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dwgm500 words, not counting the recipes, with thanks to my dear ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hereswith for beta reading, editing, and excellent suggestions.
Previous bits...
And here's today's...
41. Ten Years Later
~ An Execrable Business, continued...
Cook returned to his domain, Jack slipped a small, prettily embossed, but effectively sharp knife into Nell’s pocket – Just in case! – and Bill took her off for a thorough tour of the ship. Nell, who was possessed of a good memory and sense of direction, thought she could henceforth find her way to the areas of the ship that were open to her, but soon found herself floundering in nautical detail when Bill began going over the elements of sail and rigging.
“I shall never remember the half of this!” she exclaimed when he paused for a moment.
“You’ll find you remember more than you think, it’ll come to you at odd times, just when you need it. These are things any sailor knows, but I expect Jack’ll tell you more about the Pearl and the finer points of sailing. He’s a dab hand at navigation, never seen anyone to match him, and he drew most of the charts in his cabin himself – was apprenticed to a cartographer at one time. Navigation’s what’ll keep me from rising higher than quartermaster. I never was much for the numbers. Barbossa’s the only other man on the ship that can navigate, but he can’t hold a candle to Jack.”
Nell was extremely pleased to hear such praise, for Bootstrap Bill might be Jack’s friend, but she felt he was a man who would commend only when and where it was due. “Can we go aloft, to examine the sails and rigging closer?” she asked him. “I always wished to, when we were coming across from England, but could not, of course, in my skirts. I think I would learn a great deal, and remember more of what you’re telling me.”
Bill looked doubtful. “Could be Jack’ll take you up himself. You can ask him about that at dinner. Speaking of which, we’d better take you down to the galley. Cook’s a stickler for punctuality, Naval fashion.”
When they appeared, prompt to the minute, Cook exclaimed, “There’s me galley mate, just in time! Bootstrap, you just take yourself off, I’ll take care of this one.”
Fortunately, Cook decided Nell should be trained by doing and spared her much verbal instruction, for the present. “You’ll learn as ye go, and much of it takes more brawn than you’ll ever have. But I’ll teach ye to prepare some o’ the dainties the Captain enjoys, and you can help with the victuals the crew gets – Dog’s Body, Drowned Baby and the like. Sausages, too. I’ve been perfecting me recipe these twenty years an’ more, and there’s not a man on the Pearl that can resist a sausage toasted by yours truly.”
“Twenty years!” exclaimed Nell. “You’ve been a cook for that long?”
“Aye, ten years in the Royal Navy, and ten out of it. Signed on with John Tobias a couple of years before they dragged the Captain up from the bilges, a skinny young stowaway he was, but John saw the possibilities in him right off. Here you go, now, you sit here and peel these here potatoes for me. They’re a bit newfangled for the men, but the Captain’s right fond of ‘em.”
“I shall be glad to, but will you tell me everything?”
“Everything? About Cap’n Jack, d’ye mean?”
“Yes, but about you too, and about the Navy, and… and how you lost your eye… and everything!”
“Well, if that ain’t a tall order!” Cook chuckled, looking extremely gratified. “Very well, Missy, you peel and I’ll talk. But mark you, it’ll take the length of the bloody voyage to England to tell all of it.”
TBC...
Notes: Cook’s recipes, taken from Lobscouse and Spotted Dog by Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and Lisa Grossman Thomas.
~ Dog’s Body ~
1 pound dried split peas
6 oz. salt pork in ½-inch dice (or ¼ pound (1 stick) of butter for a more delicate, less seamanlike pudding)
4 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper
Tie the peas loosely in a pudding-cloth. Place in a large pot with boiling water to cover. Simmer, covered, 1 ½ hours. As the peas cook, you may occasionally need to add more boiling water. It is also a good idea to lift the
pudding-cloth now and then to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Remove the pudding-cloth from the pot and place it in a strainer. When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Untie the cloth and scrape the peas into a bowl. Add the pork, flour, and salt, and pepper to taste. Mix well. Put the mixture back into the cloth and tie it as tightly as possible. Place the pudding in a fresh pot of boiling water and cook for one hour.
Remove the pudding-cloth from the pot, untie it, and carefully turn the pudding out into a serving dish.
Serves 8 as a side dish.
~ Drowned Baby ~
4 cups flour
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cup raisins
½ pound suet, finely grated
Ice Water
In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the raisins, breaking them apart (the flour will coat them and keep them from clumping together). Mix in the suet.
Work in 1-2 tablespoons of ice water. Continue gradually adding ice water until you have a stiff paste (it will probably take about a cup of ice water, but this will bary depending on temperature, humidity, the dryness of your flour, etc.). Work it with your hands until it forms a ball. Turn it out onto a well-floured board. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 5 minutes.
Knead the dough until it is shiny and elastic (6-8 minutes), cover again, let rest another 5 minutes, then knead again for 1-2 minutes.
Shape the dough into a nice, fat, vaguely cylindrical lump. Wrap the pudding fairly loosely in a well-floured cloth. Tie securely at both ends (we usually also tie a string loosely around the middle, to keep the cloth from gaping). Immerse the pudding in a pot of rapidly boiling water and cook for 2 ½ hours, replenishing the water as necessary.
To serve, untie and unroll the cloth. Turn the pudding out onto a board or platter. Serve hot, accompanied by Custard Sauce.
Serves 12-16
~.~
hereswith for beta reading, editing, and excellent suggestions.Previous bits...
| 1. Tortuga 2. Happiness 3. Festive 4. Last Minute 5. Calm 6. Truth 7. Bargain 8. Spook 9. Down 10. Wounds 11. Moon 12. Monsters | 13. Beauty 14. Name 15. History 16. Service 17. Advice 18. Captain 19. Awe 20. Cross 21. "You've made a big mistake" 22. Heroism 23. Gold 24. Echo | 25. Greed 26. Advance 27. Challenge 28. Adventure 29. Sentence 30. Treasure 31. North 32. Coat 33. Good and Evil 34. Sickness and Health 35. Lost 36. Court | 37. What if? 38. Island 39. That can't be 40. Prophesy |
And here's today's...
41. Ten Years Later
~ An Execrable Business, continued...
Cook returned to his domain, Jack slipped a small, prettily embossed, but effectively sharp knife into Nell’s pocket – Just in case! – and Bill took her off for a thorough tour of the ship. Nell, who was possessed of a good memory and sense of direction, thought she could henceforth find her way to the areas of the ship that were open to her, but soon found herself floundering in nautical detail when Bill began going over the elements of sail and rigging.
“I shall never remember the half of this!” she exclaimed when he paused for a moment.
“You’ll find you remember more than you think, it’ll come to you at odd times, just when you need it. These are things any sailor knows, but I expect Jack’ll tell you more about the Pearl and the finer points of sailing. He’s a dab hand at navigation, never seen anyone to match him, and he drew most of the charts in his cabin himself – was apprenticed to a cartographer at one time. Navigation’s what’ll keep me from rising higher than quartermaster. I never was much for the numbers. Barbossa’s the only other man on the ship that can navigate, but he can’t hold a candle to Jack.”
Nell was extremely pleased to hear such praise, for Bootstrap Bill might be Jack’s friend, but she felt he was a man who would commend only when and where it was due. “Can we go aloft, to examine the sails and rigging closer?” she asked him. “I always wished to, when we were coming across from England, but could not, of course, in my skirts. I think I would learn a great deal, and remember more of what you’re telling me.”
Bill looked doubtful. “Could be Jack’ll take you up himself. You can ask him about that at dinner. Speaking of which, we’d better take you down to the galley. Cook’s a stickler for punctuality, Naval fashion.”
When they appeared, prompt to the minute, Cook exclaimed, “There’s me galley mate, just in time! Bootstrap, you just take yourself off, I’ll take care of this one.”
Fortunately, Cook decided Nell should be trained by doing and spared her much verbal instruction, for the present. “You’ll learn as ye go, and much of it takes more brawn than you’ll ever have. But I’ll teach ye to prepare some o’ the dainties the Captain enjoys, and you can help with the victuals the crew gets – Dog’s Body, Drowned Baby and the like. Sausages, too. I’ve been perfecting me recipe these twenty years an’ more, and there’s not a man on the Pearl that can resist a sausage toasted by yours truly.”
“Twenty years!” exclaimed Nell. “You’ve been a cook for that long?”
“Aye, ten years in the Royal Navy, and ten out of it. Signed on with John Tobias a couple of years before they dragged the Captain up from the bilges, a skinny young stowaway he was, but John saw the possibilities in him right off. Here you go, now, you sit here and peel these here potatoes for me. They’re a bit newfangled for the men, but the Captain’s right fond of ‘em.”
“I shall be glad to, but will you tell me everything?”
“Everything? About Cap’n Jack, d’ye mean?”
“Yes, but about you too, and about the Navy, and… and how you lost your eye… and everything!”
“Well, if that ain’t a tall order!” Cook chuckled, looking extremely gratified. “Very well, Missy, you peel and I’ll talk. But mark you, it’ll take the length of the bloody voyage to England to tell all of it.”
TBC...
Notes: Cook’s recipes, taken from Lobscouse and Spotted Dog by Anne Chotzinoff Grossman and Lisa Grossman Thomas.
~ Dog’s Body ~
1 pound dried split peas
6 oz. salt pork in ½-inch dice (or ¼ pound (1 stick) of butter for a more delicate, less seamanlike pudding)
4 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon salt
Pepper
Tie the peas loosely in a pudding-cloth. Place in a large pot with boiling water to cover. Simmer, covered, 1 ½ hours. As the peas cook, you may occasionally need to add more boiling water. It is also a good idea to lift the
pudding-cloth now and then to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Remove the pudding-cloth from the pot and place it in a strainer. When it is cool enough to handle, squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Untie the cloth and scrape the peas into a bowl. Add the pork, flour, and salt, and pepper to taste. Mix well. Put the mixture back into the cloth and tie it as tightly as possible. Place the pudding in a fresh pot of boiling water and cook for one hour.
Remove the pudding-cloth from the pot, untie it, and carefully turn the pudding out into a serving dish.
Serves 8 as a side dish.
~ Drowned Baby ~
4 cups flour
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cup raisins
½ pound suet, finely grated
Ice Water
In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the raisins, breaking them apart (the flour will coat them and keep them from clumping together). Mix in the suet.
Work in 1-2 tablespoons of ice water. Continue gradually adding ice water until you have a stiff paste (it will probably take about a cup of ice water, but this will bary depending on temperature, humidity, the dryness of your flour, etc.). Work it with your hands until it forms a ball. Turn it out onto a well-floured board. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest for 5 minutes.
Knead the dough until it is shiny and elastic (6-8 minutes), cover again, let rest another 5 minutes, then knead again for 1-2 minutes.
Shape the dough into a nice, fat, vaguely cylindrical lump. Wrap the pudding fairly loosely in a well-floured cloth. Tie securely at both ends (we usually also tie a string loosely around the middle, to keep the cloth from gaping). Immerse the pudding in a pot of rapidly boiling water and cook for 2 ½ hours, replenishing the water as necessary.
To serve, untie and unroll the cloth. Turn the pudding out onto a board or platter. Serve hot, accompanied by Custard Sauce.
Serves 12-16
~.~
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 03:05 pm (UTC)Thanks for the recipe!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 03:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 03:52 pm (UTC)Really loved Bill telling Nell how Jack was apprenticed to a cartographer at once time, and how Barbossa couldn't hold a candle to him navigationally. I think this was a very interesting detail concerning all the maps he held in the great cabin!
Nell is just wonderful herself in this chapter as well, love her curiosity and her friendly nature with the cook. I'm really looking forward to seeing where their conversation goes, and how Jack enjoys this dinner! :)
Great work here, love!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-19 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 01:22 am (UTC)Love you!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 02:04 am (UTC)"He’s a dab hand at navigation" for some reason this is a major awwwwwww moment for me--I'm just real proud of his ability in this area--navigation is an incredible weapon, not shiny so much as just plain deadly--to negoiate the waters of the Caribbean requires a nimble mind--superior knowledge of currents etc.
Thanks for the pretty knife--it'll work as well as an ugly one long as it's sharp!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 02:37 pm (UTC)So glad you liked this part! The next one will be up soon!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 02:05 am (UTC)"Nell was extremely pleased to hear such praise, for Bootstrap Bill might be Jack’s friend, but she felt he was a man who would commend only when and where it was due." - This is a great observation, and I really love Bill in this story, you portray him in such a wonderful, vivid way!
Great installment! :)
And thank you for the recipes, they look very promising!
no subject
Date: 2009-02-20 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-22 05:19 pm (UTC)