Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions

one to hope to obtain a good dinner.” “Very true,” said Lord Raglan; “and we are really so tired of those preserved meats.” “Indeed; but some of them are not bad.” “The great fault is, that the meat is always overdone. How do you account for that, Monsieur Soyer?” “If it were not so, they would not keep. When I was sent for to Deptford to report upon Golding’s preserved meats--which, no doubt, your lordship recollects----“ “I do, indeed; they were too bad to be forgotten.” “I assure your lordship the fault was more in the cooking than in the bad quality of the meat--some of which I found in a state of liquid putrefaction. No doubt, the meat was not of prime quality, and many improper things were introduced. Nevertheless, if the articles had been properly preserved, they would have been found as sweet when taken out as when they were put in. For example, the entrails of any animal might be enclosed in these tin cases in the state in which they came from the animal, and, if well preserved, upon opening them a couple of years after, they would be found pretty much in their original state, excepting being slightly discoloured by the cooking--but whole, and not in a liquid state, as those were. The meat was, therefore, either not cooked enough, or some atmospheric air had remained in it which caused putrefaction.” “Could not any other way of preserving be introduced?” “Many experiments have been tried, but almost all proved unsuccessful. I, at one time, made several myself, the results of some of which I submitted to Captain Miles, Admiral Berkeley, Sir Charles Napier, &c., and they were found very good. They were then about a month old, but the time the government wished for the test was a twelvemonth. I was certain they would keep any length of time, but as I was then very much engaged at the Reform Club, and also writing my cookery-book, _The Modern Housewife_, I did not pursue it further. The principal improvement in my method was the omission of