Cakes & ale : a dissertation on banquets, interspersed with various recipes, more or less original, and anecdotes, mainly veracious / by Edward Spencer.
- Edward Spencer Mott
- Date:
- [1913]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Cakes & ale : a dissertation on banquets, interspersed with various recipes, more or less original, and anecdotes, mainly veracious / by Edward Spencer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.
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![of fowl and old Madeira about Domhey and Son, and the description of the dinner at Doctor Blimber’s establishment for young gentlemen is worth requoting : “There was some nice soup ; also roast meat, boiled meat, vegetables, pie, and cheese.” [ Cheese at a small boys’ school !] “ Every young gentle- man had a massive silver fork and a napkin ; and all the arrangements were stately and handsome. In particular there was a butler in a blue coat and bright buttons” [surely this was a footman?] “ who gave quite a winey flavour to the table beer, he poured it out so superbly.” Dinner at Mrs. Jellyby’s in Bleak House is one of the funniest and most delightful incidents in the book, especially the attendance. “The young woman with the flannel bandage waited, and dropped everything on the table wherever it happened to go, and never moved it again until she put it on the stairs. Tne person I had seen in pattens (who I suppose to have been the cook) frequently came and skirmished with her at the door, and there appeared to be ill-will between them.” The dinner given by Mr. Guppy at the “Slap Bang” dining house is another feature of this book—veal and ham, and French beans, summer cabbage, pots of half-and-half, marrow puddings, “three Cheshires” and “three small rums.” Of the items in this list, the marrow pudding seems to be as extinct—in London, at all events—as the dodo. It appears to be a mixture of bread, pounded almonds, cream, eggs, lemon peel, sugar, nutmeg, and marrow ; and sounds nice.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21529310_0281.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
