none durst kill in old time for fear of that jealous and revengeful Goddesses displeasure Among the Romans Quintus Hortensius was the first that ever brought them to the table whose commendation made them so desired that within a while a Peacocks egg was sold for ten pieces of silver and his kacrsas for twenty times as much Afterwards Marcus Lurco seeing that old and lean Peacocks grew to such a rate he began to cram them fat whilst they were young and gained thereby in a short time six thousand Sesterties Leo the tenth that noble Epicurean Pope made their brawnes into Sausages allowing therefore every year many hundred Ducats It is strange that S. Austin writes of Peacocks flesh namely that in a twelve month it corrupteth not after it is drest Nay Kiranides avoucheth that a Peacocks flesh will not putrifie in thirty years but remaineth then as sound and sweet as if it had been new killed which whether it proceed of the toughness and sinewy constitution or the feeding upon Serpents as some imagine I will not now determin this I onely observe that being once above a year old their flesh is very hard tough and melancholick requiring a strong stomack much wine and afterwards great exercise to overcome it It is very ill for them that are molested with the Hemorrhoids and such as live slothfully Concerning their preparation Galen appointeth them to hang upon a hook fifteen daies but Haliabbas twise fifteen before they are drest The Italians after they are drawn stuff their bodies full of nettles which softneth the hardest cheese being laid amongst them and then they either bury it in sand or hang it in a cold dry place with a great weight at his heels and so within a fornight it becomes very tender Plutarch reports out of his countriments experiments that an old Cock or an old Peacock or any hard flesh hanging but one night on a fig-tree waxeth very tender by morning others ascribe as much to the hanging of them upon a brasen hook which I permit to trial and wish both as true in effect as the reasons why they should be so are learnedly disputed As for young Peacocks fed at home with wholesome and pure meat as bread corn and curds no doubt they are very good meat yeelding not onely a taste extraordinarily strange and pleasant but also giving good nourishment the older sort is best roasted with lard the younger without lard both should be well sowced in pure wine for without it they are unwholesome Anseres Galen commendeth nothing in a Goose beside the Giblets Stomack and Liver sodden in broth which whether Scipio Metellus or Marcus Sestius first noted Pisanellus durst not decide but had he been as conversant in Pliny as he might have been he should have read that a question was moved in Rome who did first fatten geese some imputing it to Scipio and some to Sestius But Messalinus Cotta without all controversie was the first that ever taught how to dress and use their Giblets Nevertheless sith the Kings of Egypt feed usually but on two dishes Geese and Veal either custome hath made them a harmless meat or else they are not so hard hot aguish and melancholick a meat as some suppose them Jason Pratensis saith that the Jews have so hard a flesh so foul a skin so loathsome a savour and so crooked conditions because they eat so many Geese Indeed their exceeding watchfulness moody disposition and blackness of flesh argue a melancholick constitution yet being taken whilst they are young green feathered and well fatted with wholesome meat and eaten with sorrel sawce to correct their malignity if any malignity can remain after such dieting no doubt their flesh is as nourishing as it is pleasant and sweet But of all other a young stuble goose feeding it self fat in wheaten fields is the best of all being neither of too moist nor too dry a flesh but a middle constitution If any Goose be eaten above four months old it is badly digested without Garlick sauce exercise and strong drink Fritagius in his Creophagia having set down that young Geese are over-moist and old Geese very aguish appointeh them to be both corrected in this sort Before they be killed make them to receive the smoke of Borax down into their bodies three or four times together then stuff them with spices and sweet hearbs and rost them throughly which is a very good way to correct their superfluous moisture but nothing available for their aguishness Savanarola maketh Geese of a very hot constitution Albertus maketh them very cold their flesh is hard to digest and yet more moist saith Galen then of any water-foul besides but their natural feeding shews them to be hot and dry as Savanarola writeth for they drink infinitely often delight to be in the coldest waters and feed most gladly upon Lettice Endiff Purcelane Trifoil Ducks meat and Sowthistle They are so tame and obsequious to them that usually feed and dieted them that if Pliny saith truth they were driven like sheep from Brabant and Picardy to Rome on foot but I fear me whilst he did so excessively commend their obedience he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 play the very Goose himself Cygni Swans flesh was forbidden the Jewes because by them the Hieroglyphical Sages did describe hypocrisie for as Swans have the whitest feathers and the blackest flesh of all birds so the heart of Hypocrites is contrary to their outward appearance So that not for the badness of their flesh but for resembling of wicked mens minds they were forbidden for being young they are not the worst of meats nay if they be kept in a little pound and well fed with Corn their flesh will not onely alter the blackness but also be freed of the unwholesomness Being thus used they are appointed to be the first dish at the Emperour of Moscovie his table and also much esteemed in East-Friezland Nevertheless I deny not but that naturally they are unwholesome for their flesh is hard and black and all flesh the blacker it is the heavier it is the whiter the lighter and the more red the more enclining to heaviness the less red the more enclining to lightness and easiness of digestion which being once written for a general rule needs not I hope hereafter to be repeated Anates Tame Ducks feed filthly upon froggs toades mud waterspiders and all manner of venemous and foul things Wherefore it is not untruly said of Gesner that the best part of a Duck are his feathers for his flesh is hotter then of any tame fowl and withall toomoist hard gross of slow digestion and very excremental yea furthermore so aguish that once or twice it brought Galen himself into a fever while he desired to try the operation of it Nevertheless young Ducklings fed with grinded malt and cheese curds drinking nothing but milk or chalkwater
will prove it true by age waxing mellower and softer and more pleasant of taste digesting whatsoever went before it yet it self not heavy of digestion Our Essex Cheese being well handled would in my judgement come next unto it especially if Goats were as plentifull there as sheep that there might be a proportion betwixt the three milks without which it is folly to attempt the like Now whereas the Placentians and Parmians add Asses milk and Mares milk and also Camels milk when they can get it to the making of their Cheese it is not for the Curds sake because they yield no hard Curd but for the butterish part that is taken out of them for indeed the butter made of them is most thin liquid moist and penetrating whereby such a suppleing is procured that their Cheeses do rather ripen then dry with long lying The Irish men like to Plinies Barbarians have not yet so much wit as to make Cheese of Milk and our Welshmen want cunnning to make it well French Cheese in Plinies time tasted like a medicine but now the Angelots of Normandy are counted restorative which many of our Gentlewomen and especially a Niece of mine own have so well counterfeited that they excell their first pattern Spain hath forgotten the art of Cheese making and Portugal makes them but indifferently well though sometimes the best in the world were made at Cuna near to Cape Vincent where they also made Cheeses of 1000 l. weight apiece As for our Country Cheeses Banbury and Cheshire yields the most and are best to which the Holland Cheeses might be justly compared if their makers could but soberly put in salt As for Butter milk and Whey I leave them to my Treatise of drinks because they are of a thinner substance than that conveniently and properly they may be numbred and accounted amongst Meats Now a word or two of Eggs and then to our variable and no less profitable Discourse of Fishes CHAP. XVI Of EGGS and BLOVD AS the Oonians live only of Eggs and Oatmeal so the Aegyptians for a great while durst not eat Eggs because they are unperfect or liquid flesh neither did they eat a long time any Milk because it is but discoloured bloud Certain Grecians abstained from them because they resemble a little world for the shell of them is like the earth cold and dry the white is like to water cold and moist the fome or froth in the white resembleth aire which is warm and moist the yolk agreeth with the fire which is hot and dry But to omit such frivolous reasons let us not doubt but an Egg is a lawfull and wholsom meat tempered so excellently well by nature it self that it must needs be accounted one of the best nourishments being eaten white and all For they which eat only the yolk as many do in a conceit to nourish more plentifully fall into many hot and dangerous diseases unless they have a very cold liver and watrish bloud Contrariwise the whites of Eggs are so cold that spongy wood being thoroughly overlaid with them will hardly or not at all be burnt in a glowing fire Both being taken together do so qualifie one another that generally they agree with all stomacks or at the least offend none if we chuse them that be best and prepare them well after they be chosen Now all Eggs being potential creatures no doubt but they are of like substance and temper with that which in time they shall be made Wherefore as the flesh of Pheasants Partridges and Hens be of best juice temper quality nourishment and digestion so likewise their Eggs are wholsomest of all others Contrariwise as the Greek Proverb saith Like Crow like Egg. Neither can we imagine how any Egg should be wholsom proceeding from an unwholsom or distempered creature Wherefore we condemn in the way of comparison all Eggs of Turkies Peacocks Geese Ducks and all water-fowl preferring Hens Eggs before all other because they are a most usual familiar and temperate meat What kind of Eggs be best In the choice of good Eggs observe these lessons First That they be rather Pullets Eggs then laid by an old Hen. Secondly That they be not self-begotten but gotten by the Cock upon the Hen. Thirdly That they be new white and long For such Eggs nourish plentifully and quickly clear the voice and breast strengthen the stomack recover men out of consumptions and encrease nature so much that in continuance of time they make us wantons They nourish quickly because they are nothing but liquid flesh They nourish much because their heat and moisture is proportionable unto ours They are wholsomest in the morning because they are then newest They are best in winter because Hens are then fattest strongest and best relished they are worst in summer because Hens feed then upon flies snails cadlocks and many ill weeds which rather scoures then nourishes their bodies They are best being eaten alone because being mingled with orher meat they corrupt in the stomack filling many mens faces full of pimples morphues and freckles They are ill for young children especially being often eaten for that their hot bodies turn them into over-hot nourishment whence itch scabs inflammations and corruptions do arise They are also as bad for old men because they are hardly digested of a cold stomack fittest they are for temperate young persons and such as are consumed without any notable fever Concerning the nature of other Birds Eggs besides Hens Epenaetus extolleth Peacocks Eggs before all other and then the Eggs of Berganders and lastly of Phesants Partridges and Turkies whose judgement I would have throughly confuted had not daily experience and Antonius Gazius his arguments done it already And verily whosoever will taste other eggs then which daily we use shall find none void of a strong savour and bad relish saving the eggs of Phesants Partridges Berganders Ostriches Turkies Ducks and Geese though the three last named be bad enough Yet if Ducks eggs be hatched under a Hen they eat more sweetly and Goose eggs also hatched under them are thought by Simeon Sethi no unwholsom meat Pigeons eggs are exceeding hot and of ill taste hardly hardning by long seething The eggs of Sparrows encrease lust strengthen the heart and nourish abundantly As for the eggs of other birds great and small howsoever they are eaten as Rhasis saith in the way of medicine yet they give either none or no good nourishment But Hens eggs are so temperate and nourishing that Galen himself in certain continual fevers gave them usually to his Patients to restore spirits and not without reason being of so fine a substance and freed in a manner from all hurtfulness for they moisten us in fever Hecticks they nourish us in consumptions they strengthen us in fluxes they bridle sharp humors when they gripe us restore spirits in weakness of heart they speedily pass from a clean stomack
the ague but inwardly taken they engender palsies stop the lungs putrifie in the stomach and bring a man that much eats them to infinite diseases they are very hard of digestion burdensome to the stomach encreasing slimy nourishment and breeding palsies and appoplexies in the head From May to November they are very dangerous afterwards hot cholerick and labouring men may be refreshed by them but none else they are worst being fried best being kept in gelly made strong of wine and spices Umbrae Umbers have a dry and whitish flesh like the flesh of gray-trouts being of the like substance quality and goodness and needing no other preparation The belly of it is preferred before the other parts and is wholesomest in the Dog daies Pisanellus saith that it is called Umbra in Latin because it swimmeth in the river like a shaddow and he commendeth it exceedingly for young and hot stomacks as that also it is soon concocted and encreaseth seed CHAP. XX. Of such living Creatures and Meats as be neither Flesh nor Fish and yet give good nourishment to the body Cochelae terrestres SNails are little esteemed of us in England but in Barbarie Spaine and Italy they are eaten as a most dainty wholesome nourishing and restoring meat Let us beware when and in what sort we use them for they are naught whilst they feed but towards winter having scoured themselves from all excrements and batled themselves fat with sleep then are they wholesomest also if they feed in woods or in gardens full of Physick-hearbs they are strong both of smell and taste and dangerous to eat of They desire of all other herbs to feed of deffadills and asphodils but then they are not so good as those that feed upon other herbs and fruits but especially upon Dew-berries In Cales and Spain they feed chiefly upon orenge flouers which makes them very pleasant in eating In the Islands of Majorca and Minorca they never come out of their caves but live by sucking one anothers shell hanging together like a gluster of grapes which no doubt are of a purer substance then ours that suck and feed upon all herbs Fulvius Hilpinus not long before the civil war betwixt Caesar and Pompey made in his garden several snail-parks as I may call them keeping every kind by themselves there might one find the white snails of Reate the gray and great snails of Illyricum the fruitful snails of Africa and the Solitan snails most famous and excellent of all others which he suffered not to feed upon what they listed but made certain papp with sweet wine hony and flour whereby they were fed so fat and became so wholsome sweet and delicate that they were highly esteemed being sold every dishfull for Fourscore Quadrants But sith no man is in hope to gain so much by that Occupation they which must needs use them may chuse them in this sort First let them choose them of middle size feeding all Sommer time in hilly places upon wholesome Herbs Secondly let them not eat them till September be past for by that time they are thoroughly purged of all Excrements Also they are unfit for weak cold and moist Complexions because they themselves are cold in the first degree and moist in the second They are best for hot stomacks cholerick constitutions thirsty distemperatures watchfull brains and men troubled with Ulcers of the lungs and free from all stoppings and inflammations of the Kidneys Pliny wills them to be first parboyl'd in warm Water with sweet Herbs and then to be broyld upon the Coles and to be eaten ever in an odd number but if you dress them as Apicius appoints Periwinckles to be drest which I before described in the Treatise of Periwinckles they will prove a light wholsome and good nourishment Testudines Tortisses are likewise no usuall Meat amongst us yet because I see no reason but that Riot may bring them in and make them as familiar unto us as Turkies are I will write something of their choice use hurtfulness correction and degrees of Temperature Choose ever the greatest fullest of Eggs liveliest eyed and fatted at home with the best meat Their flesh nourishes plentifully and recovers men out of Consumptions Yet is it slowly digested of weak stomacks engendering thick and phlegmatick blood and making the eaters sleepy and sloathfull Wherefore seeth him thoroughly in many Waters with sweet Herbs and hot Spices especially for that it is no less cold then Snailes and fully as moist agreeing only at such times of the year and for such kinde of persons as Snails be thought convenient for Ramae Frogs are of hard concoction troublesome to the stomack breeding much phlegme and giving no sound yea rather a bad juice Yet Water frogs are best of the bigger sort and both bred and taken in a dry season Their hinder parts and Livers which be two in each are the best to be eaten and being throughly sodd in oyle salt-salt-water and Vinegar and eaten with sawce made of sweet Herbs Onions and Scallions they are no bad meat for cholerick young men though for old and phlegmatick persons they be wholly unprofitable They are moist in the first degree and cold in the second and therefore to be corrected with hot and drying simples Mel Honey and Bread was a great Meat with Pythagoras and his Scholars and counted a sufficient food for a temperate life For Bread strengthens the body and Hony both nourishes much and also cleanseth away superfluities Pollio Romulus being asked by Augustus the Emperor how he lived so long By nourishing saith he my inwards with Honey and my outward parts with oyle The like answer likewise made Democritus being demanded the like question Furthermore it is so generall a Meat thorough all Russia that the Children eat it on their bread every morning as ours do Butter to their breakfast with whom and with Old men it agreeth exceeding well clensing their breasts opening their pipes warming their stomachs resisting putrifaction procuring solubleness and urine and engendring sweet and commendable blood but young men whose moisture is less then childrens through sharpness of heat and whose stomachs are hotter then old mens by much eating of hony inflame their blood encrease choler bloody fluxes wind and obstructions together with a continual loathing of meat and a disposition to vomit hony-cakes were wont to be a great dish in old times at the end of bankets as ginger-bread is with us which custome Macrobius and Gellius have justly reproved because sweet things being last eaten open the mouth of the stomach which after meat should be closed and as it were sealed up to help concoction Wherefore Pisanellus doth very well in prescribing us to eat sugar-rosat or some soure fruits after hony to prevent the engendring of choler in the stomach and to help the same whilst it concocteth Raw hony is never good therefore clarifie it throughly at the fire and
doubt hapned upon these causes That Cyprus aboundeth in Cypres and Firr-trees Sardinia in Alom and Copper Mines Anticyra is replenished with true Hellebors and Thasus is full of deadly Ughes which either kill a man or make him mad when the savor infects him fully as it doth in such hot and dry Countries The aire may be also infected with the smoak of Charcole newly kindled whereof Quintus Catulus died or with the smel of new morter which killed Jovinianus the Emperor in his bed or with the snuf of a candle wherewith many have been strangled or with the aire of a pan of coles throughly kindled by which as Aemylius Victor studied in the City of Parma he suddenly fell down dead By the smell of a snuf of a candle many become leprous and women miscarry of children What light is best to study by of oyle wax dears suet and tallows the very smel of roses cureth headach and of some flowres drunkenness The smel of a wantlowse may kil a child in the mothers womb the very smel of Physick cureth many First therefore in the election or choice of aire observe this that it be pure and void of infection for pure aire is to the heart as balm to the sinews yea it is both meat drink exercise and Physick to the whole body Meat whilst it is easily converted into spirits Drink whilst it allayeth the thirst of the lungs and heart which no drink can so well quench exercise whilst it moveth humors immoveable otherwise of their own nature medicine or Physick whilst it helpeth to thrust forth excrements which would else harden or putrifie within our bodies the vapors whereof would so shake the bulwark of life and defile the rivers of blood issuing from the liver that we should not live long in health if happily we lived at all Next to purity of aire we must chuse that also which is temperate For natural heat is not preserved saith Galen but of aire moderately cold And Aristotle saith That Countries and Cities and houses which by interposition of hils on the North side be seldom cooled are subject to mortality and many diseases Yet must it not be so hot as to dissolve spirits procure thirst and abundant sweat to the hindring of urine and decaying of strength and appetite But as I said before of a middle temper because as nature is the mother so mediocrity is the preserver of every thing Who sees not a dry Summer peeleth and a dry winter riveleth the skin and that contrariwise an over-moist aire puffeth it up with humors and engendreth rheumes in the whole body Thirdly That aire is best which is most seasonable Namely warm and moist in the Spring hot and dry in Summer cooling and dry in Autumn cold and moist in Winter which seasons falling out contrarily as sometimes they doe especially in Islands infinite and unavoidable diseases ensue thereupon For if the spring-aire be cold and dry through abundance of Northeast winds dry inflammations of the eys hot urines fluxes of bloud by nose and bowels and most dangerous catarrhs to old persons follow upon it If Summer be cold and dry through the like winds look for all kinds of agues headaches coughs and consumptions Contrariwise if it be too hot and dry suppression of urine and womens courses together with exceeding bleeding at the nose is to be feared If Autumn be full of Southern and warm blasts the next Winter attend all rheumatick and moist diseases If Winter on the contrary be cold and dry which naturally should be cold and moist long agues humoral aches coughs and plurisies are to be expected unless the next Spring be of a moist disposition Again consider also how any house or City is situated for the aire is qualified accordingly Namely if they be placed Southeast South and Southwest and be hindred from all Northern blasts by opposition of hils they have neither sweet water nor wholsome aire but there women are subject to fluxes and miscarriages children to convulsions and shortness of breath men to bloudy fluxes scourings and Hemorrhoids and such like But Cities Countries or houses situated clean contrary towards the North-west North and North-East and defended from all Southern gusts and blasts albeit the people there are commonly more strong and dry yet are they subject through suppression of excrements unto headaches sharp plurisies coughs exulceration of the lungs phlegmatick collections rupture of inward veins and red eyes Likewise in those Countries young boyes are subject to swelling of the codds young girls to the navel-rupture men to the diseases above named Women to want and scarcity of their natural terms to hard labours ruptures and convulsions and to consumptions after childbearth Easterly Towns especially inclining to the south and houses are more wholesome then the westerly for many causes first because the aire is there more temperately hot and cold Secondly because all waters and springs running that way are most clear fragrant pleasant and wholesome resembling as it were a dainty spring and verily women there conceive quickly and bring forth easily children prove large well coloured and lively men healthful strong and able to any exercise But Western cities and houses barren clean of Eastern gusts have ever both troubled waters and unwholesome winds which mingled with the waters obscure their clearness and maketh the inhabitants weak heavy and ill coloured hoarce-voiced dull witted and wanting as if they were entring the house of death quickness and vigour But Avicen of all others declares this most at large who shewing the boldness and goodness of aire by the situation describes them in these words Houses having their chief or full seat Eastward are very wholsome for three causes First because the Sun rising upon them purgeth the aire very timely Secondly because it stayes not there long to dissolve spirits but turneth westward after noon Thirdly because cold winds are commonly as ushers to the Sun rising by which all corruption is killed that either was in the aire or lay on the ground Westerne places are worst situated First because the Sun bestowes not his maiden head and kingly heat upon them but a hot and scorching flame neither attenuating nor drying their aire but filling it full of fogs and mists Whereupon it falls out that the inhabitants are much troubled with hoarseness rheumes measils pocks and pestilence Southern seats are commonly subject to catarhs fluxes of the belly heaviness want of appetite haemoroids inflamation of eyes and their women conceive hardly and miscarry easily abounding in menstrual and mighty pollutions their old men are subject to palsies trembling apoplexies and all humoral diseases their children to cramps and the falling evil their young men to continual putrified agues and all kind of rebellious fevours In Nothren countryes through the driness coldness and sharpness of the wind women do hardly conceive and dangerously bring forth or if they be well delivered yet commonly
Ostreae Oisters do justly deserve a full treatice being so common and whithall so wholesome a meat they differ in colour substance and bigness but the best are thick little and round sheld not sli ppery nor flaggy through abundance of a gellied humour but short firm and thick of flesh riseing up round like a womans breast being in a manner all belly and no fins or at the most having very short fins of a green colour and listed about as with a purple haire which will make them indeed to be justly called Calliblephara that is to say The fair eye lidded Oisters such are our Walfleet and Colchester Oisters whose good rellish substance and wholesomeness far exceedeth the Oisters of Vsk Pool Southampton Whitstable Rye or any other Port or Haven in England Thus much concerning the body of Oisters now somewhat concerning their bigness Alexander with his Friends and Physitians wondred to find Oisters in the Indian seas a foot long And in Plinies time they marvelled at an Oister which might be divided into three morsels calling it therefore Tridacnon by a peculiar name but I dare and do truly affirm that at my eldest Brothers marriage at Aldham hall in Essex I did see a Pelden Oister divided into eight good morsels whose shell was nothing less then that of Alexanders but as the Greek Proverb saith Goodness is not tied to greatness but greatness to goodness wherefore sith the little round Oisters be commonly best rellished and less fulsome let them be of the greatest account especially to be eaten raw which of all other is thought to be the best way Galen saith that they are somewhat heavy of digestion and engender fleagm but as he knew not the goodness of English beefe when he condemned the use of all Ox-flesh so had he tryed the goodness of our Oisters which Pliny maketh the second best of the world no doubt he would have given Oisters a better censure That they are wholesome and to be desired of every man this may be no small reason that almost every man loves them Item whereas no flesh or other fish is or can be dangerless being eaten raw raw Oisters are never offensive to any indifferent stomack Nay furthermore they settle a wayward appetite and confirm a weak stomack and give good nourishment to decayed members either through their owne goodness or that they are so much desired Finally if they were an ill and heavy meat why were they appointed to be eaten first which is no new custome brought in by some late Physitian for one asking Dromeas who lived long before Athenaeus and Macrobius time whether he liked best the Feast of Athens or Chalcis I like said he the Athenians Prologue better then the Chalcidians for they began their feasts with Oisters and these with hony cakes which argueth them to have been ever held for a meat of light digestion else had they not alwaies been eaten in the first place It is great pitty of the loss of Asellius the Sabins book written Dialogue-wise betwixt the Fig-finch the Thrush and the Oisters wherein upon just grounds he so preferred them before the Birds that Tiberius Caesar rewarded him with a thousand pound Sterling The fattest Oisters are taken in salt water at the mouth of Rivers but the wholesomest and lightest are in the main upon shelfs and rocks which also procure urine and stools and are helps to cure the chollick and dropsy if they be eaten raw for sodden Oisters bind the belly stop urine and encrease the collick How dangerous it is to drink small drink upon Oisters it appeareth by Andronicus the elder who having made a great Dinner of Oisters drank cold water upon them whereupon he died being not able to overcome them And truly as Oisters do hardly corrupt of themselves so if cold drink follow them they concoct as hardly wherefore especially having eaten many drink either wine or some strong and hot beer after them for fear of a mischiefe Little Oisters are best raw great Oisters should be stued with wine onions pepper and butter or roasted with vinegar pepper and butter or bak't with onions pepper andbutter or pickled with white-wine-vinegar their owne water bayes mints and hot spices for of all wayes they are worst sod unless you seeth them in that sea water from whence they were brought All Oisters are dangeours whilst they be full of milk which commonly is betwixt May and August Raw Oisters are best in cold weather when the stomach is hottest namely from September to April albeit the Italians dare not venture on a raw Oister at any time but broil them in the shell with their water the juice of an orenge pepper and oil which way I must needs confess it eates daintily Pickled Oisters may be eaten at all times and to my taste and judgement they are more commendable chiefly to cold weak windy distasted stomachs then any way else prepared I wonder whether it be true or no which I have heard of and Pliny seemeth also to affirm That Oisters may be kept all the year long covered in snow and so be eaten in Sommer as cold as can be which if it prove answerable to the likelihood I conceive of it I will cry out with Pliny in the same Chapter Quanti quanti es luxuria quae summa montium maris ima commisces How great and powerful is riot which maketh the highest covering of mountains and the lowest creatures of the seas to meet together Yet it is recorded that Apicius the Roman kept Oisters so long sweet were it in snow pickle or brine that he sent them from thence sweet and good to the Emperour Trajan warring against the Parthians Cochleae marinae Perwinckles or Whelks are nothing but sea-snails feeding upon the finest mud of the shore and the best weeds they are very nourishing and restorative being sod at the sea-side in their own sea water the whitest flesht are ever best tenderest they which are taken in clean creeks eat pleasant but they which are gathered upon muddy shores eat very strongly and offend the eyesight They are best in winter and in the spring for a stomack and liver resolved as it were and disposessed of strength Apicius warneth us to pick away the covering of their holes for it is a most unwholesome thing being nothing but a collection of all their slime hardned with seething The best way to prepare them for sound persons is to seeth them in their owne sea-water or else in river water with salt and vinegar But for weak and consumed persons Apicius willeth them in the Book and Chapter aforesaid to be thus drest take first the skin from their holes and lay them for a day or two covered in salt and milk the third day lay them onely in new milk then seeth them in milk till they be dead or fry them in a pan with butter and salt Passeres
either of them engender the cough and cause headache but if you peel new Walnuts and wash them in wine and salt they are least offensive to the stomach and yet more nourishing if you eat them with sugar Old Walnuts are hot in the third degree and dry in the second new Walnuts are most temperate in each respect agreeing with old men and phlegmatick persons being eaten at the end of the Fall and the beginning of winter CHAP. XXIII Of such Fruits of the Garden as are nourishing A Atichokes grew sometimes onely in the Isle of Sicil and since my remembrance they were so dainty in England that usually they were sold for crownes a peice now industry and skill hath made them so common that the poorest man is possessed of Princes dainties Julius Capitolinus in the life of Pertinax and Pliny likewise in the 19 book of his natural History reports Artichokes to have been of such estimation in Carthage and Corduba that there were sold as many Artichokes in one year as came to six thousand Sesterties which maketh thirty thousand pound Sterling The first sprouts of Artichoke-leavs being sod in good broth with butter do not onely nourish but also mightily stir up lust of the body both in men and women the young heads of them eaten raw with pepper and salt do the like but the great heads being once come to perfection howsoever they are counted windy hard of digestion fuming up to the head and burdensom to the stomach yet certain it is that they are of great nourishment being well prepared Some boil them in fat poudred beefe broth till they be tender and then eat them with vinegar pepper sugar butter and salt Others having parboiled them a little take the pulpy part in the bottome and with sweet Marrow Verjuice Pepper Sugar and Gooseberries make most excellent and restorative Pies The Italians broil them on a Gridiron setting their bottoms downward and pouring on a little sweet oil upon every leaf assoon as they open with the heat and as that soakes in they put in a little more for if much should be poured in at once they would smel of the smoak by reason that the oil would drop into the fire This way the Artichoke is least windy and if it be eaten with Sugar Butter and the juice of an Orenge most pleasant likewise They are hot in two degrees and dry in one and therefore fittest for cold aged persons and complexions Remember that raw Artichokes are to be eaten towards the end of meals but the other at the beginning or in the midst Asparagus Asparagus was in old time a meat for such Emperours as Julius Caesar now every boord is served with them They must be presently gathered when their heads bow downwards and being sodden in two or three waters to ridd them of bitterness they are to be boiled in mutton broth till they be tender which is done in a trice The greatest and tenderest stalked are ever best and few or no kind of herbs nourish more being spoiled of their bitterness and eaten hot Galen doubteth of their active quality but yet experience sheweth them to be temperately moist and not to exceed in heat the first degree Ballocks-grass or Satyrium whereof there be five principal kinds is only nourishing in the full heavy and sappy root for the other is of clean contrary disposition Some eat them being boiled in Goats milke and Sugar Others candy them or keep them in Syrup any way they encrease bodily lust strengthen the liver help the parts of conception restore them which are consumed and give plentiful nourishment in hectick Fevors Mora rubi Bramble-berries or Black-berries be they of the greater or the less kind are temperately warm and sufficiently nourishing to a weak stomach How the poor live upon them daily experience sheweth yet being much eaten they bind the body and engender such putrified humors as beget both scabs and lice Borrago Buglossa Sirsium Borrage Bugloss and Langdebeif are of so great a temperature in all qualities that they are not only commended for special Cordials being steeped in Wine or made into Conserves but also their flowers herbs and roots are esteemed restorative nourishing weak bodies sufficiently and strengthening the parts of nourishment more then meanly being sodden in broths cullises or gellies Personatae radix Burr-roots I mean of the Clot burr called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Greeks whilst they are young and tender in the month of April are very wholesome and nourishing being eaten like a young green Artichoke with pepper and salt The Frenchmen and Italians first found them out since which time they are more common amongst us through the means of them which have travelled into strange Countries Brassicae Coleworts be of divers sorts but the most nourishing of all is your white-leafed Cabbage as big as a great loaf called Brassica Tritiana and that which the Italians calleth Cauli flores so beloved of Pompey that it was termed Brassica Pompeiana Either of them must first gently be sodden in fair water then again steeped all night in warm milk afterwards seeth them with fat marrow or in fat brues and they are very nourishing without offence Otherwise all Coleworts engender gross and melancholique bloud Choose ever the whitest and tenderest leafed for they are of the finest and best nourishment The Aegyptians eat Cabbage first to prevent drunkenness Danci hortenses Carot roots are very temperate in heat and driness of an aromatical and spice-like taste warming the inward parts and giving great nourishment to indifferent stomachs being sodden in fat and fleshy broth or else buttered The yellower the root the more sweet tender and aromatical is the Carot and the best grow in a black soft and ripe though not in a forced earth Anguriae Citruli Citruls so much beloved of Tiberius the Emperor are of like temperature with Melons and Pompions of whom hereafter nourishing hot stomachs very well being boiled with good flesh or sweet milk Câ—cumeres Melopepones Cucumbers growing in hot grounds and well ripened with the Sun are neither moist nor cold in the second degree They agree well with hot stomachs being eaten with vineger salt oil and pepper but if you boil them whilst they are young with white-wine vervin dill and salt liquor they are not of a bad nourishment as Galen took them but engender good humors and settle a very cold and weak stomach as by much practice and long experience I have proved in divers persons Schaenoprasa Cives or Rush-leeks be almost as hot as Leeks themselves Some eat them raw in Salads but then they nourish not If you boil them twice or thrice in water they lose their over-hot and drying nature and give no bad nourishment to cold stomachs Glandes terrestres Dodonaei Earthnuts grow much on Richmond Heath and Coome Park as also beside Bath as you travel to Bristol They are best in May. In Holland and
but somewhat of too dry a nature yet prove they moist enough to give plentiful nourishment after they have been preserved in syrupe or candied with ginger encreasing blood seed and lust and restoring such as by lechery have been much consumed Radices Sisari Skirret-roots were so sweet delicate in ancient times that Tiberius Caesar caused the Inhabitants of Gelduba a certain signory upon the Rhine to pay him tribute at Rome in Skirret-roots bringing them weekly thither whilst they were in season They have a long string or pith within them which being taken away before they are thorough sod maketh them eat exceeding sweet usually they are boild till they be tender and then eaten cold with vinegar oil and pepper but if they be roasted four or five together in a wet paper under embers as one would roast a Potado or strain'd into tart-stuff and so baked with sugar butter and rose-rosewater they are far more pleasant and of stronger nourishment agreeing with all complexions sexes and ages being also of a mild heat and a temperate moisture Did we know all the strength and vertues of them they would be much nourished in our Gardens and equally esteemed with any Potado root Cepa Ascalonites Skallions are a kind of little Onions brought first from Ascalon a Town of Jewry very hot and dry yea hotter and drier by one degree then any Onions Cold stomachs and barren weaklings may safely eat them raw to procure appetite and lust but they are not nourishing to indifferent stomachs till they have been perboild in new milk Some correct them by mincing them small and steeping them a good while in warm water afterwards they eat them with vinegar oil and salt after the Italian fashion Spinachia Spinache being boiled soft and then eaten with butter small currens and sugar heat together upon a chafing dish giveth no bad nor little nourishment to dried bodies and is onely hurtful to such as be over-phlegmatick Fragulae Strawberries of the garden be they white red or green but the red are best being once come to their full ripeness in a warm Summer and growing in a warm ground are to a young hot stomach both meat and medicine Medicin to cool his choler excessive heat meat by his temperate and agreeable moisture fit at that time of the year to be converted into blood especially being eaten raw with wine and sugar or else made into tart stuff and so baked howsoever they be prepared let every man take heed by Melchior Duke of Brunswick how he eateth too much of them who is recorded to have burst a sunder at Rostock with surfeiting upon them Cranz lib. 9. cap. 9. Hist Vandal Radix spirae albae Thistle-roots I mean of the white thistle when it first springeth are exceeding restorative and nourishing being sodden in white stued broth or else baked in Tarts or in Pies like Artichoks few men would think so good meat to lye hidden in so base and abject an herb had not trial and cookery found out the vertue of it Rapae rotunde Turneps in commendation whereof Moschio the Grecian wrote a large volumn are nothing but round Rapes whereof heretofore we writ in this Chapter Nastureia aquatica Water-cresses and Town-cresses nourish raw and cold stomachs very well but for hot or indifferent stomachs they are of a contrary nature Xenophon saith that the Persians children going to School carry nothing with them to eat and drink but Cresses in the one hand and Bread in the other and an earthen cruse at their girdle to take up water in whereby we may perceive that they agree well with moist natures and such as are accustomed to drink water Otherwise no doubt they nourish nothing but rather over heat and burn the blood As for Anise Blites Blood-wort Broom-buds Gapars Calamint Clary Dill Fennel Galangal Hisope Marigolds Mustard-seed Mints Nettles Orache Patience Primroses Rosemary Saffron Sage Samphire Savory Tamarisk Tansy Tarragon Time Violets and Wormwood howsoever they are used sometimes in broths pottage farrings sawces salads and tansies yet no nourishment is gotten by them or at the least so little that they need not nor ought not to be counted amongst nourishments CHAP. XXIV Of such Fruits of the Field as are nourishing THe chief fruits of the field are Wheate Rye Rice Barly Oates Beanes Chiches Pease and Lentils Triticum Wheate is divided into divers kinds by Pliny Columella Dodonaeus Pena and Lobelius it shall be sufficient for us to describe the sorts of this Country which are especially two The one red called Robus by Columella and the other very white and light called Siligo whereof is made our purest manchet Being made into Furmity and sodden with milk and sugar or artificially made into bread Wheate nourisheth exceeding much and strongly the hardest thickest heaviest cleanest brightest and growing in a fat soil is ever to be chosen for such Wheate in Dioscorides and Galens judgement is most nourishing Secale Rye seemeth to be nothing but a wild kind of wheate meet for Labourers Servants and Workmen but heavy of digestion to indifferent stomachs Oriza Rice is a most strong and restorative meat discommendable onely in that it is over-binding very wholesome pottage is made thereof with new milk sugar cinamon mace and nutmegs whose astringency if any man fear let him soke the Rice one night before in sweet Whey and afterwards boil it in new milk with sugar butter cloves and nutmegs leaving out cinamon and mace Thus shall the body be nourished costiveness prevented and nature much strengthened and encreased Hordeum Barly used any way in bread drink or broth is ever cooling saith Galen and engendreth but a thin and weak juice Before we use it in broths or Ptisan it should be clean hulld and washed in many waters The decoction of Barly in chicken-broth strained with a few blauncht almonds and sweetned with sugar and rosewater is a very covenient meat for sound men but more for them which are sick and abhor flesh Cardan saith that Galen maketh mention of a kind of Barly in Greece growing without a husk and hulld by nature which place he never citeth because he was mistaken for through all Galen I could never find any such thing though of purpose I searched for it very diligently The best Barly is the biggest and yellowest without and fullest closest and heaviest within it is never to be used in meat till it be half a year old because lying causeth it to ripen better and to be also far less windy Being made into Malt by a sweet fire and good cunning it is the foundation of our English wine which being as well made as it is at Notâ—ingam proveth meat drink and cloth to the poorer sort Parched Barly or Malt is hot and dry but otherwise it is temperately cooling and less drying That Wheate and Rye is far more nourishing then Barly Plutarch would thence prove because they are half a year
other commending bad things because of emptiness As for Salt the second sawce of the Ancients I have already enough commended it in the former Chapter nevertheless it is not sufficient nay it is not convenient for all stomachs For even old times afforded two sawces Salt and Vinegar the one for hot stomachs the other for cold knowing well enough that appetites are not procured in all men alike because want of appetite ariseth from divers fountains Plutarch raileth mightily against sawces and seasonnings avouching them to be needless to healthful persons and unprofitable to the sick because they never eat but when they are hungry and these ought not to be made hungry lest they oppress nature by eating too much But I deny both his arguments for as many sound men abhor divers things in their health roasted which they love sodden so likewise they love some things seasoned after one fashion which seasoned or sawced after another fashion they cannot abide no though they be urged unto it by great hunger As for them that be sick whosoever dreameth that no sick man should be allured to meat by delightful and pleasant sawces seemeth as froward and fantastical as he that would never whet his Knife And tell me I pray you why hath nature brought forth such variety of herbs roots fruits spices and juices fit for nothing but sawces but that by them the sound should be refreshed and the sick men allured to feed upon meat for whom an overstraite abstinence is as dangerous as fulness and satiety is inconvenient All which I write not to tickle the Epicures of our age who to the further craming of their filthy corps make curious sawces for every meat or to force appetite daily where no exercise is used for as Morris-dancers at Burials make no sport but rather give cause of further lamenting so appetites continually forced weaken a diseased stomach either making men for a time to eat more then they should or else afterwards bereaving them of all appetite Socrates compared the over-curious seasoning of meat and these Epicurean sawce-makers to common Courtisans curiously painted and sumptuously adorned before they entertain their lovers whereby they stir up new lust in withered stocks and make even the gray-headed spend and consume themselves Even so saith he these new found sawces what are they but Whores to edge our appetite making us to feast when we should fast or at least to feed more then nature willeth Also he resembleth them to tickling under the sides and arm-pits which causeth not a true hearty but rather a convulsive and hurtful laughter doing no more good to pensive persons then hard scratching is profitable to a scald head wherein yet it delighteth to his own hurt There is a notable Hystory written of Alexander and Queen Ada who purposing to present the Conquerour with her best jewels sent him two of her best sawce-makers to season and dress his meat commending their skill exceedingly in her Letters But Alexander having bountifully rewarded them for their travail returned them with this message that he had along time entertained two for that purpose which made him better sawce to his meat then any other could make in his judgment namely Nyctoporia Night-marching who ever got him a stomach to his Dinner and Oligaristia littledining who ever procured him a stomach to his Supper Shewing thereby that exercise before Dinner and Supper are the best sawce-makers because they bring forth hunger which tasteth yea which causeth us also to digest all things And verily for strong and able persons what need we prescribe more sawces then exercise and hunger Nevertheless because many mens trade of life and estate of health is such that either they cannot exercise themselves abroad or else are not able thorugh weakness to do it at home whereupon want of appetite and want of digestion the onely founders of sawces must ensue it will not be amiss to set down some simples which may be the matter of sawces for both those inconveniencies The most usual and best simples whereof Sawces are made If the stomach want appetite by reason of cold and raw humours furring the same and dulling the sense of feeling in the mouth thereof Hot Sawces Make sawce of Dill fennel mints origanum parsly dryed gilli-flowers galinga mustardseed garlick onions leeks juniper-berries sage time varvein betony salt cinamon ginger mace cloves nutmegs pepper pills of citrons limons and orenges grains cubebs and such like mingle some one two or three of them together according as occasion most requireth with wine or vinegar strong of rosemary or gilly-flowers Cold Sawces Contrariwise wanteth your stomach appetite through abundance of choler or adust and putrified phlegm then restore it with sawces made of sorrel lettice spinache purselane or saunders mingled with vinegar verjuice cider alegar or water it self or with the pulp of prunes apples currens and such like As for digestion it waxeth slow and weak either because the stomach is too cold or because the meat is of bad digestion which is put into it Sawces for slow digestion Cold stomachs must be quickned with sawces hot of spice and meats hard of digestion must be helped with hot things therfore I commend the use of mustard with biefe and all kind of salted flesh and fish and onion-saw with Duck Widgin Teal and all water Foul salt and pepper with Venison and galinga sawce with the flesh of Cygnets and garlick or onions boild in milk with a stuble Goose sugar and mustard with red Deer Crane Shovelar and Bustard Sawces for temperate Meats But for temperate Meats and speedy of digestion as Pork Mutton Lamb Veal Kid Hen Capon Pullet Chicken Rabbet Partridge Pheasant c. we must likewise devise temperate sawces as mustard and green-sawce for Pork verjuice and salt for Mutton the juice of Orenges or Limons with wine salt and sugar for Capons Pheasants and Partridges water and pepper for Woodcocks vinegar and butter or the gravet of roasted meat with Rabbets Pigeons or Chickens for if their sawces should be either too cold or too hot such meats would soon corrupt in our stomachs being otherwise most nourishing of their own nature As for the just quantity and proportion of every thing belonging unto sawces and pickles albeit Apicius took great pains therein writing whole volums of that argument yet few of those sawces agreed with most mens natures and some of them perhaps if we might peruse those books were grounded upon little or no reason wherefore I leave the directing of them to particular Cooks who by experience can best aime at every mans appetite and know also sufficiently how to correct that flesh by Artificial preparation and appropriated sawce which nature hath made queazy or heavy to indifferent stomachs Some have put the question Whether there be any sawce but appetite or whether it be good to use sawces CHAP. XXVIII Of Variety of Meats that it is necessary and
as the Sun cannot warm us when Clouds be between So excess either fetters or divides the minds faculties How careful is the mind alwaies to preserve life yet many a drunkard sinks under water because reason cannot teach him the art of swiming the inward sences being choaked with abundance of clammy vapours Divine Hippocrate whom I can never sufficiently name nor honour compareth diet most fitly to a Potters wheele going neither forward nor backward but as the world it self moveth equally round moistning that which is too dry drying up that which is too moist restoring true flesh if it be decaid abating proud flesh by abstinence if it be too much neither drawing too much upward nor downward as peevish Sawyers do neither clapping on too much nor too little Sail like unskilfull Mariners but giving like a wise Steward every part his allowance by geometrical proportion that the whole household and family may be kept in health Such a steward was Asclepiades who cured by onely Diet infinite diseases Such an one was Galen that famous Physitian who being three or four times sick before he was twenty eight years old looked afterwards more strictly to his diet in such sort that a hundred years following he was never sick but once and died onely through want of radical moisture Such an one finally was Hippocrates who lived till he was a hundred and nine years old or at the least till he was fourscore and five without any memorable sickness and yet he had by nature but a weak head insomuch that he ever wore a night cap. Wherefore let us neither with the impudent call diet a frivolous knowledge or a curious science with the imprudent but embrace it as the leader to perfit health which as the wise man saith is above gold and a sound body above all riches The Romans once banished Physitians out of Rome under pretence that physick druggs weakened the peoples stomacks and Cooks for corrupting and enforcing appetites with strange sawces and seasonings and Perfumers and Anointers and Bathe-masters because they did rather mollifie and effeminante the Romans mindes then any whit profit or help their bodies Yet they retained Cato the chief dietist of that time and all them that were able without physick to prevent or cure diseases esteeming diet as it is indeed to be so honest pleasant and profitable a science that even malice it self cannot but commend it and her enemies are forced to retaine it Thus much or rather too much in the commendation of Diet for which some Spartane censor would severely punish me as Antalaides did the Orator that prais'd Hercules whom no wiseman ever discommended For howsoever idle heads have made these addle proverbs 1. Dieted bodies are but bridges to Physicians mindes 2. We shall live till we dye in despight of Diet 3. Every dissease will have his course 4. More Rubarb and less Diet c. Yet the wisest man and King of all others hath established it upon such grounds as neither can nor shall ever be shaken with all their malice CHAP. II. 1. How many sorts of Diet there be 2. Wherein Diet consisteth materially 3. Wherein Diet consisteth formally 1. THere be especially three sorts of Diets a full Diet a moderate Diet and a thin Diet. The first increaseth flesh spirits and humors the second repaireth onely them that were lost and the third lesseneth them all for a time to preserve life Full Diet is proper unto them which be young growing strong lusty and able through their good constitution to endure much exercise Moderate Diet is fittest for persons of a middle health whose estate of body is neither perfectly strong nor over-weak Thin Diets are never to be used especially in the strictest kind but where violent diseases caused either of fulness or corruption have the preheminence wherein how much the body wanteth sufficient food so much the sickness wanteth his tyrannical vigour 2. The matter of Diet is neither iron nor steel nor silver nor coral nor pearl no nor gold it self from which worthy simples albeit most rare and effectual sustenances be drawn as our own Countryman of all other most learnedly proveth to strengthen our body and to thicken our radical moisture which is soon consumed like a fine spirit of wine when it is too thin and subtile yet neither have they neither can they have a nourishing power because our natural heat will be tired before it can convert their oyle into our oyle their substance into our substance be it never so cunningly and finely exalted Furthermore if it be true which Hippocrates and reason telleth us that as contraries are expelled by contraries so like is sustained by his like How should the liquors of gold pearl and precious stones which the Chymists have named Immortal essences nourish or augment our mortal substance Nay doth not that soonest restore decayed flesh as milk gellie strong broaths and young lamb which soonest corrupteth if it be not presently eaten Is not a young snite more nourishing yet it keeps not long sweet then a peacock that will not corrupt nor putrifie in a whole year no not in thirty years saith Kiranides though it be buried in the ground yet as a candles end of an inch long being set in cold water burneth twice as long as another out of water not because water nourisheth the flame which by nature it quencheth nor because it encreaseth the tallow which admits no water but by moistning the circumfluent aire and thickning the tallow whereby the flame is neither so light nor lively as it would be otherwise in like sort the substances powders and liquors of the things aforesaid may perhaps hinder the speedy spending of natural heat by outward cooling of fiery spirits inward thickning of too liquid moistures hardning or condensating of flaggy parts but their durableness and immortality if they be immortal are sufficient proofs that they are no nourishments for corruptible men But they are pure essences and therefore suitable to our radical moisture which the best Physicians derive from a starr-like substance Alas pure fools what doe you vaunt and brag of purity when the purest things do least nourish for had not the aire water and earth certain impurities how should men beasts birds fishs and plants continue for the finer the aire the less it nourishes the clearer the water the less it fatneth the simpler the ground the less it succoureth yea were we in an air such as the element of aire it self is defined to be void of invisible seeds and those impalpable substances or resekens that are sometimes descried by the Sun-beams our spirits should find no more sustenance by it then a dry man drink in an empty hogshead And though we see Pikes to live a great while in Cisterns with clear water alone yet were that water so pure as the element it self they would clean consume for want of nourishment The like may
through want of milk they are not able to nurse their children Their young men die of consumptions their old men and children of cruel cramps They which dwell upon the tops of hills where every wind blows from under the Sun are for the most part sound strong nimble long-lived and fit for labour Contrariwise the valley people so seated that no wind blows upon them are ever heavy spirited dull and sickly for as a fire of green wood dieth unles the flame be scattered with continual blowing and as a standing water corrupteth in a little space so an idle aire rouled about with no winds soon putrifieth because his dissimilar parts be not separated by winowing as the chaffe is from the wheat But the best situation of a house or city is upon the slaunt of a southwest hill like to this of Ludlow wherein we sojourne for a time neither fully barred of the East North and Southern winds clear and free from the mists of bogs and fens purified from the stinck of common Sinks Vaults and Lestals as also from the unwholesome breathings of Caves Colepits Copper or Brimstone-mines not so cold as to stupifie members not so hot as to burn the skin not so moist as to swell us with rheumes nor so dry as to parch up our natural moisture not to much nor to variable as upon the top of hills not so little nor too standing as in low Vallies neither smelling of nothing as in barren Countries nor smelling of bad things as in the Fens but fragrant without a discerning of smell and sweetest of all in an unknown sweetness For howsoever some men dream that the smell of the spice-trees in Arabia felix make the neighbour inhabitants both healthfull of body and sound of mind which I will not deny if you compare them with the borderers of the Palestine lake Nevertheless as Tully saith of women They smell best which smell of nothing so verily the aire that smells of nothing is best to nourish us in health though otherwise in some sickness a perfumed aire is best and also to expel a loathsome stinck or like to the neighing of Apolloes horses to rouse up dull and sleepy senses In which respect I am of Aristotles opinion that sweet smels were appointed to be in flowers fruits barks roots fields and meddowes not onely for delight but also for medicin Nevertheless as the tastles water makes the best broath so the smelling aire gives the purest I will not say the strongest nourishment to our spirits In Plutarchs time men were grown to this wantoness that every morning and night they perfumed not only their apparrel and gloves but also their bodies with sweet ointments made of most costly spices buying with great charges what shall I say an idle a needless a womanly pleasure nay verily an unnatural and more then bruitish For every beast loveth his own mate only for her own smel whatsoever it be but some men love not their meat nor drink nor the aire nor their wifes nor themselves unless they smel or rather stinck of sweet costly and forreine fumes which being taken without cause do the head more hurt then being taken upon cause they do it good Wherefore if thy brain be temperate and not too moist cold or dull eschew a strong smelling aire such as comes from walflowers stock-gillyflowers pincks roses Hiacynths mead sweet hony suckles jasimin Narcissus musk amber civet and such like contenting thy self with the simplest aire which for sound complexions is simply best Or if for recreation and pleasuresake thou desirest it some time let it not be of a full or strong sent but mingled with sweet and soure as violets with Time and breathing rather a sharpe then a fulsome sweetness And thus much of the choice of aires now come we to the preparation and use of them CHAP. IIII. OF AIRE 1. How it is to be prepared 2. How it is to be used SAtyrus that Goat-bearded God the first time that ever he saw fire would needs kiss it and embrace it in his armes notwithstanding that Prometheus forewarn'd him of coming too nigh for he knew well enough the nature of fire to be such that as in certain distances times and quantities it may be well endured so in others it is harmful and exceeding dangerous The like may I say of heat cold moisture and driness of the aire which in the first or second step towards them may and do preserve life but the nearer you come to their extremities the nearer are you to death So that either you will be burnt with Satyrus or frozen to death with Philostratus or dryed up for lack of moisture with Darius Souldiers when they could get no water or dye as the inhabitants of the lakes in Egypt do with too much moisture Wherefore let every one consider his owne strength and constitution of body for some like to new wax are dissolved with the least heat and frozen with the least cold others with Salamanders think nothing hot enough others like to silk worms can abide no cold others with Smiths and Woodcocks can abide those frosts which even the fishes themselves can hardly tolerate So likewise dry constitutions laugh and sing with the Thrush when rain approacheth when others of the contrary complexion do mourn and lament with the Plouver because it is so wet Which being so I shall no doubt deserve well of every man in teaching him so to prepare the aire that sometimes abroad but alwayes at home it may be tempered according as he most needeth and purified from all infection Concerning the tempering of aire in our houses is it too hot and dry then coul it by sprinkling of Vinegar and Rose water by strewing the floure with green flags rushes newly gathered reed leaves water-lilly leaves violet leaves and such like stick also fresh boughes of willow sallow poplar and ashe for they are the best of all in every corner Is it too cold and moist amend it by fires of clear and dry wood and strew the room and windows with herbs of a strong smell as mints penniroial cammomil balm nep rue rosemary and sage Is it too thick and misty then attenuate and clear it in your chamber first by burning of pine-rosin as the Egyptians were wont to do then presently by burning in a hot fire-shovel some strong white-wine vinegar But their chiefest perfume of all other called Kuphi The great temper was made of sixteen simples namely wine hony raisins of the sun cipres pine-rosin mirrhe the sweet rush calamus aromaticus spike-nard cinamon berries of the great and little juniper lignumaloes saffron figtree buds and cardamoms to which composition in Galens time Democrates added Bdellium and the seed of agnus castus and the Physicians in Plutarchs time the roots of Calamint It were needless to write how wonderfully Apollo I mean our new Apollo Francis Alexander of Vercelles for so like a proud Italian he calleth his
owne work commend the same in his third beam or how Plutarch and Avicen extol it above all others in that it not onely bringeth any aire to a good temper but also cleanseth the same of unclean spirits openeth it when it is clowdy attenuateth it when it is too thick refineth it when it is full of dreggy mixtures and consequently dispelleth melancholy from the head fear and ill vapours from the heart procuring natural and quiet sleep and therefore not unworthily consecrated to the Gods Now as the Egyptians burnt rosin in the morning and their Kuphi towards noon so albeit the sun set when many heavy vapours lye in the aire the Ancients were not to burn mirrhe and juniper which disperse those heavy vapours leaving in the house a rectified aire quickning the senses and correcting those melancholick fumes that pervert judgement Wherefore the Egyptians call mirrhe Bal and Juniper Dolech the purifiers of the aire and curers of madness Whereat let no man wonder sith the very noise of bells guns and Trumpets breaketh the clouds and cleanseth the aire yea Musick it self cureth the brain of madness and the heart of melancholy as many learned and credible Authors have affirmed Much more then may it be tempered and altered to the good or hurt of our inward parts by smells and perfumes whereby not onely a meer aire as in Sounds is carried to the inward parts but also invisible seeds and substances qualified with variety of divers things For who knoweth not that the smell of Opium bringeth on sleep drowsiness and sinking of the spirits contrariwise the the smell of Wine and strong vinegar out of a narrow mouth'd glass awaketh the heaviest headied man if possibly he can be awaked Furthermore because stincking smells unless one by little and little be accustomed to them as our dungfarmers and kennel rakers are in London and as a wench did eat Napellus a most cruel poyson ordinarily as a meat are both noysom to the head and hurtful to the lungs heart and stomack in such sort that they which live in a stinking house are seldom healthy It shall be good where the cause cannot wholly be removed to correct the accident in this sort with sweet waters sweet perfumes sweet pomanders and smelling unto sweet fragrant things Isabella Cortesa that dainty Lady of Italy comb'd her hair and sprinkled her gown every morning with this sweet water following whereby the aire circumfluent was so perfumed that wheresoever she stood no stinch could be discerned Take of Orenge flower water water of Violets water of the musk-geranium and the musk rose water of red and damask roses of each a pint powder of excellent sweet orris two ownces powder of Storax Calamite Benjoine and Indian wood of roses of each half an ounce Civet a dram and a half Mingle all together and let them stand in Balneo three daies Then after the water is throughly cold filtre it out with a fine filtre and keep it to your use in a glass very close stopt Marinellus maketh another not much inferior unto this whereof this is the description Take a pottle of damask-rose-damask-rose-water Benjoin Storax calamite cloves and wood of Aloes of each aâ— ounce ambre-grice and civet of each a scruple boil them together in Balneo in a glass very well stopt for 24 hours space filtre it out when it is cold and having hang'd fifteen grains of musk in it tied in a close cloth set it five daies in the sun and keep it to your use These waters are costly but verily exceeding good nevertheless sith men of mean fortune are likewise to be preserved I appoint for them these perfumed cakes and for the poorer sort a less costly perfume Take of Benjoin six drams wood of aloes four drams storax calamite four drams sweet orris two drams musk a scruple white sugar candy three ounces beat them into fine powder and with red-rose water work them into a stiff paste whereon make a sort of little cakes no bigger nor thicker then a threepence dry them in a cold shadowy place and then put them up very close into a glass and take out one or two or as many as you please and burn them upon quick coles The poorer sort may make them fire-cloves far better then you shall find any at the Apothecaries after this Receit Take of good Olbanum halfe a pound Storax Calamite an ounce and a halfe Ladanum halfe an ounce coles of Iuniper wood 2 drams make all into fine powder and then with 2 drams of gum Tragacanth mingled with rose water and macerated three daies together and an ounce of Storax liquida form the paste like great cloves or sugar-loves or birds or in what form you list and dry them in an oven when the bread hath been drawn kindle one of these at the top and set it in any room and it will make it exceeding sweet But forasmuch as no aire is so dangerous as that which is infected with pestilent influences let us consider how and in what sort that of all other is to be corrected Hippocrates for ought we read of when his own Countrey and the City of Athens were grievously surprised of the Plague used no other remedies to cure or preserve the rest then by making of great fires in each street and in every house especially in the night time to purifie the aire whereby the Citizens or Athens being delivered from so dangerous an enemy erected to Hippocrates an Image of beaten Gold and honoured him alive as if he had been a God And verily as running water like a broome cleanseth the earth so fire like a Lion eateth up the pollutions of the aire no less then it consumeth the drossie mettals So that cleanliness and good fires cannot but either extinguish or lessen any infection whereunto if we also add the use of other outward correctors and perfumers of the aire no doubt it will be much if not wholly amended The Pestilence as I have noted to my grief in mine own house taketh some first with a great chilness and shaking others with a hot sweat and often fainting In some place it raineth most in Winter others it never annoyeth but in Summer The first sort are to correct the air about them with good fires and burning of Lignum Aloes Ebony Cinamon bark Sassaphras and Juniper which as Matthiolus recordeth in his Herbal retaineth his sent and substance a hundred years Burn also the pils of Oringes Citrons and Lemons and Myrrh and Rosen and the poorer sort may perfume their chambers with Baies Rosemary and Broom it self Make also a vaporous perfume in this sort Take of Mastick and Frankincense of each an ounce Citron pils Calamint roots Herb-grass dried and Cloves of each three drams make all into a gross powder and boil it gently in a perfuming pot with spike-water and white wine The second sort I mean such as are sick of the Plague in Summer or are the first
last What Souldier knoweth not that a roasted Pigg will affright Captain Swan more then the sight of twenty Spaniards What Lawyer hath not heard of Mr. Tanfiels conceit who is feared as much with a dead Duck as Philip of Spain was with a living Drake I will not tell what Physician abhorreth the sight of Lampres and the taste of hot Venison though he love cold nor remember a Gentleman who cannot abide the taste of a rab bet since he was once by a train beguiled with a young cat Nay which was more all meat was of an abominable taste to Heliogabulus if it were not far fetcht and very dearly bought even as some liquorish mouthes cannot drink without sugar nor Sinardus hot stomack could break wine without snow which dainty and foolish conceit though it picks a quarrel with God and reason after the nice fineness of Courtly dames that abhor the best meat which is brought in an earthen dish and maketh ulcers as it were in sound stomacks yet that there is a natural liking and disliking of meats and consequently of the tastes of meats both the examples of men and women forenamed do justly prove and even Spaniels and Hounds themselves I mean of the truer kind by refusing of Venison and wild-fowl in the cold bloud can sufficiently demonstrate Meats of ordinary tastes Now let us come to the ordinary tastes of meats which are especially seven in number Sweet Bitter Sharp Sowre Fatty Salt and Flash Sweet Meats Sweet Meats agree well with nature for they are of a temperate heat and therefore fittest for nourishment they delight the stomack and liver fatten the body encrease natural heat fill the veins digest easily soften that which is too hard and thicken that which is too liquid but if they be over-sweet and gluttish they soon turn into choler stop the liver puff up lungs and spleen swell the stomack and cause oftentimes most sharp and cruel fevers Bitter Meats If any thing be very bitter as asparagus hop-sprouts and broom-buds they cannot much nourish either man or beast unless they have first been boiled or infused in many waters for otherwise they may engender as they do some cholerick humors burning bloud killing worms opening obstructions and mundifying unclean passages of the body but their nourishment they give is either little or nothing and that only derived to some special part Sharp Meats Sharp Meats as onions skallions leeks garlick radish mustardseed cresses and hot spices dry the body exceedingly being also hurtful to the eyes and liver drawing down humors sending up vapors inflaming the bloud fretting the guts and extenuating the whole body Wherefore we must either taste them as they are or not feed upon them till their sharpness be delaid with washings infusions oilings and intermixtions of sweet things Soure Meats Soure meats as sorrel lemons oringes citrons soure fruit and all things strong of vinegar and verjuice albeit naturally they offend sinewy parts weaken concoction cool natural heat make the body lean and hasten old age yet they pleasure and profit us many waies in cutting phlegm opening obstructions cleansing impurities bridling choler resisting putrifaction extinguishing superfluous heat staying loathsomness of stomack and procuring appetite But if they be soure without sharpness as a rosted quince a warden cervises medlars and such like then they furthermore strengthen the stomack bind and corroborate the liver stay fluxes heal ulcers and give an indifferent nourishment to them that eat them Salt Meats Saltishness is thought to be an unnatural taste because it is found in no living thing For the very fishes are fresh so likewise is all flesh and every fruit and all herbs which grow not where the sea may wash upon them Wherefore howsoever salt hath the term of divinity in Homer and Plato calleth it Jupiters minion and the Athenians have built one Temple to Neptune and Ceres because even the finest cakes be unwholsom and unpleasant if they be not seasoned with salt yet I hold it to be true that salt meats in that they are salt nourish little or nothing but rather accidentally in procuring appetite strengthening the stomack and giving it a touch of extraordinary heat as I will more perfectly prove when I treat of sawces For salt meats especially if they be hot of salt engender cholor dry up natural moistures enflame blood stop the veins gather together viscous and crude humors harden the stone make sharpness of urine and cause leanness which I speak of the accidental salt wherewith we eat all meats and not of that inborn salt which is in all things Fat Meats Fattiness is sensibly found not only in flesh and fish of every sort but also in olives coco's almonds nuts pisticks and infinite fruits and herbs that give nourishment Yea in serpents snails frogs and timber-worms it is to be found as though nature had implanted it in every thing which is or may be eaten of mankind And verily as too much fattiness of meats glutteth the stomack decayeth appetite causeth belchings loathings vomitings and scourings choaketh the pores digesteth hardly and nourisheth sparingly so if it be too lean and dry on the contrary side for a mean is best of all it is far worse and nourisheth the body no more then a piece of unbuttered stockfish Unsavory or unrelished Meats Flashiness or insippidity which some call a maukish or senseless taste tasting just of nothing as in water the white of an egg mellons pumpions and pears apples berries and plums of no relish is of no taste but a deprivation or want of all other tastes besides which be it found in any thing that is dry as in spices or in things naturally moist as in fish flesh or fruit it alwaies argueth an ordinary weakness in nourishment howsoever extraordinarily I will not say unnaturally it may strongly nourish some Avicen saith truly in his Canons Quod sapit nutrit That which relisheth nourisheth yet not so but that unsavory things nourish likewise though not abundantly nor speedily for what is more unsavory then fresh water wherewith many fishes are only nourished what so void of relish as the white of an egg yet is it to aguish persons more nourishing then the yeolk yea and stockfish will engender as good humors in a rheumatick person as the best pigg or veal that can be brought him CHAP. VI. Of MEATS How they differ in preparation age and sex THe preparation of meats is threefold One before the killing or dressing of them another in the killing or dressing and the third after both Of which art Timochides Rhodius wrote eleven books in verse and Numenius Heracletus Scholler to Dieuches that learned Physician and Pitaneus Parodus and Hegemon Thasius compiled also divers Treatises of that argument which either the teeth of time or stomack of envy having consumed I must write of this argument according to mine own knowledg and collections Whether
do with persly butter and verjuce and sawced them with butter and juce of orenges but for sick persons they are best sodden in water butter and verjuce with a little falt it is a fish impatient of winter and therefore then it lurketh in deep holes but in summer it sporteth it self abroad and offereth it self to be seen when it is most seasonable Chalcides Sprats need no description being one of Jack-a-lents principle pages They smell well being new and fresh resembling therein the river-smelt but their flesh is quezy corruptible and aguish especially if they light on a weak stomach they are worst being smoked or fried indifferent sodden and best broild Chalcides majores Spurlings are but broad Sprats taken chiefly upon our Northern coast which being drest and pickled as Anchovaes be in Provence rather surpass them then come behind them in taste and goodness Were English men as industrious as I could wish we should sel them deerer to the French and Italians then their Anchovaes are sold to us for I have seen some prepared by Dr. Turner which far exceeded theirs but strange things are ever best liked according to that saying of Galen Peregrina quae ignorant magis celebrant mortales quà m quod nativum est quodque esse praeclarum nôrunt Mortal men saith he do more extoll forreign things albeit they know them not then home bred and familiar things though they know them to be excellent Apuae infumatae As for Red Sprats and Spurlings I vonchsafe them not the name of any wholesome nourishment or rather of no nourishment at all commending them for nothing but that they are bawdes to enforce appetite and serve well the poor mans turn to quench hunger Asellus aridus Stockfish whilst is is unbeaten is called Buckhorne because it is so tough when it is beaten upon the stock it is termed stockfish Rondelitius calleth the first Merlucium and Stock-fish Moluam it may be Salpa Plinij for that is a great fish and made tender by age and beating Erasmus thinketh it to be called Stockfish because it nourisheth no more then a dryed stock wherefore howsoever it be sod buter'd fried or baked and made both toothsomer and delectable by good and chargeable cookery yet a stone will be a stone and an ape an ape howsoever the one be set up for a Saint and the other apparelled like a Judge The Stilliard Merchants lay it twenty four hours in strong lye and then as long again in warm waters afterwards they boil it in abundance of butter and so serve it in with pepper and salt which way if any way it is most nourishing because it is made not onely tender but also more moist and warm Now let us stay longer upon the Sturgian esteemed sometime the Monarch of all sea-fish Acipenser Sturgian is thought of Mr. Cogan to be a fish of hard substance not much better in his judgement then Bacon or Brawne although for the rareness it be esteemed of great Estates which I will not deny to be true in old and resty Sturgian but young Sturgian is so far of from being tough or unwholesome that of all other fish it is and was ever most preferred Severus and his followers did so esteem it though Trajan for an in borne hatred could not abide it that whensoever any great feast was kept the chiefe Gentleman of his Court carried up the Sturgian all gilded over with gold and attended with minstrelsy and carolling as though a solemn Pageant or Saints shrine were to be carried about the City Galen likewise and Tully affirm it to be of a sweet delicate and good nourishment Cordan compareth it with Veal but indeed it is far sweeter Sturgians livers are so exceeding sweet that at Hamborough they rub them over with the broken gall lest the stomach should be cloyed with over swetness The great and full grown Sturgians are better then the less and the Male then the Female and they which suck and lye at the mouths of Rivers are counted sweeter then they which are taken in the main sea it feeds not as other fish do upon flies worms fish-spawne or roots but sucketh like a Lamprey because it hath no teeth of such sweet morsels or offall as happily it findeth One thing is admirable in this fish that albeit clean contrary to other fishes the scales turn toward the head yet against the side and stream it swimeth fasteth Physicians forbid all Sturgian especially the head and fore-rand to aguish persons and such as be lately recovered of agues because they are so fat and oily that their stomachs will convert them into choler At Danske and Hamborough whence we have the best sometimes they are roasted being stickt full of cloves but then the belly onely is toothsome which eateth like Veal or rather better if such sawce be made unto it as we use to roasted Venison Otherwhiles they are broild and basted with oil and vinegar having been first a little corned with salt but if Sturgian be well sod and then kept in convenient pickle of all other preparations it is the chiefest being eaten with vinegar and sweet fennel They are first sod in two parts of water one of white wine and one of white wine vinegar with sufficient salt verveine and dill as long as one would seeth a legg of Veal then being cold they are divided into jouls and rands and put up into barrels or kegs with store of Rhenish wine wine vinegar and seawater wherein having lain half a year they become a light toothsome and singular good meat to an indifferent and temperate stomach As for Cavialie or their eggs being poudred let Turks Grecians Venetians and Spaniards celebrate them never so much yet the Italian Proverb will ever be true Chi mangia di Caviale Mangia moschi merdi salae He that eateth of Cavialies Eateth falt dung and flies I commend the flesh of Sturgian chiefly to hot and distasted stomachs to young men and especially in Sommer at which time eaten with gilly-flour vinegar it slaketh thirst sharpneth appetite setleth the stomach delayeth heat and giveth both a temperate and a sound nourishment Xiphij Sword-fishes are much whiter and pleasanter in taste then Tunny but as hard of digestion and therefore unworthy any longer discourse Raja Thornback which Charles Chester merily and not unfitly calleth Neptunes beard was extolled by Antiphanes in Athenaeus history for a dainty fish indeed it is of a pleasant taste but of a stronger smell then Skate over-moist to nourish much but not so much as to hinder lust which it mightily encreaseth Albertus thinks it as hard to be concocted as any beefe whose judgement I suspect sith Hippocrates permits it in long Consumptions Assuredly if not the flesh yet the liver is marvelous sweet and of great nourishment which the very taste and consistence thereof will sufficiently demonstrate Thorneback is good sodden especially the liver of it though Dorion the
chuse the whitest purest clearest most glistering and thickest for they are notes of the best hony also let it be hony that ran and was never pressed out of the combs and of young Bees rather then old feeding upon thime rosemary flowers and such sweet and wholesome herbs Then may you boldly give it as meat to young children to cold and moist complexions and to rhumatick old men especially in Northern Countries and cold climates and in the winter season CHAP. XXI Of Fruit and the differences thereof NOw we are come to the last course which in ancient and more healthful ages was the first and onely whilst mens hands were neither polluted with the blood of Beasts nor smelt of the most unwholesome sent of fish This kind of meat is commended like the Hebrew tongue for three principal reasons antiquity purity and sufficiency for it was more ancient then either flesh or fish by two thousand years it is so pure of it self that it never defiles the hand nor needeth any great dressing and that it is sufficient to maintain us long in life not onely the history of the first twelve Patriarches but also whole nations living at this day in India Africa Asia and some parts of Europe do sufficiently declare feeding wholly or principally of fruit whereof I find three chief or especial kinds namely Orchard-fruit growing upon trees Garden-fruit growing upon shrubs herbs and roots and Field-fruit concluded under the name of Graine CHAP. XXII Of all Orchard Fruit. Pruna Armeniaca chrysomela ABricocks are plums dissembled under a peaches coat good only and commendable for their tast and fragrant smell their flesh quickly corrupting and degenerating into choler and wheyish excrements engendring pestilent agues stopping the liver and spleen breeding ill juice and giving either none or very weak nourishment yet are they medicinable and wholesome for some persons for they provoke urine quench thirst and sirup made of the infusion of dried Abricocks qualifies the burning heat and rage of fevers They are least hurtful to the stomach and most comfortable to the brain and heart which be sweet kerneld big and fragrant growing behind a Kitchin-chimny as they do at Barn-elms and so thoroughly ripened by the Sun that they will easily part from their stone They are best before meat and fittest for hot stomachs but let not women eat many of them and let them also remember to drown them well in Sack or Canary wine Galen preferreth Abricocks before Peaches because they are not so soon corrupted whereas common experience sheweth the contrary for as Abricocks are soonest ripe so of all other stone fruit they soonest corrupt in a mans stomach Amigdalae Almonds into whom fair Phyllis was turned as Poets imagine are of two sorts sweet and bitter These are fittest for medicin but the sweet ones for meat The sweet almonds are sometimes eaten green of women with child to procure appetite and in Summer of others because then they are most pleasant but they nourish most after the fall when they are fully ripe being blanched into cold water they fatten the body give plentiful nourishment encrease flesh and seed help the brain and eyesight purge the brest by spitting clear the voice clense the kidneys and provoke sleep eat them not when they are very old and wrinckled for then they stay long in the stomach and breed headache if they be eaten with sugar as they are in march-paens or in cullices mortises rice porredge or almond milks they are of greater nourishment and more easie digestion but then they are to be eaten alone not in the middle and much less in the end of Meals Mala. Apples be so divers of form and substance that it were infinite to describe them all some consist more of aire then water as your Puffs called mala pulmonea others more of water then wind as your Costards and Pome-waters called Hydrotica Others being first graffed upon a Mulbery stock wax thorough red as our Queen-apples called by Ruellius Rubelliana and Claudiana by Pliny Roundlings are called mala Sceptiana of Sceptius and Winter-goldlings Scandiana Plinij Pippins mala Petisia Peare-apples Melapia and Pear-mains or Peauxans no doubt be those Applana mala which Appius graffed upon a Quince smelling sweetly and tasting a little tart continuing in his goodness a year or two To be short all Apples may be sorted into three kinds Sweet Soure and Unsavory Sweet Apples moisten the belly open the brest ripen rhumes ease the cough quench thirst help spitting cure melancholly comfort the heart and head especially if they be fragrant and odoriferous and also give a laudable nourishment Soure Appels stay the belly hinder spitting straiten the brest gripe and hurt the stomach encrease phlegm and weaken memory Unsavory Apples are unfit for our eating appointed rather to fat Hoggs and Swine then to come into our stomachs Old Apples are best if they be such as can bear age because by long lying they lose two ill quallities Watrishness and Windiness and have also a more perfect and pleasing taste As Nuts Figs and Mulberies be best towards the lowest boughes so contrariwise Plums Apples and Pears be best from the top of the Tree and hanging on the sunny side Sweet Apples are to be eaten at the beginning of meat but soure and tart Apples at the latter end All Apples are worst raw and best baked or preserved None at all are good sodden besides the Codlin which afterwards being made into tart stuff and baked with rose-water and sugar is no bad meat their coldnese and watrishness is soon corrected either in baking roasting or preserving with cinamon ginger orenge-pills aniseed caraway-seed sweet fennel-seed and sweet butter Now whereas the old Proverb ab ovo ad mala sheweth that Apples were ever the last dish set upon the board you must understand it of tartish and soure Apples or else justly though newly find fault with an old custome Philip of Macedonia and Alexander his son from whom perhaps a curious and skilful Herald may derive our Lancashire men were called Philomeli Apple-lovers because they were never without Apples in their pockets yea all the Macedonians his Countrymen did so love them that having neer Babylon surprized a Fruiterers hoy they strived so for it that many were drowned which fight was therefore called by Historiographers Melomachia the Apple-fight but cruel fluxes surprised the Army upon this and many dyed of intolerable gripings Oxyacanthae Spinae acidae Berberies preserved are a great refreshing to hot stomachs and aguish persons and being kept in pickle they serve for sallets and the garnishing of meat but they are of very little nourishment themselves or rather of none at all though by a pleasant sharpness they edge an appetite Prunus-Sylvestris regius Bullices likewise both white speckled and black are of the like nature being stued bakt roasted or preserved fitter to be eaten last to close up the upper mouth of the stomach then first
ripe Dates lighting upon a bad stomach do easily putrifie engendering malign agues stuffing the body with crude humours whereupon great stoppings encrease both of spleen and liver They are hot in the second degree and moist in the first never good when they are eaten alone or without sugar which hindreth their speedy corruption Praenestinae Heracleoticae Ponticae Avellanae nuces Filberds and Haselnuts coming first out of Pontus and translated by the Romans into our Countrey are found by experience to nourish the brain to heal old coughes being eaten with hony and to stay rhumes if be tosted Also being peeld whilst they are green and laid a while in water and eaten afterwards with sugar or salt at the end of meat they give a laudible nourishment encreasing seed tempering blood and making it of a good consistence Chuse ever the longest ripest and thinnest shel`d fullest of meat and freest from spot or worm also eat them whilst they are new if you purpose to nourish much for afterwards they wax more oily and less nourishing they are best towards Winter and fitter for strong and able stomachs because they easily overturn weak stomachs and procure headache Ficus Crossi Figs are the sweetest fruit of the bitterest tree in the world for neither leafe nor bud nor bark nor wood nor body nor root nor any part of it is sweet besides the fruit nay the very ashes of a fig-tree is as sharpe and bitter as any soot yet figs themselves are so sweet that onely for love of them the French men first invaded Italy and inhabited a great part of it many years yea Moschus Antimolus the Sophister having once tasted them he hated all other meats during his life and Plato so affected them that he was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—he Fig lover nay he loved them so much that he died of lice engendred of corrupt blood which the Figs made also Pompejus Columna Cardinal and Viceroy of Naples died suddenly in the arms of Austen Nyphus that famous Philosopher with eating too many figs. Figs are dangerous without wine but wholesome with it Wherefore let all men beware of them as Solomon bids us take heed of too much hony least our sweet meat bring soure sawce and pleasure be punished with too late repentance They are seldome eaten of us green from the tree and of outlandish figs let Dioscorides commend his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yellow figs Athenaeus his blue Figgs and Pratensis his Mariscas or Fig-dates yet in my judgement the round short and thick barrel'd Figs having a thin skin and a firm substance with few seeds in them are of all other the best though not the sweetest which I nothing doubt to be Callistruthiae Galeni and those delicate figs of Livia Pompeia which Pliny writes of The seed of Figs nourisheth no more then a stone their skin hardly digesteth onely their pulppy substance giveth much though no very wholesome nor good nourishment Chuse the softest roundest newest soundest thickest and ripest and as you drink wine upon cold and moist fruits so drink small drink or suck the soure juice of Orenges Pomegranards Lemons or Citrons after Figs thus being taken they augment fat clear the countenance provoke venery quench thirst resist venom purge the kidneys of gravel and nourish more then any Tree-fruit whatsoever But if you would ripen a cold or cleanse your pipes or clear your voice it is best to eat them with ripe Almonds or to drink them with barly water old age is most offended by them and such as have stopt livers or be of a bad and corrupt complexion Pistacia or Psittacia Fisticks or rather Pisticks alluding to the Syrian word are Nuts growing in the knob of the Syrian or Egyptian Turpentine tree being so much more wholesome good and nourishing by how much they are more sweet odorifreous full big and green They nourish plentifully open the liver clense the breast strengthen the stomach and kidneys stay fluxes and vomitings fatten the body stir up lust and resist poison They are wholesome both before and after meat being eaten with old-pippins or sugar-roset Children and hot complexions must not use them for they enflame their thin blood and cause giddiness but even Galen who discommends them more then he needed alloweth them in Winter for cold fleagmatick and weak stomachs Isaac saith that they are hot and dry in the second degree whereof indeed they want very little Uvae Grapes differ two wayes especially in substance and tast In respect of substance they are either fleshy which are fittest for meat or winy and thinn which are fittest to drink being made into wine In respect of taste sweet Grapes fatten and nourish most being of hottest constitution and speediest concoction yet they swell the stomach engender thirst and loosen the body Soure and harsh Grapes are cold in operation hardly digested of little nourishment griping and yet binding the belly and therefore fitter to be tasted of as sawce then to be eaten as meat The Germans hang up clusters of ripe Grapes suffering them not to touch one another upon lines in a cold Gallery or rather in their Bed-chambers which being dried nourish much and yet neither swell the stomach nor cause loosness in heat of agues one such Grape or two at the most do more refresh the mouth and restore the taste then six ownces of conserve of cold Berberies Haselnuts are already written of in our Treatise of Filbirds Mala Iunia Iunitings are the first kind of Apples which are soonest ripe coming in and going out with the Month of June of a little round and light substance tender pulp and very fragrant smell sent at that time to cool choler slake thirst and restore spirits decayed with heat of Summer it giveth sufficient though no great nor strong nourishment being fitter for young and hot complections then them which are weakned with phleagm Gorni Kornils or Corneols are of a very astringent and binding taste fit to nourish weak stomachs that can keep nothing or weak guts that void all things For sound men they are not good but eaten in small quantity after meat because they firmly seal up the stomach and accidentally help concoctition Tart stuff or Marmalade may be made of them to that purpose wherein no doubt the excel quinces Egleutius berries be of the like substance and nature Malum Limonium Lemmons approach neer unto Citrons and Limes are engendred of them both Their poulp is cold and dry in the third degree their peel hot and dry in the second and their seed temperate If you eat the juice alone it causeth gripings leanness and crudities but if you eat the peel with the pulp as nature seemeth therefore to have united them the heat of the one correcteth the rawness of the other and not onely the stomach but also the heart is comforted by them both They of Naples and Genoa slice the best and
a true Alarm was given to repel the enemy till his dinner were fully ended which usually was protracted two or three hours Last of all Concerning the order of taking of Meats The first course in old times was called frigida mensa the cold service because nothing but Oisters Lettice Spinache cold salades cold water and cold sawces were then set on the table which order was clean altered in Plutarchs time for they began their meals with wine hot pottage black or peppered broth and hot meat ending them with Lettice and Purcelane as Galen did to suppress vapours and procure sleep which example is diligently to be followed of cold stomachs as the other is to be imitated of them which are over hot Likewise that the most nourishing meat is first to be eaten that ancient Proverb ratifieth Ab ovo ad mala from the eg to the Apples wherefore I utterly mislike our English custome where Pheasant Partridge and Plover are last served and meats of hard concoction and less good nourishment sent before them As for fruit if it be not astringent as tart apples pears soure-plums quinces medlers cervises cornels wardens sour pomgranates and all meats made of them it should be eaten last Contrariwise all sweet and moist fruit as ripe melons gourds cucumbers pompions old and sweet apples sweet pomgranates sweet orenges and all things either fatty light liquid and thin of substance and easie of concoction should be first eaten unless we be subject to great fluxes of the belly or cholerick dispositions of stomach and then the contrary course is most warrantable For if slippery and light meats went formost into hot stomachs they would either be burnt before the grosser were concocted or at the least cause all to slip downwards over-soon by making the lower mouth of the stomach too too slippery And verily I think that this is the best reason wherewithall to maintain our English custome in eating biefe and mutton formost before foul and fish unless the reason drawn from use and custome may seem more forcible Finally let me add one thing more and then an end of this treatise namely that if our breakfast be of liquid and supping meats our dinner moist and of boiled meats and our supper chiefly of roasted meats a very good order is observed therein agreeable both to art and the natures of most men FINIS Biesius lib. 1. theor med Jason Prait lib. 1. Dier Hippoc. lib de Priâ—c Aristot lib de gen anim Gal. cap. 2. lib. 11. Comm. Hippoc. de naâ— hum Avicen lib. 1. Top. 3. cap. 7. All our life iâ— but a consumption Lib. de prisc med Lib. de sol anim Gen. 3. Gen. 50. v. 2. Hippoc. de vet med Gen. 5. Lib. de arte Prov. 27. Eccl. 28. lib. de arte Hippoc. de prisc med Athen. lib. 1. cap. 1. Aristoph in Acan. Homer Odyss s. Hippoc. epistol ad Crateâ— Lib. de vulgâ— error Cic. orat cont Ver. Plut. in Dion Homer i. Odyss Herodorus Ovid. 14. metam Plut. de sal pr. Plut. ibidem Xiphil in vitellio Marsil Fic de tuend san lib. de Diet. Gâ—â— comm 2. in Hippoc. de vict rat Gal. lib 5. cap. â— de tuend san Sipâ—ntâ—us in vet Gal. Soranus in â—jus vita Siracid cap. â— v. 15. How many kinds of Diet there be Gal. com in apho 4. lib. 2. Com. 6. in 6. Epid. Com. 4. in 6. Epid. Com. in aph 4. lib. 1. The matter of Diet. Roger Bacon lib. de record senect accid Hyppoc de diaet sal Paracelf de vit long l. â— c 4 August de civit dei Phaedr de aquila coel Michael Tox. com in Paraâ— de vit long Io. Bonus Ter. â—â—r in Margar. philos Gal. de alim â—ac 1. Lib. de aer loc aq Whether Mettals be meat vide supra Plin. lib. 7. c. 2. Apol. lib. de hist mir Athen lib. 2. dipn. cap. 2. lib. 1. de rer var. lib. 2. de tu san Luâ—tet lib. 10. Lib. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib de aeris potest Plin. l. 13. c. 1. Plut. in vita Marii Hieron in epiâ— Nepotiani Hieron Mercurial in Gymnast Lib. de resp â—su ex Hipp. l. de loc aer aq l. 7 polit Gal. 1. dr tu san Hip de aer loc aq Hippoc. de loc aer aq Hippoc. loco citato Lib. 1. Fen. 2. dâ—st 11. The best Aire Lib. cont Epic P uâ— de uâ— ex host cap. Plut. de Isi Osir Gal. 2 de antâ—d Plut. de Isid Tract de â—rochisâ— Plut. de Isi Osir Avic Fen. 2. Tract 3. Swe t waters perfumed and cakes against iâ— smels Soranus in vita Hipp. How the aire is tâ— he corrected in the time of pestilence Com. in Diosc ho. 1. cap. 88. Lib. de pesle Lib. de lepra Aelian 7. de v r. hist Plut. in vita Phocion Sabel l. 2. c. 10 Plut. in vita Porc. Cat. Coel. lib. 3. cap. 23. A. L. Lib. 10. de rer var. Cardan lib 10. de var rer c 8. In Idaea med phil How many kinds of meats there be Euseb lib. 1. de praepar evang Alex. ab Alex. lib. 4. Lib. primo Plut. dees carm Symp. 8. cap. 8. Gal. lib. de dissol cont Gal. lib. cib de enchy et 1. de fac alim Avic 3. Fen. 1. tract 1. Gal. â— de alim sac Meats of peculiar and extraordinray tastes Sueton. in Nerone Sabel lib. 10. cap. 10. Laert. lib. 6. Naucl. de greg 3. pontif Gaugen lib. 3. histor Vergil 3. Georg Gel. lib. 28 cap. 5. A. L. Herodo lib. 4 Plin. lib. 6. cap. 24. Caelius lib. 28. cap. 2. A. L. Cardan de rer var. Sabel ex Herodot lib. 6. Lib. 6. cap. 3. Patholog Trincavella lib. 7. cap. 5. de cur morb â—entur 3 curat 86. lib. 4 cap hist mirâ—b Coel. l. 11. c. 13. ant lect Lib. observ propriarum In epist ad Ioann Scl eng Io. Mat. à Grad ep de appetit Cromer l 20. Olaus l 20. c. 7 sept reg Marant l 3 de cogn simp Cranz de reb lituan Gal. 4. de fac simp cap. 7. Isaac de univ diet Gal. 4. de simp fac c. 10. s ejusdem c. 25. Avic 2. can cap. 3. Gal de fac alim c ult Gal. 2. de reg ac morb Aristot 22. problematum Anic in univers Diaet Homer 1. Iliad Plato in Timae Gal. 3. de fac alim 3 de loc aff c. 6. Gal. 5 de alim fac Isaac de uniâ— partic diaet Lib. 2. Athen l. 1 c. 2. Gal. l. 4. antiq lect Plut. in quaest Rom. Sat 3. c 13. Suet in vit Augusti Plin l. 8. c. 51 Diod l 1 c 6 Plâ—n l 10 c. 20 22 〈◊〉 es carn Varro l 3 rer rust Avic fen â— tract 12 Plut. lib. de es carn Sim. â— quaest 9. Plut. 3 Simâ—os quart 10. Eccle 〈◊〉 Macrob. 3 sat Athen. lib. 8. cap. 6. lib. 4. cap. 3. Laertius Suet. in Ner. lib.