European and American Professional Sourdough Recipes
It's Friday, and I'm struggling. I want to be productive, but I can't seem to muster up any enthusiasm for it. And the books I'm cataloging are very distracting. "The glorious oyster : his history in Rome and in Britain, his anatomy and reproduction, how to cook him, and what various writers and poets have written in his praise. Collected together as an acknowledgement of the supreme pleasure he has given to all persons of taste since Roman times" was especially good. Better still is "European and American Professional Sourdough Recipes," by George Leonard Herter and Berthe E. Herter.
While I'm not entirely comfortable with the occasional casual racism, the parts that aren't offensive are pretty fantastic.
I particularly like the story (partially excerpted below) of Lola Montez (nee Eliza Gilbert), who (according to the Herters) brought sourdough to San Francisco.
"Lola toured Europe in 1847 billed as 'Lola Montez, The Premier Spanish Ballerina Offering Her Sensational Spider Dance.' The Spider Dance was really just a burlesque strip tease affair. Lola wore a little gauze, whirled and pirouetted around the stage, flaying [sic] her arms trying to free herself from an imaginary spider web. She pretended the angry spiders scurried up her bare arms, legs and on her breasts. Lola located and picked off the imaginary spiders and threw them to the floor killing them. If the country she performed in allowed it, Lola ended up completely nude. The dance was just a means of showing off her breasts and crotch as much as possible.
Lola Montez was really a sporting lady. You should use this term instead of prostitute or whore. It sounds better.
Franz Liszt, the famous Hungarian composer, lived with Lola in Munich and in Paris. People thought pretty well of Liszt at the time. He was something like Hoagy Carmichael...
King Louis I of Bavaria sent her a box of diamonds and rubies and a letter asking her to come to his court. Lola like royalty as a group. When she got to Munich she found a completely staffed castle just for her own use. All she had to do for all of this was to let Louis pump her when he felt like it. To Lola this was a real bargain...
Lola went to Paris then to England. Her mother, another sporting lady, was now Lady Elizabeth Craigie, the widow of the late Sir Patrick Craigie, Adjutant General of her Majesty's forces of India. There is one thing about royalty, most of royalty always has been made up of some of the best prostitutes. Prostitutes make the best royalty...
Lola married Patrick Purdy Hull, a tall affable, witty San Franciscan, writer and part owner of the Whig newspaper. He was an exceptionally good alcoholic and drank a little over a quart of whiskey a day."