Bob:

This was published in several different versions in American 19th century
cookbooks. Sidney Smith was, I believe a British religious leader. I've looked
a bit for the original, but haven't located it.

By chance, does anyone have "The Oxford Book of Comic Verse"? Perhaps it cites
the original?

Andy Smith


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>This is one of my all-time favorites:
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>"Recipe for a Salad"
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>To make this condiment, your poet begs
>The pounded yellow of two hard-boiled 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.
>And, lastly, o'er the flavoured compound toss
>A magic soup-spoon of anchovy sauce.
>Oh, green and glorious! Oh, herbaceous treat!
>'T would 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 can not harm me, I have dined to-day!
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>Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
>
>(From "The Oxford Book of Comic Verse" ed. John Gross. Oxford University
>Press. Published in the 18-Feb-95 issue of "The Economist".)
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