For reasons that need not detain us I recently bought a South African cookbook published in 1891. Old cookbooks are the trippiest things this side of Doors of Perception. I remember seeing a first edition of The Joy of Cooking a few years ago containing a recipe for possum which entailed fattening it up for a week in a cage. The past is another menu.
Anyway I thought I’d share a couple of entries from Hilda’s Where Is It? Of Recipes in case you’re tired of the same old Mediterranean salsa and would like to try something new. To be clear, I’m not saying they’re all silly. I’m sure some would be delicious, but sometimes the ingredients make my hair stand on end, and I’m not the target market for “A Pleasant Gruel.” Whopping great booze recipes however.
BLOATER TOAST: 1 teaspoon full of bloater paste, 1 teaspoon of anchovy sauce, 1 tablespoon of cream, 1 oz. of butter, a little cayenne — spread on toast. That’s just mysterious.
CURRY SOUP: Head and feet of sheep…. That’s as far as we’re going.
FOR HORSES SEIZED WITH VIOLENT SPASMS OR COLIC: 50 drops of Laudanum, 1/2 pint of whiskey, 50 drops of peppermint oil. This would never have gotten as far as my horse.
Some of the cakes look tasty.
More on this to come perhaps.
Song of the Day: Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, That’s What I Like About the South
