Versions of this dish have been appearing on tables of both the royalty and the rabble for centuries. But this author had a particular appetite for it.

The dish pops up in feasts in some of the author’s most famous works. Indeed, colorful descriptions of food and drink are so common in this writer’s work that some think of the writer as the modern novel’s first literary foodie.

So, since the recipe is pretty straightforward, let’s see if you can guess what the dish is, who the writer is, and which novel this delectable food appears in.

The recipe calls for six servings of this particular fruit, a dash of lemon peel, two tablespoons of butter, confectioners' sugar and a sprinkling of nutmeg.

The fruit is cooked, the sugar and butter is added and while I like this dish hot, it was often served cold.

Now, in one of the most famous novels of this author’s prodigious career, the writer puts this dish on the table for a holiday feast as a large family gathers to celebrate. There is “hissing hot” gravy and mashed potatoes. There is a large bird at the center of the table that emits the aromas of sage and onion and as the matriarch of this family begins to carve it “the long expected gush of stuffing issued forth and (a) murmur of delight arose all around the board.”

When this family has eaten their fill, there is an after-dinner treat that can still be purchased in winter on the city streets of London and New York.

So, for this month’s Foodie Fiction, can you name the dish that accompanies this feast? Can you figure out the novel in which this feast appears?  And can you name the author who created it?

If you’ve got it, tweet me @KerriMPR.

— Kerri Miller | MPR News