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

Kalevala : the Epic Poem of Finland — Complete

by Unknown

KALEVALA : THE EPIC POEM OUNKNOWN
Our binding, not the publisher's

““Now I praise the genial hostess, Who prepares the toothsome dinner, Fills with plenty all her tables, Bakes the honeyed loaves of barley, Kneads the dough with magic fingers, With her arms of strength and beauty, Bakes her bread in copper ovens, Feeds her guests and bids them welcome, Feeds them on the toothsome bacon, On the trout, and pike, and whiting, On the rarest fish in ocean, On the dainties of Wainola.”

From a cookbook of 1893

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

1893  ·  Parloa
Rolls from Bread Dough

It is almost impossible to shape and raise rolls for an early breakfast, but if one have a cold room or a refrigerator the rolls can be put in the pan the night before, and they will then be ready to bake for breakfast. Reserve about a pint and a half of the risen bread dough and work into it a tablespoonful of butter or lard. Put the dough in a bowl; cover it with a plate and place the bowl in the refrigerator or in a cold room. In the evening shape the dough into rolls and rub a little soft butter over them. Cover the pan closely, but leave ample room for the rolls to rise; then put in the refrigerator or cold room. Bake in the morning in a moderately hot oven for half an hour.

Sources: The passage is from Unknown, Kalevala : the Epic Poem of Finland — Complete, tr. Crawford, John Martin, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Parloa, Miss Parloa's Young Housekeeper of 1893, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — burgundy cloth, boar stamp.

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