4 The Roast Meat of Old England

‘The English principle is that our own meat and game shall be presented at table in the highest state of perfection attainable, so far as breeding, feeding, and keeping can accomplish it; 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 … Where meat is inferior or insipid, an opposite treatment is the better one … finely flavoured sauce is valuable for improving materials which do not possess their own distinctive fine qualities and flavours.