi-cal history to narrate the variety of the larder in the height of the season of a certain cer-tain seaside club house a few years ago The season lasted ISO days during which time from 80000 to 90000 game birds and 18000 pounds of fish were consumed exclusive exclu-sive of domestio poultry steaks and chops On busy days twenty four kinds of fish al fit for epicureans embracing turbot Spanish Span-ish mackerel Ilea trout the various kind of base including that gamest of fish the black base bonito from the Gulf of Mexico the purple mullet the weak fish chicken halibut sole plaice the frog the soft crab from the Chesapeake were served Here packed tier upon tier in glistening ice were Borne thirty kinds of birds in tho very ecstacy of prime condition and all ready prepared for the cook Let us enumorat this royal fellowship of game Tner were owls Irom the north wo might cal them by some more enticing name chicken grouse from Illinois chicken partridge Lake Erie black and summer ducks and teal woodcock upland plover by many esteemed es-teemed as THE CHOICEST OF MORSELS dough birds brant New Jersey milletgoc wit jack curlew jacksnipe sandsniporoc snipe humming birds daintily served In nut shells golden plover beetlcheade plover redbreast plover chicken plover i I secklebill curlew summer and winter ye low legs reed birds and rail from Delaware the latter most highly esteemed Europe where It is known as the ortolan j ringnec I snipe brown backs grass birds and Deeps Is not this a list to make the rash praze I wipe his eyes f f And to show our riches and their poverty in the matter of game let UB give the game 1 statistics of France for one year There 1 were 30000 communes in Prance and in j i w 1 each commune there were killed on the average on September 1 ten hares total 300000 seventeen partridges 612000 total fourteen quails total 540000 one rail in each commune 30000 total as to rails That was all France could do as to the furnishing of the larder of course she imports im-ports fame from Savoy Germany Norway and England And oh i how she La Belle France can cook them 1 Woodcock it is said should be cooked the day it is shot or certainly when fresh Birds that feed on or near tile Avater should b e eaten fresh Snipe and some kinds of ducks the canvasback alone bear keeping the others get fishy Snipe should be picked by hand on no account ac-count drawn that is a practice worthy of an Esquimau Nor should any condiment be cooked with woodcock save butter and pork A piece of toast under him to catch his fragrant gravy and the delicious trail should alone be eaten with the snipe I But a bottle of Chamber may bo drank to wash him down The plover should be roasted quickly be fore a hot fire nor should even a pork jacket be applied if one wishes the delicious delici-ous juices of the bird alone This bird should be served with water crosses Red wine should be drunk with game Uhambertin Clos de Vougeout or a sound Lafitte or Latour Claret champagne is not the wine in the least That belongs to tho filet with the beef braise a glass of good golden sherry is allowable but not cham pagne The deep purple full bodied velvety I wines of Cote dOr the generous vintages as Burgundy are the thing Indeed they have always been in high renown these wines They are passed as presents from one royal personage to another like a Cor don dHonneur Burgundy was the wine of nobles and churchmen who have always had enviable Dalates Chamber tin is a lighter kind of Volnay and the vin velonto par excellence of the Cote dOr It was A GREAT FAVORITE WITH XAPOLEOX ITo I-To considerable body it unites a fine flavor and a suave bouquet of great finesse and does not become thin with age like other Burgundies As for tho Clos de Vougeout the chorea teristics are a rich ruby color velvety soft ness a delicate bouquet which has a slight suggestion of tho raspberry It is a stroig wine less refined in flavor than the Cham bertin and with a suggestion of bitterness It was so much admired by a certain mill tary commander tbat while marching his regiment to the Rhine he commanded his I men to halt before the vineyard and salute I it They presented arms in its honor Chateau Lafitte renowned for its magni I ficent color exquisite softness delicate flavor and fragrant bouquet recalling almonds and violets is one of the wines of > i I I the Gironde and is supposed of late to have deteriorated in quality but it is quite good enough to command a high price and the at tension of the connoisseur Chateau La Tour a grand Medoo claret derives its name from an existing ancient round tower which the English assailed and defen ed by turns during the wars in Guinne It has a pronounced flavor and a powerful bouquet common to all wines of the Gironde It reminds one of the odor of almonds and of Noyan cordials These vineyards were in grand repute five centuries ago and it would bo delight ful work to pursue the history of the various i vari-ous crus did time permit The Cos dEs toumet of the famous St Esteohe crus is still mado by tho peasants treading out the grapes foule a plod to the accompain ment of pipes and fiddles as in the days of Louis XIV We will mention the two premiers grands crus of the Gironde tho growth of the i ancient vineyards of Leovillo and the St Julian wines distinguished by their odor of violets I Thackeray praises Chambertin In verso more than once Oui out monsieur the waiters answer an-swer luel out monsieur desireti11 Tell mp a good one That I can sir the Chambertin with yellow sealu I Then again ho speaks of DIPPING HIS GRET BEARD IN THE GASCON tIE t erp time catches him at it and death knocks the crimson goblet from his lips MIn M-In countries where wine is grown there L is little l or no drunkenness It is to be feared that drunkenness is increased by impure im-pure wines It is shocking to road of the adulterations which first class wines are subjected to or rather the adulterations which are called first class wines Wilkio Collins has a hit at this in his No Name where he makes the famous Captain Waggo say saylVe were engaged at the time in making in a small back parlor in Brompton a fine first class sherry round in the mOll th tonic in character and a great favorite with the court of Spain II Our golden sherry our Chambertin our Chateau Lafitte is said to often come from the vineyards of Jersey City and the generous gener-ous hillsides of Brooklyn and we might perhaps quote from the song of The CanalThe The tradesmen who in liquor deal Of our canal goods use can make Anc when they mean their casks to fill They olt Its water freely take By this device they render less The ills that spring from drunkenness For harmless is the wine youll own From vine that In canals Is grown A largo proportion of the socalled foreign for-eign wines sold in America aro of American Ameri-can manufacture The medium grade clarets clar-ets and socalled moselles are made in Cal ifornia in groat quantities Our Senator Leland Stanford makes excellent wines On the islands of LakeErie the lake region II ot central New York and along the banks of the Ohio and Missouri rivers are vineyards vine-yards producing excellent wines An honest American wine is an excellent thing drink And yet it disgusted Com modoro McVicker who was entertained in I London as president of the yacht club to be asked to drink merican wines Still the catawbas dulcet delicious and i I dreamy are not to be despised Neither j are the sweet and dry California growths I The indigenous wines which come from Ohio Iowa Missouri and T Mississippi t are apt to bo musky and foxy and are not 1 pleasant to an American taste The cataw I bas are pleasant and are of three colors j i rose color straw color and colorless if that be a color In taste they are like sparkling moselle but fuller to tho palate Tho wine produced from the Isabella grape is of a decided raspberry flavor Tho finest American wines are those pro duced from the vines known as Nortons Virginia and the Cynthiann The former produces a well blended full bodied deep I colored aromatic and always astringent wine only needing finesse to equal a firs rate Burgundy The second probably the I finer of the two being o darker less j astringent and more delicate growth Among the American red wines may bo mentioned the produce of the Schuylkill Muscadel which was the only esteemed growth in the country previous to THE CULTIVATION Or T1IG CATAWBA GRAM being in fact ambitiously com Dared to the Crus of the Gironde It was a better acid ulous wine little suited to tho American palate and invariably requiring an addi tion of either sugar or alcohol Longfellow sings of the wine of the Mus tang grape of Texas and Now Mexico The fiery flood Or whose purple blood Has a dash d Spanish bravado The Carolina Scupperong is detestable reminding us of the sweet and better medicines medi-cines of childhood Tho Herbemoot arose tinted wine is very like the Spanish Man ganilla Longfellow says of sparkling catawba I that it tills tho room with a benuon to the giver It has indeed a charming bouquet bou-quet says the poet The name of Nicholas Lon worth is intimately inti-mately connected with the subject of Amer ican wines To him will ever be given all honor as being the fatbor of this industry in the American new world But tho superior excellence of the Cali forma wines has driven tho New York and tho Ohio wines it is said to a second place in tho market In the expositions of 1SS9 at Paris and in Melbourne silvor medals were awarded to the Inglowood wines wich arc of the Red Claret Burgundy and Medoo type also white wines Sauterne Chassolas and Hock Chablis Riesling etc eto The right soil for the cultivation of the grape is a hard thing to find but Captain Niebaum rich California grower has hit the key note when he says I have no wish to make any money out of my vineyard by producing a large quan tity of wine at a cheap or moderate price I am going to make a California wine which if it can be made will be worthily sought for by connoisseurs and I am prepared pre-pared to spend all the money needed to accomplish c ac-complish that result He says frankly that he has not yet pro duced the best wine of which California is capable but that he has succeeded in pro ducing better wine than many of the foreign for-eign wines sold in America He might have added that hogsheads of California grapo juice is sent annually to Bordeaux to be doctored and returned to America as French claret The misfortunes of the vine grower In Europe the ruin of acres of grape produc ing country by the phyloxera should be the opportunities for these new vine growers in the United States It is by travel experiment and by a close study of the foreign vine growers that a Californian can possibly make himself a vineyard which shall be successful Ho must induce nature to sweeten his wines and he can then laugh at the chemist OF VEGETABLES we have not only all that Europe can boast excepting perhaps the artichoke but wa have some in constant use and of great excellence ex-cellence which they have not For instance in-stance sweet corn boiled or roasted and eaten from the cob with butter and salt i is unknown in Europe They have not the sweet potato so delicious when baked They have not the pumpkin pe altbou h they have the pumpkin They have egg plant and cauliflower and beans and peas but so have we They havo bananas but never fried vhich is a negro dish and excellent ex-cellent They have not tho plantain gord baked nor the avogarde or alligator pear i which cooked fried in butter or oil is so + I admirable They have not the ochra of which the negro cooks make such excellent i gumbo soup They have all the salads and use sorrel much more than we do They do not cook summer squash as we do nor have they anything to equal it They use wage tables always as an entree not served with the meat unless the vegetable is cooked with the meat like a boef stowed in carrots turnips and onions g or veal and groou peas or veal with spinach and so on The pens are passed as an entree so is the cauli flower the beet roots and the turnips They treat all vegetables as we do asparagus aspara-gus to a separate coursQ For asparagus we must give tho French the palm panic Inrly when they serve it with Hollendaiso sauc and the Italians cook cauliflower with cheese a ravir ravirM M E W SHEUWOOD |
