Important Characteristics Of English Cooking

The English idea each animal, when served, to be characterized by its own proper flavour, which is on no account to be masked or disguised by others, which are adventitious. Delicate additions tending to heighten the natural flavour, or agreeably subordinated to it, shall alone be admitted. It is a principle which can be successfully followed only where these meats exist in high perfection: where meat is inferior or insipid, an opposite treatment is the better one. And I do not hesitate to claim for the intelligent English consumer, that it has long been essentially his aim to cultivate the best meat and game in the world, and to enjoy its intrinsic qualities for their own sake, unalloyed by any of those additions in the form of finely flavoured sauce, which are so valuable for improving materials which do not possess their own distinctive fine qualities and flavours; while his proximity to the seashore and numerous streams enables him to enjoy fish of all kinds absolutely fresh and in the finest condition.