“But there was no chance during the minuet for mademoiselle's promised confidence, and as the evening went on I began to think there would be none at all. There had been the old folks' minuet, when Dr. Saugrain led out Madame Chouteau on the floor, and his plump little calves, silk-robed, had twinkled beside her stately steps in wondrous fashion. And then had come supper,--a bounteous feast of delicate cakes and sweetmeats and rich salads and cold fowl, with gooseberry wine and a sweet punch brewed from New Orleans ratafia,--and I feared that would put an end to the festivities, and still there had been no chance.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
1759. INGREDIENTS.--1 lb. of treacle, 1/4 lb. of clarified butter, 1 lb. of coarse brown sugar, 2 oz. of ground ginger, 1 oz. of candied orange-peel, 1 oz. of candied angelica, 1/2 oz. of candied lemon-peel, 1/2 oz. of coriander seeds, 1/2 oz. of caraway seeds, 1 egg; flour. _Mode_.--Put the treacle into a basin, and pour over it the butter, melted so as not to oil, the sugar, and ginger. Stir these ingredients well together, and whilst mixing, add the candied peel, which should be cut into very small pieces, but not bruised, and the caraway and coriander seeds, which should be pounded. Having mixed all thoroughly together, break in an egg, and work the whole up with as much fine flour as may be necessary to form a paste. Make this into nuts of any size, put them on a tin plate, and bake in a slow oven from 1/4 to 1/2 hour. _Time_.--1/4 to 1/2 hour. _Average cost_, from 1s. to 1s. 4d. per lb. _Seasonable_ at any time.
Sources: The passage is from Mary (Mary C. Johnson) Dillon, The rose of old St. Louis, 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 — slate cloth, goose stamp.