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<p>My sister reminds me that our family had two toasting forks: one
the posh telescopic one, and one that was part of a set of "fire
irons": poker, scissor-like pincer implement to grab lumps of
coal, shovel to deal with ashes, and a toasting fork. There was a
fear that if you used to toasting fork in front of an electric
fire then you might electrocute yourself. At any rate ours
disappeared when my parents moved into a house without an open
fire. The pincer implement could also be used for roasting
chestnuts.</p>
<p>My reading of the "Peanuts" strip suggests that in the US
marshmallows are toasted using a simple stick. Correct?</p>
<p>Sorry about "heap": "neatly stacked pile" is what I meant to
write.<br>
</p>
<p>Jeremy<br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 22.09.2019 20:01, Mary Ellen Foley
wrote:<br>
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<div dir="ltr">I've got a recipe that calls for toasting the
crumpets individually, stacking them up, and putting "a lump of
butter" on top so that it melts down and butters all the
crumpets. The book was given to me in 1982, and was contemporary
(and published by SuperCook's; British readers may recognize the
brand).<br>
<br>
I certainly can't imagine crumpets being eaten like American
pancakes, which suggests a knife and fork. And if a stack of
American pancakes is a 'heap', then 'heap' is used differently
in the two countries!<br>
<br>
I was disillusioned when I moved to the UK to find that a lump
of sugar was just a common cube of sugar, but I still like it
that recipes use terms such as lump. I have old recipes from my
foremothers that call for "a lump of butter the size of a
walnut" or "of a hen's egg". I wonder if any British cookbooks
still calls for a knob of butter? Perhaps only if preparing
spotted dick --<br>
<br>
mef</div>
<br>
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<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Sep 22, 2019 at 3:16
PM Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:vwoolf@lists.osu.edu">vwoolf@lists.osu.edu</a>>
wrote:<br>
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<p>Rereading <i>The Waves</i> and came across this: "Yes, I
hold Gray's <i>Elegy</i> in one hand; with the other I
scoop out the bottom crumpet, that has absorbed all the
butter and sticks to the bottom of the plate." This
suggests that Bernard and Neville are eating crumpets as
Americans eat pancakes - already toasted and buttered or
whatever, and piled in heaps. In contrast, my childhood
memory is of toasting them in front of an open fire, then
buttering them individually and eating them while the
butter was only half melted. Much nicer that way. The
toasting method is as described below in "Counsel's
Opinion," but as the clerk is doing the toasting and
leaving them keeping hot in the library, presumably they
too will be buttered en masse and eaten from a greasy
pile. Do families still possess toasting forks? I suspect
that with the demise of the open coal fire, they exist
only in Antique shops. My family had a rather fine
telescopic one - fully extended you could toast without
getting burnt by the fire.</p>
<p>Jeremy H</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="gmail-m_-8721583079903149702moz-cite-prefix">On
20.0.2019 10:34, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:<br>
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<div>I ‘as bin readin’ “Counsel’s Opinion”, Bella
Sidney Woolf’s jointly-written privately published
one-act play of 1922, presumably written for
am.dram. performances of and for expats in Honkers.
Can that be so? It was printed in HK, but Bella was
still in Colombo; she only moved to HK in 1925. So,
perhaps it was intended for expats in Colombo, and
it is a coincidence that her husband Tom Southorn’s
career took him from Colombo to HK.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Anyway, the play is set in “A room in the
Temple”, belonging to a “Lady Barrister”. That’s
progressive, and even more progressive is that her
love interest (another barrister) finally accepts
that he “was old-fashioned enough to think that men
must work and women must housekeep”.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>However, she has a clerk, Jenkins, who is also
female: “As the curtain rises, JENKINS, a quaint
person in a black frock is toasting muffins in front
of the fire. She is singing ‘. . .’ [censored, in
case the sensitives are caused distress]”. Jenkins
and references to muffins continue throughout the
play. The muffins and the dropped aitches (e.g.
“D’yer like yer muffins ‘alf-toasted or done to a
coal-black cinder?”) reminds me of “Orlando”: “The
muffins is keepin’ ’ot in the liberry”.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>As part of the US imperial project, American
muffins have invaded the UK and are gradually taking
over. They are advertised as muffins, as if English
muffins didn’t exist. American muffins are the
teatime equivalent of the grey [sic] squirrel.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>It is a sobering thought that generations of
Americans have not known what muffins were in
“Orlando”. Some may have wondered why they needed
to be kept ‘ot, or why one should apply butter to
them (see “The Importance of Being Earnest”).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>The new CUP edn of “Orlando” provides info. on
the history of the muffin (and the crumpet) under
the quote “The muffin was invented and the crumpet”,
but does not explain what a muffin actually is. Of
course, you can look up a dictionary, but sometimes
you don’t know that you *need* to look up a
dictionary. Cf. “street scavengers” in “Jacob’s
Room”.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Stuart</div>
</div>
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