Admin Post: The Poetry Page: Social Distancing with Mrs. Hudson

[scfrankles]

In these uncertain, and rather chilly, times comfort food can be a great solace. So thank you for joining me in my kitchen, where we will be making together Cabinet Pudding!

Let me just get my copy of Mrs. Beeton’s Dictionary of Every-Day Cookery open at the correct page… Ah, here we go:


Ingredients.—1½ oz. of candied peel, 4 oz. of currants, 4 dozen sultanas, a few slices of Savoy cake, sponge-cake, a French roll, 4 eggs, 1 pint of milk, grated lemon-rind, ¼ nutmeg, 3 tablespoonfuls of sugar.

Mode.—Melt some butter to a paste, and with it, well grease the mould or basin in which the pudding is to be boiled, taking care that it is buttered in every part. Cut the peel into thin slices, and place these in a fanciful device at the bottom of the mould, and fill in the spaces between with currants and sultanas; then add a few slices of sponge-cake or French roll; drop a few drops of melted butter on these,and between each layer sprinkle a few currants. Proceed in this manner until the mould is nearly full; then flavour the milk with nutmeg and grated lemon-rind; add the sugar, and stir to this the eggs, which should be well beaten. Beat this mixture for a few minutes; then strain it into the mould, which should be quite full; tie a piece of buttered paper over it, and let it stand for two hours; then tie it down with a cloth, put it into boiling water, and let it boil slowly for 1 hour. In taking it up, let it stand for a minute or two before the cloth is removed; then quickly turn it out of the mould or basin, and serve with sweet sauce separately.

The flavouring of this pudding may be varied by substituting for the lemon-rind essence of vanilla or bitter almonds; and it may be made much richer by using cream; but this is not at all necessary. Time.—1 hour, Average cost, 1s. 3d. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. Seasonable at any time.


Later on, do feel free to look through the book to see if any other dishes catch your eye.


And to inspire you in your cooking, and also in your poetry, here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s story “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons”:


The figure broke into fragments, and Holmes bent eagerly over the shattered remains. Next instant, with a loud shout of triumph, he held up one splinter, in which a round, dark object was fixed like a plum in a pudding.



Here as usual is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith


But now, let us get started on the Cabinet Pudding. Aprons on!

Comments

[smallhobbit]

The flavouring of a pudding
Can be best enhanced with gin
Never use bitter almonds
They'll disguise the cyanide within

[scfrankles]

^__________^

Someone's in top form at the moment :P

[smallhobbit]

*bows*

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Mrs. Beeton should've added this as a footnote!

[smallhobbit]

It would have been wise!

Things that Break, terza rima

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

in mystery and out, the things that break
are manyfold; are many, broken things
their ways of shattering, the shards that flake.

the mute response, the unanswered knock brings
the splintering of wood, the wrench, the rend
of joints, outrageous arrowheads and slings

of fortune, like glass when it does not bend
but rather shrieks along its fissures to yield
the entry, exodus, or jagged end

or cup-and-saucer crockery when keeled
in mockery, in wrath, or by design
in bits, what might—or might not—be revealed.

though hearts are broken, trust, too, vows benign,
yet nothing breaks quite like an alibi
when cleaving sensitivities resign.

a greenstick fractured mirror cannot lie
in twisted fractals, nor potsherd evade,
nor egg of eggshell dare to question why,

but when the breaking game is played
results are three: a mess for broom and flue,
a cry in lovesick gloom, or rare charade:

a bust-up worth the dust-up, one which gives its due,
like a plump plum-in-pudding pearl at Waterloo!

Re: Things that Break, terza rima

[smallhobbit]

Another impressive verse, with a very satisfying conclusion.

Re: Things that Break, terza rima

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! I did a brainstorm about things that break related to life and mysteries.

Re: Things that Break, terza rima

[scfrankles]

That is so clever ^____^ I'm particularly taken with though hearts are broken, trust, too, vows benign,/ yet nothing breaks quite like an alibi/ when cleaving sensitivities resign. And a bust-up worth the dust-up ^__^

Re: Things that Break, terza rima

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! I think it was a huge revelation when I learned that 'cleave' means two things. I liked that line, too, about the alibi. I was brainstorming things in mysteries that break.