““There, I forgot to look.” Ellen went to the well for water. She met Anton coming from the barn with Maria’s pail of milk. She held her hand over the dark welt on her upper arm though his eyes weren’t on her. She followed him to the kitchen, lifting out the bacon, breaking eggs into the iron spider. She crumpled an eggshell in the coffee to settle the grounds and dumped the hot potatoes into a brown bowl. The Gaddys and Sam Offut grouped themselves at the stout table. They poured ketchup on the potatoes and eggs, drank steaming cups of coffee, ate heavily, for the workdays were arduous. They would arise by candlelight, seldom were done by nightfall with the wheel of chores.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
Boil a dessert spoonful of ground coffee, in nearly a pint of milk, a quarter of an hour; then put into it a shaving or two of isinglass, and clear it. Let it boil a few minutes, and set it on the side of the fire to grow fine. This is a very fine breakfast. It should be sweetened with real Lisbon sugar of a good quality.
Sources: The passage is from Helga Sandburg, The wheel of earth, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Rundell, New system of domestic cookery, formed upon principles of of 1806, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — plum cloth, boar stamp.