Toast

[miss_squiddy]

The other day, someone (maybe arachne or jezebel_z) was writing about cheese on toast. That and the Cathedral City advert has reminded me to post something I found years ago and have never bothered to type up. It's from a lovely little book called 'Consult me... For all you want to know', a 1902 guide to cleaning, curing and cooking. If you ever want to know what to with rancid butter, how to weigh hay or how to talk properly (miss_soap - I think you might find that article quite interesting), then this is the book for you. Anyway - toast. Here it is 1902 style:

RABBIT, an English.- Toast a slice of bread brown on both sides; then lay it on a plate, pour a glass of port wine over it; then cut some cheese very thin and lay it over the bread; put it in a dutch oven before the fire to brown. Serve it hot.

RABBITS, Scotch.- Toast a piece of bread on both sides; butter it; cut a slice of cheese the size of the bread; toast in on both sides, and lay it on the bread.

RABBITS, Welsh.- Toast a piece of bread on both sides, and butter it; toast a slice of Cheshire cheese on one side, and lay that next to the bread, and toast the other with a salamander*; rub mustard over, and serve very hot, and covered.

So now you know.

*No, not an amphibian! An object, such as a poker, used in fire or capable of withstanding heat.

Comments

[sepheri.livejournal.com]

Thats brilliant! I love having lots of books like that around, where did you find it? And it also explains why my Scottish mother and Welsh father were always arguing about how to make "proper" cheese on toast.

[miss_squiddy]

It's the later version of a book called 'Enquire within... Upon anything' that is often referenced in Victorian fiction as 'the little green book'. I tried to hunt down a copy of that but this was as close as I could get. I needed it for a research project a few years ago.