“Many years after, Mr. Beckford published his Travels, one volume of which was _An Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha_. Of the kitchen of the magnificent Alcobaça, he gives the following glowing picture:--"Through the centre of the immense and groined hall, not less than sixty feet in diameter, ran a brisk rivulet of the clearest water, flowing through pierced wooden reservoirs, containing every sort and size of the finest river-fish. On one side, loads of game and venison were heaped up; on the other, vegetables and fruit in endless variety. Beyond a long line of stoves extended a row of ovens, and close to them hillocks of wheaten flour whiter than snow, rocks of sugar, jars of the purest oil, and pastry in vast abundance, which a numerous tribe of lay-brothers and their attendants were rolling out and puffing up into a hundred different shapes, singing all the while as blithely as larks in a cornfield!" The banquet is described as including "exquisite sausages, potted lampreys, strange messes from the Brazils, and others still more strange from China (_viz._ birds'-nests and sharks'-fins) dressed after the latest mode of Macao, by a Chinese lay-brother. Confectionery and fruits were out of the question here; they awaited the party in an adjoining still more sumptuous and spacious saloon, to which they retired from the effluvia of viands and sauces." On another occasion, by aid of Mr. Beckford's cook, the party sat down to "one of the most delicious banquets ever vouchased a mortal on this side of Mahomet's paradise. The _macédoine_ was perfection, the ortolans and quails lumps of celestial fatness, the _sautés_ and _bechamels_ beyond praise; and a certain truffle-cream was so exquisite, that the Lord Abbot piously gave thanks for it."”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
containing three tablespoonfuls of salt, to the boiling point; boil half a pound of _macaroni_ in it until it is tender enough to pierce easily with the finger nail; then drain it in a colander, and wash it well in cold water; while it is boiling make a _Bechamel_, or white sauce, as in receipt No. 84: put just enough of it with the _macaroni_ to moisten it, heat it thoroughly; shake it up well with two forks to make the cheese fibrous, put it on a hot dish, sprinkle with half an ounce of grated Parmesan cheese, and serve it hot. 84.
Sources: The passage is from John Timbs, English Eccentrics and Eccentricities, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Corson, The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical of 1877, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — forest cloth, boar stamp.