I have a special affection for Cards on the Table, the first Poirot novel to feature Ariadne Oliver. I absolutely love the way that through the character of Ariadne Oliver, Agatha Christie gets really meta – she pkes fun at herself, her characters and the whole business of crime writing. There is a lovely…in the movies, they would call it a set-piece, I am not sure what the literary equivalent is…featuring sage and onion stuffing so that is what I decided to go with for my recipe.
Another reason I love Cards on The Table is that during the first lockdown of 2020, looking for some comfort reading I decided to re-read a compilation of the Ariadne Oliver novels that I had bought from the local library a few years before. It was whilst reading Cards on The Table and the passage about the sage and onion stuffing in particular that I began to wonder if writing about the food in Christie’s books might be a thing!
If you think some of my sage leaves look a bit manky – they are straight from the garden, organically grown sage leaves and that is how they come!.
Cards on The Table – The Plot
Mr Shaitana holds a dinner party where the guests consist of four sleuths and four people who may have successfully gotten away with murder once. During a game of bridge, one of the possible murderers stabs Shaitana to death.
On the side of law and order, we have:
- Hercule Poirot – private detective,
- Ariadne Oliver – crime fiction writer,
- Colonel Race – Secret Service and,
- Superintendent Battle – Scotland Yard.
The suspects are
- Mrs Lorimer – Keen bridge player. She may have murdered her abusive husband
- Major John Despard – an adventurer who possibly killed the husband of a woman he was having an affair with
- Dr Geoffrey Roberts who might have killed one of his patients
- Anne Meredith – a ladies companion who maybe swapped her employee’s medicine for hat poison
Can the sleuths team up to find the killer?
Mr Shaitana – Mephistopheles is Not Your Name
If you were the kind of person who liked to play a drinking game while you read your Christie, should you decide to take a chug every time Mr Shaitana s described as Mephistophelian you would be utterly hammered before the first half of the book is done.
Ariadne Oliver
As mentioned, I love Ariadne Oliver, first because I love the way Agatha Christie pokes fun at herself through this character.
“What really matters is plenty of bodies. If the thing’s getting a little dull, some more blood cheers it up. Somebody is going to tell something – and then they’re killed first. That always goes down well…And people like untraceable poisons and idiotic police inspectors and girls tied up in cellar with sewer gas or water pouring in”
“I only regret one thing – making my detective a Finn. I don’t really know anything about Finns and I’m always getting letters from Finland pointing out something impossible that he has said or done. They seem to read detective stories a good deal in Finland. I suppose it is the long winters with no daylight. In Bulgaria and Romania they don’t seem to read at all. I’d have done better to make him a Bulgar”
The other reason I love Ariadne Oliver is her portrayal by Zoe Wanamaker in the Poirot series. It is mwah! Chef’s kiss perfect!
Cards on The Table – The Covers
I was excited to see the covers for this because my copy is a very boring omnibus edition of all the Ariadne Oliver novels. As usual the covers did not fail to delight. I could only find one non-English version but it is a very cool looking Spanish edition with Shaitana looking most Mephistophelian.
The Recipe – Sage and Onion Stuffing
Normally if I was making stuffing, I would pop it into the cavity of the chicken, however for the purpose of this pot, seeing as I wanted to highlight the stuffing I did not want to hide it away. So, I made stuffing balls and served them with a 40 cloves of garlic chicken for dinner and then also made chicken, lettuce, stuffing and mayo sandwiches for lunch for the next few days.
The recipe I used is from In the Kitchen by Alan Campion and Michelle Curtis. I once did a cooking class with Alan Campion and he was absolutely delightful so I am very glad to be sharing one of his recipes here:
I am workng as you can see. But that dreadful Finn of mine has got himself terribly tangled up. He did some awfully clver deduction with a dish of French beans, and now he’ s detected deadly poison in the sage and onion stuffing of the Michaelmas goose, and I’ve just remembered that French beans are over by Michaelmas”
-Ariadne Oliver in Cards on the Table – Agatha Christie
Links to The Christieverse
- In Cards on the Table, Ariadne Oliver has written a book called “The Body in The Library”. This is also the name of a book written by Agatha Christie featuring Miss Marple. That book was published in 1942, six years after Cards on Table.
- Anne Meredith knows that Poirot solved “the ABC crimes”.
Other Food & Drinks Mentioned in Cards on The Table
- Whiskey Soda (nearly as common as Bacon and Eggs)
- Apples – Ariadne Oliver is particularly fond of apples and is described at one point as having a large piece of apple core reposing on her chest!
- Tea
- French Beans, Michaelmas Goose
- Coffee & hot buttered toast
- Tea and muffins
- Blackberry sirop
- Brandy
June’s book will be Dumb Witness, another Poirot. Get reading!
