Cakes & Ale, A Dissertation on Banquets Interspersed with Various Recipes, More or Less Original, and anecdotes, mainly veracious by Edward Spencer (1844 - 1910)

A long time ago, an estimable lady fell at the feet of an habitual publisher, and prayed unto him:— “Give, oh! give me the subject of a book for which the world has a need, and I will write it for you.” “Are you an author, madam?” asked the publisher, motioning his visitor to a seat. “No, sir,” was the proud reply, “I am a poet.” “Ah!” said the great man. “I am afraid there is no immediate worldly need of a poet. If you could only write a good cookery book, now! ... What I want,” said the publisher, “is a series of essays on food, a few anecdotes of stirring adventure—you have a fine flow of imagination, I understand—and a few useful, but uncommon recipes. But plenty of plums in the book, my dear sir, plenty of plums.” “But, suppose my own supply of plums should not hold out, what am I to do?” “What do you do—what does the cook do, when the plums for her pudding run short? Get some more; the Museum, my dear sir, the grea