Which foods in books made you hungry when you read about them?

[ABowlOfPorridge]

Heidi always made goat’s cheese and goat’s milk sound so good but I hated them when I finally got to try them as an adult.

The feast at the Beavers’ house sounded so good especially the marmalade roll.

Which literary culinary delights appealed to you?

I came to say this! When the middle of the potato was scooped out and mashed with cheese before putting back in the skins!

The stuff at the top of the faraway tree.

Oh, what fun! Did they insist on inspecting the eggs?And does it count if yku don’t send the leftovers to be finished off by the servants in the kitchen?😀

Chafing dishes are just light little spirit stoves that keep things hot or let people cook stuff at the dinner table — when a waiter makes Crèpes Suzette at the table in a restaurant, they’ll be doing it on a chafing dish. Nothing to do with chafing as such, from the French ‘chauffer’.

There was a bit of a vogue for making light dishes at the table to show off at dinner parties in the early 20thc, so making the omelettes at the table wasn’t in any way suspicious in itself…

The birthday party where Bad Harry (and then ‘My Naughty Little Sister) eats the sprinkles and then the rest of the dessert and also the house in Hansel and Gretal!

The hot cross buns in A Little Princess

Also 'My Naughty Little Sister'- there is a high-tea that features the 'snap of a chocolate biscuit'. I always imagined a McVities Plain Chocolate digestive and immediately wanted one.

There's a description of a Roast Chicken in a book, and I can't remember what the book is - maybe someone can help me? The description is something like "And as she placed the Roast Chicken on the table, his nose was filled with the warm fragrance of rosemary, thyme, a dash of lemon and the savoury crisp of perfectly salted and seasoned roast chicken skin.' I wish I could remember what it was but I remember re-reading it because it made me salivate.

loved Enid Blyton’s Mallory Towers when the girls unpacked their ‘trunks’ and discovered what tuck their mothers had put in there for them. I can’t really remember what there was except there was always cake. I couldn’t imagine having a whole cake to myself as a child!

Stewed blackberry and apple, thanks to Milly Molly Mandy!

Also, there’s a bit in Little Women where they put baked potatoes in their pockets to keep their hands warm and then to eat as a snack later and I just thought that was a genius idea.

This sounds distinctly Jilly Cooper-ish!

I used to read Elizabeth David's cook books for her delicious anecdotes and descriptions - she introduced post-war Britain to the wonders of herbs, garlic, olive oil and pasta! Nigella Lawson includes sensuous prose snippets with her recipes, too.

Omg I came here and immediately thought of pop biscuits! And Toffee shocks!

Yes, I recognise that rationing played an enormous part, and was nowhere near as severe in Australia, so my parents' anecdotes of it were in some ways almost nostalgic.

I also have read that whatever was the type of teacher training Blyton did also emphasised lots (and lots and lots?) of healthy nutritious food and plenty of outdoor activities. It's interesting how times have changed. This was almost non existant when I did my teacher training, obviously many decades after Blyton.

Another mention for the Chalet School.

i would like cake with layers of pastry and cream in Innsbruck one day.

Also the buttery potato balls.

i thought Amy ate chocolate limes in little women?

No, but when Father Christmas appearing with a teapot and cream and sugar I was drooling.

Tea with claggy cream. 😂

And afternoon tea with Mr Tumnus sounded delightful.

Ok it’s not a book, but in the aristocrats when they have creme de la creme of Edgar and have a creamy concoction that they dip crackers into…

The book butter and its descriptions of ramen

Definitely pickled limes! I’m currently reading it with a student and we googled them. Neither of us liked the look of them at all!

No, they don’t look good at all!
Lovely to know children are still enjoying Little Women.

I’ve come on to second all of Ma Larkin’s cooking in the Darling Buds books. The description of her roast goose makes me salivate just thinking about it now.

Everything in Butter. In fact, she describes having plain rice with soy sauce and a thin slice of butter on the top. It is indeed delicious.

It was Ma Larkin's cooking that made me want to be a cook!

I quite liked the descriptions of the food that the Borrowers ate - eating sliced hot chestnuts like toast with butter, a single potted shrimp each, fieldmouse stew, little wild strawberries, gathering a bunch of tiny leftover potatoes which would be normal-sized to them.