before laying it on the toast.
ANCHOVY PASTE.--"When some delicate zest," says a work just
issued on the adulterations of trade, "is required to make the
plain English breakfast more palatable, many people are in the
habit of indulging in what they imagine to be anchovies. These
fish are preserved in a kind of pickling-bottle, carefully
corked down, and surrounded by a red-looking liquor, resembling
in appearance diluted clay. The price is moderate, one shilling
only being demanded for the luxury. When these anchovies are
what is termed potted, it implies that the fish have been
pounded into the consistency of a paste, and then placed in flat
pots, somewhat similar in shape to those used for pomatum. This
paste is usually eaten spread upon toast, and is said to form an
excellent _bonne bouche_, which enables gentlemen at
wine-parties to enjoy their port with redoubled gusto.
Unfortunately, in six cases out of ten, the only portion of
these preserved delicacies, that contains anything indicative of
anchovies, is the paper label pasted on the bottle or pot, on
which the word itself is printed.... All the samples of anchovy
paste, analyzed by different medical men, have been found to be
highly and vividly coloured with very large quantities of bole
Armenian." The anchovy itself, when imported, is of a dark dead
colour, and it is to make it a bright "handsome-looking sauce"
that this red earth is used.
BARBEL.