Books and My Food: With Literary Quotations and Original Recipes for Every ..

"Jars of pickles and preserves, and cheeses and boiled hamsi and rounds of beef, arranged on the shelves in the most tempting and delicious array." — Charles Dickens ("Pickwick Papers"). FILL glass jars with large cherries, stemmed but not stoned. Boil together for ten minutes a pint of vinegar, four tablespoonfuls of white sugar, twelve whole cloves, twelve whole allspice, six blades of mace and some stick cinnamon. Allow the vinegar to cool, strain and pour over the cherries, sealing the jars. This will be about the right quantity of vinegar for two quarts of cherries. JULY 7TH • "After this a stewed pigeon, faced by greengage tart, and some yellow cream twenty-four hours old; item, an iced pudding." — Charles Reade ("It Is Never Too Late To Mend"). WHIP a pint and a half of rich cream, sweeten with half a cupful of powdered sugar and add half a pint of crushed ripe raspberries. Beat well, put into a mould and pack with ice and rock salt, and allow to stand for three hours. JULY 8th ''One of those young women who ahnost invariably, though one hardly knows why, recall to one's mind the idea of a cold fillet of veal." — Charles Dickens ("Sketches by Boz")- ONE of the best ways to remove the objectionable features from cold veal is to slice it as thin as possible with a sharp knife; marinade with a dressing of two tablespoonfuls each of oil and vinegar, a saltspoonful of salt and half as much pepper. Let it stand in the dressing two hours, then pile lightly on lettuce leaves, cover with mayonnaise and garnish with hard boiled eggs cut in lengthwise quarters. JULY 9TH "Bless my soul! our words used to come out like brandy-cherries; but now a sentence is like raspberry jam, on the stage and off." — Charles Reade ("Peg Woffington"). TO brandy cherries pack glass jars with the fruit (white cherries are best for this purpose) ; to each jar allow four heaping tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, putting a layer of cherries, then sugar, and so on till the jars are full. Then pour in brandy till no more can be put in. Fasten down the tops, put the jars in a dark place, and after a few weeks the cherries will be ready to use. JULY lOTH ''I was just in the act of despatching the last morsel of Uie most savoury stewed lamb and rice, which had formed my meal." — ^Thackeray ("The Tremendous Adventures of Major Gahagan"). CUT a pound of meat from the breast of lamb. Put into a fryingpan with an onion which has been minced and fried brown in hot butter. Cook for a few moments over a hot fire until the meat has browned slightly. Then add a teaspoonful of paprika and a tablespoonful of flour and cook five minutes longer before adding two cupfuls of hot lamb broth. Season with salt to taste and the juice of one lemon and stew very slowly until the lamb is tender. Serve with boiled rice. ^ I JULY iiTH "The soup was a sort of purée of dried peas, which Mademoiselle had prepared amidst bitter lamentations that in this desolate country of England no haricot beans were to be had." — Charlotte Bronte ("Shirley"). THE beans of Mademoiselle's lamentation were not the "haricot vert" of which modern visitors to Paris hear and see so much, but lima, or, possibly, kidney beans. The simplest way has never been improved upon, and they are best cooked in boiling water for about half an hour, then drained dry, put in the serving dish, which should be hot, seasoned with salt and pepper, and a spoonful of butter stirred quickly through them. JULY I2TH * "They were such trouts as, when once tasted, remain forever in the recollection of the commonly grateful mind— rich, flaky, or creamy, full of flavour.** —Thackeray ("The Irish Sketch-Book").