4 meals in this book
“Wail for the little partridges on porringer and plate; ✿ Cry for the ruin of the fries and stews well marinate: Keen as I keen for loved, lost daughters of the Katá-grouse,[239] ✿ And omelette round the fair enbrownèd fowls agglomerate: O fire in heart of me for fish, those _deux poissons_ I saw, ✿ Bedded on new made scones[240] and cakes in piles to laniate. For thee, O vermicelli! aches my very maw! I hold ✿ Without thee every taste and joy are clean annihilate. Those eggs have rolled their yellow eyes in torturing pains of fire ✿ Ere served with hash and fritters hot, that delicatest cate, Praisèd be Allah for His baked and roast and ah! how good ✿ This pulse, these pot-herbs steeped in oil with eysill combinate! When hunger sated was, I elbow-propt fell back upon ✿ Meat-pudding[241] wherein gleamed the bangles that my wits amate. Then woke I sleeping appetite to eat as though in sport ✿ Sweets from brocaded trays and kickshaws most elaborate. Be patient, soul of me! Time is a haughty, jealous wight; ✿ To-day he seems dark-lowering and to-morrow fair to sight.[242]”
Stew them between two dishes as the former, in quarter or pieces as long as your fingar, with some broth, mace, a bundle of sweet herbs, salt, and a little white wine, being well stewed down, strain the yolks of two or three hard eggs with some of the broth, and thicken the broth where the rabit stews; then have some cabbidg-lettice boil'd in fair water, and being boil'd tender, put them in beaten butter with a few boiled raisins of the sun; or in place of lettice you may use white endive: then the rabits being finely stewed, dish them upon carved sippets, and lay on the garnish of lettice, mace, raisins of the sun, grapes, slic't lemon or barberries, broth it, and scrape on sugar. Thus chickens, pigeons, or partridges.
Recipe from The accomplisht cook of 1660.
“And she kept plaining of what had befallen her and I of what had betided me; and love of her gat so firm hold of my heart that all my wealth seemed a thing of naught in comparison with her. Then we fell to toying and groping and kissing till nightfall, when the handmaidens set before us meats and a complete wine service, and we sat carousing till the noon of night; when we lay down and I lay with her, never in my life saw I a night like that night. When morning morrowed I arose and took leave of her, throwing under the carpet-bed the kerchief wherein were the dinars[538] and as I went out she wept and said, "O my lord, when shall I look upon that lovely face again?" "I will be with thee at sunset," answered I, and going out found the donkey-boy, who had brought me the day before, awaiting at the door. So I mounted ass and rode to the Khan of Masrur where I alighted and gave the man a half-dinar, saying, "Return at sunset;" and he said "I will." Then I breakfasted and went out to seek the price of my stuffs; after which I returned, and taking a roast lamb and some sweetmeats, called a porter and put the provision in his crate, and sent it to the lady paying the man his hire.[539] I went back to my business till sunset, when the ass-driver came to me; and I took fifty dinars in a kerchief and rode to her house where I found the marble floor swept, the brasses burnisht, the branch-lights burning, the wax-candles ready lighted, the meat served up and the wine strained.[540] When my lady saw me she threw her arms about my neck, and cried, "Thou hast desolated me by thine absence." Then she set the tables before me and we ate till we were satisfied, when the slave girls carried off the trays and served up wine. We gave not over drinking till half the night was past; and, being well warmed with drink, we went to the sleeping-chamber and lay there till morning. I then arose and fared forth from her leaving the fifty dinars with her as before; and, finding the donkey-boy at the door, rode to the Khan and slept awhile. After that I went out to make ready the evening meal and took a brace of geese with gravy on two platters of dressed and peppered rice, and got ready colocasia[541]-roots fried and soaked in honey, and wax-candles and fruits and conserves and nuts and almonds and sweet-scented flowers; and I sent them all to her. As soon as it was night I again tied up fifty dinars in a kerchief and, mounting the ass as usual, rode to the mansion where we ate and drank and lay together till morning when I threw the kerchief and dinars[542] to her and rode back to the Khan. I ceased not doing after that fashion till, after a sweet night, I woke one fine morning and found myself beggared, dinar-less and dirham-less. So said I to myself "All this be Satan's work;" and began to recite these couplets:—”
Order three pounds lamb from the fore-quarter, cut in pieces for serving. Wipe meat, put in kettle, cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until meat is tender. Remove from water, cool, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and sauté in butter or mutton fat. Arrange on platter, and pour around one and one-half cups Brown Sauce made from liquor in which meat was cooked after removing all fat. It is better to cook meat the day before serving, as then fat may be more easily removed.
Recipe from The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896.
“Arab. "Khubz" which I do not translate "cake" or "bread," as that would suggest the idea of our loaf. The staff of life in the East is a thin flat circle of dough baked in the oven or on the griddle, and corresponding with the Scotch "scone," the Spanish "tortilla" and the Australian "flap-jack."”
BREAD AND BREAD-MAKING. 1668. AMONG the numerous vegetable products yielding articles of food for man, the Cereals hold the first place. By means of skilful cultivation, mankind have transformed the original forms of these growths, poor and ill-flavoured as they perhaps were, into various fruitful and agreeable species, which yield an abundant and pleasant supply. Classified according to their respective richness in alimentary elements, the Cereals stand thus:--Wheat, and its varieties, Rye, Barley, Oats, Rice, Indian Corn. Everybody knows it is wheat flour which yields the best bread. Rye-bread is viscous, hard, less easily soluble by the gastric juice, and not so rich in nutritive power. Flour produced from barley, Indian corn, or rice, is not so readily made into bread; and the article, when made, is heavy and indigestible. 1669.
Recipe from The Book of Household Management of 1861.
“These lines are repeated with a difference in Night cccxxx. They affect _Rims cars_, out of the way, heavy rhymes: _e.g._ here Sakáríj (plur. of Sakrúj, platters, porringers); Tayáhíj (plur. of Tayhúj, the smaller caccabis-partridge); Tabáhíj (Persian Tabahjah, an omelet or a stew of meat, onions, eggs, etc.) Ma'áríj ("in stepped piles" like the pyramids; which Lane ii. 495, renders "on the stairs"); Makáríj (plur. of Makraj, a small pot); Damálíj (plur. of dumlúj, a bracelet, a bangle); Dayábíj (brocades) and Tafáríj (openings, enjoyments). In Night cccxxx. we find also Sikábíj (plur. of Sikbáj, marinated meat elsewhere explained); Faráríj (plur. of farrúj, a chicken, vulg. farkh) and Dakákíj (plur. of dakújah, a small jar). In the first line we have also (though not a rhyme) Gharánik Gr. Τερανὸς, a crane, preserved in Romaic. The weeping and wailing are caused by the remembrance that all these delicacies have been demolished like a Badawi camp.”
Dress, clean, and cut up a fowl. Put in a stewpan, cover with boiling water, and cook slowly until tender, adding one-half tablespoon salt and one-eighth teaspoon pepper when fowl is about half cooked. Thicken stock with one-third cup flour diluted with enough cold water to pour easily. Serve with Dumplings. If desired richer, butter may be added.
Recipe from The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896.
Sources: Every passage above is quoted verbatim from The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, tr. Burton, Richard Francis, Sir, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipes come from cookbooks of the period, also free in full. All are in the public domain in the United States. The binding is ours — teal cloth, lamp stamp.