FoodNet

Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

1898

Page 111

Presented as published in 1898. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Take a brace of partridges properly trussed. Cut into dice 1 inch thick a little less than ^ Ib. of bacon, put them into the stew-pan ; cut 2 large onions in quarters, take 6 whole black peppers, a little salt, 1 bay-leaf, a \ gill of vinegar, 1 gill of port wine, 1 gill of water, 1 table - spoonful of salad oil. Put all these ingredients into the stew-pan with half a sheet of kitchen paper; stew on a slow fire for 2 hours. Then take out the partridges and dish them, and put round some of the quarters of onions which have been stewed, pass the gravy through a sieve, and send to table. Just now the greengrocers' shops in town and country are full of very cheap large melons brought from abroad. I find they make a very good compote if the hard outside is taken off and the pulp cut into pieces the size of a plum. Make a syrup of sugar flavoured with the melon-peel, spice, bay-leaf, and a little powdered ginger ; boil this up, and pour it over the pieces of melon. OCTOBER 187 Turnips are often strong and hard with us. This year they are delicious, and we have had a very pretty dish — much appreciated — of small round Turnips boiled tender, and served with a white sauce made of milk boiled till it thickens, into which has been stirred a little butter and cream. Carrots, too, are delicious done in this way with the addition of a little parsley and sugar. The following is a good cake : — The weight in flour of four eggs ; beat to a cream, butter, sugar, rind of lemon grated, a few Sultanas, and citron ; then add the yelk of each egg, one by one ; then add the flour, and beat the white of the eggs to a froth just before putting it into the oven. Bake for half an hour in a flat tin dish. October ISth. — I have at last succeeded in flowering the Schizostylis coccinea. I am relieved to see that in the new edition of the ' English Flower Garden ' this is pronounced a great difficulty in a light dry soil. It is probably owing to the very wet autumn we have had that these little Cape bulbs have done so well. They were planted in fairly good garden soil, under the pro- tection and shade of a wall facing east ; so they did not get much sun except early in the year, when at rest ; and when they began to grow, they were watered till the rain came. When the flower-spikes began to colour and nearly open, as the nights were very cold, I cut them and put them in water in a warm room, and they bloomed quite well. Two or three sticks as a support, and mats or newspaper thrown over them, help these late-flowering plants in prematurely cold weather, which often lasts only a day or two. October 2&th. — This is about the time we replant the Violas and Saxifrages in the sunny beds, taking them out of the shady border in the reserve garden. London Pride is better taken up and divided every two years. As 1 88 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN Saxifrages do not mind the dry springs, it is well worth while to grow a quantity of London Pride, the bloom of which resembles in colour a faint pink evening cloud ; this is not only a satisfactory plant when picked, but it will travel well, and makes a lovely support for Iceland poppies and other flowers.