Stirrabout

DIALOGUE XXXVII.
* STIRABOUT.
Nancy, Rose.
Nancy. I'LL lhank you for a lock of meal60. I have not enough to thicken the stirabout.
Rose. You are very welcome to it, Nancy; but did any thing happen your meal, for you laid in more than we did?
Nancy. Indeed nothing happened, but what happens to "all the victuals —it was eat—but I wonder what happened to yours, to last so long. Have you any knack of spinning it out? , ,
Rose. I have a particular method of making stirabout.
Nancy. What's that, Rose? Myself thinks you have a knack at every thing.
Rose. To be sure. I let the water boil before I stir in e'er a grain; and when once it boils fast, I put in handful after handful, till I think there is near enough, stirring it very well all the time; then I lift the pot a hook or two higher, and cover it up for a good share of half an hour, very seldom stirring it.
Nancy. Sure it must be like paste. Tim likes the stirabout short.
Rose. Stay, Nancy, till I tell you. Just before I take off the pot, I stir in one handful, and it's good, wholesome, short stirabout, and not near so heating for the children, as when it does not get it's due of boiling, as well as more nourishing for Jem, besides making the meal go a great deal farther.

- Cottage dialogues among the Irish peasantry, with notes and a preface, M. Edgeworth,
Maria Edgeworth,1811, p.190.