Recipe for a Salad by Sydney Smith

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Recipe for a Salad
by
Sydney Smith

To make this condiment your poet begs

The pounded yellow of two hard-boil'd eggs;

Two boiled potatoes, passed through kitchen sieve,

Smoothness and softness to the salad give.

Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl,

And, half-suspected, animate the whole.

Of mordant mustard add a single spoon,

Distrust the condiment that bites so soon;

But deem it not, thou man of herbs, a fault

To add a double quantity of salt;

Four times the spoon with oil of Lucca crown,

And twice with vinegar procur'd from town;

And lastly o'er the flavour'd compound toss

A magic soupçon of anchovy sauce.

Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat!

Twould tempt the dying anchorite to eat;

Back to the world he'd turn his fleeting soul,

And plunge his fingers in the salad-bowl!

Serenely full, the epicure would say,
`Fate cannot harm me, I have dined today.'

This poem is in the public domain.

Sydney Smith (1771 - 1845) was an English priest, teacher, and writer. Congenial and clever, he was a hugely popular preacher and often drew standing-room-only crowds. Ahead of his time, Sydney was a champion of women's rights, an opponent of slavery, and an advocate of common sense.

secretmermaid :
I read this poem aloud to an assembled audience as part of a Story-Reading Evening themed around 'Friendship, Love and the Coming of Spring', at the Norwich Puppet Theatre last night. Everyone liked it - especially the "magic soupcon" and the plunging of the fingers ? Smith sounds like a man ahead of his time in many ways, including the appreciation of delicious simple fresh good food ? Would have been a pleasure to invite him over for lunch!
Posted 03/17/2019 04:07 PM

Glen Sorestad:
Absolutely delightful. And written only a couple of centuries ago, to say it has stood the test of time would be quite an understatement.
Posted 11/20/2011 10:07 AM

KevinArnold:
Thoroughly, unexpectedly, original, decades and decades ahead of its time. It took Mirriam-Webster to inform me an anchorite is a "person who lives in seclusion usually for religious reasons;" linguistic precision.
Posted 11/20/2011 09:07 AM

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