RECIPES TO LIGHTEN A DARKLING AGE

BAKED TRUFFLES

CHOOSE some good white truffles; wash with care; wrap each of them in five or six pieces of paper previously soaked in water.

Cook in hot cinders, remove the sheets of paper, dry the truffles, and serve them among the folds of a well-warmed table napkin.

Familiar, and yet too little eaten.   

 

FRICASSEE OF MUSHROOMS

HAVING peeled your mushrooms, and scraped the inside of them, throw them into cold water.  If they are buttons, rub them with flannel; take them out and boil them in fresh water with salt.  When they are tender, put in a little shredded parsley, and an onion stuck with cloves, and toss them up with a good lump of butter rolled in a little flour.  You may put in three spoonfuls of thick cream, and a little nutmeg cut in pieces; but be sure to take out the nutmeg and onion before you send it to table.



NOTE:  THESE recipes, from Norman Douglas' wonderful Venus In The Kitchen, both look excellent, wintry and holiday-ish.  Still, I wonder whether I'll ever taste white truffle (or caviar) again? Perhaps I'll be invited to dine at the White House some day -- I mean, how many times can one stand having Barbra Streisand to dinner?

I've only eaten Truffes sous la cendre once before --  many, many years ago at an amazing restaurant called L'Archestrate in Paris, which I believe was the place Alain Senderens launched his brilliant career.  It was prepared, as is customary, with black truffles there.  Using white truffle in the dish must also be amazing.  Now that Jane's at last eating mushrooms (at least in the form of cream of mushroom soup and only when they're thoroughly blended), I think I'll try the fricassee out on her, possibly for Christmas Eve dinner.  I won't discuss the fact that the dish (like all the recipes in Venus In The Kitchen) is considered to be an aphrodisiac.  She's only 15 and she's my daughter, for  heaven sake. 

Pictures of Norman Douglas tend to be memorable and atmospheric, even the ordinary ones.  I love this 1935  Carl van Vechten portrait, taken against Venice's stones.  

Kinks: Low Budget (Link) 

The Ceaseless Melody Of Northern Line

  The antithesis between classical ornament and Northern Gothic ornament requires a more exhaustive consideration.  The fundamental difference in the character of these two manifestations of art must also be demonstrated in detail.  

  

    When comparing the two styles of ornament, the first point that strikes one is that the Northern ornament lacks the concept of symmetry which from the beginning was so characteristic of all classical ornament. Symmetry is replaced by repetition.  

    A continually increasing activity without pauses or accents is set up and repetition has only the one aim of giving the particular motive a potential infinity. The infinite harmony of the line hovers before Northern man in his ornament: that infinite line which gives no pleasure, but which stuns and compels us to helpless surrender.

    If after contemplating Northern ornament, we close our eyes, all that remains to us is a lingering impression of a formless, ceaseless activity.

 

Excerpt:  Wilhelm Worringer, Form In Gothic (authorized translation  of Formprobleme der Gotik, edited with an introduction by Herbert Read), New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1927.

 

Illustrations: 

1. Daniel Hopfer,  (ca 1470-1536): Ornament with Thistle (Gothic Thistle). Etching.

2.  Shoulder clasp (closed) from the Sutton Hoo ship-burial.

3.  "Edinburgh Lecture diagram: Decorated cusped gothic window" by John Ruskin and Sir John Everett Millais, assisted by Euphemia Chalmers Ruskin, pencil, charcoal, ink, wash, oil and gold paint; paper mounted on linen, 1853.

4.  Ärentunar runestone with interlaced animal, Uppland, Sweden.

5.  Engraving of the Cross of Cong, an Irish processional cross decorated with elements of Insular art and Urnes-style decoration, early 12th century.

Link A:  Only A Northern Song -- The Beatles 

Link B:  Only A Northern Song (Back Track) -- The Beatles