Literary Feast  ·  Read the passage. Cook the meal.
A dish that matters

Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov

by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

PROJECT GUTENBERG COMPILATANTON PAVLOVICH CHEKHOV
Our binding, not the publisher's

“And Anna listened to him, was frightened, and could not eat, and she usually got up from the table hungry. After dinner her husband lay down for a nap and snored loudly, while Anna went to see her own people. Her father and the boys looked at her in a peculiar way, as though just before she came in they had been blaming her for having married for money a tedious, wearisome man she did not love; her rustling skirts, her bracelets, and her general air of a married lady, offended them and made them uncomfortable. In her presence they felt a little embarrassed and did not know what to talk to her about; but yet they still loved her as before, and were not used to having dinner without her. She sat down with them to cabbage soup, porridge, and fried potatoes, smelling of mutton dripping. Pyotr Leontyitch filled his glass from the decanter with a trembling hand and drank it off hurriedly, greedily, with repulsion, then poured out a second glass and then a third. Petya and Andrusha, thin, pale boys with big eyes, would take the decanter and say desperately:”

From a cookbook of 1829

A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.

1829  ·  Child
MILK PORRIDGE

STEWED PRUNES. VEGETABLES. HERBS. CHEAP DYE-STUFFS. MEAT CORNED, OR SALTED, HAMS, &c. CHOICE OF MEAT. COMMON COOKING. VEAL. CALF'S HEAD. BEEF. ALAMODE BEEF. MUTTON AND LAMB. PORK. ROAST PIG. SAUSAGES. MINCE MEAT. BEANS AND PEAS. SOUSE. TRIPE. GRAVY. POULTRY. FRICASSEED CHICKEN, BROWN. FRICASSEED CHICKEN, WHITE. TO CURRY FOWL. CHICKEN BROTH. FISH. PUDDINGS. BAKED INDIAN PUDDING. BOILED INDIAN PUDDING. FLOUR OR BATTER PUDDING. BREAD PUDDING. RENNET PUDDING. CUSTARD PUDDINGS. RICE PUDDINGS. BIRD'S NEST PUDDING. APPLE PUDDING. CHERRY PUDDING. CRANBERRY PUDDING. WHORTLEBERRY PUDDING. PLUM PUDDING. HASTY PUDDING. CHEAP CUSTARDS. COMMON PIES. MINCE PIES. PUMPKIN AND SQUASH PIE. CARROT PIE. CHERRY PIE. WHORTLEBERRY PIE. APPLE PIE. CUSTARD PIE. CRANBERRY PIE. RHUBARB STALKS, OR PERSIAN APPLE. PIE CRUST. COMMON CAKES. GINGERBREAD. CUP CAKE. TEA CAKE. CIDER CAKE.

Sources: The passage is from Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Child, The American Frugal Housewife of 1829, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — moss cloth, teapot stamp.

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