Letter T
THE "big dinner" of the week is, in most homes, eaten on Sunday. Then the men of the family are at home for the day, the children have no claims of school or play to hurry them through their meals, and there is a general impression of delightful leisure which seems favorable to the eating and digestion of an excellent and hearty dinner. This repast is usually served at midday, in order that the servants may have the afternoon and evening to themselves; and it is not uncommon for the mistress of the house to prepare the Sunday-evening tea herself.
The old-fashioned idea of always having a cold dinner on the Sabbath is almost obsolete. Some people who have been brought up in the habit clung for a long while to the compromise of serving a piece of cold meat at the Sunday dinner, although the vegetableswere hot; but even that is changed now, and there are few homes where as large an array of smoking viands is not spread upon
"The day that comes betweenThe Saturday and Monday"
"The day that comes betweenThe Saturday and Monday"
"The day that comes between
The Saturday and Monday"
as is ever offered on any non-religious holiday.
The reasons given at the beginning of this chapter are quite sufficient to account for this almost universal practice. The good housekeeper enjoys seeing her culinary handiwork appreciated, and she generally reserves any especially temptingbonnes bouchesfor Sunday, when she knows that those for whom she delights to cater will have the time and inclination to give her cookery its meed of attention. Without cavilling at this, one must at the same time deprecate the amount of additional work that the Sunday dinner often involves upon what should be, both physically and spiritually, a day of rest as well as of refreshment. A little thought will often enable the housekeeper to so minify the amount of work to be done on Sundaythat the domestic labors will be perceptibly lightened, and the dinner in no wise injured. So much of the preparation for the meal can be made the day before that the business of finally getting it ready for the table will seem comparatively light.
In one family of strong Sabbatarian principles the omission of soup from the Sunday bill of fare was evidently considered a means of grace. The tureen and ladle always enjoyed a rest upon the first day of the week, but by some curious process of ratiocination no harm was thought of having at dinner a course of salad which cost as much time to prepare, and demanded the use and washing of as many dishes as would have sufficed to serve the tabooed soup. Yet the hostess would always say, with an air of conscious virtue, "Oh, we never havesoupon Sundays," as though the non-appearance of that dish upon the first day of the week was proof positive of a high order of piety.
In spite of this, the soup course may be made a very trifling affair. To say nothing of two or three excellent brands of cannedsoups, which, with a little "doctoring" in the way of seasoning, may be rendered quite equal to those freshly made, there are many soups which can be brought on Saturday into a state of such complete readiness that all that is necessary on Sunday is to heat them for the table. Of these are chicken, mutton, and veal broths,consommé, Julienne, ox-tail, mock-turtle, black or white bean and pea soup—indeed, nearly every soup with a meat stock. Cream soups, like tomato, celery, potato, cauliflower, green pea, and corn soups, are better prepared just before using, and these may be served on week-days and yet leave a large variety ofpotagesfrom which to make a choice for the Sunday dinner.
Leaving the soup, something should be said concerning the introduction ofentrées, etc. They are not necessary at a repast so essentially domestic as the first-day feast. Even if they are prepared the day before, their insertion in the bill of fare compels the use and washing of another set of plates. The man-servant and maid-servant within our gates merit a little consideration upon aday which should bring to them too a modicum of rest. Still, if anentréeis occasionally desired, there are those which may be made on Saturday, and will need only warming to be fit for the table, such aspâtésof various kinds. For these both pastry shells and filling may be prepared the day before, so that simply heating them and putting them together will comprise the work involved in getting them ready for the table.
When the meat course is reached it becomes less easy to shirk Sunday labor. The roast may be bound and skewered, the turkey or chickens trussed for roasting, the bread crumbed for the stuffing, on Saturday, but the stuffing must not go in until the last moment, nor must the meats, to be at their best, be put into the oven until just in time to permit their being done in season for dinner. With vegetables, too, much of the excellence depends upon brisk cooking. Few of them are, like spinach, benefited by each time of warming over. Since this heavy work cannot be avoided, all the housekeeper can do is to make the rest of the meal as easy as possiblefor herself and her servants. At the best, there will be enough to do.
If a salad is served, the mayonnaise dressing, if this is used, is no whit injured by keeping on the ice even for two or three days. The fish, flesh, or fowl, when such enter into the composition of the salad, may be minced the day before, and kept in a cold place until needed. Or if, as is better at dinner, a simple salad of lettuce, celery, or something of the kind is used, upon which the hostess bestows an ordinary French dressing after it is brought to the table, the washing and picking over of the salad are a trifling matter.
As to desserts, it is a peculiar taste which refuses to be satisfied with some one of the many that can be made in part or entirely the day before.
The number of cold desserts is legion, and ranges all the way from ices and frozen creams through charlottes, jellies, and the like, to the simple blanc-manges and custards, to say nothing of preserved or brandied fruit. Pies of countless kinds there are which canreadily be heated, if a hot dessert is wished, and there are delicious cakes which are almost a dessert in themselves. Besides all these, in this favored period, there is scarcely a day in the year when an attractive dish of fresh fruit is beyond the reach of people of moderate means.
While anything approaching a desecration of the Sabbath is to be avoided, there should yet be a cheerfulness, a pleasant freedom of speech at the Sunday dinner-table that ought to render it the happiest meal of the week. It is not the season for ceremonious entertaining—a large Sunday dinner-party is not in America in the best form, even in so-called worldly society—but it is the time for making a place within the circle of the home for solitary men or women far from their own people, who have only boarding-places or restaurants at which to eat their Sunday dinner. To them even a simple meal, eaten in a private house and among friends, is a choice treat, and inviting them is a deed which may fitly be classed among the works of mercy which even the Westminster Catechism permits.
Letter T
THERE has been so much written about the giving of dinner-parties that the manager of a small household may well shrink in dismay from the labor that obedience to such rules would lay upon her. When she reads descriptions of tables spread with the most costly glass, silver, and china, of courses consisting of delicacies prepared from intricate directions, and served by three or four trained servants—her heart sinks with dismay, and she gives up then and there the attempt to entertain her friends at dinner.
Such instructions may be of value to thosenouveaux richeswho are at a loss how to conduct a feast where expense is no object. Even for them it seems as though it would be easier to consign a big dinner to the charge of a professional caterer than to drill their own servants into fitness for preparing andserving such a repast as some of these manuals describe. But there are many women who wish to entertain gracefully, and yet who have neither the means nor the inclination to attempt doing so on a large or costly scale. Possessing plenty of pretty napery, silver, and china, having tolerably good cooks and well-trained waitresses, they feel themselves fairly equipped for giving small dinners, especially when they may order some of the most difficult dainties from outside. They need not be appalled by the list of what are to the majority of them unattainable adjuncts, that are declared by writers on the complete art of dining to be indispensable to a correct dinner. Those who are fitted by circumstances to follow these are few indeed compared with the army of the moderately well-to-do who find such elegance quite beyond their modest means. So let these pluck up heart of grace, and, instead of obeying the quite natural impulse which ensues upon the perusal of the aforesaid discouraging guide-books to entertaining and renouncing their plans of hospitality, resolverather to use their own common-sense and good judgment, and give dinners in consonance with these.
Of course there are certain rules for setting the table, directing the proper sequence of courses, and for the waiting, whose observance marks familiarity with the etiquette of dining, and whose absence denotes ignorance; but these are so simple, so universal, and so readily learned that once known it is easier to follow them than to devise new ways. Among the many advantages of practising every day the proper methods of serving and waiting is especially this, that when an emergency of this sort arises, there need be only an extension of daily customs, not a total departure from ordinary habits.
The etiquette of a small dinner is essentially the same as that of a large one. Any woman who is sure of hercuisine, and who has a waitress accustomed to her work, can give a pretty little dinner, and there is no pleasanter way of entertaining a few friends whom one especially wishes to honor. For a party of this sort, six is a good number. Whenone goes beyond that, the necessity for a more ceremonious etiquette, a more imposing bill of fare, arises, and this the woman who gives only little dinners wishes to shun.
In setting the table, care must be taken to avoid the one extreme of over-crowding, and the other of placing the guests so far apart thattête-à-têteconversations are difficult. In as small a company as this the talk is apt to be general, but occasionally there is an opportunity for a duet if the seats are near enough together to allow two of their occupants to carry on a low-voiced chat without distracting the attention of the other guests from their own topics of discussion.
In the arrangement of dishes, knives, forks, etc., about the same rules are followed that apply for luncheon-parties. A fork and a knife for each course—the forks laid at the left of the plate, the knives at the right, the soup spoon across the top of the plate—the usual array of salt-cellar, butter-plate (the latter is often omitted at dinner), the glasses for wine and for water, the folded napkin holding a dinner roll, the card, themenu, theindividual flowers—all are much the same as at a luncheon. The table-cloth should be of the heaviest and handsomest damask, the centre-piece, the floral decorations, the candelabra, with their candles and silk shades, the dishes, containinghors-d'œuvres, bonbons,glacéfruits, etc., differ little from the similar array on the table at a formal luncheon. The same general plan is to be followed in serving the courses. The dinner usually begins with oysters or clams. Next comes a soup—consommé, or a cream soup of some really choice variety. A clear soup is to be preferred as being light and easily digested, and since one does not wish to begin the meal by overloading the stomach, it is better on that account than a cream soup or apurée.
Fish comes next, and this should be, as is everything else served at a dinner, either choice on account of its rarity, or because of the excellent fashion in which it is cooked. A piece of salmon or of baked halibut with asauce hollandaiseis good, or, in their season, salmon trout or any other game fish. Potatoes in some form are served with this course.This is succeeded by anentrée, and that in turn by the principal meat course of the dinner, usuallyfilet de bœuf, accompanied by one or two fine vegetables. Next comes Roman punch, then game or poultry, followed or accompanied by salad, and after that is the dessert—pastry, ices, creams, fruits, coffee, etc. As may be seen by comparing this outline with the directions given for a luncheon, the two are very much alike. The chief difference is in the kinds of food. Those served at a dinner are generally of a more solid character than those prepared for a luncheon. The latter consists chiefly ofpetits plats.
A small dinner should not last much more than an hour and a half. It is readily disposed of in that length of time if the cook has the courses ready promptly, and if the waitress understands her business. All the carving should be done off the table. The plates should be put in front of the guests from the right side, and removed from the left. Of course, whatever dish is passed must be offered from the left side. To preventmistakes the hostess should write out a full list of all the courses, what dishes each comprises, and from what china they are to be served, noting, too, when there is a change of silver. A copy of this schedule should be in the hands of the cook, while the butler or waitress should have a duplicate pinned up in a convenient place in the butler's pantry, to serve as a reference in case the memory of one of them should play false.
While caterers can be found who will supply almost any dish which may be suggested, a graceful touch of individuality is imparted to a dinner if certainplatsare prepared at home. Only, they must be well done, or they were better omitted altogether. The ices, biscuit, and Charlottes usually come from outside, but theentréesand salads, as well as soup, and the fish, meat, and game, may be prepared in the house, and be none the worse on that account.
Coffee is sometimes served in the dining-room, but quite as often passed in the parlor. It is never in good taste to have a large assortment of wines at a small dinner. Claretand champagne are quite enough, or even claret alone is sufficient.
When the hostess is ordering her dinner, she should bear in mind who her guests are to be, and arrange her bill of fare in accordance with her bill of company. The advisability of this is illustrated in the anecdote told of an English restaurateur who, on being ordered to prepare a dinner for twelve clergymen, begged respectfully to know if they were High-Church or Broad-Church, "for hif 'Igh-Church, they wants more wine; hif Broad-Church, more wittles."
It is not worth while to prepare highly spicedentremetsand dishes of mushrooms and terrapin for guests who would be better suited with plainer viands; while, on the other hand, a very simple dinner is not the thing to set before a company of epicures.
Letter t
THUS far the descriptions of breakfasts, luncheons, and dinners have been given from the standpoint of the housekeeper. The outline of this, a more ceremonious meal than any before described, will be from the point of view of the guest, who regards everything as a mere spectator, and not with the eyes of the hostess, who has studied every step of the repast from its inception to its completion.
Two weeks before the dinner the guest receives his invitation, which may have been sent either by private hand or by post. The latter method in these days of "magnificent distances" is rapidly growing in favor. The invitation card, which is about three and a half inches wide by four and a half long, is engraved in a dashing script as follows:
Mr. and Mrs. Pelham Blankrequest the pleasure ofMr. —— ——'s companyat dinner on—— —— ——at half-past seven o'clock,—— Gramercy Square.
The name of the guest and the date of the dinner are written in the blank spaces on the card. To this invitation he sends an immediate reply.
The guest reaches the house of his entertainers on the appointed evening at a few minutes before the dinner hour. In the coat-room he finds a man-servant in attendance, ready to assist in any trifling matters of the toilet, who hands each gentleman, on a silver tray, a tiny envelope, enclosing a card bearing the name of the lady he is to take in to dinner. Descending to the drawing-room, the name of the guest is announced at the door by a servant, who draws aside the portière to allow him to enter. His first address is, of course, to Mr. and Mrs. Blank, who stand near the door receiving. The youngman, Fidus by name, congratulates himself inwardly that he at least is on time, and, seeing at a glance how few of his fellowconviveshave arrived, marvels anew, as he has done often before, that well-bred people will be so careless of the laws that regulate good society as to arrive at a house ten, fifteen, and even twenty minutes after the hour fixed for dinner.
As Fidus has never met the young lady whose name is written on the card presented to him in the dressing-room, he promptly requests an introduction of his hostess, and chats with his fate for this evening until—all of the fourteen invited guests having arrived—a servant draws back the portières and announces by a bow that dinner is served. Mr. Blank offers his arm to the guest for whom the dinner is especially given—a charming Englishwoman—and the rest of the party follow them to the dining-room. There is no suggestion of precedence, except as the younger guests naturally give way to the elders of the company. Mrs. Blank and her attendant cavalier come last.
The dining-room, a fine large apartment, is lighted only by candles; but there are plenty of these in sconces, in candelabra, in candle-sticks of odd and pretty designs. Flowers are all about wherever their use, either singly or massed, can produce a good effect.
The places at table are marked by plain white cards, each with the name of a guest painted on it in gold. The table decorations are quiet in effect, but in excellent taste. The cloth, of pure white plain damask, is covered through the centre with a scarf of elaborate drawn-work. In place of the towering épergnes once so fashionable, the floral ornaments, candelabra, etc., are all low. Pink roses, white lilacs, and maidenhair ferns are the flowers used; and these are not arranged in set form, but are simply massed in cut-glass bowls, three in number, placed here and there through the centre of the table. The candelabra are also of cut glass, which is used wherever it is possible, in preference to silver. A corsage bouquet of the flowers mentioned above, tied with a wide pink ribbon, awaits each lady at her place,while aboutonnièrelies beside the name card of each man. The candles are shaded with alternate pink and white shades, and the silver and china are of the daintiest and prettiest.
At each place are two large knives and a smaller one—one of these being supposed to be for fish, although it is decidedlycontre les règlesto use a knife for fish—a small fork for fish, three large forks, a spoon for soup, and a small oyster fork. The knives are at the right, the forks at the left of the plate, and on the left is also the folded napkin containing the bread. The glasses for water and wine are on the right. There are generally four of the latter, for claret, sauterne, champagne, and sherry.
A plate holding raw oysters and a piece of lemon is at each place when the guests enter. When these have been eaten, soup is served, aconsommé; and this is not brought to the table in the tureen, but is served from the side. Next comes the fish—a piece of salmon, with lobster sauce, it happens to be on this particular occasion—and it is followed by theentrées. To save time, three of these are served at once; but Fidus declines one, deeming it unwise to overload his plate and his stomach at so early a stage in the proceedings.
After theentréescomes the roast, with one vegetable; and the sorbet or Roman punch succeeds this, and precedes the game. Salad, cheese, and bread-and-butter compose the next course, and, the table being cleared for dessert, ices make their appearance. After these are disposed of come the fruit, bonbons, etc.
Wine has, of course, flowed freely during the repast, but the drinking has been very moderate, after all, and each guest has felt at liberty to refuse any of the wines offered. Sherry has been served with the soup, sauterne with the fish, and claret with the roast, while after the first course or two champagne has had all seasons for its own. At some dinners a larger number of wines are served, but this, so far from being essential, is not considered strictly good form. Nor have there been favors given, as one would suppose,from perusing books of etiquette, that this is a common custom at ceremonious dinners. Such a proceeding, while it might in one way be agreeable to the guests, would entail a heavy burden of expense upon the hosts, and might, moreover, place the recipients of these mementos under an obligation which they would not thoroughly enjoy. If favors are given, they should be pretty but inexpensive trifles.
The dessert discussed, the ladies leave the gentlemen to their own devices for a while, and retire to the drawing-room. Coffee might have been served before they quitted the table, but in this case it is sent to the ladies in the drawing-room, where they sip it leisurely, while the men enjoy theirs with their cigars in thesalle à manger, and partake of the tiny glasses of cordial that is supposed to serve as an aid to digestion. When they finally leave the table two hours and a half have passed since they seated themselves, and they are quite ready to stand about the drawing-room chatting for a while after their prolongedséance.
As no music or other entertainment beyond the dinner has been arranged for the guests, they remain only about an hour after the meal is ended, and then make their acknowledgments and adieux to the host and hostess, and wend their respective ways homeward.
1.Lentil Soup.Fricasseed Chicken.Rice Croquettes.Buttered Sweet Potatoes.Peach Brown Betty.
Lentil Soup.—One pint lentils, two quarts cold water, one onion, one tablespoonful flour, two teaspoonfuls butter, pepper and celery-salt to taste. Soak the lentils overnight in cold water; drain them the next morning, and put them over the fire with the two quarts of water and the onion; simmer for several hours until the lentils are very soft. If the water boils away too fast, replenish the amount from the tea-kettle. When the lentils are done, rub them through the colander and return them to the fire; cook the butter and flour together in a small saucepan until the mixture bubbles, and stir into the soup. Season to taste, and pour ontiny squares of fried bread laid in your tureen, and serve.
Buttered Sweet Potatoes.—Boil good-sized sweet potatoes, scrape them, and slice them lengthwise; butter each piece, lay all in a pan, and set them in the oven until the butter is well melted into the potatoes.
Peach Brown Betty.—Stew a pound of evaporated peaches until tender and plump; place a layer of these in the bottom of a pudding dish, sprinkle them plentifully with sugar, and strew them quite thickly with fine bread-crumbs, scattering a little cinnamon over this; then arrange another layer of peaches, more sugar, crumbs, and spice, and so continue until the dish is full. Just before adding the last layer, which should be of crumbs, pour in as much of the liquor in which the peaches were stewed as the dish will hold without "floating" the contents. After the top stratum of crumbs is in place, dot it with bits of butter; bake it covered for half an hour in a moderate oven, uncover and brown. Eat with hard sauce.
Hard Sauce.—One tablespoonful butter,one cup powdered sugar, half-teaspoonful flavoring. Cream the butter and sugar together until very light, flavor, press into a cup or small mould, turn out, and pass with the pudding.
2.Boiled Mutton, Sauce Soubise.Mashed Turnips.Baked Hominy.Apple Charlotte.
Boiled Mutton, Sauce Soubise.—In purchasing your mutton, select a fine large leg, and have it cut in two, in such a way that the knuckle and the lower part of the leg will make a good piece for boiling, leaving the upper part for roasting.
Sauce Soubise.—Four onions chopped, one tablespoonful flour, one tablespoonful butter, one cup of the liquor in which the mutton was boiled; pepper and salt to taste. Stew the onions until very tender; drain them, and rub them through a colander; put the butter and flour together in a little saucepan, cook them until they bubble; add the mutton liquor, which must have been cooled and skimmed; stir all together until thick andsmooth; add the pepper, salt, and the strained onions; pass with the boiled mutton. If properly made, this is a very appetizing sauce.
Baked Hominy.—To two cupfuls of cold boiled hominy add a tablespoonful of melted butter, a tablespoonful of white sugar, one egg beaten, a cupful of milk, and a little salt; beat all together until light, and bake in a buttered pudding dish. Serve as a vegetable.
Apple Charlotte.—Two eggs, two cups milk, half-cup sugar, two cups rather stiff apple-sauce. Make a boiled custard of the yolks of the eggs, the milk, and the sugar; whip the whites of the eggs very light, and beat them into the apple sauce, which should have been well sweetened while hot. Heap the sauce and whites in a dish, and pour the custard over it. Set in the ice-box, or some other cold place for half an hour before sending to the table.
3.Mutton and Rice Broth.Roast Mutton.Creamed Parsnips.Mashed Potatoes.Sponge-Cake Trifle.
Mutton and Rice Broth.—Strain and skimthe liquor in which the mutton was boiled; put it over the fire with two tablespoonfuls of raw rice, and let it cook about three quarters of an hour, until the rice is soft; stir into it a cup of boiling milk which has been thickened with a tablespoonful of flour. After this is added to the broth, let it boil up once, and then serve.
Creamed Parsnips.—Boil and peel parsnips; cut them in slices, and, after spreading each slice with butter, lay in a vegetable dish, and pour over them a white sauce made of a cup of boiling milk cooked until thick with two teaspoonfuls of flour and one of butter; pepper and salt to taste.
Sponge-Cake Trifle.—Cut a stale sponge-cake into slices, and pour over each piece enough sherry to moisten it thoroughly. Spread the cake with raspberry or strawberry jam, and cover all with a pint of whipped cream, slightly sweetened.
4.Veal Cutlets.Baked Tomatoes.Creamed Spaghetti.Asparagus Salad.Crackers and Cheese.Coffee.Light Cakes.
Baked Tomatoes.—Select fine large tomatoes, and cut a small piece out of the stem end of each. In this hole place a small lump of butter, about half the size of a hickory-nut. Bake the tomatoes slowly for half an hour; take up, and keep hot while you thicken the juice left in the pan with a teaspoonful of flour wet up in a very little cold water. Set the pan on top of the stove, and let its contents boil up once. Season to taste with pepper and salt, and pour this sauce over the tomatoes.
Creamed Spaghetti.—One half pound spaghetti boiled tender in two quarts boiling water, slightly salted; one tablespoonful butter; two teaspoonfuls flour; one cup milk; four tablespoonfuls grated cheese; pepper and salt to taste. Cook the butterand flour together; add the seasoning and the cheese. Drain the spaghetti, put it in a deep dish, and pour the sauce over it.
Asparagus Salad.—Boil a bunch of asparagus until tender; drain it, and put it on the ice. When perfectly cold, pour over it a half-cupful mayonnaise dressing into which has been stirred a teaspoonful of French mustard. Canned asparagus may be used when the fresh is out of season.
5.Cream Corn Soup.Stewed Pigeons.Baked Potatoes.Fried Bananas.Apricot Fritters.
Cream Corn Soup.—One can corn, three cups boiling water, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, two tablespoonfuls flour, one egg, pepper and salt to taste. Drain the liquor from the corn, and chop the latter fine; cook it in the boiling water for an hour; rub it through the colander, and return it to the fire. Have the milk hot in a farina kettle. Thicken it with the flour and butter; season, and pour a little at a timeupon the beaten egg. Stir this in with the hot cornpurée, and serve at once.
Stewed Pigeons.—Cut pigeons in half, place a layer of salt pork cut in thin strips in the bottom of a saucepan, and lay the pigeons on this; sprinkle with a little chopped onion; pour over them enough hot water to cover them, put a closely fitting top on the pot, and cook them slowly for two hours. Take out the birds and the pork, and keep them hot while you thicken the gravy left in the pot with a little browned flour wet up in cold water; boil up once, pour over the pigeons, and serve.
Fried Bananas.—Select firm bananas, peel them, and slice them lengthwise; dip them in egg, roll them in very fine cracker-crumbs, and fry them in deep fat to a light brown. Serve on a napkin laid in a deep dish.
Apricot Fritters.—Stew evaporated apricots until tender, adding, when half done, sugar in the proportion of two tablespoonfuls to every cupful of juice. When the apricots are tender, take them out, leaving the syrup to reduce by boiling until it isquite thick. Dip each piece of apricot into a frying batter made of a cup of flour, a tablespoonful of melted butter, a small cup of warm water, and the white of an egg beaten light; drop these fritters into boiling deep fat. When done, lay on a piece of brown paper in a colander for a few minutes, transfer to a hot dish, and pour the hot syrup over and around them.
6.Broiled Shad.Canned French Pease.New Potatoes.Lettuce.Preserved Ginger.Fancy Cakes.
Canned French Pease.—Drain the pease, and put them in a frying-pan with a tablespoonful of melted butter smoking hot; toss the pease about in this until they are heated through and well coated with the butter; season with pepper and salt, and serve at once.
Lettuce.—Dress on the table with a plain French dressing.
1.Green-Pea Soup.Roast Shoulder of Veal.Boiled Potatoes.Asparagus with Eggs.Cherry Dumplings.
Green-Pea Soup.—One quart shelled pease cooked until tender, one quart milk, two tablespoonfuls butter, one teaspoonful sugar, one tablespoonful flour, salt to taste. Press the pease, after they have been boiled and drained, through a colander; put them back on the fire, and stir into them the milk, boiling hot, thickened with the butter and flour and seasoned with the sugar and salt. Boil up once, and serve.
Asparagus with Eggs.—One bunch asparagus, two hard-boiled eggs, one cup white sauce. Boil the asparagus until tender; cut the stalks into inch lengths, rejecting the hard woody portions; chop the hard-boiledeggs coarsely, and stir with the asparagus into the white sauce, which must be boiling hot. Serve at once.
Cherry Dumplings.—Make a biscuit crust of two cups of flour, a tablespoonful of butter rubbed into it, a little salt, a teaspoonful of baking-powder, and milk enough to make a soft dough. Roll out into a sheet a quarter of an inch thick, and cut into squares about three inches across. Stone the cherries; put a spoonful into the centre of each square of paste; sprinkle with sugar, fold the edges across, and pinch them together. Lay them with the pinched edges downward in a pan, and bake to a light brown. Eat with a hard sauce made as directed in the preceding chapter.
2.Fish Chowder.Broiled Lamb Chops.Raw Tomatoes.Young Onions Stewed.Strawberry Méringue.
Fish Chowder.—Two pounds fresh fish, two good-sized potatoes, one cup milk, a quarter of a pound of salt pork, one onionminced, one tablespoonful chopped parsley, enough boiling water to cover all the ingredients after they are in the pot. Cut up the fish, the pork, and the potatoes (which should have been peeled and parboiled) into pieces less than an inch square. Place in a pot or saucepan first a layer of pork, then one of fish strewn with onions and parsley, then one of potatoes; repeat the layers in this order until all the materials are used. Pour in the water, cover closely, and let it cook slowly a full hour. Split and butter half a dozen Boston crackers; let them soak in the cupful of milk over the fire for five minutes; take them out, and lay them in the tureen, and pour the chowder over them. Pass lemon with it.
This chowder is even better the second day than the first, although there is rarely much left over.
Strawberry Méringue.—Line a pie-dish with puff paste, bake this carefully, and then place in it a thick layer of hulled strawberries; rather small ones are best for this purpose. Sprinkle them with powdered sugar,and heap over them a méringue made of the whites of four eggs whipped stiff with half a cup of powdered sugar. Just before putting it in stir lightly into it a cupful of the berries. Set the pie-plate containing the méringue in the oven long enough to brown delicately, and eat when perfectly cold.
3.Asparagus Soup.Boiled Chicken.Green Pease.Summer Squash.Raspberry Pudding.
Asparagus Soup.—Boil a bunch of asparagus until it is very tender. When done, cut off the green tips, and put them aside, and rub the stalks in a colander, getting all of them through that you can. Heat four cups of milk in a double boiler, add the strained asparagus to this, and thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed in one of flour. Season to taste with salt and pepper, add the asparagus tops (which should have been kept hot), and serve.
Raspberry Pudding.—Two cups raspberries (red or black), three cups flour, threeeggs, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, saltspoonful salt. Beat the eggs very light, and mix with the butter, melted, and the milk. Stir into this the flour sifted with the salt and baking-powder, taking care that the batter does not lump. Dredge the berries with flour, add them to the pudding, and boil this in a plain pudding mould, set in a pot of boiling water, for three hours. Take care that the water does not come over the top of the mould. Serve with hard sauce.
4.Egg Soup.Roast Lamb.Mint Sauce.Beets.Succotash.Green Pease.Melons.
Egg Soup.—One quart milk, four eggs, one onion sliced, one tablespoonful flour, one tablespoonful butter, salt and pepper to taste. Heat the milk to scalding in a double boiler with the onion. Thicken the milk with the flour and butter, and season to taste. Poach the eggs in boiling water, lay them in thebottom of the tureen, and strain the soup upon them. Simple and nutritious.
Mint Sauce.—Four tablespoonfuls vinegar, one tablespoonful mint chopped very fine, one tablespoonful white sugar, a very little salt and pepper. Pour the vinegar upon the sugar and mint, and let them stand in a cool place a full hour before using. Add the salt and pepper just before sending to table.
For the benefit of those who are sometimes unable to procure the fresh herb, it may be stated that the dried mint sold in bottles is an excellent substitute.
5.Cheese Soup.Beefà la Mode.Fried Cucumbers.Cauliflower.Green Corn.Fresh Fruit.
Cheese Soup.—One egg; a half-cupful grated cheese; one onion; two cups milk; two cups veal, chicken, or other white stock; one tablespoonful flour; one tablespoonful butter; pepper and salt to taste. Heat the milk and stock with the onion. Remove the latter, and thicken the liquid with the butterand flour rubbed smooth together. Stir in the cheese, pour a little of the soup on the egg beaten light, add this to the soup in the pot, season, and serve immediately. It is a good plan to put a tiny pinch of soda into the milk before adding the cheese.
Beef à la Mode.—Select a good piece of beef from the round, and "plug" it thickly with beef suet or with strips of fat salt pork. Make other incisions into which to crowd a force-meat made of finely chopped salt pork mixed with twice the bulk of bread-crumbs, and seasoned with herbs, allspice, onion, and vinegar. Fasten the meat securely in shape with a stout band of cotton cloth, lay it in a pot, pour over it three cups of boiling water, cover closely, and cook slowly for three hours, or until tender. Turn the meat once. Thicken the gravy left in the pot with browned flour, and pass with the meat.
This piece of meat will be as good cold as it is hot, and makes a welcomepièce de résistanceupon which to rely for lunch or tea.
Fried Cucumbers.—Peel the cucumbers; slice them lengthwise, making about fourslices of a cucumber of ordinary size. Lay them in salt and water for an hour, take out, drain, and dry. Dip first in beaten egg, then in cracker-crumbs, and fry as you would egg-plant.
6.Boiled Cod.Egg Sauce.Lima Beans.Mashed Potatoes.Tomatoes.Mayonnaise Dressing.Baked Peach Pudding.
Baked Peach Pudding.—Two cups flour, one cup milk, one egg, one teaspoonful baking-powder, one tablespoonful butter, saltspoonful salt, eight medium-sized peaches, peeled and stoned. Beat the egg with the milk, stir in the butter, melted, and the flour sifted with the salt and baking-powder. Place the peaches in the bottom of a pudding dish, sprinkle them well with sugar, pour the batter over them, bake the pudding in a quick oven, and eat it before it has time to fall. Serve either hard or liquid sauce with it.
1.Cauliflower Soup.Roast Beef.Baked Tomatoes and Corn.Boiled Sweet Potatoes.Fried Egg-Plant.Cocoanut Custards.
Cauliflower Soup.—Cut a medium-sized cauliflower into small clusters, chop all except two bunches, and put all on the fire in four cups of boiling water with a minced onion and a couple of sprigs of parsley; cook until tender. Remove the unchopped bunches, and lay them aside, while you rub the chopped and boiled portion through a colander; return what comes through the sieve to the stove. Have ready in a double boiler a pint of scalding milk; thicken this with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with an equal quantity of flour, and then mix with the strained cauliflower. Season to taste,drop in the reserved clusters cut into small bits, and serve the soup immediately.
Baked Tomatoes and Corn.—Cut a slice from the top of each of several large firm tomatoes; scoop out about two thirds of the pulp, taking care not to break the sides; fill the cavities thus left with green corn, boiled, cut from the cob, and chopped fine with a little butter, pepper, and salt; arrange the tomatoes thus stuffed in a baking-dish, put a few bits of butter here and there between them, and bake half an hour. If you have a half-cupful of good gravy, pour this over them instead of putting the butter between them.
Fried Egg-Plant.—Peel and cut the egg-plant into slices less than half an inch thick an hour before it is to be cooked; lay the slices in salted iced water, with a plate over them to keep them from floating. Just before dinner wipe each slice dry, lay it in beaten egg, and then roll it in salted and peppered cracker-crumbs. Have ready lard or really good dripping in a frying-pan, and fry the slices brown.
Cocoanut Custards.—Three eggs, three cups milk, half-cup sugar, half a cocoanut grated, one teaspoonful vanilla. Heat the milk to boiling; pour it upon the beaten eggs and sugar; return to the fire, and cook the custard until it thickens. When it reaches the right consistency take it from the stove, and when it has partially cooled stir in the vanilla and cocoanut. Fill small cups with this, set them in a pan of boiling water in the oven, and bake until set.
2.Veal Soup.Stewed Lambà la Jardinière.Creamed Potatoes.Sliced Peach Pie.
Veal Soup.—Two pounds lean veal from the leg (cut into small pieces), a few veal bones well broken, two quarts cold water, one onion, two stalks celery, a little parsley, two tablespoonfuls rice, salt and pepper to taste. Slice the onions, and fry them in the soup-pot to a good brown in a little dripping; put the meat in on them, and when this has browned add the veal bones, thecelery, the parsley, and water. Let all simmer gently for several hours. Set the soup aside with the meat in it until cool; skim, strain, and return to the pot, with the raw rice and the seasoning. Let the soup cook slowly until the rice is tender, and then serve. Pass grated cheese with this soup.
Stewed Lamb à la Jardinière.—Select a good-sized breast of lamb, and lay it in a saucepan; pour over it enough cold water to nearly cover it, and put a closely fitting lid on the pot. While it is simmering gently, parboil half a cupful of string or Lima beans, half a cupful of green pease (fresh or canned), two small carrots cut into neat, thin slices, and a few clusters of cauliflower. When the lamb is nearly done, lay these vegetables on it; put with them two tomatoes sliced, and cook about fifteen minutes. In serving this dish arrange the vegetables around the meat, and pour over them the gravy, which should be thickened with browned flour after the meat and vegetables have been taken from it.
Sliced Peach Pie.—Line a pie-plate with a good paste, and cover it with peaches,sliced, but not peeled; sprinkle thickly with sugar, and bake in a steady oven. There must be no top crust, but a méringue may be added when the pie is nearly done, and lightly browned. This pie is very good.
3.Tomato SoupMaigre.Baked White-Fish.Mashed Potatoes.Fried Oyster-Plant.Rice-and-Pear Pudding.
Tomato Soup Maigre.—Fry a sliced onion brown in butter or good dripping in the bottom of the soup-pot; pour in the chopped contents of a can of tomatoes and two cups of boiling water; stew until tender, rub through a colander, return to the fire; add a half-cupful of boiled rice; thicken with a tablespoonful of butter rubbed smooth with one of flour; boil up, and serve.
Baked White-Fish.—Select a good-sized fish, and stuff it with a dressing of bread-crumbs well seasoned and moistened with a little melted butter. Sew the fish up carefully; pour a cupful of boiling water over it after it is laid in the dripping-pan, and bake(covered) for an hour, basting several times with butter. Remove the threads before sending to table.
Rice-and-Pear Pudding.—Three cups boiled rice, two eggs, one cup sugar, one cup milk, stewed or canned pears. Stir the beaten eggs, the sugar, and the milk into the rice; put a layer of this in the bottom of a pudding mould, and cover this with a stratum of pears; follow this with more rice, then more pears, and continue thus until all the materials are used; set the mould in boiling water, and boil for an hour. Eat the pudding with a hot custard sauce.
4.Potato Purée.Beef's Heart, Stuffed.Stewed Sweet-Potatoes.Scalloped Squash.Méringued Apples.
Potato Purée.—Two cups mashed potato, one onion, four cups boiling water, one stalk celery, one cup milk, one teaspoonful butter, one tablespoonful flour, pepper and salt to taste. Cook the potato, onion, and celery in the water for half an hour; rub through acolander, return to the fire; add the milk, thicken, and season.
Méringued Apples.—Eight fine large apples, peeled, cored, and quartered; two tablespoonfuls butter, juice of a large lemon, one cup white sugar, nutmeg to taste, whites of three eggs, half-cup powdered sugar. Heat the butter, sugar, lemon juice, and nutmeg in a double boiler; drop the quartered apples into this, and let them cook until tender; take them out and lay in a glass dish, cover with a méringue made of the whites of the eggs and the powdered sugar, and pass the syrup from the apples in a little pitcher, with the méringued fruit.
5.Julienne Soup.Irish Stew.Creamed Carrots.Stewed Corn.Peach-and-Tapioca Pudding.
Peach-and-Tapioca Pudding.—One small cupful tapioca, one can peaches, half-cup sugar. Soak the tapioca overnight in three cupfuls of water; the next day arrange the canned peaches in a dish, pouring over themabout a cupful of the liquor from the can; sprinkle them well with sugar, pour the tapioca on them, and bake until this is clear. Eat hot with hard sauce.
6.Salmon Soup.Mutton Chops.Baked Onions.Stuffed Egg-Plant.Cream Rice Pudding.
Salmon Soup.—One can salmon, one cup bread-crumbs, one quart water, two cups milk, one teaspoonful butter, pepper and salt to taste. Pick to pieces the contents of a can of salmon, removing the bones, bits of skin, etc.; put over the fire with the water and seasoning, and cook half an hour; stir in the butter, the milk, and the crumbs, and serve. Pass sliced lemon with this.
Stuffed Egg-Plant.—Boil an egg-plant thirty minutes, cut it in half, and scrape out the inside; mash this up with two tablespoonfuls of butter, and pepper and salt to taste; fill the two halves of the shell, sprinkle with crumbs, and brown in the oven.
Cream Rice Pudding.—Three cups milk, three tablespoonfuls rice, one cupful sugar, one teaspoonful vanilla. Wash the rice, put it with the milk, sugar, and flavoring into a pan, and bake in a slow oven for three or four hours. Every time a crust forms on top, stir it in, until just before taking it from the oven. Eat cold.
1.Turnip Purée.Roast Turkey.Fried Parsnips.Browned Onions.Mashed Potatoes.Orange Roly-Poly.
Turnip Purée.—Eight turnips, one onion, one stalk celery, four cups water, two cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful flour, pepper and salt to taste. Peel and cut up the turnips, and put them over the fire with the onion in the four cups of water; let them cook until tender, and then rub them through the colander, and put them back on the fire. Cook the butter and flour together in a saucepan; add the milk, stir into the turnip, season to taste, and serve.
Browned Onions.—Peel rather small onions, and boil them until tender; drain offthe water, and pour over the onions a cupful of soup or gravy; let the onions simmer in this for ten minutes; then take them out, and keep them hot while you thicken the gravy with browned flour. Pour over the onions just before sending to the table.
Orange Roly-Poly.—Two cups flour, one and a half cups milk, one tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful lard, two teaspoonfuls baking-powder, one saltspoonful salt, four fair-sized sweet oranges, half-cup sugar. Sift the baking-powder and the salt with the flour; rub the butter and lard into it; add the milk, and roll out the dough into a sheet about half as wide as it is long; spread this with the oranges peeled, sliced, and seeded; sprinkle these with sugar; roll up the dough with the fruit inside, pinching the ends together, that the juice may not run out; tie the pudding up in a cloth, allowing it room to swell; drop it into a pot of boiling water, and boil it steadily for an hour and a half; remove from the cloth, and lay on a hot dish. Eat with hard sauce flavored with lemon.
2.Turkey Soup.Roast Pork.Apple-Sauce.Boiled Potatoes.Stewed Tomatoes.Chocolate Custards.
Turkey Soup.—Break up the carcass of the cold turkey after all the meat has been cut from it, and put it, with bits of skin and gristle and the stuffing, over the fire in enough water to cover it; cook gently for several hours, and then let the soup get cold on the bones; strain it off, skim it, and put it back on the fire. Have ready in a saucepan two cupfuls of milk, thickened with a tablespoonful of butter and two of flour; stir this into the turkey liquor, boil up, and serve.
Chocolate Custards.—Four cups milk, four eggs, one cup sugar, four tablespoonfuls grated chocolate, two teaspoonfuls vanilla. Put the chocolate over the fire in a double boiler with part of the milk, and let it cook until smooth; add the rest of the milk, and, when this is hot, pour it upon the sugar mixed with the beaten yolks of the eggs. Return to the stove, and cook until the custardbegins to thicken; when cool, pour into glasses or small cups, and heap on the top of each a méringue made of the whites of the eggs whipped stiff with a little powdered sugar.
3.Oyster Soup.Broiled Steak.Baked Cabbage.Fried Potatoes.Cup Puddings.
Oyster Soup.—One quart oysters, two cups milk, one egg, one tablespoonful butter, pepper and salt to taste. Strain the liquor from the oysters, and bring it to the boiling-point in one vessel while the milk is heating in another; drop the oysters into the scalding liquor, and leave them there until they begin to crimp. Stir the butter into the milk, and pour this upon the beaten egg; turn this in with the oysters; cook together one minute, and serve immediately. Some persons like a pinch of ground mace added to oyster soup.
Baked Cabbage.—Wash and quarter a small cabbage; put it on in plenty of boiling water, and let it boil furiously (uncovered)for twenty minutes. By doing this, and having a cup of vinegar on the stove at the same time, you do away with the disagreeable odor which usually accompanies the cooking of cabbage. Drain it when done, and chop it fine; add to it a tablespoonful of butter, one egg beaten light, a scant half cupful of milk, and pepper and salt to taste. Bake in a pudding dish to a good brown.
Cup Puddings.—One cup sugar, two tablespoonfuls butter, one cup milk, two eggs, two cups flour, two small teaspoonfuls baking-powder, one saltspoonful salt. Beat the yolks of the eggs light, and mix with the creamed butter and sugar; add the milk and the flour, mixed well with the salt and baking-powder; bake in small cups or deep patty-pans, and serve one to each person. Eat with either hard or liquid sauce.
4.Corned-Beef Soup.Stewed Rabbits.Baked Corn.Fried Sweet Potatoes.Plain Fruit Pudding.
Corned-Beef Soup.—Heat to boiling with asliced onion three cups of the liquor in which a piece of corned-beef was boiled; just before it begins to bubble drop into it the freshly broken shell of an egg, boil up once, and strain. Put the cleared soup back on the fire, and when it boils again add to it two cups of milk in which have been dissolved two tablespoonfuls of flour; pour a little of this on a beaten egg, and return all to the fire for a minute before serving.
Baked Corn.—Two cups canned corn chopped fine, one egg, half-cupful milk, one tablespoonful butter, pepper and salt to taste. Beat the egg light, stir this and the milk into the corn, season, and bake in a buttered pudding dish until firm.
Plain Fruit Pudding.—One cup molasses, one cup milk, one and a half cups flour, quarter-cup seeded raisins, quarter-cup currants washed and dried, quarter-cup shredded citron, one cup suet, one saltspoonful salt, one small teaspoonful soda. Chop the suet into the flour, first mixing the latter with the salt and soda; add the milk and molasses, and beat thoroughly; dredge thefruit and stir it into the pudding; boil in a brown-bread mould two hours and a half. Serve hard sauce with it.
5.Roast Duck.Canned Green Pease.Boiled Potatoes.Lettuce.Crackers and Cheese.Lemon Tarts.
Canned Green Pease.—Turn the pease from the can into a colander; pour over them several quarts of cold water, so as to rinse the pease thoroughly from the liquor in which they were canned; after this, pour as much boiling water over them, and set the colander over a pot of boiling water, covering the pease; let them steam there until heated through, dish, and put on them a couple of teaspoonfuls of butter, and pepper and salt to taste.
Lemon Tarts.—Line small patty-pans with a good puff paste, and fill them with the following mixture: Half-cup butter, one cup granulated sugar, three eggs, juice and grated rind of a lemon, two tablespoonfulsbrandy, nutmeg to taste. Beat the yolks into the creamed butter and sugar; add the lemon, spice, brandy, and whites; bake in a steady oven, and eat when cold.
6.Black Bean Soup.Halibut Steak.Browned Potato.Scalloped Cauliflower.Coffee Jelly.
Black Bean Soup.—Two cups black beans, six cups cold water, one onion, two sprays parsley, four or five cloves, one teaspoonful mixed thyme and sweet-marjoram, one quart corned-beef liquor. Pick the beans over carefully, wash them, and put them in soak in the cold water; let them stand all night, and in the morning transfer them to the soup kettle. Put with them the onion, herbs, and cloves, and simmer all together gently until the beans are soft; rub them through a colander, return to the fire, add the corned-beef liquor, and boil for an hour; pour the soup on two hard-boiled eggs, quartered, and a few thin slices of lemon, laid in the tureen.
Scalloped Cauliflower.—Boil the cauliflowertender; tie it in a piece of net before putting it in the boiling water; cut the clusters apart, and arrange them, stems downward, in a pudding dish; pour a cup of drawn butter over them, season with pepper and salt, sprinkle with fine bread or cracker crumbs, and bake until of a good brown.
Coffee Jelly.—Two cups clear strong coffee, one cup sugar, one cup boiling water, half-cup cold water, half-box gelatine. Let the gelatine soak in the cold water an hour; stir the sugar into it, and pour over both the boiling water and the hot coffee; strain into a mould. When cold, turn out in a glass dish, and serve with whipped cream.