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

DIP thin slices of bacon in icewater, then put in a hot pan; when it begins to curl add two or three slices of onion and cook two or three minutes longer, being careful that the bacon does not get too hard. Take out the bacon and keep hot; remove the onion from the pan and lay in the slices of liver which have been seasoned with salt and pepper and dredged with flour; cook rather slowly till brown and tender. Too rapid cooking dries and hardens it. Lay the liver on a dish with the bacon, stir into the gravy a tablespoonful of butter rubbed to as much brown flour; season with tomato catsup or stewed tomatoes. Pour over the liver. JANUARY 20TH "It was he who proposed the bowl of punch, which was brewed and drunk in Mrs. Betty's room, and which Gumbo concocted with exquisite skill. — — Thackeray ("The Virginians"). » FOR rum punch take two large fresh lemons with rough skins and some lumps of sugar. Rub the sugar over the lemons until it has absorbed all the yellow part of the skins. Then put into the bowl these lumps and as many more as the lemons will probably require. Squeeze the lemon- juice on the sugar, and blend sugar and juice thoroughly together. Much of the excellence of the punch depends upon the mixing processes being well performed. Add two quarts of boiling water and Stir until almost cool. Then add from one pint to one quart of rum as the punch is desired weak or strong. Mix again very thoroughly. JANUARY 2IST ''Bless the girls t a nice fresh steak was frizzling on the gridiron for our supper." — — Thackeray ("The Fatal Boots"). USE a hip-bone steak. Have the bone cut entirely out, and the steak pressed together to form a round slice. It should be at least two inches thick. Cook over a clear fire seven minutes to a side. This will give a very rare steak. When done place on a hot platter and cut three or four deep gashes in one side. Fill the gashes with a dressing made of four teaspoonfuls of French mustard, two or three drops of tabasco sauce, a small teaspoonful of salt, and butter the size of an egg. Do this quickly that the steak may not have time to cool, and send to the table at once. IS JANUARY 22D « Leek to the Welsh, to Dutchmen butter's dear. Of Irish swains potato is the cheer.*' —Gay ("Poem"). NO "Irish swain," but a clever Frenchman invented the potato souffle. To a well-beaten cupful of mashed potato add the yolks of three eggs, thoroughly beaten; season with salt and pepper and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Whip in slowly a cup of milk, or half milk and half cream, and finally the frothed whites of the eggs. Put into a baking-dish and cover till it rises well, then remove the cover and brown. Serve at once or it will fall. JANUARY 23D ''Take the nuts from the fire with the dog's foot" — — Taylor. TO blanch and salt almonds put them into boiling water and let them stand five minutes; then throw them into cold water and rub off the loosened skin. Put in a bowl, allowing to each cupful of nuts a tablespoonful of olive-oil or melted butter. Stir the almonds that they may be well coated ; let them stand for an hour, then sprinkle with salt, a dessertspoonful for each cupful of the nuts; spread on a baking-pan and put into a moderately hot oven. Let them cook for about fifteen minutes, stirring several times that they may brown evenly. Take them out when they are a delicate brown. JANUARY 24TH "I never was much of an oyster eater, nor can I relish them in naturalibus as some do, but require a quantity of sauces, lemons, cayenne peppers, bread and butter, and so forth, to render them palatable. "—— Thackeray ("The Fitzboodle Papers").