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

ONE can lunch well on bread and cheese if the latter is combined with celery according to this rule : Boil in salted water until tender a head of celery cut into small pieces ; drain and mix with a cupful of drawn butter, two ounces of grated cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Bake in a shallow dish. Scatter grated cheese over the top, with a few bits of butter. OCTOBER lOTH "His sauce should be considered. Decidedly a few bread-crumbs, done up with his liver and brains and a dash of mild sage." — Charles Lamb (*' Essays of Elia"). ^ FROM our sauce for roast pig we will omit the brains, but will chop up the liver and add bread-crumbs together with a tablespoonful of powdered sage. Stir this into a generous quantity of melted butter, and serve in a gravy boat, with Charles Lamb's famous delicacy. OCTOBER iiTH "There, take ... ye each a shell; *Twas a fat oyster, — ^live — ^in peace — ^adieu." — Pope. AVERY nice oyster stufHng for a shoulder of mutton is described in an eighteenth century cookbook and turns out agreeable to the twentieth century taste, which is not the case with all antiquated dishes. A cupful of grated bread-crumbs, a piece of butter (suet in the old recipe), yolks of two hard-boiled eggs, a bit of onion, salt, pepper, thyme, and winter savory for seasoning, twdve oysters. Mix all the ingredients and bind together with the yolk of a raw egg. OCTOBER I2TH "The two doctors were for keeping him on gnxd, lemonade, barley-water and so on." — ^Wilkdc Collins ("The Moonstone"). FOR a barley-water that is agreeable as well as wholesome, boil two pounds of lean veal in one quart of water ; add to it a quarter of a pound of pearl barley and boil until it can be rubbed through a sieve ; add salt. OCTOBER 13TH "And luscious scallops to allure the taste Of rigid zealots to delicious fasts. "^]r ay. SCALLOPS, like oysters, are handsomest when large and most delectable when small. To eat them at their best, dip them in a batter made of a pint of flour, two eggs beaten light, and half a pint of milk, with a teaspoonful of salt for seasoning. Drop spoonfuls of the scallops and batter into boiling fat. The batter makes a shell about them in which they are practically steamed, and this shell may easily be discarded by those averse to fried food. The scallop itself thus cooked is not difficult of digestion. OCTOBER 14TH "Moore had risen before the sun and had taken a ride to Whinbury and back ere his sister had made the café au lait or cut the tartines for his breakfast." — Chablotte Bronte ("Shirley"). THE tartines of America to-day, if not of Charlotte Bronte's England, are prepared in many ways, one of the best and simplest being to spread thin slices of Boston brown bread first with butter and then with cream, or pot cheese. Sprinkle thickly with sweet green peppers chopped fine and moistened with a few drops of lemon juice. Cut the slices in halves and press the two halves together. z8i OCTOBER 15TH "A man may feel thankful, heartily thankful, oyer a dish of plain mutton with turnips . . . when he shall confess a perturbation of mind inconsistent with the purposes of the grace, at the presence of venison or turtle." — Charles Lamb. AS an accompaniment for mutton a puree of turnips is sometimes welcome. Cook until tender pared and sliced turnips in salted boiling water. Press through a colander; add a tablespoonful of butter rubbed in one of flour ; pepper and salt, and a half cupful of cream heated with a tiny bit of soda. When it has all boiled up once, take from the fire and stir in a beaten egg- Do not let it boil again, but set the saucepan in boiling water for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. OCTOBER i6th "Have a munch of grouse and a hunk of bread." — ^Robert Browiong ("Donald").