“"Get half a pound of leg beef," said she, "and then we'll have fourpence left for bread and tea; no, take the other penny, too, and get half a pound of pieces at the butcher's for twopence and a twopenny tin of condensed milk, that's fourpence, and a three ha'penny loaf and one penny for tea, that's sixpence ha'penny, and get onions with the odd ha'penny, and we'll put them in the beef tea. Don't forget, dearie, to pick lean bits of meat; them fellows do be always trying to stick bits of bone and gristle on a body. Tell him it's for beef tea for your mother, and that I'm not well at all, and ask how Mrs. Quinn is; she hasn't been down in the shop for a long time. I'll go to sleep now. I'll have to go to work in the morning whatever happens, because there isn't any money in the house at all. Come home as quick as you can, dearie."”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
Put into a very clean saucepan nearly half a pint of fine bread-crumbs, and the white part of a large _mild_ onion cut into quarters; pour to these three-quarters of a pint of new milk, and boil them very gently, keeping them often stirred until the onion is perfectly tender, which will be in from forty minutes to an hour. Press the whole through a hair-sieve, which should be as clean as possible; reduce the sauce by quick boiling should it be too thin; add a seasoning of salt and grated nutmeg, an ounce of butter, and four spoonsful of cream; and when it is of a proper thickness, dish, and send it quickly to table. Bread-crumbs, nearly 1/2 pint; white part of 1 large mild onion; new milk, 3/4 pint: 40 to 60 minutes. Seasoning of salt and grated nutmeg; butter, 1 oz.; cream, 4 tablespoonsful: to be boiled till of a proper consistence.
Sources: The passage is from James Stephens, Mary, Mary, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Acton, Modern cookery for private families of 1845, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — navy cloth, teapot stamp.