“Mr. Johnson says: “The chief grains of the country are Indian corn, wheat, barley of two kinds, _bájra, jowár_ (two kinds of _holcus_), buckwheat and rice, all of which are superior to the Indian grains, and are of a very fine quality.... The country is certainly superior to India, and in every respect equal to Kashmir, over which it has the advantage of being less humid, and consequently better suited to the growth of fruits. _Olives_ (?), pears, apples, peaches, apricots, mulberries, grapes, currants, and melons, all exceedingly large in size and of a delicious flavour, are produced in great variety and abundance.... Cotton of valuable quality, and raw silk, are produced in very large quantities.””
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
Wash two-thirds cup rice, add one cup boiling water, and steam until rice has absorbed water; then add one and one-third cups hot milk, one teaspoon salt, and one-fourth cup sugar. Cook until rice is soft. Turn into a slightly buttered round shallow mould. When shaped, remove from mould to serving dish, and arrange on top sections of cooked peaches drained from their syrup and dipped in macaroon dust. Garnish between sections with candied cherries and angelica cut in leaf-shapes. Angelica may be softened by dipping in hot water. Color peach syrup with fruit red, and pour around mould.
Sources: The passage is from Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1, tr. Yule, Henry, Sir, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Farmer, The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — slate cloth, grapes stamp.