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

"Enter a boiled turkey poult, with delicate white sauce." — Charles Reade ("It Is Never Too Late To Mend"). AVERY delicate white sauce to serve with young turkey is eggcream sauce, and is made by putting into a sauce-pan a large tablespoonful of butter and a heaping tablespoonful of flour, adding the flour a little at a time as the butter melts. As soon as butter and flour bubble, pour in two cups of cream and season with salt and green sweet peppers, chopped fine. Boil for a couple of minutes. Keep hot over boiling water; when ready to serve, put in three hard-boiled eggs, cut in small pieces. OCTOBER 4TH ''Fanny must run down to Briarfield and buy some muffins and crumpets." — Charlotte Brontë ("Shirley"). CRUMPETS are not fashionable with the ordinary American baker, but they repay the trouble of making them at home. Put in a large bowl five cupfuls of sifted flour, a tablespoonful of sugar and a teaspoonful of salt Dissolve a quarter of a yeast-cake in a little luke-warm water, then add it to two cupfuls of warm water, pour on the flour and beat into a smooth batter Cover and let stand over night. In the morning beat into the sponge three tablespoonfuls of melted butter. Let the mixture rise half an hour longer in a warm place, and bake in mufiin-rings on a griddle. OCTOBER 5TH "The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.'' — Pope. ONE can easily be learned enough to roast, or at least bake, an egg, and for this purpose come very convenient egg-bakers, of different sizes to suit the number of eggs. Butter the dish, allowing a tablespoonful of butter for four eggs; break the eggs carefully into the dish; set in rather cool oven until the white becomes set, but not hard. Season with salt, pepper, a little chopped parsley, and a few drops of onion juice, or, if there is a bit of cold ham in the house, a teaspoonful of that, chopped fine, on the top of each egg will vary the flavor. OCTOBER 6th ''Let onion atoms lurk within the bowl And, half suspected, animate the whole." — Sidney Smith. TO any of the green salads, where the ordinary French dressing is used, an agreeable variety is imparted by rubbing the salad-bowl with a piece of raw onion, or, if part of the company only like this addition, it is easy to regulate the matter by rubbing with onion the plates on which the salad is to be served. OCTOBER 7TH "Darling, hasten and prepare this turtle, it will be an addition to our meagre ordinary." — Robert Louis Stevenson ("The Treasure of Franchard"). THE meat of a calf's head makes very good imitation turtle in place of the terrapin that is very expensive in our Northern markets. Boil the head until the meat drops from the bones ; when cold cut the meat into small dice and put into a saucepan with an onion and some ham, also cut in dice; season with thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper, and a wine-glass of Madeira or of good brandy; add a cup of Espagnole sauce or consomme, set on a good fire, and boil half an hour. Ten minutes before taking from the fire add two hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine, and the yellow rind of a lemon, also chopped. OCTOBER 8th ''Venison, game, pickles and provocatives in tbe centre of the table."— Charles Reade ("Peg Woffington")* NO daintier "provocative" for an autumn dinner can be found than nasturtium sandwiches. Chop the seed-pods of the nasturtium vine, after having poured boiling vinegar on them and allowing them to cool in it. Mix with mayonnaise dressing and spread between thin slices of white bread. Garnish with nasturtium flowers, which also are good to eat, but too lovely for the sacrifice. OCTOBER 9TH "I can pay for my bread and cheese, and my nice little lodging, and my two coats a year." — ^Wilkie COLUNS ("The Moonstone").