THE

FOURTEENTH BOOK

O F

Natural Magick:

V

I shall (hew some choice things in the Art of Cookery.

The Proem e.

T Ue C°*k* Zrt hath some choice Secrets , that may make Banquets more dainty and fullof admit atton : These 1 purpose to reveal , not that so I might invite Gluttons and Pa-rasites to Luxury t hut that with small cost and expencey I might set forth the curiosities ofo/irty and may give occasion to others thereby to invent greater matters by these. The Artcons ft s about eating and drinking. 1 shall first: speak of Meats, then of Drinks ; and by theway I (had not omit some merry pass-ttmes, that I may recreate ike GuestSy not onelywithBanquets , but also with Mirth and Delights.

Chap. I.

How Flesh may be made tender.

Shall begin with Flesh, and shew how it hnay be made tender,that Gluttons much desire. I shall do it divers ways; Somethat proceed from the kind of their death ; others from thesecret properties of things: and they will grow so tender, thatthey will almost resolve into broth. Then how whiles! thecreatures are yet alive , they may be made tender. For ex-ample:

How to make Skeeps flesh tender.

The Flesh of creatures killed by their enemies, especially such as they hate andfear, will be very tender. Zoroaster in his Cjeoponick* faith, that Sheep killed byWolves, and bitten, their fl sh will be more tender , and so the sweeter. Plutarchin Symposium gives the cause of it; Sheeps Flesl^he faith,bitten by a Wolf becomesthe sweeter, because the Wolfe by biting, makes the Flesh more flaggy and tender.For the breath of the Wolfe is so hot, that the hardest bones will consume in hisstomach, and melt; and for this cause, those things will the sooner corrupr, thatthe Wolfe bites. And both Hunters and Cooks can testi e , that creatures killeddivers ways, are diverfly affected. Some of these are killed at one blow, that withone stroke they lye for dead: yet others are hardly killed at many blows. Antswhich is more wonderful, some by a wound given with the Iron weapon, have im-printed such a quality upon the creature, that it presently corrupted, and wou’dnotkeep sweet one day; and others have killed them as suddenly , yet no such qualityretnain’d in the flesh that was killed, and it would list some time. Moreover, thata certain venue, when creatures are slain or dye, comes forth to their skins, and -hair, and nails, Homer was not ignorant of , who writing of skins and thongs ; Athong faith be ©fan ox slain by force, for the skins of those creatures are tougher andstronger, when they dy not by old age or of diseases, but are slain. On the contrary,such as dye by the biting* of Leasts, their hoofs will grow black, and their hairs falloff, and their skins will wither and flag. Thus far Tlutarcb. But I think these things

V v ate