《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 冬 07

《四季隨筆》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中對隱士賴克羅夫特醉心于書籍、自然景色與回憶過去生活的描述，其實是吉辛的自述，作者以此來抒發(fā)自己的情感，因而本書是一部富有自傳色彩的小品文集。

吉辛窮困的一生，對文學(xué)名著的愛好與追求，以及對大自然恬靜生活的向往，在書中均有充分的反映。本書分為春、夏、秋、冬四個部分，文筆優(yōu)美，行文流暢，是英國文學(xué)中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由網(wǎng)友分享的《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 冬 07的內(nèi)容，讓我們一起來感受吉辛的四季吧!

One has heard much condemnation of the English kitchen. Our typical cook is spoken of as a gross, unimaginative creature, capable only of roasting or seething. Our table is said to be such as would weary or revolt any but gobbet-bolting carnivores. We are told that our bread is the worst in Europe, an indigestible paste; that our vegetables are diet rather for the hungry animal than for discriminative man; that our warm beverages, called coffee and tea, are so carelessly or ignorantly brewed that they preserve no simple virtue of the drink as it is known in other lands. To be sure, there is no lack of evidence to explain such censure. The class which provides our servants is undeniably coarse and stupid, and its handiwork of every kind too often bears the native stamp. For all that, English victuals are, in quality, the best in the world, and English cookery is the wholesomest and the most appetizing known to any temperate clime.

我們聽過很多人們對英國烹飪的指責(zé)。我們的代表廚師被說成是粗野而缺乏想象力的，只會烤和煮兩種烹飪方法。我們的餐桌被說成是除了囫圇進食的食肉動物外，讓任何人都感到厭倦和反胃的。有人說，我們的面包是全歐洲最糟糕的，就是一塊難消化的面團；我們的蔬菜與其說是給有判別力的人吃的，還不如說是喂給饑餓動物的；我們稱之為咖啡或茶的熱飲料，在沖泡時如此粗心和無知，以至于留不下在其他國家飲料里的那種自然味道。當(dāng)然，也不乏支持這些指責(zé)的證據(jù)。提供仆人的那個階級，不可否認是粗魯和愚蠢的，他們的各種手藝經(jīng)常貼著本地的標(biāo)簽。盡管如此，英國食物，在質(zhì)量上，仍是世界上最好的，英國的烹調(diào)術(shù)在所有氣候溫和之地也是最健康和開胃的。

As in so many other of our good points, we have achieved this thing unconsciously. Your ordinary Englishwoman engaged in cooking probably has no other thought than to make the food masticable; but reflect on the results, when the thing is well done, and there appears a culinary principle. Nothing could be simpler, yet nothing more right and reasonable. The aim of English cooking is so to deal with the raw material of man's nourishment as to bring out, for the healthy palate, all its natural juices and savours. And in this, when the cook has any measure of natural or acquired skill, we most notably succeed. Our beef is veritably beef; at its best, such beef as can be eaten in no other country under the sun; our mutton is mutton in its purest essence--think of a shoulder of Southdown at the moment when the first jet of gravy starts under the carving knife! Each of our vegetables yields its separate and characteristic sweetness. It never occurs to us to disguise the genuine flavour of food; if such a process be necessary, then something is wrong with the food itself. Some wiseacre scoffed at us as the people with only one sauce. The fact is, we have as many sauces as we have kinds of meat; each, in the process of cookery, yields its native sap, and this is the best of all sauces conceivable. Only English folk know what is meant by GRAVY; consequently, the English alone are competent to speak on the question of sauce.

和我們的許多優(yōu)點一樣，這一成就是無意中取得的。普通英國女人在烹飪時，很可能不作他想，只是要把食物弄得可以咀嚼而已；但是從結(jié)果上考慮，如果飯菜烹得好，那么一項烹飪原則便出現(xiàn)了。沒有什么比它更簡單，但也沒有什么比它更正確合理。英國烹飪的宗旨就是，把人們營養(yǎng)所需的原材料進行處理，為健康的味覺引導(dǎo)出它們所有的自然汁液和味道。如果我們的廚子有任何天生或后天的技巧，我們在這方面的成功就會是引人注目的。我們的牛肉是真正的牛肉，其中的頂級牛肉，在別的國家是吃不到的；我們的羊肉是最純粹最精細的羊肉——想想英格蘭南丘羊的肩肉，一刀切下溢出的第一股肉汁！我們的每一種蔬菜，都有各自特有的甜美味道。我們從沒想過要掩蓋食物原本的味道，如果有必要這樣做，那么一定是食物本身有問題。一些自以為是的人嘲笑我們是只有一種調(diào)味品的民族，實際上，我們的調(diào)味品和肉的種類一樣多；每一種在烹飪過程中都會貢獻出自己的味道，這便是所有想象得到的調(diào)味品中最好的。只有英國人知道“肉湯”的真正含意，因此，也只有英國人有資格對調(diào)味品發(fā)表評論。

To be sure, this culinary principle presupposes food of the finest quality. If your beef and your mutton have flavours scarcely distinguishable, whilst both this and that might conceivably be veal, you will go to work in quite a different way; your object must then be to disguise, to counterfeit, to add an alien relish—in short, to do anything EXCEPT insist upon the natural quality of the viand. Happily, the English have never been driven to these expedients. Be it flesh, fowl, or fish, each comes to table so distinctly and eminently itself that by no possibility could it be confused with anything else. Give your average cook a bit of cod, and tell her to dress it in her own way. The good creature will carefully boil it, and there an end of the matter; and by no exercise of art could she have so treated the fish as to make more manifest and enjoyable that special savour which heaven has bestowed upon cod. Think of our array of joints; how royal is each in its own way, and how utterly unlike any of the others. Picture a boiled leg of mutton. It is mutton, yes, and mutton of the best; nature has bestowed upon man no sweeter morsel; but the same joint roasted is mutton too, and how divinely different! The point is that these differences are natural; that, in eliciting them, we obey the eternal law of things, and no human caprice. Your artificial relish is here not only needless, but offensive.

當(dāng)然，這種烹飪原則的前提是，食材必須用最好的。如果你的牛肉和羊肉的味道很難區(qū)分，而這個和那個都有可能是小牛肉，那你烹調(diào)時就要采取完全不同的做法了；你的目標(biāo)就是要掩蓋，抵消，并添加另外的味道——簡言之，就是采取任何方式改變食物原本的自然味道。值得高興的是，英國人還從沒有被迫采取這種權(quán)宜之計。不管是走獸、飛禽還是游魚，每一種擺在餐桌上都有自己明顯獨特的味道，不可能與其他食物混淆。給普通的廚子一條鱈魚，讓她按自己的方法來做。這個好廚子會悉心將它煮熟，如此而已；她不可能使用任何方法，讓上天賜給這條魚的特有味道變得更多樣和美味。想象我們那些帶骨腿肉吧，它們本身那樣尊貴，和其他任何一個都截然不同。想象一只煮羊腿，它是羊肉，對，是最上乘的羊肉，大自然賜予人們的沒有比它更美味的了。同樣一塊肉烘烤后還是羊肉，但它們有著多么奇妙的不同啊！必須注意的是，這些差異是自然的。在引出它們的味道時，我們遵循的是事物的永恒法則，而不是人類的怪想。人工的味道在這里不僅不必要，而且令人生厭。

In the case of veal, we demand "stuffing." Yes, for veal is a somewhat insipid meat, and by experience we have discovered the best method of throwing into relief such inherent goodness as it has. The stuffing does not disguise, nor seek to disguise; it accentuates. Good veal stuffing—reflect!—is in itself a triumph of culinary instinct; so bland it is, and yet so powerful upon the gastric juices.

在烹調(diào)小牛肉時，我們需要“填料”。是的，因為小牛肉是一種比較淡而無味的肉，但我們憑經(jīng)驗已經(jīng)找到一種最好的方法，將它內(nèi)在的鮮美凸顯出來。填料并不是要掩蓋，也不是試圖掩蓋，而是強調(diào)肉原本的味道。小牛肉的好填料——想想吧！——其本身就是烹飪本能的一種勝利。雖然肉本身乏味，但下肚后與胃液混合卻令人折服。

Did I call veal insipid? I must add that it is only so in comparison with English beef and mutton. When I think of the "brown" on the edge of a really fine cut of veal—!

我說過小牛肉淡而無味是吧？我必須加上一句，只是跟英國牛肉和羊肉比起來，它才顯得如此。當(dāng)我想起一塊切得非常齊整的小牛肉烤得焦黃時，噢——！