Agatha Christie's Culinary Connections Quiz

Answer: blackcurrants

In the stories, Poirot is acknowledged to have a sweet tooth. In addition to hot chocolate and sirop de cassis, he is noted to drink creme de cacao, creme de menthe, sirop de banane and sherry. He does not like tea but he drank it in "Dead Man's Folly" with four lumps of sugar. Poirot also consumes tisanes (herbal teas). In "Third Girl", Ariadne Oliver offers him Ribena as a substitute for sirop de cassis, as both are made from blackcurrants, but Poirot opts for a cup of chocolate instead. Probably a wise move.

Blackcurrants are not the same fruit as blackberries. In fact, blackcurrants are berries whereas technically blackberries are not! Blackberries belong to the Rosaceae (rose) family, along with apples, pears, almonds, peaches, apricots, plums, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries. Blackcurrants belong to the Grossulariaceae family, along with redcurrants and gooseberries.

Answer: The Adventure of the Clapham Cook

In "The Adventure of the Clapham Cook", Poirot takes on the case of a missing servant.

Mrs Todd attempts to engage Poirot to look into the disappearance of her cook. Initially he haughtily declines to accept the case but Mrs Todd gives him a dressing down, stating, "Let me tell you a servant's every bit as important as a tiara to a woman in my position. We can't all be fine ladies going out in our motors with our diamonds and our pearls. A good cook's a good cook - and when you lose her, it's as much to you as her pearls are to some 'fine lady'." Poirot acknowledged that she was right and he was wrong, and agreed to take on the case, but advised Hastings that Japp should never hear about it.

Cooks were common in middle- and upper-class homes during Agatha Christie's youth, although they became less common after World War 1 with the advent of labour-saving devices. Still, cooks feature prominently as characters throughout her stories.

Answer: marrows

In this story, Poirot has been retired for a year and has moved to the village of King's Abbot where he attempts to cultivate vegetable marrows (a vegetable similar to a zucchini or courgette). This was such a source of frustration that he hurls one over the fence and nearly hits his neighbour, Dr Sheppard. This introduction to his neighbour ultimately leads to him solving the murder of Dr Sheppard's patient, Roger Ackroyd.

In this novel, first published in 1926, Poirot does not explain why he chose marrows. However, in a subsequent novel, "The Labours of Hercules" (1947), he explains this plan for his future retirement. (Obviously the novels were not written in chronological order).

His conversation with his companion, Dr Burton, is as follows:
Burton: "Vegetable marrows? What d'yer mean? Those great swollen green things that taste of water?"
Poirot: "Ah, but that is the whole point of it. They need not taste of water."
Burton: "Oh! I know - sprinkle 'em with cheese, or minced onion or white sauce."
Poirot: "No, no - you are in error. It is my idea that the actual flavour of the marrow itself can be improved. It can be given a bouquet..."
Burton: "Good God, man, it's not a claret...you're not serious? You don't mean -that you're actually going to stoop and fork dung on the things, and feed 'em with strands of wool dipped in water and all the rest of it?"

You have to admit, it is hard to imagine Poirot, who is so fastidious and gets upset over a speck of lint on his clothing, getting sweaty and forking manure on his marrows.

Answer: blackberry

For ten years, Henry Gascoigne ate at the Gallant Endeavour restaurant in Chelsea every Tuesday and Thursday. He always ordered the same meal. Then one week he turned up on a Monday night, ordered a completely different meal, and died about a fortnight (two weeks) later. Molly the waitress told Poirot that Mr Gascoigne "never could bear suet pudding or blackberries" but he had ordered steak and kidney pudding and blackberry tart on that Monday.

When Poirot learned of Mr Gascoigne's death, he suspected murder and correctly deduced that Monday's visit was a trial run by an imposter and the murderer repeated the visit to the restaurant on the day he murdered Henry in order to confuse the issue of the date and time of death and thereby establish an alibi. Poirot notes that Henry Gascoigne's corpse had white teeth and if the victim had consumed a blackberry tart, his teeth should have been stained.

As Poirot stated, "Blackberries are said to be full of vitamins, but they may be deadly in other ways. On this occasion, I rather fancy they have helped to put a rope round a man's neck."

Answer: marmalade

Rex Fortescue died after Gladys placed a poison, taxine, in his marmalade. Her boyfriend gave it to her and convinced her that it was a truth drug which would expose Rex as a swindler. The Fortescue family lived at Yewtree Lodge and taxine is a poison obtained from yew trees. Having tricked Gladys into helping him murder Rex, the murderer then strangled poor gullible Gladys.

The third victim, Rex Fortescue's wife Adele, was also poisoned, but with cyanide, not taxine, in her tea.

Answer: blackbirds

The pie was meant to be a provocative reminder to Rex Fortescue of the Blackbird Mine which Rex had swindled out of his partner, MacKenzie. Mrs MacKenzie believed that not only did Rex cheat her husband out of a fortune but he also murdered him. However, Miss Ramsbottom (Rex's sister-in-law) told Inspector Neele that she did not think Rex would have actually murdered MacKenzie, but acknowledged that he might have left him to die.

The murders in the story were committed in such a way as to fit the old nursery rhyme, "Sing a Song of Sixpence", which makes reference to "a pocket full of rye" and "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie".

Answer: ruby

In this story, Poirot visits the home of the Lacey family in order to retrieve a ruby, which has been stolen from a foreign prince.

In the foreword, Agatha Christie described her story as an "indulgence" which recalled the Christmases of her youth. She described the food as being of "gargantuan proportions" and included oyster soup, turbot (fish), roast turkey, boiled turkey, sirloin of beef, plum pudding, mince pies, trifle and "every kind of dessert", followed up by chocolates. She added, "We neither felt, nor were, sick. How lovely to be eleven years old and greedy".

In the story, Hercule Poirot's Christmas dinner is similar - oyster soup, two turkeys and Christmas pudding are mentioned. Colonel Lacey finds the stolen ruby in his share of the pudding but thinks it is just a piece of glass.

This short story has also been published under the title, "The Theft of the Royal Ruby".

Answer: The Chocolate Box

In "The Chocolate Box", Hastings asks whether Poirot has ever had a failure.
Poirot answers that he had failed innumerable times due to circumstances - having been called into the case too late, having someone else solve the crime first, or succumbing to illness - but admitted that he had only once made a "complete prize ass" of himself and related the story of "The Chocolate Box".

The victim had seemingly died of a heart attack but the real cause of death was poisoned chocolates. When the murderer voluntarily confessed to Poirot the motive, means and opportunity, Poirot realised that he actually had all the clues he needed to solve the case but failed to perceive their significance. It was a humbling experience for him since the crime was actually very simple.

Poirot then instructed Hastings, "...if you think at any time that I am growing conceited - it is not likely but it might arise...you shall say to me 'chocolate box'."

Answer: oyster shells

Poirot received a strange, rambling letter from an elderly lady, Amelia Barrowby. Five days later he learned of her death and decided to investigate. On visiting Miss Barrowby's home, he noticed daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths in her garden, as well as a garden bed partly edged in oyster shells.

Daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths are all poisonous plants if ingested, but it was the asymmetry of the oyster shells that drew Poirot's attention and led him to deduce how Miss Barrowby had died. The murderer had given Miss Barrowby a "treat" of oysters laced with strychnine, knowing they would be swallowed, not chewed, and thus the bitterness of the strychnine would not be detected by the victim. The shells were disposed of by using them as edging in the garden rather than putting them in the rubbish bin where they might draw attention.

Answer: cream

In her autobiography, Agatha Christie made the following statement:

"There is no doubt about it, my favourite thing has been, is, and probably always will be, cream."

She describes eating cream with cherry tarts, "tough cakes" (the local bun), and cream cakes. She also describes drinking it neat - "we both liked the same drink, cream, ordinary - plain, neat cream. Although I had consumed an enormous amount of Devonshire cream since I lived in Devonshire, raw cream was really more of a treat."

Her grandson, Mathew Prichard, stated that, "She used to drink cream from a huge cup with 'Don't be greedy' written on the side, an injunction she never showed any sign of obeying."

As a result, cream is mentioned many times throughout her novels and short stories. Oatmeal and coconut milk are not dairy items so hopefully that narrowed down the answer choices.