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

CUT the meat from the breast of a plump grouse; break up the carcass into small pieces, put into a saucepan with two tablespoonfuls of chopped bacon, a chopped onion, four whole cloves, a little mace and a small bay leaf, a little parsley and a stalk of celery, a peppercorn and one minced carrot. Add three cups of stock and simmer for two hours. Strain and skim off the fat. Cook the pieces of breast in butter or olive-oil, to a light brown on each side; add the sauce, a little salt, and a gill of claret, and simmer for five minutes- OCTOBER 17TH "A most sharp sauce — and is it not well served into a sweet goose?" — Shakespeare (''Romeo and Juliet"). A SAUCE sharp enough for a sweet goose or any other amiable fowl is made with one cupful of brown stock, two tablespoonfuls of butter, one tablespoonful of flour, two tablespoonfuls of chopped capers, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, one tablespoonful of chopped chives, one teaspoonful of sugar, one-half teaspoonful of salt, a little cayenne pepper. Brown the butter, rub the flour into it, then add the stock and the other ingredients; cook for ten minutes, stirring constantly. OCTOBER i8th "I eat a palatable fig." — ^Robert Browning ("Ferishtah's Fancies"). SOAK dried pulled figs in cold water for some hours, then stew them until they swell. Lift them carefully on to the dish in which they are to be served ; let them cool and arrange around them whipped cream, flavored with sherry, maraschino, or essence of almond and slightly sweetened with powdered sugar. OCTOBER 19TH *' Pudding our parson eats, the squire loves hare. But white-pot thick is my Buxoma's fare." —Gay. WHITE bean soup, or " whitepot," as it used to be called, is both nourishing and delicious made as follows: Soak one cupful of white beans over night in plenty of water. In the morning put them in a soup pot with three quarts of cold water. Cook for five hours. Strain through a sieve, rubbing the beans through as thoroughly as possible; add salt, white pepper, a large tablespoonful of butter, and a cup of cream; also a teaspoonful of celery salt. Cook twenty minutes. Serve with croutons of bread. OCTOBER 20TH "Tidbury drank water with his meals, if meals those miserable scraps of bread and cheese, or bread and sausage, could be called, which he lined his lean stomach with." — ^Thackeray. CHOP a pound and a half of pork and the same of veal, cleared of skin and sinews, and three-quarters of a pound of beef suet ; mince and mix them; steep the crumb of a penny loaf in water and mix it with the meat. Season with dried sage, salt, and pepper. This is an old English recipe. OCTOBER 2IST ''I can teach sugar to slip down your throat in a million ways." — Dekker and Ford. ADD to the white of an egg an equal quantity of very strong black coffee, then stir in as much confectioner's sugar as you can and keep the mixture soft enough to mould. When it is a smooth paste, roll small pieces between the palms, making little balls; press between halves of English walnuts, removed from the shells without breaking. i8S OCTOBER 22D "I will make an end of my dinner. There's pippins and cheese to come." — Shakespeare ("Merry Wives of Windsor"). A FINE hot dessert for a cool day is made by enclosing each tart pippin in a crust of puff paste, baking in a slow oven, and sprinkling with sugar ten or fifteen minutes before taking them out. Serve a sauce of thick cream, sugar, and nutmeg to pour over them, and have a cream cheese to eat with them. OCTOBER 23D "Hovering mute and inaccessible on the outskirts of Aesthetic tea."— Carlyle ("Sartor Resartus").