“"Cold lamb and some of Miranda's currant jelly," he said, as he placed a blue platter and a sauce dish filled with a truncated cone of wobbling, clear crimson upon a small table near the west window. "Beautiful, rich colour where the sun strikes it, isn't it?" He stepped back to note the effect. "Let me see, there's a salad, too. Lettuce from our own garden, Mr. Clancy. Pretty late for lettuce, but I plant it right along through the summer and it does real well. Oh, I almost forgot the pot cheese."”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
1 tablespoonful of butter. 1 teaspoonful of flour. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 1/8 teaspoonful of pepper. 1 teaspoonful of vinegar. 1 tablespoonful of currant jelly. 1 small bay leaf. 1 clove. 1 teaspoonful of minced onion. 1 gill of stock. Cook the butter and onion together for five minutes. Add the flour, and stir until smooth and frothy. Gradually add the stock, stirring all the time. When the sauce boils up, add the other ingredients, and simmer for five minutes. Strain, and serve hot. This sauce is for roast venison or mutton.
Sources: The passage is from Lee Thayer, The sinister mark, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Parloa, Miss Parloa's Young Housekeeper of 1893, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — moss cloth, cheese stamp.