“The supper was in keeping with all the rest. There were solids in the way of cold meats served up in various fashions, there were wines of all kinds, and lighter refreshments of cake, floating islands, jellies, whipped sillabubs, curds and cream, and all the delicacies in vogue. There were healths drunk, toasts and witty replies, and, after a complimentary mention of the hostess, someone asked whether that pestilent old Quaker Samuel Wetherill was any relative, expressing ironical regret that he was not present.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
2 cups scalded milk ½ cup farina (scant) ¼ cup sugar ½ teaspoon salt 1 egg Mix farina, sugar, and salt, add to milk, and cook in double boiler twenty minutes, stirring constantly until mixture has thickened. Add egg slightly beaten, pour into a buttered shallow pan, and brush over with one egg slightly beaten and diluted with one tablespoon milk. Brown in a moderate oven. Cut in squares, and serve with a cube of jelly on each square.
Sources: The passage is from Amanda M. Douglas, A Little Girl in Old Philadelphia, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Farmer, The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — burgundy cloth, cheese stamp.