“Then Master Darby and Miss Joan--how tiresome they were! always up to some mischief or other, said nurse to herself, as she ran between the nursery window and the front door to watch if they were not coming before their dinner should be spoiled. And such a nice dinner as it was, too! Cook had arranged it as a surprise for them, because they were all by themselves, knowing how much they enjoyed roast fowl, stewed apples and cream. Now the fowl would be dried to a cinder, the potatoes moist and sodden, the apples cold as charity!”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
Take twelve pippins, pare and slice, or quarter them, put them into a skillet with some claret wine, and a race of ginger sliced thin, a little lemon-peel cut small, and some sugar; let all these stew together till they be soft, then take them off the fire and put them in a dish, and when they be cold take a quart of cream boil'd with a little nutmeg, and put in of the apple stuff to make it of what thickness you please, and so serve it up.
Sources: The passage is from Frances Browne Arthur, Two little travellers : $b A story for girls, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from May, The accomplisht cook of 1660, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — oxblood cloth, pear stamp.