“"No, Dudgeon!" I interrupted. "Be practical; I know what you want, and the name of it is supper. _Rien ne creuse comme l'emotion._ I am hungry myself, and yet I am more accustomed to warlike palpitations than you, who are but a hunter of hedge-sparrows. Let me look at your face critically: your bill of fare is three slices of cold rare roast beef, a Welsh rabbit, a pot of stout, and a glass or two of sound tawny port, old in bottle--the right milk of Englishmen." Methought there seemed a brightening in his eye and a melting about his mouth at this enumeration.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
1874. INGREDIENTS.--2 very young rabbits, not nearly half grown; 1-1/2 pint of milk, 1 blade of mace, 1 dessertspoonful of flour, a little salt and cayenne. _Mode_.--Mix the flour very smoothly with 4 tablespoonfuls of the milk, and when this is well mixed, add the remainder. Cut up the rabbits into joints, put them into a stewpan, with the milk and other ingredients, and simmer them _very gently_ until quite tender. Stir the contents from time to time, to keep the milk smooth and prevent it from burning. 1/2 hour will be sufficient for the cooking of this dish. _Time_.--1/2 hour. _Average cost_, from 1s. to 1s. 6d. each. _Sufficient_ for 3 or 4 meals. _Seasonable_ from September to February.
Sources: The passage is from Robert Louis Stevenson, The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 20, 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, tankard stamp.