prevalent at many dinner-parties. The bad taste of such a procedure
seems to me so evident that everybody of refinement would avoid it. Yet
I have repeatedly seen it resorted to in fashionable society.
_BANQUET SERVICE._
The correct or proper manner of taking care of a number of guests that
have assembled before the hour of dinner or supper has always been a
puzzling problem to the novice in this line of business; but a
first-class caterer will always be willing to help the host out of the
dilemma, provided the host does not pretend to know more about the
business than the caterer. It is a very good plan to have a colored
servant at the door, another to receive the coat, hat, and cane, and
give a paper check therefor, and still another to usher the guests to
the reception-room, where they will find the host holding court over a
bowl of lemonade or a light punch. The guests are eventually summoned to
the banquet-room, but just before they enter it is “in good form” to
serve them with a glass of plain Vermouth, or a Vermouth cocktail, as an
appetizer. White servants are particularly to be recommended for the
dining-room.
They then sit down to a repast, served in the following order (assuming
of course that the table is set for a banquet):
No less than three, or more than five, oysters on the plate of each
guest (with celery on table if in season). The oyster plates and forks
are removed. Next serve the soups, with a grated rusk, plain roll, or
French bread. _Hors-d’œuvres_, or whets, are now in order. Next serve
the boiled releve; then the heavy entrée; after which serve the light
entrée. Your guests will now expect the punch Roumaine, after which
serve a good Russian cigarette (if gentlemen only). Then the roast
joint; after which serve the game. Then the light salad, with a plain
French dressing. Next the sweet entremet. The table should now be
cleared; cheese and hard cracker offered; then the ices, with cake,
etc., confectionery, dessert, coffee, liquors and cigars. The
appropriate vegetables to be passed round with each joint or dish where
they _naturally_ belong.
The proper wines for above banquet are: with oysters, white Burgundies,
Sauternes, and, if no other wine is at hand, a bottle of still Moselle
may be served; with the soup, Sherry and Madeira; with the releves of
fish, Hock wines; with the boiled joints, light Bordeaux (claret) and
Burgundy wines; with the entrées, champagnes (though champagne may be
served from the beginning to the end of dinner if asked for), after the
last entrée serve the punch Roumaine, cardinal, etc., with cigarette if
desired. A Rhenish wine may be on table to prepare the palate for the
roast, and to counteract the sweetness of the punch. With the roasts and
game heavy Burgundy and Bordeaux. At many English banquets port wine is
sprinkled over the lettuce, and cheese and crackers are served at the
same time, but it is not a modern custom. With the sweets, sherry and
Madeira. A spoonful of brandy added to the coffee will aid digestion.
A _pony_ of half green Chartreuse and S. O. P. brandy is excellent at
the end of a dinner.
Serve the punch Roumaine after the last entrée, and not after the
_roast_, as I have occasionally seen it on bills of fare.
Remember that venison cools rapidly. Iced or cold wines should not be
served with it. Hot plates should not be forgotten.
Rhine wine takes kindly to boiled or roast ham.
Have you tried blanched almonds sautéed with a little butter, and
seasoned with salt and pepper, and served after the cheese?
But one might suggest in this way indefinitely. The subject is
inexhaustible.
=Remarks on Wines.=—A guest should not be censured “by looks” from the
host if he refuses to drink any other wine than that served with the
first course, provided it is of a good vintage and pleases his palate.
Good, honest wines should be served at all large entertainments, but
“private stock” and “rare vintages” should be reserved for the more
private affairs, where the guests are personal friends of the host, and,
though not recognized as wine-drinkers, they are good judges of and
appreciate thoroughly a good glass of wine. The promiscuous gathering
(with few exceptions) seldom appreciates a rare bottle of still wine.
Their ideal wine is the champagne. I have often seen a bottle of
splendid Chateau Yquem and Johannesberger pushed aside as “stuff” the
moment the champagne appeared, and by gentlemen whom I had previously
considered _bon vivants_. They will tell you that a wine with a deposit
or crust cannot be pure, and it is only a waste of time to attempt to
explain that old wines without a deposit are more or less _doctored_.
The host should be censured for sending his cellar curiosities to table
when the majority of the guests are strangers to him.
On decanting wines, Denman has observed: “To fully develop the flavor
and bouquet of any wine a little gentle warmth is necessary, and it is
therefore advisable that the wines intended for immediate use should be
placed in a warmer temperature than that of the cellar”; and Fin-Bee
adds “that the dining-room is the proper place,” which is the custom
among first-class caterers. The heavy wines should remain in the
dining-room uncorked a few hours under the supervision of a trusty
person, for the average waiter is partial to good wine, and can remove a
bottle as dexterously as a king of legerdemain.
Francatelli insists that the different kinds of sherries, ports,
Madeira, and all Spanish and Portuguese wines are improved by being
decanted several hours before dinner.
His advice and suggestions are proper; but does it not please the eye—is
there not an unwritten history in all the dark cobwebs, etc., that cling
with a brotherly affection to the original bottle?
The favorite Hocks with Americans are P. A. Mumm’s Johannesberg, Barton
& Guestier’s, Henkell & Co.’s wines, and a few other well-known reliable
firms. Prince Metternich, Schloss Johannesberg wines are very good, but
“Blue Seal” is held at too high a figure ($150 per case) to ever become
popular.
P. A. Mumm’s Hock wines are favorites, and justly so, for they are
entirely free from adulteration.
At an American banquet recently given in London, the favorite wine was
Heidsieck, on the ground that it was one of the first wines to find
popular favor in America. This information will, no doubt, surprise
wine-drinking Americans, for if our custom-house reports of importation
are reliable, we have discovered several Rheims wines that are decidedly
superior to Heidsieck. The importation in 1879 of G. H. Mumm’s champagne
alone was twenty-two thousand five hundred and twenty-six cases more
than of any other brand.
Pommery and Cliquot (the two widows), Roederer dry, Moët & Chandon,
Imperial, and a few others are all good dinner wines.
Sparkling Hock, if properly handled, is a wine that should find favor in
this country, but the demand is so limited that it is very apt to spoil
before the case is used up. That made from the Riesling grape is the
best.
American champagnes (and it grieves me to say it) are not the proper
wines to serve at a banquet or dinner. Their peculiar acrid taste does
not suit a palate that has been educated on foreign wines. They may be
served at a banquet given in a foreign country where every dish and
every wine is purely American, or sent to the cook for his champagne(?)
sauce, etc. A bottle of “Cook’s Imperial” may be served at lunch, and it
is proper enough at the end of the bar where the crackers and cheese
hold court. It finds favor with the youth “seeing the sights” of a great
city, but not elsewhere.
Pierre Blot, in the _Galaxy_, observed “that American wines are just as
good as foreign wines for the table and for cooking purposes. Bogus
wines,” he said, “are sold to native Americans almost entirely.” Friend
Blot evidently got in with the _wrong crowd_ when he visited us.
=The First Champagne.=—It happened that about the year 1668 the office
of cellarer was conferred upon a worthy monk named Perignon. Poets and
roasters, we know, are born, and not made; and this precursor of the
Moëts and Cliquots, the Heidsiecks and the Mumms of our days, seems to
have been a heaven-born cellarman, with a strong head and a
discriminating palate. The wine exacted from the neighboring cultivators
was of all qualities, good, bad, and indifferent; and with the spirit of
a true Benedictine, Dom Perignon hit upon the idea of “marrying” the
produce of one vineyard with that of another. He had noted that one kind
of soil imparted fragrance and another generosity, and discovered that a
white wine could be made from the blackest grapes, which would keep
good, instead of turning yellow and degenerating like the wine obtained
from white ones. Moreover, the happy thought occurred to him that a
piece of cork was a much more suitable stopper for a bottle than the
flax dipped in oil which had heretofore served that purpose. The white,
or, as it was sometimes styled, the gray wine of Champagne grew famous,
and the manufacture spread throughout the province, but that of
Hautvillers held the predominance. The cellarer, ever busy among his
vats and presses, barrels and bottles, alighted upon a discovery
destined to be far more important in its results. He found out the way
of making an effervescent wine, a wine that burst out of the bottle and
overflowed the glass, that was twice as dainty to the taste, and twice
as exhilarating in its effects. It was at the close of the seventeenth
century that this discovery was made, when the glory of the Roi Soleil
was on the wane, and with it the splendor of the court of Versailles.
The king for whose especial benefit liquors had been invented found a
gleam of his youthful energy as he sipped the creamy, foaming vintage
that enlivened his dreary tête-à-tête with the widow of Scarron. It
found its chief patrons, however, among the bands of gay young
roysterers, the future _roués_ of the Regency, whom the Duc d’Orléans
and the Duc de Vendôme had gathered round them at the Palais Royal and
at Anet. It was at one of the famous _soupers_ d’Anet that the Marquis
de Sillery, who had turned his sword into a pruning-knife and applied
himself to the cultivation of his paternal vineyards on the principles
inculcated by the cellarer of St. Peter’s, first introduced the wine
bearing his name. The flower-wreathed bottles which, at a given signal,
a dozen of blooming young damsels scantily draped in the guise of
Bacchanals placed upon the table were hailed with rapture, and
thenceforth sparkling wine was an indispensable adjunct at all the
_petits soupers_ of the period. In the highest circles the popping of
champagne-corks seemed to ring the knell of sadness, and the victories
of Marlborough were in a measure compensated for by this grand
discovery.—_London Society._
_MIXED DRINKS._
My receipts under this head are inserted for the benefit of _the
gentlemen_, many of whom in the course of my experience have bewailed
their lack of knowledge on this point when wishing to entertain their
male friends at home.
=Lemonade.=—Take half a pound of loaf-sugar and reduce it to a syrup
with one pint of water; add the rind of five lemons and let stand an
hour; remove the rinds and add the strained juice of the lemons; add one
bottle of “Apollinaris” water, and a block of ice in centre of bowl.
Peel one lemon and cut it up into thin slices, divide each slice in two,
and put in lemonade. Claret or fine cordials may be added if desired.
Serve with a piece of lemon in each glass.
=Milk Punch.=—For a small party: Dissolve half a pound of sugar in a
little hot water which has been flavored slightly with a little
lemon-peel; add the syrup to two quarts of rich milk (cream is
preferable); pour in one pint of brandy and one gill of Jamaica rum; mix
thoroughly, dust a little grated nutmeg over it, and set it in a cool
place. Beat the whites of four eggs to a stiff froth with a little sugar
and float on top of punch same as with egg-nogg. Sprinkle a little
confectionery sugar over froth. Place a small piece of ice in each
tumbler when serving.
=Egg-nogg.=—For a small party: Separate the yolks and whites of twelve
eggs; beat the yolks thoroughly, add two heaping cupfuls of sugar and
half a grated nutmeg; beat the whole together thoroughly; add half a
pint of brandy, half that quantity of Jamaica or Santa Cruz rum, and two
quarts of rich milk. Beat up the whites of six of the eggs to a stiff
froth, float it on top of mixture, and dust with a little confectioner’s
sugar. Place a piece of ice in each tumbler when serving.
=Hot Tom and Jerry.=—Separate the yolks and whites of ten eggs. Beat the
yolks up thoroughly and add gradually four pounds of sugar. Beat up
whites of eggs to a stiff froth and add gradually to above mixture.
Flavor this batter with one wineglassful of Maraschino and a little
nutmeg. Put one tablespoonful of this mixture into a china mug with a
wineglassful of brandy and one tablespoonful of rum, and fill up the mug
with hot water, stir well and dust a little more grated nutmeg over it
if desired. Sherry may be used instead of brandy if preferred.
=Hot Apple Toddy.=—Heat a tumbler with hot water; throw out the water;
put in one teaspoonful of sugar and one wineglassful of apple brandy;
fill glass two-thirds full with hot water, add one-quarter of a warm
baked apple, a trifle of grated nutmeg, and send to table with spoon in
the glass and some hard water crackers.
=Hot Spiced Rum.=—Heat a glass with a little hot water; throw out the
water; put in one teaspoonful of sugar, one wineglassful of rum, a
walnut of butter, three whole allspice, one clove, and fill up with hot
water. Dust a little grated nutmeg over top if desired. Substitute
Scotch whiskey for rum if preferred.
=Santa Cruz Punch.=—Place the juice of two lemons, one heaping
tablespoonful of sugar, and a little water in a tumbler; stir a few
minutes to dissolve the sugar; add a wineglassful of Santa Cruz rum;
fill up the goblet with fine ice; add a slice each of orange, lemon, and
pineapple. Stir well and serve with straws.
The favorite brands of whiskies are the famous “Old Crow” Bourbon,
“Hermitage” and “Monongahela Monogram” rye.
Orange Co., N. Y., apple-jack is superior to that made in New Jersey.
Have you tried the sherries from the oldest house in Spain—Juan Gmo.
Burdon? They are excellent. Served with our favorite dish, terrapin, the
epicure exclaims: “The eternal fitness of things!”
_PRESERVING, ETC._
It is not many years since every good housewife felt called upon at
least once a year to take a great deal of trouble in preserving a supply
of fruit for use during the winter months. The purchase of fruit-jars,
the picking, or purchase, and sorting of fruit, the purchase of sugar,
the boiling and preparation of the syrup, oftentimes in the hottest
weather, was a task which many a good housewife looked forward to with
some trepidation, while the uncertainties attending the keeping
qualities of the preserves, after they were manufactured, made this a
rather undesirable feature in housekeeping.
Within a few years, however, all this has become unnecessary; the
manufacture of preserves on a large scale, with skilled labor and
improved appliances, has proven, as in many other branches of
manufacture, a great success; and while there are some thrifty
housewives who still think their “home-made” preserves are better than
the “store” article, it is undoubtedly true that the high-class
preserves, such as are sold by Thurber, Park & Tilford, Acker, Merrall &
Condit, and other first-class grocers, are decidedly fine, and in a
number of cases far more appetizing and delicate than the home-made
article. I say this with all due respect for the skill shown by many
careful, conscientious housewives throughout the land, but in this case
the doctrine “survival of the fittest,” I think, is quite applicable.
Too many people are apt to sit down, fold their hands, and disclaim
against anything not made at home, at least as far as preserves and
candied fruits are concerned. The sword, I must admit, cuts both ways.
While I have wrestled carefully and conscientiously at many houses with
_alleged_ preserves made at home, I have suffered the “pangs of
Tantalus” from atrocious compounds put on the market by conscienceless
manufacturers. For the benefit of those who desire to “do up” their own
fruits I append a few trustworthy receipts. For preserving, the “Almy
jar” is particularly to be recommended.
In using this jar, fill it with the desired fruit while cold. Make a
syrup of sugar (quantity as given below) by boiling well to prevent
fermentation, or it can be put on fruit dry. Fill jar with fruit, pour
sugar over it until jar is full half-way up the neck; screw on covers of
jars without rubber rings; put a board indented with holes in bottom of
wash-boiler and stand jars on it; fill boiler with cold water up to neck
of jars; boil (time necessary for different fruits is given below), then
remove jars one by one, take off covers, fill with boiling water, put on
rubber rings and screw covers on tightly as possible. The same process
is used in preserving all kinds of fruits.
PREPARING FRUITS FOR PRESERVING.
Boil Cherries moderately 5 minutes.
„ Raspberries „ 6 „
„ Blackberries „ 6 „
„ Plums „ 10 „
„ Strawberries „ 8 „
„ Whortleberries 5 „
„ Pie-Plant sliced 10 „
„ Small Sour Pears, whole 30 „
„ Bartlett Pears, in halves 20 „
„ Peaches „ 8 „
„ Peaches, whole 15 „
„ Pineapple, sliced ½ inch thick 15 „
„ Siberian or Crab Apple, whole 25 „
„ Sour Apples, quartered 10 „
„ Ripe Currants 6 „
„ Wild Grapes 10 „
„ Tomatoes 90 „
Pour into warm jars.
The amount of sugar to a quart jar should be:
For Cherries 6 ounces.
„ Raspberries 4 „
„ Lawton Blackberries 6 „
„ Field „ 6 „
„ Strawberries 8 „
„ Whortleberries 4 „
„ Quince 10 „
„ Small Sour Pears, whole 8 „
„ Wild Grapes 8 „
„ Peaches 4 „
„ Bartlett Pears 6 „
„ Pineapples 6 „
„ Siberian or Crab Apples 8 „
„ Plums 8 „
„ Pie-Plant 10 „
„ Sour Apples, quartered 6 „
„ Ripe Currants 8 „
=Cider= may be kept fresh and sweet by simply heating it until it throws
off steam, then putting into hot jars and sealing immediately.
=Apple-Sauce= ready for table use or pies may be preserved by putting in
hot jars and sealing at once. Remember cold fruit requires cold jars,
hot fruit requires hot jars.
=To open the Jar.=—Take the blade of a penknife, or any other thin
instrument, and push the rubber in towards the neck at the O on the
shoulder of the jar. The air will enter and the lid will easily unscrew.
=Currant-Jelly.=—One pound of granulated sugar to each pint of juice.
Squeeze the currants and boil juice twenty minutes, then add sugar,
which should be heating while the juice boils; stir well together until
sugar is well dissolved.
M. G. H.
=Wine Jelly.=—One box of Cox’s gelatine, dissolved in one pint of cold
water, one pint of wine, one quart of boiling water, one quart of
granulated sugar, and three lemons.
M. G. H.
=In making Jam=, the first thing to be looked after is the fruit. As a
general rule, this should be fully ripe, fresh, sound, and scrupulously
clean and dry. It should be gathered in the morning of a sunny day, as
it will then possess its finest flavor. The best sugar is the cheapest;
indeed, there is no economy in stinting the sugar, either as to quality
or necessary quantity, for inferior sugar is wasted in scum, and the jam
will not keep unless a sufficient proportion of sugar is boiled with the
fruit. At the same time too large a proportion of sugar will destroy the
natural flavor of the fruit, and in all probability make the jam candy.
The sugar should be dried and broken up into small pieces before it is
mixed with the fruit. If it is left in large lumps it will be a long
time in dissolving, and if it is crushed to powder it will make the jam
look thick instead of clear and bright. The quantity to be used must
depend in every instance on the nature of the fruit. Fruit is generally
boiled in a brass or copper pan uncovered, and this should be kept
perfectly bright and clean. Great care should be taken not to place the
pan flat upon the fire, as this will be likely to make the jam burn to
the bottom of the pan. If it cannot be placed upon a stove plate, set it
upon a slab of soap-stone or marble over the fire. Glass jars are much
the best for jam, as through them the condition of the fruit can be
observed. Whatever jars are used, however, the jam should be examined
every three weeks for the first two months, and if there are any signs
of either mould or fermentation it should be boiled over again. If you
do not want to use the patent glass jar, the best way to cover jam is to
lay a piece of paper the size of the jar upon the jam, to stretch over
the top a piece of writing-paper or tissue-paper which has been dipped
in white of egg, and to press the sides closely down. When dry, this
paper will be stiff and tight like a drum. The strict economist may use
gum dissolved in water instead of white of egg. The object aimed at is
to exclude the air entirely. Jam should be stored in a cool, dry place,
but not in one into which fresh air never enters. Damp has a tendency to
make the fruit go mouldy and heat to make it ferment. Some cooks cover
the jam as soon as possible after it is poured out, but the
generally-approved plan is to let the fruit grow cold before covering
it. In making jam, continual watchfulness is required, as the result of
five minutes’ inattention may be loss and disappointment.
=Canning Tomatoes.=—Scald your tomatoes; remove the skins, cut in small
pieces, put in a porcelain kettle, salt to taste, and boil fifteen
minutes; have tin cans filled with hot water; pour the water out and
fill with tomatoes; solder tops on immediately with shellac and rosin
melted together.
M. G. H.
In canning, it is customary at hotels to follow the same process as in
preserving, with the exception that not nearly so much sugar is used.
=To Can Quinces.=—Cut the quinces into thin slices like apples for pies.
To one quart jarful of quince take a coffee-saucer and a half of sugar
and a coffee-cup of water; put the sugar and water on the fire, and when
boiling put in the quinces; have ready the jars with their fastenings,
stand the jars in a pan of boiling water on the stove, and when the
quince is clear and tender put rapidly into the jars, fruit and syrup
together. The jars must be filled so that the syrup overflows, and
fastened up tight as quickly as possible.
=Green Tomato Pickle.=—One peck green tomatoes sliced, six large onions
sliced, one tea-cup of salt over both; mix thoroughly and let remain
over-night; pour off liquor in the morning and throw it away; mix two
quarts of water and one of vinegar, and boil twenty minutes; drain and
throw liquor away; take three quarts of vinegar, two pounds of sugar,
two tablespoonfuls each of allspice, cloves, cinnamon, ginger, and
mustard, and twelve green peppers chopped fine; boil from one to two
hours. Put away in a stone crock.
M. G. H.
=Chili Sauce.=—Eight quarts tomatoes, three cups of peppers, two cups of
onions, three cups of sugar, one cup of salt, one and one-half quarts of
vinegar, three teaspoonfuls of cloves, same quantity of cinnamon, two
teaspoonfuls each of ginger and nutmeg; boil three hours; chop tomatoes,
peppers, and onions very fine; bottle up and seal.
M. G. H.
=Hot Sauce.=—Six tablespoonfuls of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of butter,
one egg; beat butter, sugar, and yolks together, the white, beaten to a
stiff froth; add a teacupful of boiling water and one teaspoonful of
vanilla.
M. G. H.
=The best way= to prepare a new iron kettle for use is to fill it with
clean potato parings; boil them for an hour or more, then wash the
kettle with hot water, wipe it dry, and rub it with a little lard;
repeat the rubbing for half a dozen times after using. In this way you
will prevent rust and all the annoyances liable to occur in the use of a
new kettle.