“_Maitreya._ [_Enters and looks about._] Well! Here in the fifth court the overpowering smell of asafetida and oil is attractive enough to make a poor devil's mouth water. The kitchen is kept hot all the time, and the gusts of steam, laden with all sorts of good smells, seem like sighs issuing from its mouth-like doors. The smell of the preparation of all kinds of foods and sauces makes me smack my lips. And here, again, is a butcher's boy washing a mess of chitterlings as if it were an old loin-cloth. The cook is preparing every kind of food. Sweetmeats are being constructed, cakes are being baked. [_To himself._] I wonder if I am to get a chance to wash my feet and an invitation to eat what I can hold. [_He looks in another direction._] There are courtezans and bastard pages, adorned with any number of jewels, just like Gandharvas[55] and Apsarases.[56] Really, this house is heaven. Tell me, who are you bastards anyway?”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
yolks of two hard boiled eggs, a saltspoonful of herbs, a tablespoonful of vinegar, and enough oil to thicken it, about one gill. 139. =Ravigote Sauce.=--Clean and chop a few salad herbs, put one teaspoonful of each into a small pan with a tablespoonful of meat jelly or thick stock, and a little pepper and salt; stir till the jelly is hot, and then add one tablespoonful of vinegar, and two of good oil; when thoroughly mixed set the sauce-pan into a cool place, or pour out the mixture on a dish until it is wanted for use. 140. =Egg Dressing.=--Chop the yolks and whites of two hard boiled eggs separately, but not fine; strew them upon any salad after having dressed it with two tablespoonfuls of cream, and one of white vinegar. 141. =Anchovy Salad Sauce.=--Mix until smooth two raw eggs, one teaspoonful of the essence of anchovy, one tablespoonful of vinegar, and two of oil. 142.
Sources: The passage is from Sūdraka, The Little Clay Cart [Mṛcchakaṭika], tr. Ryder, Arthur W. (Arthur William), free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Corson, The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical of 1877, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — navy cloth, amphora stamp.