“The greengrocer and his wife then arranged upon the table a boiled leg of mutton, hot, with caper sauce, turnips, and potatoes. Mr. Tuckle took the chair, and was supported at the other end of the board by the gentleman in orange plush. The greengrocer put on a pair of wash-leather gloves to hand the plates with, and stationed himself behind Mr. Tuckle’s chair.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
382. INGREDIENTS.--1/2 pint of melted butter (No. 376), 3 tablespoonfuls of capers or nasturtiums, 1 tablespoonful of their liquor. _Mode_.--Chop the capers twice or thrice, and add them, with their liquor, to 1/2 pint of melted butter, made very smoothly; keep stirring well; let the sauce just simmer, and serve in a tureen. Pickled nasturtium-pods are fine-flavoured, and by many are eaten in preference to capers. They make an excellent sauce. _Time_.--2 minutes to simmer. _Average cost_ for this quantity, 8d. _Sufficient_ to serve with a leg of mutton.
Sources: The passage is from Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 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 — burgundy cloth, tankard stamp.