Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/237

227 uſed among the Engliſh ſailors, that God ſends meat, and the Devil ſends cooks. Thoſe, however, who have a better opinion of Providence, will think otherwiſe. Knowing that ſea air, and the exerciſe or motion which they receive from the rolling of the ſhip, have a wonderful effect in whetting the appetite, they will ſay, that Providence has given ſailors bad cooks to prevent them from eating too much; or that knowing they would have bad cooks, he has given them a good appetite to prevent them from dying with hunger. However, if you have no confidence in theſe ſuccours of Providence, you may yourſelf, with a lamp and a boiler, by the help of a little ſpirits of wine, prepare ſome food, ſuch as ſoup, ham, &c. A ſmall oven made of tin-plate is not a bad piece of furniture: your ſervant may roaſt in it a piece of mutton or pork. If you are ever tempted to eat ſalt beef, which is often very good, you will find that cyder is the beſt liquor to quench the thirſt generally cauſed by ſalt meat or ſalt fiſh. Sea-biſcuit, which is too hard for the teeth of ſome people, may be ſoftened by ſteeping it; but bread double baked is the beſt; for being made of good loaf-bred cut into ſlices, and baked a ſecond time, it readily imbibes water, becomes ſoft, and is eaſily digeſted: it conſequently forms excellent nouriſhment, much ſuperior to that of biſcuit, which has not been fermented.

I muſt here obſerve, that this double-baked bread was originally the real biſcuit prepared to keep at ſea; for the word biſcuit, in French, ſignifies twice baked. Peaſe often boil badly, and do not become ſoft; in ſuch a caſe, by putting a two-pound ſhot into the kettle, the rolling of the veſſel, by means of this bullet, will convert the peaſe into a kind of porridge, like muſtard.