“John Arthur strode across the room and viewed the _debris_ of luncheon. "Humph!" he grunted. "Oysters and salads, potted meat and pastry; strong coffee and lemon syllabub with brandy. Good Lord, I don't know what should have kept the contents of an entire cemetery from sweeping down upon your slumbers, you female gourmand. Ghosts indeed!"”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
1486. INGREDIENTS.--1 pint of sherry or white wine, 1/2 grated nutmeg, sugar to taste, 1-1/2 pint of milk. _Mode_.--Put the wine into a bowl, with the grated nutmeg and plenty of pounded sugar, and milk into it the above proportion of milk frothed up. Clouted cream may be laid on the top, with pounded cinnamon or nutmeg and sugar; and a little brandy may be added to the wine before the milk is put in. In some counties, cider is substituted for the wine: when this is used, brandy must always be added. Warm milk may be poured on from a spouted jug or teapot; but it must be held very high. _Average cost_, 2s. _Sufficient_ for 5 or 6 persons. _Seasonable_ at any time.
Sources: The passage is from Lawrence L. Lynch, Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter, 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 — ochre cloth, oyster stamp.