Literary Feast  ·  Read the passage. Cook the meal.
A bill of fare

David Copperfield

by Charles Dickens

DAVID COPPERFIELDCHARLES DICKENS
Our binding, not the publisher's

“I did not like to leave him, under such circumstances, and we all three dined together off a beefsteak pie--which was one of the many good things for which Peggotty was famous--and which was curiously flavoured on this occasion, I recollect well, by a miscellaneous taste of tea, coffee, butter, bacon, cheese, new loaves, firewood, candles, and walnut ketchup, continually ascending from the shop. After dinner we sat for an hour or so near the window, without talking much; and then Mr. Peggotty got up, and brought his oilskin bag and his stout stick, and laid them on the table.”

From a cookbook of 1852

A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.

1852  ·  Francatelli
TEAS AND COFFEES IN ENGLAND

* * * * * GOOD STRONG USEFUL CONGOU, 2s. 6d., 2s. 8d., 2s. 10d., 3s., and 3s. 4d. PURE COFFEES, 1s., 1s. 2d., 1s. 4d., 1s. 6d. _A PRICE-CURRENT FREE._ Pure Preserving and other Sugars at Market Prices. * * * * * ALL GOODS SENT CARRIAGE FREE WITHIN EIGHT MILES OF LONDON. Teas and Coffees _Carriage Free_ to all England, if to value of 40s. * * * * * PHILLIPS AND COMPANY, TEA MERCHANTS, KING WILLIAM STREET, CITY, LONDON, E.C.

Sources: The passage is from Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Francatelli, A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes of 1852, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — navy cloth, pudding stamp.

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