I stumbled across an article from the UK’s The Independent this morning about a new book coming about in May 2012 and I do believe I am going to have to pre-order! Here’s the premise: What if Virginia Woolf wrote a recipe for cherry dessert? Can you imagine it? Author Michael Crick did, and not only Ms. Woolf’s take on a cherry classic, but Chaucer on onion tarts and many more. Here’s a quote from Woolf’s recipe from The Household Tips of the Great Writers:
“Little by little she added the milk, stopping only when the mixture was fluid and even, smooth and homogenous, lumpless and liquid, pausing to recall her notes on the iniquity of the English dairy system. She looked up: what demon possessed him, her youngest, playing on the lawn, demons and angels? Why should it change, why could they not stay as they were, never ageing?”
Isn’t that delish?
Or how about Chaucer’s instructions for adding the spices to the onion tart:
Or how about Chaucer’s instructions for adding the spices to the onion tart:
Strewe thereto nutmeg grated, tho keep some by,
And grounde gyngere, and return to the fyre.
Lightly beat the eggs and zolkes together,
And season wiv both salt and black pepper.
Heat the crème till just warme with saffron rich,
Then adde the eggs for to mix.
And Raymond Chandler’s take on Lamb with Dill:
I took hold of the joint. It felt cold and damp, like a coroner’s handshake. I took out a knife and cut the lamb into pieces. Feeling the blade in my hand I sliced an onion, and before I knew what I was doing a carrot lay in pieces on the slab…
I love the idea of pairing authors with food. What a grand idea. Wish I had thought of it.
May sure seems like a long ways off.
And now I am hungry. . .
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