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

The Iliad

by Homer

THE ILIADHOMER
Our binding, not the publisher's

“The hero said. His friend obey’d with haste, Through intermingled ships and tents he pass’d; The chiefs descending from their car he found: The panting steeds Eurymedon unbound. The warriors standing on the breezy shore, To dry their sweat, and wash away the gore, Here paused a moment, while the gentle gale Convey’d that freshness the cool seas exhale; Then to consult on farther methods went, And took their seats beneath the shady tent. The draught prescribed, fair Hecamede prepares, Arsinous’ daughter, graced with golden hairs: (Whom to his aged arms, a royal slave, Greece, as the prize of Nestor’s wisdom gave:) A table first with azure feet she placed; Whose ample orb a brazen charger graced; Honey new-press’d, the sacred flour of wheat, And wholesome garlic, crown’d the savoury treat, Next her white hand an antique goblet brings, A goblet sacred to the Pylian kings From eldest times: emboss’d with studs of gold, Two feet support it, and four handles hold; On each bright handle, bending o’er the brink, In sculptured gold, two turtles seem to drink: A massy weight, yet heaved with ease by him, When the brisk nectar overlook’d the brim. Temper’d in this, the nymph of form divine Pours a large portion of the Pramnian wine; With goat’s-milk cheese a flavourous taste bestows, And last with flour the smiling surface strows: This for the wounded prince the dame prepares: The cordial beverage reverend Nestor shares: Salubrious draughts the warriors’ thirst allay, And pleasing conference beguiles the day.”

From a cookbook of 1896

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

1896  ·  Farmer
=Entire wheat flour= differs from ordinary flour inasmuch as it contains

all the gluten found in wheat, the outer husk of kernels only being removed, the remainder ground to different degrees of fineness and left unbolted. Such flours are sold by the different health food companies, who have agencies in the large cities. Franklin Mills, Old Grist Mill, and Health Food flours are included in this class. =Gluten=, the proteid of wheat, is a gray, tough, elastic substance, insoluble in water. On account of its great power of expansion, it holds the gas developed in bread dough by fermentation, which otherwise would escape.

Sources: The passage is from Homer, The Iliad, tr. Pope, Alexander, 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 — navy cloth, ship stamp.

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