CONTENTS

Book One: ITALIAN
a day's menu 3
appetizers 14
soups, paste, rice and polenta 18
FISH 35
MEATS 38
SAUCES 50
VEGETABLES 54
SWEETS 62
BREADS AND CAKES 68
WINES 83

Book Two: SPANISH
MENUS 91
SALUDE PESETAS! 98
SOUPS AND STEWS 106
FISH 121
EGGS I35
MEATS I43
SAUCES AND GARNISHES 162
VEGETABLES 173
SALADS 187
DESSERTS I92
REFRESHING DRINKS 206
THE BASQUE KITCHEN . . . 208

Book Three: PORTUGUESE
O JANTAR ESTA NA MESA 217
SOUPS 226
FISH 23I
EGGS 244
MEAT DISHES 245
SAUCES 256
VEGETABLES 258
DESSERTS 260
SWEET SAUCES 268

Book four: FRENCH
l'art du bien manger 273
appetizers .... 283
SOUPS 286
FISH 298
EGGS 312
MEATS 319
VEGETABLES 344
DESSERTS 352
DISTINCTIVE DISHES 378

ENGLISH INDEX 383
FOREIGN INDEX 395

Book One
ITALIAN
A DAY'S MENU
A TYPICAL DAY'S MENU
APPETIZERS

(Antipasto)

PISSALADEIRA
ANCHOVY CANAPES
ANCHOVY SALAD
THE SALAD
THE DRESSING
THE GARNISH
DRESSING FOR FISH AND SEA FOOD SALADS
CROSTINI OF CHICKEN LIVERS
PICKLED MUSHROOMS
SOUPS, PASTE, RICE AND POLENTA
MINESTRONE SOUP
PUMPKIN SOUP
FROG SOUP
ANALONI, PARMA STYLE
(Anolini alia Parmiagana)
LITTLE COCKED HATS
(Cappelletti alia Romagna)
TORTELLINI, BOLOGNA STYLE
(Tortellini alia Bolognese)
PLAIN SPAGHETTI
SPAGHETTI WITH BUTTER
{Spaghetti al Burro)
SPAGHETTI WITH ANCHOVIES
SPAGHETTI NEAPOLITAN STYLE
(Spaghetti alia Napoli)
SPAGHETTI WITH TOMATO SAUCE
SPAGHETTI WITH ANCHOVIES
Spaghetti con Acciughe)
SPAGHETTI WITH LIVER
SPAGHETTI ST. REMO
SPAGHETTI FLORENTINE
MACARONI, VERMICELLI, TAGLIARINI, AND
OTHER PASTES
BAKED MACARONI
VERMICELLI
TAGLIARINI
RAVIOLI
PASTE
MEAT FILLING
GREEN FILLING
PANATA)
RISOTTO
RISOTTO MILANESE STYLE
(Risotto alia Milanese)
POLENTA I
POLENTA II
FRIED POLENTA

FISH
(Pesce)
FILLET OF FISH ALLA MASSENA
FILLET OF WHITING ALLA VENITIA
FILLETS OF BASS SICILIAN STYLE
CODFISH BOLOGNA STYLE
FISH PIES
EEL WITH MACARONI
WHITEBAIT OMELET ALLA NAPOLI
MEATS
(Carni)
SCALOPPINE IN GRAVY
(Scaloppine al Sugo)
SCALOPPINE WITH MUSHROOMS
SCALOPPINE WITH ZUCCHINI
(Scaloppine con Zucchini)
SCALOPPINE WITH VEGETABLES, COOKED IN
OLIVE OIL
(Scaloppine con Verdure aV Aceto)
LAMB WITH PEAS
(Agnello con Piselli)
LAMB CUTLETS MILANESE
ROAST KID
VEAL KIDNEYS WITH PARMESAN
CALF'S LIVER WITH PARMESAN
FRITTO MISTO
MARROW BONES
{Osso Bucco)
PORK CHOPS MILANESE
PORK LIVER WITH FENNEL
THRICE-COOKED CHICKEN
CHICKEN A LA MARENGO
{Polio alia Marengo)
FRIED SPRING CHICKEN
CHICKEN WITH WHITE WINE
{Polio al Vino Bianco)
CHICKEN WITH OLIVES
{Polio alia Olive)
CAPILOTADE
CAPON WITH PINENUTS
MILANESE CROQUETTES
BIRDS SMOTHERED IN RICE
SAUCES
(Salse)
AGRO DOLCE SAUCE
GENOISE SAUCE
ITALIAN SAUCE
MILANAISE SAUCE
LIVOURNO SAUCE
PARMESAN SAUCE
TOMATO SAUCE
VENETIAN SAUCE
TOMATO SAUCE
(Salsa di Pomodoro)
VEGETABLES
(Legumi)
MRS. EVE KENT'S ZUCCHINI
(Zucchini alia Signora Eve Kent)
ENRICO'S FRIED ZUCCHINI
{Zucchini Fritto alia Enrico)
ZUCCHINI FRIED IN DEEP FAT
SMOTHERED ZUCCHINI
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES
CAULIFLOWER ROMAN STYLE
(Cavolfiore alia Romagna)
FENNEL
(Finnochio)
EGGPLANT ITALIAN STYLE
EGGPLANT BAKED WITH EGG
SICILIAN EGGPLANT
STUFFED PEPPERS
(Peperoni Ripieni)
PEPPERS BAKED PLAIN
ASPARAGUS WITH PARMESAN
FLORENTINE SPINACH
ARTICHOKE HEARTS, STUFFED
MUSACA
SMOTHERED MUSHROOMS
SALADS

SWEETS
(Dolci)
ICE CREAMS
CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM
COFFEE ICE CREAM
FROZEN PEACHES
ALL-FRUITS ICE
(Gelato de Tutti-Frutti)
ORANGE GRANITE
(Granita d'Arancia)
STRAWBERRY GRANITE
(Granita di Fragola)
POMONA SHERBET
PEACH SHERBET
(Sorbetto di Pesche)
PINEAPPLE SHERBET
{Sorbretto di Ananas so)
ROMAN PUNCH
(Ponce alia Romano)
TUTTI-FRUTTI
MARASCHINO SAUCE
NEAPOLITAN BISCUITS GLACES

BREADS AND CAKES
CHESTNUT SWEET BREAD (Castagnaccio)***
ITALIAN SWEET BREAD***
NEAPOLITAN BREAD***
CHRISTMAS CAKE (Panettone di Natale)***
GENOESE CAKES (Pane di Genovese)***
NEAPOLITAN CAKE***
CHESTNUT CAKES***
MERINGUE***
ITALIAN MACAROONS(Biscotto di Mandorle)***
ITALIAN ALMOND PASTE***
DATE MERINGUES***
SWEET DUMPLINGS(Gnocchi Dolci)***
FARINA SOUFFLE***
CORN MEAL SOUFFLE (Soufflet di Farina)***
SWEET PASTIES (Dolce Ravioli)***
CHESTNUT FRITTERS (Fritella di Castagne)***
CORNMEAL FRITTERS (Fritelle di Polenta)***
CHERRY FRITTERS***
PINE NUT TARTS {Torta col Pinoli)***
GENOESE PASTRY (Torta di Genovese)***
ALMOND PUDDING (Budino di Mandorle)***
BLACK PUDDING (Budino Nero)***
CHOCOLATE PUDDING
LITTLE CREAM PUDDINGS
MILK OF ALMOND RICE PUDDING
TAPIOCA PUDDING
VERMICELLI PUDDING
MARSALA WINE SAUCE
SAGO WINE SAUCE
ROASTED CHESTNUTS***
SUGARED CHESTNUTS ***
CHESTNUT AND RAISIN COMPOTE
PEACH COMPOTE
FIGS ROMAN STYLE
TUTTI-FRUTTI CONSERVE
ITALIAN COTTAGE CHEESE

WINES
(Vinos)
OF WINES

*** The recipes marked with an Astrix are currently available on this website, "www.italyrevisited.org."

The European Cookbook for American Homes, from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France" by The Browns, Cora, Rose and Bob. Published by Farrar & Rinehart in New York in 1936. Book One includes an introduction: Besides the characteristic dishes given in this sample day's menu there are enough Italian specialties to make sprightly every one of the thousand meals in the year: succulent sausages, salami of Verona, mortadella of Bologna (now exported in cans); ravioli in every imaginable style; chicken livers genovese; copretto (kid); the maremma, tortoise and wild boar of Tuscany; the fish grills of Genoa; Umbrian baked pudding of rice and chopped pigeon; festive fish, eels, frogs' legs, swordfish, tuna, mussels, Roman red mullet (truglia), frutti di mare, octopus; endless rice dishes (risoto) ; corn meal mush (polenta); eggs in unbelievable array; bistecca (beef steak); exceptional raw hams; osso buco (marrow bones); animelle (sweetbreads); artichokes and cardoons, pungent squashes; frittata; almonds and walnuts eaten green, chestnuts roasted. Ices, Neapolitan and tutti-frutti ice creams. Zabaglione. Distinctive wines and cheeses from every province: pale mahogany Marsala and heady Corvo from Sicily; Chianti, Capri; Parmesan cheese, Bel Paese, Stracchino, Bra and Southern Caccio Carvallo. A full rainbow of figs, a cornucopia of fruits. Watermelons red as lipsticks. Italy is the bounteous mother of all continental cooking and her range of viands is greater than that of any other country. She has held her classic place at the head of the table with dignity and charm ever since Lucullan days when solons supped on nightingales' tongues and emperors rewarded chefs with whole cities for the invention of a single dish. Those were the days when the soft roe of sea lampreys brought their weight in silver and the illustrious red mullet fetched fifty dollars a pound in Rome. Roman gastronomes dubbed this fine pink-fleshed fish "woodcock of the sea" and thought nothing of paying two or three hundred dollars for a fat specimen of the rare "sea-bird." It was prepared at the table, boiled alive in a big glass bowl for the guests' delight and as its pink flesh turned white in cooking and it rolled agonized eyes up to fish heaven in a final prayer Poets were wont to immortalize it in toothsome cantos. Every part of the mullet was deemed so delectable that only its gills were removed and not eaten. Its liver and trail, indeed, were the choicest parts, reserved for emperors and served up in style, dressed with sea-urchin and chicken liver sauce. Today mullet more often fried in batter than boiled alive on the table, but :his sea woodcock has lost none of its ancient popularity. I Alfredo's in Rome is the place to eat it pinkly perfect. Turbot used to vie with mullet for the favor of gormandizng Romans, but it went rapidly out of fashion when the custom same into vogue of throwing unwanted slaves into private turbot jonds, to be eaten alive by the ravenous fish even as Christians were, in lions' dens. The Romans used to import their greatest chefs from Sicily the fame of Sicilian cooks rose to a rhapsodic fervor which caused Cratinus to write.There lives, I fancy, here within this cave Some perfume-seller, or Sicilian cook. Broccoli, with which we became acquainted only in this century, was popular in Caesar's Gaul. Parsley was recommended by Pliny as good for the liver. The Romans were great salad eaters, of which we have evidence today in the name Romaine given to that distinctive variety of lettuce. Great gobblers of greens they were, so the phrase "Eat your spinach!" must have been familiar in Latin long before Christ was born. The French cuisine grew directly out of the Italian, and very late at that. Savarin himself admitted that modern French restaurant cooking got its inspiration from its Southern neighbor and that before the year eighteen hundred Paris couldn't hold a holy candle to Rome as a gastronomic solar plexus. And beef-eating London with its Turk's Head and Ye Olde Cocke taverns gave the palm as well to the original Roman ristorante. The Italian cuisine is based on tasty pastes, chiefly macaroni, spaghetti and ravioli, pepped up with garlic, peppers, anchovies, olive oil, tomato paste, funghi (mushrooms), grated Parmesan cheese and capers. More than any other cuisine it depends on accompanying wines and fruits. And what fruits! Enormous Palermo oranges with flaming cheeks. Mandarins and blood oranges, sunkist lemons picked ripe and hence sweet enough to eat out of hand. Peaches and pomegranates beyond compare. A luscious melange summed up in the Neapolitan tutti-frutti (all fruits), which we have taken over as the apt name for fruit-flavored chewing gum. Fruit is the national dessert from Northern Merano where folks go to take the grape cure and linger to drink the new Fall wine, with accompanying chestnuts and dancing in the streets, all the way down to southernmost Sicily where the adage about fruit is changed to "fruit is silver in the morning, golden at noon and platinum at night." Some Italians will not go all the way with this slogan, however, for though they all gorge on fruit at noon it is commonly served as a compote at night. Elaborate sweets are not sought in countries flowing with wine and honey, so cakes, ices and zabaglione (wine-flavored) are the standard desserts. North, Central and South, down the long peninsula, regional menus vary considerably, of course, yet the daily diet of a Piedmontese is substantially the same as that of a Sicilian. Spaghetti, macaroni, vermicelli, ribboned fettuccini (noodlelike), or some other of the score of succulent pastes, spiced with garlic and with Parmesan strewed over it, is almost sure to appear at the noon meal, in spite of Mussolini's dictate that too much starch must not be consumed, for fear of ruining the race through indigestion. The rule is spaghetti at noon, soup at night, and since spaghetti is considered the equivalent of soup, both paste and potage are never partaken of at the same meal. Whatever the meat course, there is almost sure to be a touch of giblets with it, or in the sauce. There will be crusty bread in great variety, hearty red wine and a fine chunk of cheese wherever you lunch; and these three alone, with fruit of course, and more than a suspicion of garlic rubbed on the wholesome bread or slivered into the salad, make a meal fit for modern centurions. Plenty of vitamins in this menu, provided by raw vegetables and fruits. Sliced tomatoes and peppers take the place of our cooked potatoes and corn. Salad is served as a matter of course, dressed with red wine vinegar, juice of ripe lemons and the tastiest of pale green olive oil ? that from Lucca being the world's finest. The salad is snappy, sharper than the French, and so are all Italian condiments, excepting only the exciting French vinegar flavored with tarragon. Italian mustard is spicier and hotter than any other and also darker in color. Even the Parmesan cheese that is sprinkled over everything is highly pungent, livelier in taste than any other powdered cheese. Mushrooms, too, (both funghi and cepes) have a stronger tang than the standard French champignon. Pickled cepes, though they belong to the mush- room family, are as popular as the giblets of all animals and provide a similar exotic touch to many dishes ? they might indeed be called vegetable chicken livers, being as fat and meaty. They are golden yellow burnished with red, but often too rich, a bit too coarse and slippery for our palate. Besides liking his food au naturel the Italian eats out-of-doors when the weather permits. This gusto for dining al fresco is carried even into the heart of cities where robust, deep-breathing people sit at table in sidewalk restaurants and glass-covered galleries bustling with shoppers. Or in city gardens ? we remember one in Rome, with tables all around a gold fish pond, adorned with a marble bust of that great feaster Aesophagus. Cooking is done primitively still, especially in the Italian countryside, over charcoal braziers, on spits and in clay-covered bee-hive ovens, but it is all the more perfect for that. A country kitchen, or even a city one, is not as clean as a German cook's, but that is because it usually serves as pantry and dining room too. This room where the cooking is done is the true heart of the home, one wall ablaze with a battery of tin-lined pots to prove the family's generosity of appetite; pots, pans and gravy-catchers, all hanging copper side out to reflect the fire and sun in golden glints. These utensils are dangerous as soon as they wear through to the copper and must then be sent to be retinned. Bunches of herbs are thrust handy in smoke blackened rafters, there are dangling braids of garlic and onions, strings of pepper and dried mushrooms, with winking demijohns of wine both red and white brightening dark corners. A grayish block of expensive vintage Parmesan cheese stands beside its grater, beneath which is the wooden bowl that is filled with fresh, savory powdered Parmesan before each repast. The bowl has a wooden spoon to match. Breakfast is scarcely considered a meal, since it follows the slim fashion known everywhere as Continental ? although really it is Latin, for neighboring continentals, the Dutch, for example, eat enormous meat breakfasts. Throughout Italy the fast is broken on rising with blackish coffee mixed with hot milk, often rich, creamy goats' milk, and a slice of bread, although butter and a small saucer of celestial honey are added if the breakfaster isn't too spartan or too poor. In some hardy peasant sections even coffee is too great a luxury, so the farmer roasts several whole heads of garlic and eats it with his bread. But be it noted that the roasting of garlic takes the sting out of it, makes it taste syrupy sweet, a miracle with which we are familiar in roast onions. Luncheon starts with antipasto (appetizers) including salami and a curl of well-aged ham, anchovies always, sometimes wrapped around capers; tuna, pickled mushrooms, artichoke hearts, olives both black and green, cold veal, fish mayonnaise, radishes, fennel, peppers green and red; and whatever this hors d'oeuvre consists of, each tidbit is served in a small separate dish and drenched v with the delicate emerald green olive oil of Lucca. Even raw vegetables, such as celery and fennel, are dipped in oil, salt and pepper, to greatly improve their relish. Dry white wine is drunk with the antipasto, the favorite types being Cortese and Capri. Antipasto opens the appetite for the paste which often is filled with meat, as ravioli and timbales, and is quite certain to be seasoned with garlic and flavored with tomato. The Italian tomato, pomodoro, is the size of a pigeon egg, meatier than our love apple, stronger and sharper in essence. It is pounded to a pulp and sold in immense cans, always shiny and red. Baked pastes, usually macaroni or thick noodles, are also flavored chiefly with tomato, but boiled pastes, generally spaghetti, thin tagliarini (noodles), or vermicelli the size of string, sometimes appear alia burro, dressed with sweet butter alone, the butter melting quickly into the steaming dish. Spaghetti is ordered alia dente by the knowing, and that means it must be cooked a minute or two less than usual, so the teeth themselves may test its virtue and grind out the full wheat flavor. Spaghetti, of course, must be boiled to order and served on the instant, for it gets soggy and flavorless if it isn't eaten piping hot the second it is done and the sauce mixed with it, by lifting the mass several times with a fork and a spoon to let the excess steam escape and thoroughly impregnate the paste with its luscious gravy. Spaghetti cooked by an Italian expert is as light and fluffy as pancakes, it is dry and of good body, even its steam when sucked into the mouth has a hearty savor of the real thing and reminds one of the appetizing exhalation of hot homemade biscuits. The bull-fighting Spaniards like their beef when it has reached maturity, but the Italian takes his in the shape of veal, as young as he can get it. He eats tender kid, too, before it has become strong goat; and this seems reasonable, for while veal is tough and hard to digest, cavorting kid is as juicily gelatinous as suckling pig. But the Italian chef overcomes the difficulty with veal by flaying it for five or ten minutes before he dips it in eggy bread-crumbs and tosses it in the frying pan. At noon Naples resounds with the pounding of veal cutlets (scallopini) ? the town seems to be peopled with trick drummers, practicing intricate beats and trying out their traps. Slices of lemon garnish scallopini and add zest to all fish dishes besides. Lemons and oranges, in fact, helped Italy get her cooking head start of France. Bananas, figs, pears, grapes, melons, peaches, pomegranates did their share, too, for Italy's cornucopia is not only full to the brim with Southern delicacies and luxuries of food but overflows with wines besides: Muscatel, Malvasia, Marsala, Falerno, Grignolino, Salerno, Frascati, Orvieto, Asti Spumante and Sparkling Barberas and Nebiolos, an endless variety of them from top to toe of the Italian boot. To finish off the luncheon we have Gorgonzola cheese (formaggio Gorgonzola) richer than Roquefort. A ripe banana goes well with Gorgonzola; because of the resemblance in fruity flavor each supplements the other. Caffe nero, bitter black coffee, is prepared in a unique style known as espresso, in city restaurants or cafes. A demitasse is filled from a big nickel-plated steam engine that expresses the essence of a heaping tablespoonful of powdered coffee into each tiny cup. This finishes off the luncheon (colazione) and usually is accompanied by a cigarette or cigar. But tobacco is a government monopoly here, as in most Latin countries, so the cigarettes are worse than English "gaspers," almost as bad as French Bleus. Cigars are no better; the national Toscani is brittle and badly made, its draught is furnished by a straw thrust down the center and the puffs are very stingy and eye-reddening. Though matches are no part of the meal, and shouldn't even be used for toothpicks, a final smoke is the last course for many, so it might as well be recorded that Italy, like Spain and the Argentine, is addicted to short wax vestas which sputter and stench and burn the fingers with molten wax, unless you are very adroit in handling these miniature Vesuviuses. No dinner in the world can improve on the pranzo; it is a classic of meals, perfectly balanced and taste teasing, straight from the elegant antipasto (appetizers) through the minestrone (soup-of -soups) and the mixed fry (fritto misto), with its piquance of individual portions of cheese, kidney, brains, liver, scallops of meat and giblets, a spray of broccoli ? all coated with rich egg batter and fried golden. Italy just escapes being a chicken-and-egg country, such as Spain and Cuba, for a polio pranzo (chicken dinner) is relished as much as it is anywhere on earth, and the mushrooms served with the fowl make it all the more delicious. Then the sharp Southern salad of admirable greens and finally a matchless bisque tortoni, for at making frozen desserts the country has had several thousand years' experience. The Roman emperors were great consumers of ices and used to send their slaves up the Apennines for snow to cool their fruit juices on hot summer days. The iced granate or granite sipped by the Caesars is even more popular today. It is the primitive cooler named after the pomegranate from which it was first compounded, a tall tumbler of shaved ice or snow covered with the ruby red juice of the fruit. A splendid modern variant is granite con panna, iced coffee and thick cream; but all flavors and fruit juices are used. The granite is, in fact, the original ice cream soda ? so we, as well as the French, have much to thank Mother Italy for. The sweet orange liqueur of Strega is drunk with the coffee, or in its place a thimble of the cherry elixir Maraschino from calmatia, now within Italy's borders. These liqueurs top of? the meal ? and you have dined well in Milan, Venice, Rome or Messena. Never forgetting the wine, which stands in the center of the table throughout the splendid repast; a half gallon flagon, or better, encased in gaily colored straw, conveniently held in a swivel-bottomed silver container which swings the bottle to the glass of each guest and facilitates the pouring. The true Italian flavor can be achieved only by the use of Italian products, either imported or furnished by Italian-American firms which supply the Italian grocers who set up shop in nearly all American towns. The most important ingredients are: Olive oil. Garlic. A little is always enjoyed, even by the most prejudiced, if its presence is not suspected. Parmesan cheese. The grated Parmesan, which comes in packages, will have lost much of its flavor. Any Italian grocer will grate it on request, and be pleased that his particular importation, or American imitation, is appreciated. Tomato paste. This concentrated essence saves the time and trouble of reducing tomato juice or canned tomatoes, and gives the genuine Italian tang, besides being economical. It can be bought by weight out of big containers, always open and at hand in Italian groceries. Salted anchovies. These can also be bought by weight out of big tins. They cost a fraction of the price and are better for cooking than the kind that come in bottles, preserved in oil. They must lie in cold water 1-2 hours, to extract the salt, before being skinned and boned. Dried mushrooms. A few ounces kept in an open jar, over which a cloth may be tied, are convenient for those recipes which call for a little mushroom flavoring. Soaked for several hours and then minced and added, with their liquor, to sauces or soups, they have a higher flavoring value than fresh mushrooms. A little goes a long way, and thus they are more economical than the fresh ones. For the antipasto plate, there are tuna fish, pickled peppers, canned cepes, and Italian sausages. Herbs, especially basil, for flavoring; red wine vinegar for salads; pine nuts for special dishes; the best of salt codfish; spaghetti and other pastes, properly made from hard wheat; Gorgonzola and other imported cheeses ; and hearty hearth bread, which should go with every Italian menu." .... OF WINES (Vinos) Non in solo pane vivit homo (Man does not live by bread alone) This ancient saying is especially suited to the Italians, for they lead the world in the quantity of wine drunk with meals. The French, of course, pay more attention to vintage and quality and though on occasion they do serve champagne in half gallon magnums and full gallon Jeroboams, these are nothing in size, compared to the demijohns, nay carboys, of Italian Chianti that hold five and ten gallons apiece. Such giant bottles are used at parties and even then there's not enough to go around. In wine-drinking, as in everything else, the French are thrifty and serve un quart (J4 litre, approximately 54 P mt ) with the table d'hote, but the Italians are world-record spendthrifts of red ink. In the famed red-wine section of Tuscany, where a lunch of wine, cheese and bread is usually taken right in the wine shop itself, the festive straw-covered bottle is as big and round as a bowling ball and holds about three quarts, which is just twelve times as much as the customary tumbler-full of France. The Tuscany measure is called a fiasco and one is allotted to each individual, although he needn't drink it all, for after the finger bowl is served, the cameriere (waiter) removes the bottle, accurately gauges the amount consumed and charges accordingly. This fiasco, whose name has nothing to do with "failure" as we use it, is an oddity among bottles, because it has neither cork nor stopper of any kind. It is sealed air tight by a small quantity of olive oil floated in on top and when the wine is required for drinking this is blotted up with absorbent waste or neatly tossed out of the neck. Before cork came to Italy from Spain a piece of tow dipped in oil was the original stopper. This ancient duchy of Tuscany includes the romantic old towns of Florence and Siena, celebrated down the centuries for climate and vineyards that combine to produce the great Chiantis and Ruflnas. Its other red wines are Artiminio, Carmignana, Montalbano, Monte Pulciano, Montalcino and Monte Argentario. The red muscat wine of Aleatico is the sweetest of the lot, it is more purple than red and therefore called nero, (black). Jvlonte Pulciano is the best known produce of Aleatico, but it has serious rivals in Monte Catini, Val de Rievole and Ponte a Moriano. The wines of this whole province usually appear with the entree and are drunk straight through the meal. The two outstanding whites of Tuscany are Elba and Pomino, and the famed Est, Est, Est is grown nearby. There used to be a greenish vintage, too, Verdea of Arcetri, near Florence, which was the favorite beverage of Frederick the Great. The story of Est, Est, Est has been told many times, though probably never before in a cook book. A German prelate, Bishop Fuger, liked this white wine so well that he drowned himself in it, by consuming flagon after flagon. It seems that this bibulous clergyman, before undertaking a trip from his Prussian parish to pay his respects to the Pope at Rome, sent a courier ahead to spot Italian taverns where he could be sure of getting the best wine. The advance agent was to chalk the word "Est," it is, or this is it, on the door of the inns that would best suit the Bishop, but when he came to a little village between Florence and Rome he found such a surpassing tipple that he wrote Est! Est! Est! Here it is! This is it! Oh, Bishop! So when the Reverend Fuger got there and found the nectar simply great, he just relaxed and polished off so much Est! Est! Est! that he died before reaching Rome, and his tomb-stone is still in the vicinity to prove it. Another remarkable white wine is that of Orvieto, which also comes in red and is sold at every railroad station in distinctive squat bottles. Trebbiano is a golden juice made, as is the remarkable Chateau d'Yquem of France, from grapes gone too far raisinward perhaps to be eaten, yet all the more luscious when fermented. Other regional aristocrats come from the old ducal estates of Artimino and of Carmignano. There are as well distinctive wines of Nipozzano and Altomena. This finishes off the Tuscany types worthy of being bottled for sale, but there are countless others unclassified, mere vino del paese or table wines, on draught in all wine shops. In the foothills of the Alps, Piedmont provides sparkling Asti, the Italian champagne, Bosca, and Chaumont. Turin turns out a good many pipes of wine both white and red, but they're not so hot. Yet the Grignolinos, Freisas, Barberas, Nebiolos and Barolos, both still and spumanti (sparkling) uphold the whole Province. There are the white wines, as well; Gavi, Cortese and Castel Tagliolo, which precede the entree at table and go well with antipasto and fish. Such a paralyzing variety of sound wines that the best we can do without writing a whole book on the subject is to list a few noted vintages under their chief centers of consumption: Rome: Frascati (white, served with the entree), Marino, Genzano and the muscatels of Albano and Montefiascone. Naples : Falerno, Vesuvio, Gragnano and the strong Lacrima Christi, "tears of Christ," celebrated for centuries, so the genuine is hard to get. Lacrima Christi is grown on Mount Vesuvius and goes up to 18% in alcoholic content, but its regional neighbors, Gallipoli and Taranto, go even higher, up to 25%. Naples gets credit, too, for the straw-colored and strawberry-hued island wines of Capri. Venice: reds: Valpolicella, Bardolino and Cabernet Pinot; whites, The Soave of Verona and Terralba of Padua. Since the war the fine Bolzano and Merano wines of Austria have been added to the wine-producing territory dominated by Venice. Lombardy: this Province produces reds exclusively and they are generally astringent and of little value: Inferno, Broni and Grumello are among the best. Sardinia: The Malvasia dessert wines of Garnaccia, Monai and Caunona are golden and delicate. Rosso del Campidano is the best red wine produced on the island. Sicily is noted for its Marsala, perfect both for drinking and cooking. Its table wines, of which Corvo di Casteldaccia is chiefly exported, are stronger than most; Terre Forte originally bottled by Benedictine monks on the slopes of Mount Etna was said to be 30% alcohol. Perhaps the fiery strength of these vintages comes from the extinct volcanoes on which they are grown, for surely those from tame mountain-sides are milder. Sicily supplies a good many dessert wines, the muscatels, or moscatos, of Salento and Zucca, as well as the sanctified Vino Santo. But Marsala is its greatest contribution; amber-colored and excellent for cooking, in taste it resembles sherry, or sherry and malaga mixed; but since it is reinforced with brandy before being shipped, it is pretty heady for drinking purposes. The scarcity and impurity of water throughout Italy is, of course, responsible for the great consumption of wine. When an Italian travels he doesn't think of drinking water, so the railroad stations are stocked with wines and the big ships equipped with glass wine vats as large as swimming pools, filled to the brim with red and white wine. The little water that is drunk in Italy is bottled at celebrated springs, such as San Pellegrino and Fonte Bracca. Beer has become increasingly popular since Italy took over great hunks of Austria, including Trieste. But unless imported from Munich or Pilsen, it's hardly worth mentioning. As we have seen, some Italian wines are sufficiently strong to serve as hard drinks in themselves; and since a hot climate is not inducive to schnapps, we find comparatively little native brandy drunk. This is called Grappa, not because of the grape from which it is distilled, as we might guess, but after Monte Grappa, a mountain on the Austrian border, where Italy begins to shiver in winter. Of aperitifs the most popular is Cinzano, or Martini and Rossi vermouth, from which our own Martini cocktail got its name. Both of these are aged white Sicilian wines doctored up with bitters or herbs, and because they are sweeter than the French vermouths they do not serve so well in exciting the appetite. Fernet Branca is another life-saver of this sort, and there are other tonic mixtures of wine and quinine, called Quinados. In a fascist country we expect regimentation, but the only strait-jacketing of drinks is the standardization of Strega as the national liqueur. It is distilled of oranges and comes in two colors, one sweet and the other sweeter. Maraschino made in Dalmatia from the celebrated cherries must now be classed, through conquest, among the Italian distillations, although it bears no relation to them and is properly a teutonic kirschwasser, though much more syrupy..... For the complete cookbook see www.archive.org. N.B. Technically, a book has to have been published prior to 1921 in the United States for it to be in the public domain, but sometimes the author and/or his heirs, place the book in the public domain so that individuals can have access to it. Whether this is the case for this particularly book is hard to say. In any case the book can be accessed without cost at the on-line public library, www.archive.org. Because "traditional" recipes don't belong to any one individual, it seems the recipe ingredients cannot be copyrighted, though it is possible that the word-for-word directions given in any one recipe might be.

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