The Alice in Wonderland Cookbook and Lewis Carroll’s Guide to Dining Etiquette

“As a general rule, do not kick the shins of the opposite gentleman under the table, if personally unacquainted with him; your pleasantry is liable to be misunderstood — a circumstance at all times unpleasant.”

As an intense lover of both all things Alice in Wonderland and unusual cookbooks, I was beyond thrilled to be gifted a surviving copy of the vintage out-of-print gem The Alice in Wonderland Cookbook: A Culinary Diversion (public library) — an utterly delightful compendium of recipes inspired by the Carroll classic, each accompanied by the appropriate excerpt from Alice’s adventures and featuring John Tenniel’s original illustrations. From “Ambidextrous Mushrooms” to “Bread-and-Butter-Fly Pudding,” the book is an absolute treat from cover to cover and features two of Carroll’s shorter pieces, Feeding the Mind and Hints for Etiquette: Or, Dining Out Made Easy. Here are some favorites:

LOOKING GLASS CAKE

1 pound flour | ½ pound butter | 4 ounces currants | 4 ounces mixed peel | 3 ounces raisins | ½ pound castor sugar | 2 teaspoons baking powder | 3 eggs | 1 teaspoon mixed spice | milk

1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
2. Beat eggs and whisk gradually into the creamed mixture.
3. Sift flour and baking powder and fold into the mixture by degrees.
4. Finally mix in fruit and spice.
5. The mixture should now be of such a consistency that it will drop easily from the spoon. Add milk only if necessary.
6. Turn into a cake tin approximately 7 ½ inches in diameter lined with greaseproof paper.
7. Bake for 2-3 hours in a slow oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, Gas Mark 2.
8. Test with a skewer to see if cooked. Insert it in the centre. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready to be placed on a wire rack to cool.
9. Cut it first and hand round afterwards.

FLOWER SALAD

acacia flowers | marrow flowers | rosemary flowers | borage flowers | cowslip flowers | elderflowers | marigold petals | nasturtium petals and trumpets | green salad | olive oil | vinegar

1. All the flowers listed were once commonly accepted for culinary purposes. So:
2. Scald the petals with hot water.
3. Leave to cool.
4. Arrange a bed of green salad including lettuce, parsley, thyme, chives, sorrel leaves, sliced raw cabbage or spinach, according to availability.
5. Add the flowers to the centre.
6. Serve with oil and vinegar dressing, proof that some flowers, at least do have the edible qualities of the other flour.

A TOAST TO ALICE

1 flagon cider | 8 lumps sugar | 2 oranges | 8 cloves | 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg | 1 cinnamon stick | 8 teaspoons water | 1 lemon | 1 sherry glass of rum | 1 sherry glass of brandy

1. Rub the sugar against the rind of one of the oranges to remove zest.
2. Cut the orange in half, and squeeze out juice into a saucepan.
3. Cut the orange into 8 segments.
4. Stick a clove in each and sprinkle with nutmeg.
5. Add to the pan with the water and cinnamon.
6. Cut lemon rind into strips and add this also.
7. Heat over a gentle flame until sugar dissolves.
8. Simmer for 5 minutes.
9. Take away from heat to cool.
10. Remove cinnamon stick.
11. Add cider and reheat.
12. Add rum and brandy.
13. Serve hot in a heated punch bowl.
14. “And welcome Queen Alice with ninety-times-nine!”

Carroll counsels in Hints for Etiquette: Or, Dining Out Made Easy:

As caterers for the public taste, we can conscientiously recommend this book to all diners-out who are perfectly unacquainted with the usages of society. However we may regret that our author has confined himself to warning rather than advice, we are bound in justice to say that nothing here stated will be found to contradict the habits of the best circles. The following examples exhibit a depth of penetration and a fullness of experience rarely met with:

I

In proceeding to the dining-room, the gentleman gives one arm to the lady he escorts– it is unusual to offer both.

II

The practice of taking soup with the next gentleman but one is now wisely discontinued; but the custom of asking your host his opinion of the weather immediately on the removal of the first course still prevails.

III

To use a fork with your soup, intimating at the same time to your hostess that you are reserving the spoon for beefsteaks, is a practice wholly exploded.

IV

On meat being placed before you, there is no possible objection to your eating it, if so disposed; still in all such delicate cases, be guided entirely by the conduct of those around you.

V

It is always allowable to ask for artichoke jelly with your boiled venison; however there are houses where this is not supplied.

VI

The method of helping roast turkey with two carving-forks is praticable, but deficient in grace.

VII

We do not recommend the practice of eating cheese with a knife and fork in one hand, and a spoon and wine-glass in the other; there is a kind of awkwardness in the action which no amount of practice can entirely dispel.

VII

As a general rule, do not kick the shins of the opposite gentleman under the table, if personally unacquainted with him; your pleasantry is liable to be misunderstood — a circumstance at all times unpleasant.

IX

Proposing the health of the boy in buttons immediately on the removal of the cloth is custom springing from regard to his tender years, rather than from a strict adherence to the rules of etiquette.

If you’re lucky, you might be able to snag a used copy of The Alice in Wonderland Cookbook. Supplement it with equally delightful treats like The Artists’ & Writers’ Cookbook, The Seducer’s Cookbook, and The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook.

Thanks, Kaye!

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Outer Space Humor: Vintage Illustrated Astro-Jokes from the Zenith of the Space Race

“A visitor from Jupiter, watching a typical Western on television, remarked to a friend: ‘How come the hero has a biped riding on his back?'”

Books being the original internet, each one pulling you a little further into the rabbit hole of discovery, it’s no surprise that Jeanne Bendick’s lovely vintage gem The First Book of Space Travel led me to Outer Space Humor (public library) — an utterly delightful 1963 compendium of illustrated jokes from the zenith of the Space Race. Published years before the first human footstep on the moon and decades before our first robotic proxies on Mars, it’s at once a memento from a bygone era ($2 martinis, anyone?), a tell-tale sign of the eras normative biases (it’s always Earth “men” and space “men,” this being two decades before women would make space history), and a capsule of undying aspiration to know the cosmos, with a side of classic bisociation-driven humor.

Charles Winick, who dreamt up and edited the collection, writes in a short note to the reader:

Life on other planets has been a subject of discussion for thousands of years. Recently, flying saucers and Sputnik have served to arouse Americans to the realistic possibility of travel between planets. This possibility, enhanced by the success of our astronauts, is so real that it has entered into many jokes that have become part of American folklore.

The drawings by James Schwering, reminiscent of a cross between Vladimir Radunsky and Tomi Ungerer, are simply irresistible.

An Earth man landed on the Moon. His first sight was a Moon man carrying a sign which read: “Repent, the Moon is coming to an end.”

Two space men landed on Earth and were greeted by a movie mogul. “See,” said one of the visitors, “I told you it was a waste of time to study English.”

Two astronomers were watching Mars from the observatory. Suddenly the planet disintegrated with a cataclysmic explosion. A huge mushroom cloud billowed out in space. One astronomer turned to the other and said: “See, I told you Mars has intelligent life.”

The man in the Moon noticed Sputnik scooting by very rapidly, and asked, “Hey, little fella, what’s your hurry? I go around the Earth only every twenty-eight days or so.” Sputnik replied, “Yes, but you’re not trying to get away from the Russians.”

A space ship landed in Manhattan; a space man emerged and asked a passer-by: “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” “Practice, my boy, practice,” came the answer.

The Russian scientists selecting a cosmonaut for a trip to the Moon have had great difficulties in making a final selection, because there were so many volunteers who were eager to leave Russia for the Moon.

Two Martians with antennae sticking out from their heads walked into a restaurant. The hat check girl asked: “Check your hats, gentlemen?” “No, thanks, we’re expecting a call.”

A Martian walked into a bar and ordered a martini. “That’ll be two dollars,” said the bartender, and then added: “You’re the first Martian I’ve seen around here.” “At two dollars a drink,” the Martian snorted, “it’s no wonder.”

Two rats were in a nose cone shooting through space. One rat said to the other rat, “And to think we might have been in cancer research!”

Though sadly long out of print, Outer Space Humor is an absolute treat if you can get your hands on a used copy. For a more cerebral counterpart from the same era, see Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ray Bradbury in conversation about space travel.

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The Cat and the Devil: Rare Illustrations from James Joyce’s Little-Known Children’s Story

Gerald Rose’s wonderful drawings depicting Joyce himself as the satanic protagonist of his irreverent children’s book.

My obsession with vintage children’s books was propelled into full swing a few years ago with the discovery of The Cat and the Devil, a charming 1981 picture-book based on a letter James Joyce wrote to his grandson Stephen on August 10, 1936, and illustrated by celebrated French artist Blachon. (The obsession has since escalated with more such lesser-known children’s treasures by famous “adult” authors, including Mark Twain, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, John Updike, Sylvia Plath, William Faulkner, Gertrude Stein, Anne Sexton, T. S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley, James Thurber, Carl Sandburg, Salman Rushdie, Ian Fleming, and Langston Hughes. But it turns out the Joyce gem was preceded by an even more magnificent UK edition illustrated by Gerald Rose, tragically out of print and nearly impossible to find but still surviving at some public libraries. For those not fortunate enough to track down one of the few remaining copies, here are Rose’s utterly delightful illustrations to feast your eyes on — doubly delightful for portraying Joyce himself as the devil:

The story ends on a mischievously Joycean note:

P.S. The devil mostly speaks a language of his own called Bellsybabble which he makes up himself as he goes along but when he is very angry he can speak quite bad French though some who have heard him say he has a strong Dublin accent.

Another Joyce feline story, The Cats of Copenhagen, also based on a letter to Stephen, was recently discovered and posthumously published in 2012 as one of the year’s best children’s books. For some modern-day cat love of equal literary and artistic delight, see the hopelessly wonderful Lost Cat.

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When Edward Gorey Illustrated Dracula: Two Masters of the Macabre, Together

“No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.”

As if knowing that the great Edward Gorey illustrated a small stable of little-known and wonderful paperback covers for literary classics weren’t enough of a treat, how thrilling it is to know that he also illustrated the occasional entire volume, from classic fairy tales to H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds to T. S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. But out of all his literary reimaginings, by far the greatest fit for Gorey’s singular brand of darkly delightful visual magic is Edward Gorey’s Dracula (public library), a special edition of the Bram Stoker classic originally published in 1977 and eventually adapted as a magnificent toy theater of die-cut foldups and foldouts. Gorey’s illustrations of the characters are terrifyingly charming and charmingly terrific:

Mina Murray

Jonathan Harker

Lucy Westenra

Dr. John Seward

R. M. Renfield

Dr. Abraham Van Helsing

Count Dracula

The gorgeously Gorey endpapers are particularly marvelous:

The book also includes some pages from Bram Stoker’s original Dracula manuscript:

Manuscript notes and outlines, p. 35 verso b. (Courtesy of the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia)

Manuscript notes and outlines, p. 2 (Courtesy of the Rosenbach Museum & Library, Philadelphia)

But the greatest Gorey-goodie of all is the toy theater set:

Complement Edward Gorey’s Dracula with a look back at this gallery of the beloved illustrator’s other literary masterpieces.

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