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

A SOUP that is judged on its merits as to nourishing and appetizing qualities, and not on its appearance, is a plain vegetable soup, whose base is a good stock made the day before it is needed of odds and ends of cooked and uncooked meats, allowing a quart of water to each pound of meat and bone. Cook slowly till the liquid is reduced about one-half ; set away to cool, and when quite cold remove the fat which will have risen to the top in a cake. Two hours before the soup is needed put the stock on where it will heat slowly and add to it a carrot chopped fine, two or three onions, tomatoes, celery stocks or roots, green peas, or any .convenient vegetable, with half a cup of well-washed rice. Season rather highly, and do not strain out the vegetables. DECEMBER 2D ** 'Capital,' said he. His mouth was full of it; his face quite red with the delightful exercise of gobbling. 'Mother, it's as good as my own curries in India.* ''—Thackeray ("Vanity Fair"). PUT into a pan an ounce of butter, stir over the fire until it melts, add a teaspoonful of minced white onion; when brown add a heaping teaspoonful of curry powder, the meat from the tails of two boiled lobsters, the juice of half a lemon, a teaspoonful of browned flour, and a pint of clear soup stock or hot water; simmer until it thickens; add a saltspoonful of salt, and serve. This is a mild curry. DECEMBER 3RD "A pasty costly made Where quail and pigeon, lark and leveret lay. Like fossils of the rock, with golden yolks Imbeddied and injellied." — ^Tennyson ("Audley Court"). Draw the quails and wipe them outside and in with a damp cloth. Put a raw oyster or two in each quail. Fasten slices of bacon, cut very thin, over the breast ; put them in a pan with a little hot water, cover closely, and cook twenty to twenty-five minutes, ac- cording to the size, in a rather hot oven. Baste occasionally, and at the last uncover for five minutes. Season with butter, salt, and pepper, and serve on squares of buttered toast moistened with gravy from the pan. DECEMBER 4TH "I'll make her a pudding, and a pudding shell like, too. . . . Many a one has been comforted in their sorrow by seeing a good dish come upon the table."— Mrs. Gaskell ("Cranford"). A REASONABLY comforting pudding for a winter day, which requires, however, an appetite somewhat sturdier than is expected of the sorrowful, is made by pouring over half a pint of fine bread-crumbs half a pint of scalding milk, adding, after an hour, four beaten eggs, a teaspoonful of flour, an ounce of butter, two ounces of sugar, half a pound of currants, an ounce of powdered almonds, half an ounce of shredded citron, the same of lemon peel, and a quarter of a teacupful of French brandy. Mix and tie tightly in a floured cloth and place in a buttered puddingdish, that should be of a size precisely to fit it. Boil an hour. Serve with a hard sauce. DECEMBER 5TH *' Clouted cream so seldom comes to London quite fresh." — Charles Reade ("Peg WoflBngton"). EVERY housekeeper may have Devonshire cream on her own table if she will take the trouble to prepare it. Rich new milk is put in a very shallow vessel, which is set on the range, where the milk will be warmed, but on no account must it boil or even scald. The cream will rise to the surface in a short time, and the pan is then taken off and placed in the ice-box. When thoroughly chilled the cream may be skimmed, and it will be found very thick. Put it in a jar and use for cereals, berries, everything that ordinary cream is used for, its merit being that it is the richest of cream and also that it will keep for several days. DECEMBER 6th ''He managed a couple of plates full of strawberries and cream, and twenty-four little rout cakes that were lying neglected in a plate near him." — Thackeray ("Vanity Fan:").