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A bill of fare

Three men in a boat

by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome

THREE MEN IN A BOATJEROME K. (JEROME KLAPKA) JEROME
Our binding, not the publisher's

“George said it was absurd to have only four potatoes in an Irish stew, so we washed half-a-dozen or so more, and put them in without peeling. We also put in a cabbage and about half a peck of peas. George stirred it all up, and then he said that there seemed to be a lot of room to spare, so we overhauled both the hampers, and picked out all the odds and ends and the remnants, and added them to the stew. There were half a pork pie and a bit of cold boiled bacon left, and we put them in. Then George found half a tin of potted salmon, and he emptied that into the pot.”

From a cookbook of 1796

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

1796  ·  Simmons
A Stew Pie

Boil a shoulder of Veal, and cut up, salt, pepper, and butter half pound, and slices of raw salt pork, make a layer of meat, and a layer of biscuit, or biscuit dough into a pot, cover close and stew half an hour in three quarts of water only.

Sources: The passage is from Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome, Three men in a boat, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Simmons, American Cookery of 1796, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — moss cloth, rowboat stamp.

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