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

blespoonful of butter which ba3 bem melted and blended with one of flour; when it has all simmered ten minutes season with salt and pepper and serve. To many tastes this soup is greatly im- proved by adding to the water a ham- bone. DECEMBER 2Ist ''Mushrooms, thought I, are better than these tasteless truffles, and so ordered a dish to try. You know what a Provencal sauce is?" — ^Thackeray (''Memorials of Gormandising "). MOST American cooks do not know what a Provencal sauce is. Wash, peel, stem, and fry half a potmd of fresh mushrooms. Remove from the pan. Put two or three raw mushrooms chopped fine, a clove of gar- lic, two chopped shallots, and two table- spoonfuls of olive-oil in the frying-pan, stir in while cooking a teaspoonful of flour, add half a pint of white wine and as much stock, two sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, half a bay leaf, salt and pepper, simmer about half an hour, strain, and pour over the fried mush- rooms. If garlic is objected to, onion can be substituted, but garlic carefully used has the more delicate flavor of the two, and one that is slowly gaining favor in America. 224 DECEMBER 22d ''Certainly Savarin could not have lived in a country farm upon endives and mallows.'' — Bitlwer ("Parisians"). A MODERN confection in high favor among school girls and oth- ers is marshmallow penoche; to make it boil together two cupfuls of brown and one of white sugar, one cup- ful of milk, and butter the size of an egg ; flavor with vanilla. Stir while cooking, which will take about twenty minutes; try by putting a little in water and if it balls readily it will be cooked enough, and vou must then add a dozen soft marshmallow candies and beat thor- oughly. Just before pouring into but- tered plates, stir in a cupful of walnuts. DECEMBER 230 "At breakfast time when clippers yearly met, Fill'd full of furmety, where dainty swum The streaking sugar and the spotting plum." — John Clare. FURMETY was of old favored in having two days when it was especially appropriate to serve it — " Mothering-day " and Christmas — and for the tray of the invalid unable to eat 225 the traditional plum pudding it was a not unacceptable substitute. To two cupfuls of milk add four cup- fuls of water and bring to the boiling point; add a level teaspoonful of salt and half a cupful of " pearl " or whole wheat. Stir constantly until it boils, then place in the upper part of a double boiler, the lower part of which is filled with boiling water, and cook for three hours. Serve with sugar, cinnamon, cream, and stewed prunes. DECEMBER 24TH "I went and got the best goose I could find (I don't think I ever saw a primer or ate more hearty myself), and had it roasted at three." — ^Thackesay ("Dogs Have Their Day")- A GOOSE should be roasted longer and basted oftener than other poultry. Twenty-five minutes to the pound is none too long. For the stuffing mix bread crumbs and pulverized chestnuts, seasoned with salt and pepper. A green goose is one under four months old, and these are decidedly preferable to the older fowls. Gooseberry sauce is an appropriate accompaniment. Apple sauce is also orthodox. 226 DECEMBER 25TH "In lialf a minute Mis. Cratchit entered — flushed but smiling proudly — with the pudding, like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and be- dight with Chnstmas holly stuck into the top." — Charles Dickens ("The Christmas Carol").