“After supper, where were plenty of Spanish and Rhine wines, soups _à la bisque_ and _au lait d'amandes_, puddings _à la Trafalgar_, and all sorts of cold meats with jellies that trembled in the dishes, the carriages one after the other began to drive off. Raising the corner of the muslin curtain, one could see the light of their lanterns glimmering through the darkness. The seats began to empty, some card-players were still left; the musicians were cooling the tips of their fingers on their tongues. Charles was half asleep, his back propped against a door.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
½ can tomatoes 2 teaspoons sugar ¼ teaspoon soda ½ onion, stuck with 6 cloves Sprig of parsley Bit of bay leaf ¾ cup stale bread crumbs 4 cups milk ½ tablespoon salt ⅛ teaspoon pepper ⅓ cup butter Scald milk with bread crumbs, onion, parsley, and bay leaf. Remove seasonings and rub through a sieve. Cook tomatoes with sugar fifteen minutes; add soda and rub through a sieve. Reheat bread and milk to boiling-point, add tomatoes, and pour at once into tureen over butter, salt, and pepper. Serve with croûtons, crisp crackers, or Souffléd crackers.
Sources: The passage is from Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary: A Tale of Provincial Life, Vol. 1, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Farmer, The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — moss cloth, pudding stamp.