“Harboro had made certain arrangements which were characteristic of him, perhaps, and which nobody knew anything about. For example, he had employed the most presentable Mexican woman he could find, to make the house homelike. He had taken a little sheaf of corn-husks away from her so that she could not make any cigarettes for a day or two, and he had read her a patient lecture upon ways and means of making a lot of furniture look as if it had some direct relationship with human needs and pleasures. And he had advised and aided her in the preparation of a wedding supper for two. He had ordered grapes from Parras, and figs--black figs, a little withered, and candied _tunas._ And there was a roast of beef with herbs and chili sauce, and _enchalades._”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
(Cold Meat Cookery). 612. INGREDIENTS.--2 or 3 dozen small button mushrooms, 1 oz. of butter, salt and cayenne to taste, 1 tablespoonful of mushroom ketchup, mashed potatoes, slices of cold roast beef. _Mode_.--Wipe the mushrooms free from grit with a piece of flannel, and salt; put them in a stewpan with the butter, seasoning, and ketchup; stir over the fire until the mushrooms are quite done, when pour it in the middle of mashed potatoes, browned. Then place round the potatoes slices of cold roast beef, nicely broiled, over a clear fire. In making the mushroom sauce, the ketchup may be dispensed with, if there is sufficient gravy. _Time_.--1/4 hour. _Average cost_, exclusive of the meat, 8d. _Seasonable_ from August to October.
Sources: The passage is from Louis Dodge, Children of the desert, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Beeton, The Book of Household Management of 1861, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — plum cloth, grapes stamp.