“Our European trees had grown with a strength and rapidity of vegetation almost incredible; but their fruits had lost their flavour; and whether because the soil or the air was unfavourable, the apples and pears became black and withered, the plums and apricots were nothing but hard kernels surrounded by a tough skin. On the other hand, the indigenous productions, multiplied a hundred-fold: the bananas, the figs, the guavas, the oranges and the citron, made our corner of the island a complete terrestrial paradise, where all the riches of vegetation were assembled. But the abundance of fruit brought on another plague: multitudes of pillagers, in the shape of birds, flocked to the spot. We kept our bird-snares always ready, and it sometimes happened that an unknown animal would be taken in the trap; for example, the great squirrel of Canada, remarkable for its beautiful tufted tail and lustrous red skin, attracted hither probably by our almonds and chestnuts; parroquets, in all their diversity of colours, would sometimes be caught; blue jays, thrushes, yellow loriots, abounded plentifully, to the great prejudice of our cherries, figs, and native grapes. Besides the birds by day, there were other destroyers by night, and we had a great deal of trouble to dislodge a nest of flying squirrels that had taken up their residence in the topmost branches of one of our finest trees.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
¾ lb. fine tart apples, pared and chopped. ¾ lb. sugar. ¾ lb. flour. ½ lb. beef suet, rubbed fine. ¾ lb. raisins, seeded and chopped. 6 eggs. 1 teaspoonful nutmeg and the same powdered cloves. 1 teaspoonful salt. ½ glass brown Sherry and the same of brandy. Stir the beaten yolks and sugar very light, add the suet and apples with the spice; then the raisins, well dredged with flour; next the flour, and when this is all in, the liquor; lastly the whites beaten _very_ stiff. Bake in two buttered moulds, in a moderate oven, an hour and a half at least. Eat hot, with sauce. You may boil this pudding if you like.
Sources: The passage is from Johann David Wyss, The Swiss family Robinson, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Harland, Common Sense in the Household of 1871, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — navy cloth, grapes stamp.