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A bill of fare

The Passionate Elopement

by Compton MacKenzie

THE PASSIONATE ELOPEMENTCOMPTON MACKENZIE
Our binding, not the publisher's

“Out went the kidneys and the bacon and the eggs and the ham and the loin chops and the red herrings and the toasted bread, frozen stiff in their own fat; and out went the vanguard to warn the main army of fashion that scurrility, satire and malice were abroad in many metres.”

From a cookbook of 1861

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

1861  ·  Beeton
FRIED RASHERS OF BACON AND POACHED EGGS

802. INGREDIENTS.--Bacon; eggs. _Mode_.--Cut the bacon into thin slices, trim away the rusty parts, and cut off the rind. Put it into a cold frying-pan, that is to say, do not place the pan on the fire before the bacon is in it. Turn it 2 or 3 times, and dish it on a very hot dish. Poach the eggs and slip them on to the bacon, without breaking the yolks, and serve quickly. _Time_.--3 or 4 minutes. _Average cost_, 10d. to 1s. per lb. for the primest parts. _Sufficient_.--Allow 6 eggs for 3 persons. _Seasonable_ at any time. _Note_.--Fried rashers of bacon, curled, serve as a pretty garnish to many dishes; and, for small families, answer very well as a substitute for boiled bacon, to serve with a small dish of poultry, &c.

Sources: The passage is from Compton MacKenzie, The Passionate Elopement, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Beeton, The Book of Household Management of 1861, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — forest cloth, boar stamp.

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