Kettner's Book of the Table

Every food on the Victorian table gets its history, its etymology and a strong opinion — the wittiest cookery book of 1877, written in secret by a Times leader-writer and named for London's most fashionable restaurant.

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Prawn

There is nothing that need be said about cooking prawns, or in praise of them. One word, however, about the origin of the name, which seems to be unknown. May I point out that one of the chief distinctions of the prawn is a most formidable serrated prong, jutting out between its eyes?

Ps and Qs. A phrase most appropriate to taverns. In the olden time, when the keeper of an alehouse chalked on the wall or on the door the scores of what his customers had drunk, it was usual to put down P for pint and Q for quart. The customer who kept an eye on his score would admonish Boniface to "mind his Ps and Qs."

PTARMIGAN is a kind of grouse, and to be entertained with the ceremonies to which grouse are entitled.

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