Writing to Pips on Boxing Day, Sherriff set out the menu for their Christmas Eve feast, and how they had gone about preparing it.
He had drawn up the menu ‘after much consideration and consultation with Morris [his servant] as to the capacity of his cooking materials’, and by making full use of the Anglo-French dictionary which Bundy had sent him:
Sherriff’s Xmas Menu, from his letter to Pips, 26 December 1916 (By permission of the Surrey History Centre, Ref: 2332/1/1/3/129)
The servants had been ‘fired to enthusiasm by offers of extra rum ration etc’ and they soon had their coke fires ‘going strong and various tin receptacles over the fires’, and he and Patterson supervised, so that when Gibson and James returned from duty at 9:00 pm the dinner was ready.
‘The soup (made from compressed soup squares) was quite successful, Morris having become a most skilful waiter – as this example shows. A thick canvas sheet is nailed over our door which is secured at the top and is hung down at night. A dent appears on the canvas from outside and Morris appears head first with 2 soup plates in each hand and has to advance to the opposite wall of the dugout to get clear of the curtain. It is like a net which you have to get under in an obstacle race, and I leave it down on purpose to see Morris perform this skilful feat.’
The Beef brisé aux Tomates turned out to be steak ‘with rather watery tomato soup thrown over it’. He was relieved that there were no complaints about it since, as Mess President, he was responsible for their food supply. As he told Pips, this meant that any ‘sarcastic remarks or complaints’ about the food were directed to him (‘more amusement is perhaps got in this manner at meals than anything else’).
The Christmas pudding on the menu was the one which his mother had sent him, and it was a ‘gigantic success – set alight with some rum it really looked quite like an old fashioned Xmas.’ The ‘Coquillages á la Russé were less successful, and ‘brought down some sarcastic remarks upon my head’, for they had turned out to be ‘little square chippy bits of toast spread with anchovy paste.’ But the criticisms disappeared with the arrival of ‘Les Fruits’, which consisted of almonds, raisin, dates and figs, together with some French wine (‘which tasted like weak water’).
Overall, their little party had been a great success, and, while James and Gibson went back on duty afterwards, he lay back in his bed and read Guy Mannering. For the first time in his life, however, he did not hang his Christmas stocking up – ‘but I hope I will be able to next year’.
[Next letter: 27 December]