Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, and here’s a menu to have everyone drooling, with apologies to vegetarians (there are recipes for us in the book). It’s from Francatelli’s The Cook’s Guide, published in 1861. I have my great-grandmother’s copy, tattered, stained, but readable. Just reading the recipes is enough to add weight, but worth every minute and pound …
MENU PAGE 486 RECIPE NUMBER 510 
from Francatelli’s The Cook’s Guide
every mouthful to be savoured
with leisurely conversation
round a table spread with linen
weighted with silver and crystal
the smooth taste of grouse soup
holds hills and heather
followed by rare roast sirloin
next the entrées, one of veal cutlets 
sharp with horseradish
and then, then such a delicacy
‘snipe pudding à l’epicurien’
with sauce of Portugal onion
parsley, mushrooms, mixed herbs
‘a suspicion of garlic’
and half a pint of wine
these, with truffles
steamed in a suet crust
the snipe melts in my mouth
the flavours release scenes
of woodland and fragrant gardens
with an underlay of sunshine 
the vol-au-vent of green-gages
– one of four entremets –
but the rest of the meal
is lost before the rare excellence
of ‘snipe pudding à l’epicurien’
Just recently I was interviewed by Michael Lee Johnson for the Poets Interviews, take a look and let me know what you think.
The Berry Books for 3-6 years old: Berry the mouse, who lives in a tree, gets into funny situations, and has to find his way out of them.
