HOST AND GUEST.
HOST AND GUEST.
A
BOOK ABOUT DINNERS,
DINNER-GIVING, WINES,
AND DESSERTS.
BY A. V. KIRWAN,
OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, ESQ.
LONDON:
BELL AND DALDY, YORK STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
[v]
PREFACE.
There is no want of cookery books in the principal languages of Europe,and least of all in the English language, in which, even in our owngeneration, several hundreds have been compiled and published. Thisvolume, however, is not a cookery book, nor what the French call adispensaire. It is a household book on the subject of Dinners,Desserts, Wines, Liqueurs, and on foods in general; and is the resultof reading, observation, and a great deal of experience in foreigncountries. I have been myself, during a life now nearly prolonged tothreescore years, a diner out of some magnitude, and, as far as mymeans allowed, a giver of dinners; and have often when younger and lessexperienced, felt the want, and have heard my friends express theirsense of the want, of some work of the kind now first presented, so faras I am aware, in an English dress.
[vi]
Born in a country house—a messuage producing, to use a legal phrase,within the curtilage, beef, mutton, fruits, and vegetables—I haveventured to speak of the choice and quality of these good things froman early and practical acquaintance with the subject. So much needs tobe said on a matter on which all are eloquent, though few agreeable—Imean self. It is necessary to state that it is not from reading, butactual practic