“The family sat down to supper. It was not a big kitchen and they were crowded, with elbows touching: Papa Brini at the head of the table, Mamma at the foot, the three children on one side and Cornelia and her fellow-boarder on the other. She had been wondering what she would eat among these foreign people; she found a big bowl of salad with plenty of oil and vinegar, a chunk of parmigiano cheese, a loaf of bread in Italian fashion, shaped like a letter H, and finally a bottle of red wine, of which the children had a little and the women had one glass; the men were supposed to finish the rest. But she learned that Vanzetti would take no wine; out of the books he had got ideas about health and was a vegetarian most of the time. He explained to the new guest in his struggling English: “Poor people molto fortunato--how you say, lucky--no can buy richa food. You eata simple t’ing, you keepa da healt’ all lifa long.” After which ensued an argument with Papa Brini, who made it clear both by words and action that he looked upon the wine when it was any color whatever. He laughed gayly and explained to Cornelia the most elementary of Italian puns, “divino da vino.””
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
[221] ANOTHER [sauce] FOR BOILED [birds] _ALITER IN ELIXIS_ TO THE BOILED FOWL ADD [1] PEPPER, CARRAWAY, CELERY SEED, PARSLEY, CONDIMENTS, MORTARIA [2] DATES, HONEY, VINEGAR, WINE, OIL AND MUSTARD. [1] Tor. wanting in other texts. [2] _Mortaria_: herbs, spices, things pounded in the "mortar." Cf. {Rx} No. 38.
Sources: The passage is from Upton Sinclair, Boston : $b a novel, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Apicius, Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — burgundy cloth, cheese stamp.