If you will get some chicken livers you can prepare a very appetizing
dish with very little trouble. Melt an ounce of butter in the chafing
dish and in it put, say, eight or ten livers that have been salted
well and rolled in a little flour. Let them cook pretty fast for ten
minutes, or till you think they are done, then put with them half a
pint of hot water and a teaspoonful of any extract of beef, with what
salt and pepper your superior judgment deems suitable. When this is
hot turn in a gill of sherry, and a dozen olives pitted and
quartered. Just a dash of lemon juice and the deed is done, provided
you have ready some toast for the serving of the livers.
If you haven't at the time of night when you will be serving these
dishes a fire over which you can toast the bread, you can have one of
the guests preparing the bread in a chafing dish. Cut the slices of
the size you like and fry them delicately in a very little butter and
they will go finely in this way.