Wednesday 14 June 2017

An Iowan Dinner

SM Stirling, The Scourge Of God (New York, 2009), Chapter Twenty, pp. 487-489.

The concluding chapters are a travelogue of Changed North America. The travellers are dinner guests on an Iowan farm:

a long table;
at one end, a cold, brown-glazed, roast suckling pig, with an apple in its mouth, on a carved oak slab;
at the other end, a sirloin of beef, pink at the centre;
between -
breads;
hot biscuits;
butter;
salads of greens, cherry tomatoes, onions, peppers and radishes with oil and vinegar;
potato salad;
deviled eggs with minced ham forcemeat;
fresh boiled asparagus, cauliflower and eggplant baked with cheese;
sauteed mushrooms;
glazed carrots;
wine;
apple and cherry pies;
walnut ice cream;
after -
pear brandy;
real coffee in silver service and bone-china cups.

4 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I remember that Iowa farm, or rather, barony. Only hard physical labor could make such Stirlingian banquets safe for us!(Smiles)

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
You have caught up with my posts again.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I try! I try to find something to comment about in your blog pieces.

Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Note that that menu is a very Midwestern one, in turn derived from British, German, and other central-northern European folk cuisines that mutually influenced each other throughout the 19th century as the upper Mississippi Valley was settled. Plus a lot of Amerindian foods (and some ways of preparing them) and things like soybeans from very distant lands.