WEPs; Reading Sauce (1816)

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WEPs

   WEP=White Evangelical Protestant.
   Blogger Andrew Sullivan has used this recently, but not many people have
picked up on it.  For WASP, see the work of Fred Shapiro.


(GOOGLE)
http://nikita_demosthenes.blogspot.com/
Saturday, July 26, 2003

My open letter to <A HREF="http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php">Andrew Sullivan </A>(for all the good it'll do me) on his
apparent religious bigotry against Protestants.

Andrew Sullivan posted <A HREF="http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2003_07_20_dish_archive.html#105915443727445383">this</A> on July 25 (see "WEPs"):

WEPs: As most people know, we don't really have a problem in this country
with Christians believing that there is no real distinction between religion and
politics. Except for one group: white evangelical protestants, who see no
reason not to use politics to reflect their sometimes literalist Biblical views. A
new poll finds exactly that:

"In other findings on religion and politics, the poll found that 48 percent
of white evangelical Protestants said their religious beliefs frequently
affected their voting, compared with 10 percent of white mainline Protestants, 12
percent of white non-Hispanic Catholics and 12 percent of Hispanic Catholics."

That's quite some discrepancy. And it suggests a theocratic alliance between
WEPs and Catholic Hispanics may well not come to fruition.

* * *

This prompted the following letter from your humble Protestant blogger to
Andrew:

Dear Andrew:

Please define "white evangelical protestant" - your "WEP" group (or, I guess,
the pollster's "WEP" group).

Many lefty commentators love to rail against "evangelicals" (I'm including
Chris Matthews in this - although sometimes he sounds lefty and sometimes
righty). For all the angst about "evangelicals" from the lefties (and, now, you)
I've yet to hear a definintion.

Is "evangelical" synonymous with "Protestant"? (Don't all Protestant
denominations have missionaries? Doesn't this make them all, by definition,
"evangelical"?)

In short, it seems to me that "evangelical" has to be, in at least some
sense, synonymous with "Protestant." And - whether it is or not - it seems to me
that you (and the lefties you're apparently agreeing with on this topic) have
got a definite case of religious bigotry brewing in your thought processes.
(...)

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READING SAUCE

   Ancestry.com has some early years of the TIMES OF LONDON, but no
"vegetarian."  I told you an earlier "Reading Sauce" was waiting here.


   16 August 1816, TIMES OF LONDON, pg. 4, col. 2:
READING SAUCE.--J. COCKS, the inventor and prroprietor of this much esteemed
article, begs most respectfully to caution the nobility, gentry, and the
public, against the daily frauds and impositions practised by many London oilmen
and fish sauce vendors, to deceive and deprive them of the genuine Reading
Sauce.  None are genuine but those which have the corks sealed with the impression,
"J. Cocks, Reading;" and also the following description of the sauce on an
orange-coloured label, "READING SAUCE, for fish, enriching gravies, &c. prepared
and sold wholesale and retail by J. Cocks, Reading."  This sauce is generally
used at table with all sorts of fish, in preference to all other fish sauces,
and is esteemed peculiarly delicious with game, wild fowl, hashes,
rump-steaks, and cold meat.  A caution on white paper, on the other side of the bottle,
records two verdicts (in less tghan twelve months) against two London oilmen,
for selling a spurious sauce, as and for the genuine Reading Sauce, prepared
by J. Cocks: one, 40l. damages, with full costs, before the Lord Chief Baron
and Special furies, in the Guildhall, London.  It is presumed that no sauce ever
met with such general approbation and extensive sale: it is patronized and
recommended by most of the first families in the kingdon.  It is retailed in
London by 150 of the most respectable oilmen and fish sauce venders; in Bath by
30; and by ine or more in most cities and market-towns in the united kingdom.
Most of the country venders sell Cocks's Genuine and Superior Essense of
Anchovies, made with prime Gorgona fish, rich as possible; the trial of a 2s.
bottle will ensure it the preference.  J. Cocks begs particularly to caution
families against Messrs. Mackay and Co. oilmen, Piccadilly; Mr. Purkis, oilman, 10,
Chancery-lane; and Messrs. Barto Valle's, 21, Haymarket, as he does not supply
either of these houses with his genuine Reading Sauce.


   "Reading Sauce" was discussed in June on rec.food historic.  OED's
citation of an 1861 MRS. BEETON was supplied as the earliest:


Message 1 in thread
From: <A HREF="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=author:v.nystrom-marshall%40ntlworld.com+">v.nystrom-marshall</A> (<A HREF="mailto:v.nystrom-marshall%40ntlworld.com">v.nystrom-marshall at ntlworld.com</A>)
Subject: Reading Sauce
Newsgroups: <A HREF="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=rec.food.historic">rec.food.historic</A>
Date: 2003-06-04 03:59:43 PST

Within Jules Vernes, 'Around the World in 80 Days' Phileas Fogg mentions that
he had Reading Sauce, with fish I think, and I have since been in search of
the recipe. Although there are numerous commentaries on Oxford sauces, I cannot
find one that is exclusive to Reading. Any help in tracking down this
mysterious recipe would be very much appreciated.
Vicky
Victoria A. Nystrom-Marshall