《四季随笔》节选 - 冬 07
《四季随笔》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中对隐士赖克罗夫特醉心于书籍、自然景色与回忆过去生活的描述，其实是吉辛的自述，作者以此来抒发自己的情感，因而本书是一部富有自传色彩的小品文集。
吉辛穷困的一生，对文学名著的爱好与追求，以及对大自然恬静生活的向往，在书中均有充分的反映。本书分为春、夏、秋、冬四个部分，文笔优美，行文流畅，是英国文学中小品文的珍品之一。
以下是由网友分享的《四季随笔》节选 - 冬 07的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!
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.
我们听过很多人们对英国烹饪的指责。我们的代表厨师被说成是粗野而缺乏想象力的，只会烤和煮两种烹饪方法。我们的餐桌被说成是除了囫囵进食的食肉动物外，让任何人都感到厌倦和反胃的。有人说，我们的面包是全欧洲最糟糕的，就是一块难消化的面团；我们的蔬菜与其说是给有判别力的人吃的，还不如说是喂给饥饿动物的；我们称之为咖啡或茶的热饮料，在冲泡时如此粗心和无知，以至于留不下在其他国家饮料里的那种自然味道。当然，也不乏支持这些指责的证据。提供仆人的那个阶级，不可否认是粗鲁和愚蠢的，他们的各种手艺经常贴着本地的标签。尽管如此，英国食物，在质量上，仍是世界上最好的，英国的烹调术在所有气候温和之地也是最健康和开胃的。
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.
和我们的许多优点一样，这一成就是无意中取得的。普通英国女人在烹饪时，很可能不作他想，只是要把食物弄得可以咀嚼而已；但是从结果上考虑，如果饭菜烹得好，那么一项烹饪原则便出现了。没有什么比它更简单，但也没有什么比它更正确合理。英国烹饪的宗旨就是，把人们营养所需的原材料进行处理，为健康的味觉引导出它们所有的自然汁液和味道。如果我们的厨子有任何天生或后天的技巧，我们在这方面的成功就会是引人注目的。我们的牛肉是真正的牛肉，其中的顶级牛肉，在别的国家是吃不到的；我们的羊肉是最纯粹最精细的羊肉——想想英格兰南丘羊的肩肉，一刀切下溢出的第一股肉汁！我们的每一种蔬菜，都有各自特有的甜美味道。我们从没想过要掩盖食物原本的味道，如果有必要这样做，那么一定是食物本身有问题。一些自以为是的人嘲笑我们是只有一种调味品的民族，实际上，我们的调味品和肉的种类一样多；每一种在烹饪过程中都会贡献出自己的味道，这便是所有想象得到的调味品中最好的。只有英国人知道“肉汤”的真正含意，因此，也只有英国人有资格对调味品发表评论。
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.
当然，这种烹饪原则的前提是，食材必须用最好的。如果你的牛肉和羊肉的味道很难区分，而这个和那个都有可能是小牛肉，那你烹调时就要采取完全不同的做法了；你的目标就是要掩盖，抵消，并添加另外的味道——简言之，就是采取任何方式改变食物原本的自然味道。值得高兴的是，英国人还从没有被迫采取这种权宜之计。不管是走兽、飞禽还是游鱼，每一种摆在餐桌上都有自己明显独特的味道，不可能与其他食物混淆。给普通的厨子一条鳕鱼，让她按自己的方法来做。这个好厨子会悉心将它煮熟，如此而已；她不可能使用任何方法，让上天赐给这条鱼的特有味道变得更多样和美味。想象我们那些带骨腿肉吧，它们本身那样尊贵，和其他任何一个都截然不同。想象一只煮羊腿，它是羊肉，对，是最上乘的羊肉，大自然赐予人们的没有比它更美味的了。同样一块肉烘烤后还是羊肉，但它们有着多么奇妙的不同啊！必须注意的是，这些差异是自然的。在引出它们的味道时，我们遵循的是事物的永恒法则，而不是人类的怪想。人工的味道在这里不仅不必要，而且令人生厌。
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.
在烹调小牛肉时，我们需要“填料”。是的，因为小牛肉是一种比较淡而无味的肉，但我们凭经验已经找到一种最好的方法，将它内在的鲜美凸显出来。填料并不是要掩盖，也不是试图掩盖，而是强调肉原本的味道。小牛肉的好填料——想想吧！——其本身就是烹饪本能的一种胜利。虽然肉本身乏味，但下肚后与胃液混合却令人折服。
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—!
我说过小牛肉淡而无味是吧？我必须加上一句，只是跟英国牛肉和羊肉比起来，它才显得如此。当我想起一块切得非常齐整的小牛肉烤得焦黄时，噢——！
