If a good meal is heaven on earth, then the perfect salad can be Eden on a plate. Digging through the writings of a 17th century intellectual, University of Arkansas researcher Sandra Sherman unearthed a recipe that may help mankind regain the wisdom and purity of paradise lost.
No creamy sauces or exotic meats -- a dish worthy of Heaven's blessing consists of leafy greens and vegetables, tossed together in a blend that exhibits man's refined knowledge of nature, health and taste. At least, that was the message of John Evelyn, a gentleman scholar and founder of the Royal Society, in his 1699 treatise "Acetaria, a discourse on Sallets."
Sherman's article "An Eden on a Plate," published in the British culinary journal Petits Propos Culinaires, claims that "Acetaria" represents more than a mere cookbook. It's a glimpse into 17th century intellectual values. As the Protestant Reformation converged with the Age of Reason, English scholars and philosophers cultivated the notion that spiritual purity could be attained through knowledge -- specifically, knowledge of the natural world.
"Seventeenth century scientists assumed that God had always wished man to retain natural knowledge" -- the same knowledge that Adam had possessed in the Garden of Eden, Sherman said.
Evelyn and his contemporaries believed Adam's spiritual purity and his dominance over nature stemmed from his complete understanding of the natural world and his ability to live in harmony with it. They theorized that by recovering Adam's knowledge, they could also regain his state of grace, and in that pursuit, they produced a veritable cornucopia of treatises, manuals and catalogs on horticulture.
Conducting research at Cambridge University this year, Sherman has plowed through such volumes as "The Anatomy of Plants. With an Idea of a Philosophical History of Plants, And Several Other Lectures Read Before the Royal Society" by Nehemiah Grew and Sir Hugh Plat's "The Garden of Eden. Or, An accurate Description of all Flowers and Fruits now growing in England, with particular Rules how to advance their Nature and Growth, as well in Seeds and Herbs, as the secret ordering of Trees and Plants."
Many of these 17th century works are as dense as their titles, attempting to contain the whole of horticultural knowledge and practice, Sherman said. Even Evelyn adopted the comprehensive approach at first, publishing a month-by-month gardening guide in 1664. But he was immediately distraught by how incomplete his manual was.
By the time he published "Acetaria" in 1699, Evelyn had concluded that the infinite variety of the vegetable kingdom rendered complete knowledge a near-impossibility. Even so, Eden was not entirely lost, he claimed -- it just needed to be pursued on a smaller scale.
In other words, Evelyn suggested that you don't have to preside over a vast landscape of lush and harmonious verdure to experience paradise. You just have to toss a mean salad.
In "Aceteria," Evelyn argues that the art of salad making requires superior knowledge of the cultivation of vegetables as well as familiarity with their various taste properties and nutritional values. Creating a salad in which the flavor and the healthful effects of each vegetable complement the other ingredients results in a dish that both pleases and nourishes the individual who eats it. But it also demonstrates the blend of knowledge, purity and balance that Adam originally embodied. Thus, in making a salad and partaking of it, we are delivered into the state of harmony and grace that we once thought lost.
"A salad reconstitutes Eden as a perfect array of vegetables in a discrete, well-tended place. As such, the salad is not a metaphor. It is Eden," Sherman explained. "To prepare and consume such a salad is to enact a primal scene -- it is to participate in Eden -- with implications for Adam-like purity and innocence."
The embodiment of paradise in a salad may seem ludicrous to anyone who's ever endured a lengthy diet. And the pursuit of Eden, itself, may strike people as a curious and antiquated fixation. But Sherman notes that aspects of "Acetaria" resonate with present-day trends and serve as a link between Evelyn's time and the modern world.
Modeling themselves after Adam, many enlightened people of the 17th century went so far as to mimic his diet. The result was a significant social movement towards vegetarianism, long before health-conscious and politically-motivated people of the late 20th century cut meat from their diets.
"The movement was based on religion -- Adam never ate animals until after he fell -- but also on the idea that if Adam ate vegetables, they must have been healthier," Sherman said. "Also, animals were often seen as being killed in horrible ways, so who would want to participate in that? Morals and health and a sense of the fastidious all played a part in early vegetarianism, just as now."
Further, in explaining the proper procedures for creating a salad, Evelyn specifies a nine-step system of picking, processing and presenting vegetables, with a significant emphasis on cleanliness and purity. Not only must the vegetables be fresh and clean, but he recommends only the most refined seasonings and use of the most hygienic and elegant utensils.
In his pursuit of natural purity, Evelyn goes so far as to warn against consuming plants that have been forced to ripen early or produce more prodigiously through unnatural means. In the 17th century, this admonishment applied to the use of dung as fertilizer or the unseasonable planting of vegetables. Evelyn worried that such practices would pollute the body and cancel the purifying effect of the salad. But Sherman notes that his warning also reflects on modern fears of pollution -- resonating with current concerns about pesticides and genetically modified crops.
Finally, salads themselves provide a link between the centuries. Sherman understands that modern eaters may no longer believe they enter paradise each time they enjoy a leafy entree, but she maintains that a tasty salad can still be a transcendent experience.
RECIPES FROM "ACETARIA"
CREAMED "SPINAGE"SpinachManchet [white bread]6 Egg yolksMarrow [zucchini]NutmegSugarCarroways [carraway seeds]Rose or orange-flower water
Take a sufficient quantity of spinach, stamp and strain out the juice. Put to it grated manchet, the yolk of six eggs, some marrow shred small, nutmeg, sugar, a few carroways, rose or orange-flower water. Mingle all with a little boiled cream and garnish with puff paste. It will require but very moderate baking.
DRESSING FOR SALADOyl-olive [olive oil]Vinegar, or Lime or orange juiceHorse-radishSaltPepperDry mustard2 Egg yolksSpices and flowers for garnish
Take of clear oyl-olive, three parts; of sharpest vinegar, limon or orange juice, one part; and therein let steep some slices of horse-radish, with a little salt. Add a little black pepper, and as much dry mustard as will lie upon a half-crown piece. Mingle all, and when ready add the yolks of two new-laid eggs boiled and mashed. Sprinkle with aromaticks [spices] and flowers [e.g. violets or marigolds]. Should be enough for eight persons, so judge quantities accordingly. Salad greens must be washed very, very well.
PUDDING OF CARROT
8-12 ounces Manchet [white bread]16-24 ounces Grated carrot1/2 pint Fresh cream or whole milk1/2 lb. Fresh butter3 Egg yolks3 Eggs whole1/2 lb. SugarSaltNutmegCinnamon or allspice
Grate some manchet with double the amount of grated carrot. Take half a pint of fresh cream or new milk, half a pound of fresh butter, six eggs (taking out three whites). Mix it up with half a pound of sugar, a little salt, some grated nutmeg and beaten spice [e.g. cinnamon or allspice]. Pour into buttered dish or pan and bake until just solid. You can use other roots such as parsnip [in place of the carrots].
RSS