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

CUT off the breast from half a dozen snipe. Put in a frying pan a tablespoonful of butter, rub into it a teaspoonful of flour till brown and smooth. Add two cloves, a peppercorn, a sprig of parsley, a gill of water, a gill of claret, and a tablespoonful of chopped mushrooms. Cover the pan and simmer for two minutes after adding the breasts of the snipe. Spread thin slices of toast with currant jelly, and on these serve the snipe, pouring the gravy over them. NOVEMBER 6TH "Those unctuous morsels of deer's flesh were not made to be received with dispassionate services. I hate a man who swallows it, affecting not to know what he is eating." — Charles Laiib. A VENISON ragout may be made as unctuous as one pleases from pieces cut small. Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying pan and toss the meat about for two minutes till lightly browned. Add a tablespoonful of flour, then a pint of brown stock. Simmer for half an hour, then add a cupful of mushrooms, a tablespoonful of currant jelly, and a little salt. Pepper and onion juice, which are usually advised, are best omitted. Mushrooms combine particularly well with the venison flavor. Cut the meat into a frying pan and toss it about fo utes. Add a tablespoonful of flour, then a pint of brown stock, half a cupful of mushrooms, a tablespoonful of currant jelly, and a little salt. Pepper and onion juice, which are usually advised, are best omitted. Mushrooms combine particularly well with the venison flavor. NOVEMBER 7TH NOVEMBER 8th [illustration: Soupe à la bonne femme with a perdrix aux choux to follow, and pancakes and fromage de Brie, and to drink a bottle of Romans Conti,] — George DU Maxtkier ("Peter Ibbetson"). TO make the French pancakes referred to above, beat whites and yolks of three eggs separately, and to the yolks add a cup of milk, half a teaspoonful of salt and a teaspoonful of sugar. Pour one-third of this mixture on half a cupful of flour and beat till smooth; add the remainder of the milk, beat well, and put in a dessertspoonful of salad oil and the whites of the eggs. Heat and butter a small frying pan, cover with a thin layer of the batter; brown and turn. When a light brown on each side, spread quickly with butter and a tart jelly, roll and sprinkle with powdered sugar in which has been stirred a little ground cinnamon. NOVEMBER 9TH "Don't get any dainties for me, my dear; bread and cheese is the chief of my diet.'' — Mrs. Gaskell ("Wives and Daughters"). BREAD and cheese combined make an excellent luncheon or supper dish known as baked Welsh rabbit. Have ready a cupful and a half of bread crumbs free from crusts and a cupful of grated rich cheese, about a cupful of milk and two tablespoonfuls of butter. Put in a baking-dish a layer of bread-crumbs, strew with bits of butter, a little salt, a dust of paprika, then a layer of cheese. Repeat till the dish is full ; then pour on enough milk to moisten well, but not soak, the bread-crumbs. Sprinkle dry crumbs on top with plenty of bits of butter. Bake in a quick oven. NOVEMBER 10TH "Look at mel I make my own bread, and there's no difference between one batch and another from year's end to year's end; but if I'd got any other woman besides Vixen in the house, I must pray to the Lord every baking to give me patience if the bread turned out heavy." — George Eliot ("Adam Bede"). A CAREFUL rule for home-made bread is this : Late in the evening place in bread-pan three quarts of sifted flour and a teaspoonful of salt. Soak half a cake of compressed yeast in a cupful of lukewarm water; add two quarts of water of the same temperature and mix well into the flour. Cover the pan with a clean cloth, and the bread board, and set it to rise where the temperature is 70 or 75 degrees. In the morning add flour enough to make a fairly stiff dough. Knead half an hour, then set it by the fire for five hours. Separate into loaves. Knead them ten minutes and set to rise again. When light, bake in a quick oven. NOVEMBER 11TH '"Take a dejeuner of muscatel and eggs." — Ben Jonson ("The New Inn").