skimming well; let the liquor get cold. Then squeeze in the juice of
two lemons. Have ready three pints of water in which the peel of two
lemons and two ounces of white ginger root (pounded fine) have been
boiled one hour and left to get cold. Mix with the syrup and add three
pounds of halved Malaga raisins. Put all into a cask, shake well; close
the cask and let it stand in the cellar for two months before racking
it off and bottling it. A lump of unslaked lime as large as a pigeon’s
egg put into the cask will prevent souring.
Mead
Beat to a stiff froth the whites of three eggs, and mix with six
gallons of water, sixteen quarts of strained honey, and the yellow
rind of two lemons, peeled very thin. Boil all together during
three-quarters of an hour, skimming it well; put it into a tub and,
when lukewarm, add three tablespoonfuls of the best fresh yeast. Cover,
and leave it to ferment. When it has worked, transfer it to a barrel,
with the lemon peel in the bottom. Let it stand six months, and bottle
it.
Strawberry punch
Mash two quarts of strawberries to a pulp, pour over them three quarts
of water and the juice of two lemons. Stand in a cool place for
four hours, strain, and stir into the liquid a pound and a half of
granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, strain again, and
set in a cold place until wanted. Serve in tumblers of crushed ice.
Sarsaparilla wine
To one gallon of water add one pound of sarsaparilla leaves and stems,
two pounds of sugar, one-quarter of a pound of raisins, and one lemon.
As the fruit contains a natural ferment, it will undergo that process
spontaneously, without the use of yeast. Let it stand five days, strain
and bottle. If you have not the herb, omit the sugar, and use in its
place a gallon of sarsaparilla syrup.
* * * * *
(Purchase a “shaker” for compounding drinks in which cracked ice forms
an important factor. This shaker consists simply of a thick glass
tumbler, over which is turned, upside-down, a larger cup of tin. This
cup fits tightly over the glass, and the contents of the tumbler may be
vigorously shaken until thoroughly mixed and foamy.)
Iced orange juice
Make a syrup of a cupful of sugar and three-quarters of a cupful of
water boiled together for ten minutes, then set aside until cold. Mix
a half-pint of orange juice and a gill of lemon juice, and sweeten
abundantly with the cold syrup. In sweetening this beverage, remember
that the ice is still to be added, and that this, in melting, will
dilute the syrup and thus render the drink more acid. Fill tumblers to
the brim with finely-cracked ice and pour the orange mixture upon it.
This is a refreshing beverage.
Milk shake
Have ready some sugar syrup made according to the directions in the
recipe for iced orange juice. Sweeten a half-pint of unskimmed milk
with the syrup; flavor with a half teaspoonful of vanilla extract; turn
into the glass of your shaker, and add enough crushed ice to fill the
glass to the brim. Shake long and hard before pouring into a chilled
tumbler.
Koumiss
Dissolve a third of a yeast-cake in a gill of warm milk and add two
teaspoonfuls of granulated sugar. Have ready scalded a beer bottle
with a patent fastener. If you have not this, use an ordinary bottle
with a straight cork, and soak the cork for half an hour to swell it.
Fill the bottle three-quarters full of fresh milk, heated until just
blood-warm, and pour in the yeast-mixture. Shake hard for two minutes,
and cork tightly. If you use an ordinary cork, cord or wire it down.
Set the bottle in the warm kitchen for six hours, or until the contents
begin to “work” and foam. Then set in the ice-chest until needed. As
one yeast-cake will make three bottles of koumiss it is quite as easy
to make that quantity at once as it is to prepare one bottle of the
stimulating and nourishing beverage.
Blackberry cordial
(Contributed)
Warm and squeeze the berries; add to one pint of juice one pint of
sugar, one-half ounce of powdered cinnamon, one-fourth ounce of mace,
two teaspoonfuls of cloves. Boil all together for one-fourth of an
hour; strain the syrup, and to each pint add a glass of French brandy.
Two or three doses of a tablespoonful or less will check any slight
diarrhea.
It will arrest dysentery if given in season, and is a pleasant and safe
remedy.
Raspberry cordial
(Contributed)
Sweeten the berries a little sweeter than for table use, and let them
stand over night. In the morning lay in a hair sieve over a bowl; let
them remain until evening, so as to thoroughly drain; then put the
juice into a thick flannel bag; let it drain over night, being careful
not to squeeze it, as it takes out the brightness and clearness. Do all
this in a cool cellar or it may sour. To two pints of juice add one
pint of French brandy and sweeten to taste.
Toast water
(Contributed)
Toast a pint of bread crusts very brown; pour cold water over them, let
them stand for an hour, strain, and add cream and sugar to taste. The
nourishment in the bread is easily absorbed when taken in the liquid
form.
Slippery-elm tea
(Contributed)
Pour one cupful of boiling water over one teaspoonful of slippery-elm
bark. When cold, strain, and add lemon juice and sugar to taste. This
is very soothing in case of inflammation of the mucous membrane of the
throat.
Apple tea
(Contributed)
Roast two large sour apples and pour boiling water over them. When
cold, pour off the water, strain, and sweeten to taste.
Flaxseed tea
(Contributed)
Pour a pint of boiling water over an ounce of flaxseed and a little
licorice-root, and let it stand where it will keep warm but not cook,
for four hours. Strain through a piece of linen and make fresh every
day. This is an excellent drink for a fever patient who has a cough.
Flaxseed lemonade
(Contributed)
Over four tablespoonfuls of flaxseed pour one quart of boiling water
and let it steep three hours. Strain, sweeten to taste, and add the
juice of two lemons. If too thick, add more water. This is very
soothing in colds.
Egg-nogg
(Contributed)
Beat until very light, the yolk of one egg and a teaspoonful of sugar;
then add the white of the egg beaten to a stiff froth. Stir well
together, pour into a glass, and add a teaspoonful of rum or brandy and
as much milk as the glass will hold. It will give more nourishment if
whipped cream is used instead of milk.
Serve with grated nutmeg over the top.
FORMAL BREAKFASTS AND LUNCHEONS
The social breakfast is becoming more and more of a function. Not the
early morning breakfast, where the tempers of the eaters are not always
under perfect control, but a later and more leisurely meal, to which
guests are asked and where much the same laws of convention apply that
are observed at a luncheon. In fact, the breakfast resembles a luncheon
in most respects. Here, as at luncheon, the hardwood table is bare
except for a handsome white square, and for doilies under the dishes
and plates. The table is spread as for luncheon, the knives at the
right, the edges turned towards the plate, the tumbler near the points
of these, the spoon laid by the knife, the forks at the left, and
beyond them the napkin, a piece of bread folded in it. At the left also
stands the bread and butter plate.
[Illustration]
At the breakfast, however, there is a little less formality than at
the luncheon, as there are also fewer and less elaborate courses. For,
although the breakfast is usually served at twelve or half after—only
a little earlier than the ordinary mid-day meal—it is regarded as less
conventional in nearly every respect.
Soup is not served at the formal breakfast any more than it would be at
the family meal known by that name. The whole bill of fare is rather
an amplification of the common breakfast than a variation from it. For
that reason sweets are out of place to conclude it unless one wishes to
introduce the English fashion of having a pot of marmalade and toast
brought in to wind up the repast.
Following this preamble are given a couple of menus that may serve as
suggestions for the hostess who wishes to entertain at breakfast. It
is an especially charming way of gathering one’s friends about one in
the warm days when heavy dinners are out of the question and even late
luncheons come at the hour when long sitting at meals is likely to be a
weariness to the flesh. The summer breakfast may be served as early as
eleven, or even as ten o’clock, while that of the late winter mornings
may be held back until the noon hour:
BREAKFAST MENU. I
Fresh Strawberries
Tomato Omelet French Rolls
Broiled Chicken
French Fried Potatoes
Coffee in large cups
Grapefruit Salad Crackers Cream Cheese
BREAKFAST MENU. II
Iced Orange Juice
Poached Eggs with Asparagus Tips
Toast
Lamb Chops Green Peas English Muffins
Coffee in large cups
Cream Tomato Salad
Wafers Brie or Roquefort Cheese
Either of these menus may be adapted to any season. For example, if
the breakfast be a spring or summer function, the strawberries may be
served—large strawberries, unhulled, to be dipped in sugar and eaten
with the fingers, in the fashion that we have imported from England. If
the berries are not in season, however, the orange juice, made so cold
as to be almost frappé, and served in small punch-glasses, may take
their place. Either the berries or the orange juice should be on the
table when the guests take their seats. Nothing else should be there
then, except the regular furniture of the table, the glass or bowl of
flowers in the center of the board, the piece of bread laid in the
napkin and the butter ball or tiny print on the bread and butter plate.
_Hors d’oeuvres_ are out of place on the breakfast table, unless you
have radishes, which are decorative as well as appetizing.
When the fruit has been eaten and has gone, the omelet may come in.
This should appear whole. A Spanish omelet, with the rich yellow of
the eggs, the red of the tomatoes and the green of the peppers, is too
pretty a thing to be cut before the guests have had a chance to see it
in all its beauty. It may be passed to each guest, or, better still,
served by the host or hostess. In putting down a plate in front of
any one the waitress should approach on the right side, just as, when
she is passing a dish from which the guest is to serve himself, she
should offer it on the left. In the case of the eggs, which are usually
prepared in individual dishes, she should put a plate in front of the
guest, standing on his right side as she does so. A small doily may be
laid under each nappy. The toast may be either dry or buttered. The
rolls should have been put in the oven long enough to become heated.
For the third course of the meal rather large breakfast plates should
be used, and these must be well heated. The chicken may be passed or
carved on the table; the chops should be passed. So should be the
potatoes and peas. The hostess should serve the coffee at this point,
having the equipage in front of her at the head of the table as she
would at a family breakfast. The cream and sugar may be passed that
each guest may add the “trimmings” to his coffee to suit himself.
Either the grapefruit salad or the cream tomato salad is feasible at
almost any time of year. With it are served the crackers and cheese—on
the same plate. This concludes the meal, unless, as I have said, you
wish to introduce the jam-pot and hot toast. But in most cases the
guests will have had all they want by this time.
At a breakfast the guests may be both men and women—provided one is
able to find enough disengaged men to make a fair sprinkling. The
breakfast should not be too large a gathering. Not less than four, not
more than eight, is a good rule.
At the luncheon, on the contrary, there may be any number that the
table can accommodate, and men are usually barred. The luncheon
differs from the breakfast, too, in being a more formal function. Never
at a luncheon could a guest rise from the table to wait on herself
or some one else, as may be done at a breakfast, without risking the
proprieties of the occasion. The table is set in the same way, but
the linen should be, if possible, more elaborate. More embroidery, or
richer lace, is permissible on the cloth and center-piece, and color
may be admitted more freely than at the breakfast. The flowers may be
more and loftier, and at an elaborate luncheon a corsage bouquet for
each guest, or at least a fine flower laid at each place is _en régle_.
There may be place-cards also, and even favors, although these are
by no means necessary, or in most cases, desirable. On the table, as
well as the necessary plenishing, are small dishes of salted almonds,
olives, radishes and bonbons. Wine may be served also, if one wishes
it, and the glitter of the wine-glasses adds to the beauty of the
table. If artificial light be preferred, there may be candles with
colored shades that harmonize with the tint of the flowers, and the
china should be as much in keeping with this chosen shade as possible.
The luncheon, where only one color is prominent, is much more artistic
than that where there is a confusion of hues.
[Illustration]
The accompanying luncheon menus may, like those given for the
breakfast, serve as suggestions to the hostess on the lookout for a
harmonious bill of fare:
LUNCHEON MENU. I
Oyster Cocktails
Cream of Pea Soup Salmon Cutlets Duchesse Potatoes
Broiled Chicken
Green Peppers Stuffed with Rice
Lettuce Salad
Crackers Camembert Cheese
Orange Mousse Small Cakes
Coffee
LUNCHEON MENU. II
Fruit Frappé
Little Neck Clams Chicken Bouillon
Baked Bluefish
Broiled Tomatoes
Sweetbreads in Timbales
Stuffed Lamb Chops and Mushrooms
Green Peas
Cucumber Salad
Crackers Crême Gervais Cheese
Café Parfait
Coffee
The oyster cocktails or the fruit frappé should be on the table when
the guests enter the room, the hostess leading the way with the guest
of honor. No formal order is necessary in the entrance of the rest of
the company. After this first course the plates are changed in the
usual fashion, taking from the right and replacing from the same side.
The soup is served in bouillon cups. In neither luncheon is anything
carved on the table, although occasionally, when a crown of lamb or
whole chickens are served, or even fillet of beef, the hostess carves.
But she should not attempt this unless she has a very poor carver in
the kitchen or is remarkably deft at it herself.
The table is not crumbed until after the salad course, and the work is
always done with a napkin. The silver crumb-knife is altogether out
of favor at present. At this stage, too, all the _hors d’oeuvres_ are
removed except the bonbons. These are often taken into the drawing-room
after the luncheon for the guests to nibble while they chat for the
prescribed time before taking their departure. Often the coffee, too,
is served in the drawing-room.
When wine is served at a ladies’ luncheon it is usually some light
wine, like Sauterne. Only one wine is necessary, although occasionally
sherry is offered with the fish. If a liquor is served afterwards it is
generally crême de menthe, poured into tiny glasses, first filled to
the brim with crushed ice. It is said to be an excellent digestive.
CONCERNING DINNER GIVING
The formal dinner is the most dignified function in the social
calendar. Even a big luncheon is less stately, and, by comparison,
breakfasts, afternoon teas and evening parties are mere child’s play.
A dinner is the one meal with which liberties can not be taken. Yet
there are rash souls who have attempted it and have even introduced at
a dinner a course cooked in a chafing-dish. Such efforts may meet with
the approval of a few youthful and frivolous souls, but they can only
shock those who have a proper appreciation of the esthetics and ethics
of gastronomy.
All this applies to the formal dinner, to which guests are invited
long in advance and where the staid succession of courses can be
compared only to the progress of the units of the solar system. One
can understand the dismay of these when a comet darts across their
established orbits. Such is the effect produced upon the graduate
diner-out when variations are attempted in the solemn dinner of state.
But there is another sort of a dinner—The Little Dinner. It would never
claim capitals on its own account, but they are bestowed willingly by
those who have fallen victims to its charms. At the little dinner the
bill of company is considered as well as the bill of fare, and neither
is chosen without deep thought. No chances are taken when there can be
but four or six or eight to sit down to the table and where the courses
are few enough to demand perfection in each.
As a matter of course, this can not be managed without labor. The
hostess must give close attention to every item on the menu. She must
see that her table is all it should be in appearance and that there is
no chance for any hitch in the proceedings. For while not so tremendous
an affair as the many-coursed dinner, the little dinner still has a
dignity all its own and with this one may not trifle.
[Illustration: A LITTLE DINNER]
The table should be spread with the finest and whitest of damask over
the “silence cloth” that is now indispensable in every well-regulated
household. More and more the fancy is growing to have the center-pieces
at a dinner, of pure white, with no touch of color. That may be
supplied by the flowers, the china, the candle shades. The center-piece
may be of linen, rich in embroidery or heavy with lace, but all must be
colorless.
The flowers that are in the center of the table may be in a rather low
receptacle, so as not to interfere with the conversation or glances
of the guests seated opposite one another. The candelabra, or dinner
lamps, may stand at the corners of the table. Here and there may be
little dishes in silver, cut glass or rare china, holding such _hors
d’oeuvres_ as salted nuts, radishes, olives and the like, and bonbons.
Except for carafes of water there should be nothing else on the table
besides the furniture of the individual covers.
This is substantially the same as at a luncheon. The service plate, the
knives on the right, the forks on the left,—one for each course,—the
soup spoon laid with the knives, the water glass and wine glasses to
the right, the napkin, a piece of bread folded in it, to the left.
There is no butter used at a dinner and the bread and butter plate is
therefore not needed. Always space enough should be allowed between the
places to prevent crowding.
Of the menus that follow two are for the little dinner. The third is
for a rather more elaborate function, and the fourth may serve as an
outline for one of the big dinners that every one has occasion to give
once in a while.
DINNER MENU. I (FOR VERY LITTLE DINNER)
Anchovy Toast
Cream of Asparagus Soup
Roast of Lamb
Green Peas Browned New Potatoes
Lettuce Salad
Crackers Brie Cheese Olives
Wine Jelly with Whipped Cream
Coffee
DINNER MENU. II
Little Neck Clams
Consommé à la Royale
Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce
Roast Capon
Rice and Green Peppers Creamed Spinach
Shrimp Salad
Crackers Roquefort Cheese Stuffed Olives
Pistachio Ice Cream
Coffee
DINNER MENU. III
Raw Oysters
Cream of Celery Soup
Baked Shad
French Fried Potatoes Sliced Cucumbers
Broiled Sweetbreads
Fillet of Beef, Mushroom Sauce
Tomato Farcies Rice Croquettes
Asparagus Salad
Olives Radishes
Strawberry Mousse
Crackers Camembert Cheese
Coffee
DINNER MENU. IV
Caviar on Toast
Raw Oysters or Clams
Consommé
Baked Halibut
Stuffed Tomatoes Parisienne Potatoes
Mushrooms on Toast
Spring Lamb, Mint Sauce
Green Peas Sweetbread Croquettes
Sherbet
Roast Duck, with Olive Sauce
Crab Salad
Nesselrode Pudding
Fancy Cakes
Coffee
Celery Crackers Gorgonzola and Roquefort Cheese
For the little dinner as for the big the service is essentially the
same. The appetizer, or the oysters with which the meal begins, should
be on the table when the guests come into the room, the host leading
the way with the guest of honor, the other guests following the couple,
and the hostess bringing up the rear with the man to whom she wishes to
show especial attention.
The service plate, which is on the table under that containing the
appetizer, is left there until after the soup has been eaten. In fact
the guest should never be left without a plate in front of him. As soon
as one that has been used is taken away the service plate should be
restored, to be in turn taken away when the next plate from which he is
to eat is put before him.
The serving should all be done from the right, as has been directed in
the chapter on luncheons, and the dishes passed on the left side. The
soup may be served by the hostess at a little dinner, but always at the
large dinner and often, too, at the smaller function the plates are
filled by the servant in the pantry and placed before the guests. The
entrées are passed. The roast is rarely carved on the table, even at a
small dinner. The carving is done outside and the dish passed that each
guest may serve himself. The day when the portion of each guest was
put on his plate in the pantry and then put before him has unhappily
passed. Unhappily, because it simplified matters for both the guest and
the waitress.
In changing the plates, more than one plate should never be taken at a
time. It is a favorite trick with lazy or unskilled waitresses to take
off as much as can be carried. Sometimes they even go to the point of
piling up all the various pieces that belong to one cover. This should
not be permitted. Let there be an assumption of abundant service, even
when this is lacking.
The salad may be dressed on the table if preferred, and this is often
done at the little dinner. In that case the small basin in which the
dressing is to be mixed is put before the hostess, together with the
flasks of oil and vinegar, the salt and pepper and the fork with which
the stirring is to be done. If chives or garlic is to be used, it
should be in the bowl when this is brought in. The dressing may either
be passed to each guest, or, better still, poured upon the salad in the
dish, and this then passed.
When it comes to the ices the method of procedure is changed a little.
The individual ices may be placed on the plates from which they are to
be eaten and these then put in front of the guests.
The coffee may be served either at the table or in the drawing-room.
The latter is always done, when the men are to be left behind to
smoke. Under these circumstances there is usually cognac provided for
them, while a liqueur of a milder type is offered to the women in
the drawing-room. When all go out together they may either have the
cordial—maraschino, chartreuse, benedictine, or whatever it may be,
before leaving the table or in the drawing-room.
The service of wines is, in a way, a question by itself. It is not
necessary to have more than one wine at a little dinner—a good claret,
or sauterne, or Rhine wine. Poor champagne is one of the most wretched
of beverages, and it takes a rich man to supply a really good article.
If champagne is served, however, it should be ice cold, and may be
poured after the fish. With the soup, sherry may be served, and claret
with the entrées. If one has a number of wines, the white should be
offered with the fish.
But, as I have said, a number of wines is not necessary except for a
very large or formal affair. In fact, the use of wines is entirely
optional. If they are to be used at all, however, it should be in the
correct fashion, white wines chilled, claret the temperature of the
room. The waitress should have a napkin pinned around the neck of the
bottle and should stand on the right when she fills the glasses. She
should watch these to see that they are not allowed to become empty.
[Illustration: AFTER-DINNER COFFEE IN A COSY CORNER]
One caution to the hostess, a caution which may perhaps be unnecessary.
Never attempt a dinner unless you are sure of your waitress. An
inexperienced maid or man has it in her power to ruin the best cooked
dinner. No dinner, no matter what its perfections in other respects,
can be satisfactory to the guests when the hostess is uneasy or annoyed
about the conduct of the courses, the serving of the food.
Temperatures at which wines should be served
Claret should be served warm—not warmer than eighty nor colder than
sixty-five degrees.
Bordeaux and burgundy should be served at a temperature of about
seventy degrees.
Chablis and other white wines should be served at forty-five degrees.
Port at fifty-five degrees.
Sauterne and other white claret, fifty degrees.
Sherry is best at forty degrees.
Madeira should be at sixty-five degrees.