as these, but they are unfortunately common. Some persons appear to
be deficient in a sense of good-breeding, as others are in an eye
for color or an ear for music, and all the maxims in the world seem
inadequate to instil what is missing.
One general principle may be laid down for the following of any woman
who thinks of giving a large luncheon—_don't undertake too much_.
If you cannot afford to engage the most difficult dishes from a
caterer, be very sure that your cook is equal to preparing them in a
satisfactory manner. Better have a few things, and have them well done,
than a long _menu_ of indifferently cooked viands. A large luncheon is
no light undertaking at the best, except to those who have a practised
_chef_ and an expert butler, and a great deal of personal supervision
is required to make it a success.
If the number of guests is larger than can be conveniently accommodated
at one table, two or three smaller ones may be used. One table is
rather prettier, however, as it admits of concentrating, instead of
scattering, the decoration. The cloth should be white, or something
very handsome in colors. A centre-piece of velvet or plush or satin,
or of linen, embroidered, painted, done in cut-work or drawn-work, or
something else equally elegant in material or ornament, should be laid
down the middle of the table. An exquisite centre-piece may be made of
bolting-cloth, hand-painted and trimmed with lace. On this a mirror is
often placed, bearing the bowl, basket, or jar of flowers.
Tall candelabra should hold enough candles to light the room well, and
each candle should have its tiny paper or silk shade and its glass
_bobèche_. If the gas must be used, it should be shaded. The dishes
containing _hors d'œuvres_—bonbons, _glacé_ fruits, etc.—must be many,
and their contents of the choicest.
The arrangement of silver, glass, and china may be the same as at a
small luncheon, except that the amount of silver at each place must
be increased. The bread sticks on every napkin must be tied with a
narrow ribbon matching the broad one that ties the _bouquet de corsage_
provided for the guest. Cards bearing the names of the guests indicate
their seats, and may be either hand-painted or plain. Favors are
often given, and should be placed on the table before the luncheon is
announced.
Oyster or Little Neck clams compose the first course, and are followed
by bouillon. Fish succeeds this; then comes one _entrée_, and sometimes
two. Next is a dish of meat, with one or more vegetables, and then the
Roman punch appears.
After this, game comes, and then salad. The table then being cleared,
pastry in some form, or Charlottes or jellies are brought in, and this
course in turn is succeeded by ices in pretty or fanciful shapes. An
attractive caprice is that of ices or cream in the form of fruits
heaped up in and rolling out of a basket of clear ice or spun sugar
placed on a salver. Ices in small goblets or tumblers of clear ice
are often served. The fruit comes next, and is accompanied by bonbons,
_glacé_ fruits, _marrons_, and the like. Last are coffee and chocolate.
Of the following _menus_, either one is suitable for a large luncheon:
1.
Raw Oysters.
Chicken Bouillon.
Creamed Lobster. Crackers or Bread and Butter.
Scalloped Chicken.
Sweetbread Pâtés. Green Pease.
Maraschino Punch.
Fillet of Beef, Mushroom Sauce.
French Fried Potatoes.
Broiled Squabs on Toast. Water-cress.
Chicken Salad.
Strawberries in Wine Jelly, with Whipped Cream.
Nesselrode Pudding. Biscuit. Fancy Cakes.
Fruit. Bonbons.
Coffee. Chocolate.
2.
Clams on Ice.
Bouillon.
Halibut Steaks, Cream Sauce. Parisian Potatoes.
Ham Pâtés. Green Pease.
Stuffed Crabs.
Chicken Cutlets.
Broiled Fillet of Beef, au Maître d'Hôtel. Asparagus.
Roman Punch.
Quail on Toast. Celery Salad.
Fried Mushrooms on Toast, with Sauce à l'Espagnol.
Frozen Pudding. Whipped Cream.
Ices.
Fruit.
Coffee. Chocolate.
With either of these _menus_ wine may be served, although there is not
the variety of these at a ladies' luncheon that there is at a dinner.
Claret may be served with the fish or first _entrée_, and drunk during
the luncheon, or brought in with the game, or with the heaviest meat
course. In some cases no claret is served, and the only wine is the
small glass of sherry offered late in the meal.
A STANDING LUNCH.
For a long time there was a felt need for some form of entertainment
that would be more general in its character than a dinner or a lunch,
less of a full-dress affair than an evening party, and more elaborate
than the ordinary kettle-drum or afternoon tea. This want was finally
supplied by the introduction of the standing lunch, which is in reality
little more than a regular reception, such as usually takes place in
the evening, held in the afternoon. To this both ladies and gentlemen
are invited.
The hours for which the guests are asked—usually from four to six
or seven—preclude the necessity of full dress. The men usually wear
morning coats, while the women are arrayed in handsome calling
costumes, and do not remove their bonnets. It may be remarked, _en
passant_, that the wearing of the hat or bonnet is, or should be, a
rule without exception at a ladies' lunch. Only the hostess or those
of the company who are guests in the house appear with their heads
uncovered. The others wear handsome dressy bonnets, such as they would
assume for the theatre in the evening or for an afternoon reception.
The hostess who desires to entertain her friends or to discharge her
social obligations by a standing lunch must issue her invitations some
days in advance of the date fixed. They should be formal, and are
usually engraved, although they may be written. The former method is
preferable.
At a lunch of this kind, as the name implies, the guests are not to
be seated at one large table, nor even at a number of small ones.
The large dining-room table and sideboard are set out with a repast
consisting of some hot and some cold dishes. The guests move about
the drawing-room, seating themselves if they have the chance, as they
would at an evening reception, and are served with plates containing
the successive courses, either by waiters or by their escorts. Not
only is there less formality in the conduct of the guests than would be
observed at an ordinary luncheon, but there is also less precision in
the serving of the refreshments.
For such a lunch the hostess does well when she provides a number of
camp-chairs in addition to the seats she already has in her rooms. It
is always more agreeable to eat when one is seated than when standing
and endeavoring to handle a full plate and a brimming coffee-cup at
the same time. Such an effort is severe even for a man, who has been
obliged to practise it all his life, but it is doubly distressing to a
woman, who is in constant terror lest an unguarded movement on her own
or her neighbor's part should cause an upset and a spill that might
fatally damage at least one gown, and possibly more.
In preparing for a standing lunch, or for any other large reception, it
is prudent for the hostess to clear her parlors of such breakables as
statues, tall vases, piano lamps, etc., that rest upon pedestals or
easily overturned stands. These, if not taken from the room, should be
moved into corners where they will be comparatively safe from injury;
while the largest pieces of furniture, such as sofas or lounges and
big easy-chairs, should be wheeled back near the wall, so as not to
interfere with the movements of people through the rooms. Light chairs
should stand about here and there, and the camp-chairs should be
stacked in some convenient closet or in the corner of the hall, whence
they can be produced at a moment's notice when the refreshments are
served.
The floral decorations may be either simple or ornate, according to
the wishes of the hostess. Mantels banked with flowers, chandeliers
and brackets draped with smilax, a profusion of roses, and baskets of
choice cut flowers are very beautiful, but the rooms can be rendered
attractive by less costly means. If there is to be a large number of
guests, the flowers will be unnoticed by many of them unless judgment
be shown in the disposition of vases. These should be placed on the
mantels, on brackets, on the top of the piano, or in some other place
where they will be seen readily, rather than on low tables, where they
are not only hidden, but are in imminent danger of being knocked over.
Palms or ferns in pots and other growing plants decorate pleasingly,
and can be engaged for the evening from a florist, if the mistress of
the house neither owns them nor feels inclined to buy them.
In preparing the dining-room table it should be drawn out to a size
that will permit of its holding without undue crowding the dishes and
plates that will be required for the lunch. If the refreshments are
too numerous to be accommodated here, the sideboard should be cleared
for their reception, and even one or two side-tables brought in. The
table should be spread with a long white cloth. A bowl or jar or pot
of flowers may be in the centre of the board. Very elaborate floral
arrangements are unnecessary in the dining-room, unless a good many of
the guests are expected to come out here.
At each end of the table and at intervals along the sides spaces should
be left for the dishes that are to hold the refreshments. Between
these may be the piles of plates and the napkins. These may either be
separate or arranged together, a napkin being laid on each plate and
all placed in piles, so that they may be easily distributed. Forks and
spoons should also be close at hand, with the necessary utensils for
serving the different dishes, that there may not be a hurried search
for a carving knife or fork or a large spoon just at the last moment,
when its presence might have saved delay and confusion.
The side-table should hold the coffee and chocolate cups, the
wineglasses, goblets, or tumblers for water, etc. Let it be seen,
by the way, that there is plenty of iced water in readiness. Many a
guest at a large reception has longed for a drink of it and found it
apparently the hardest thing to get which he could have selected.
Unless the hostess has a remarkably well-trained butler, and one or
two other servants who understand waiting, she will be wise if she
engages hired waiters to take charge of the serving of the dishes, and
has her butler and maids confine their services to passing plates in
the drawing-room. This is pleasanter than having the outside helpers
waiting on the guests, while their skill and practice in serving render
them most efficient in the work of filling plates.
The first course of a standing lunch is usually bouillon, served in
cups. When these have been removed, a plate is brought to each guest
containing oysters in some shape, usually fricasseed or creamed, and
accompanied possibly by a lobster croquette or a sweetbread or mushroom
_pâté_. The third course may comprise chicken croquettes or rissoles,
accompanied by lettuce or celery salad. Both with this and the
preceding course tiny square or three-cornered sandwiches of thin bread
and butter, spread with some potted meat or fish, with sardines, or
with lobster mayonnaise, may have been passed. After this course come
the sweets—ice-creams or ices in small shapes, biscuit in paper cases,
and fancy cakes—followed by coffee or chocolate. Nothing must be served
that cannot be easily eaten with a fork or spoon. Light wines or a bowl
of punch are always in order.
THE LUNCH BASKET.
To many people the lunch basket and its contents are quite as important
as any regularly set-out meal of the day—more important than such
occasional luxuries as ceremonious _déjeûners à la fourchette_ and
standing lunches.
Among this number are not only the school-children who, five days out
of the week, must carry what the Southern boys and girls would term a
"snack" with them to school, but also the army of men and women whose
employment takes them to such a distance from their homes that it is
impracticable for them to return there for the midday meal. With these
must not be forgotten the band of night workers who, in one capacity
or another, have part in making the morning papers, and who, turning
day into night, find it as essential to take a midnight as others do a
midday repast.
In a less degree interest is felt in the lunch basket by those young
people who regard the coming of the summer chiefly as the return of
the picnic season. All these desire to know of something appetizing to
supply their needs, and nearly all agree in condemning certain articles
as stale and hackneyed, asserting that they are tired to death of them.
Among these are generally ham and tongue sandwiches.
In making suggestions on this subject, the first thing to be considered
is the basket, and to begin with, it _should_ be a basket, and not
a close tin box or pail that cannot be sweetened except by scouring
and scalding between the times of using. A basket, by permitting the
passage of air through its interstices, prevents the food acquiring a
close, musty taste; and even the basket should have frequent airings
and sunnings, and an occasional plunge into hot salt and water,
followed by a rinsing in fresh hot water, and a wiping and drying in
the sun or near the fire.
Only fresh napkins must be used for wrapping about the lunch, and if
their use proves too severe a strain upon the linen drawer, Japanese
paper napkins may be substituted, or even fresh white tissue-paper,
or druggist's paper. The daintiness of ribbons to tie the different
parcels is all very pretty, but it is hardly possible for the hurried
house-mother who has to put up even one lunch a day, much less when
she has two or three to prepare. In order to succeed in making them
even ordinarily attractive, she must take thought for these lunches
as carefully as she does for the other meals of the day, and make
provision accordingly, not waiting until the last moment, and then
hastily gathering up whatever odds and ends she can find, and hurriedly
cramming them all together into the basket in a manner that savors
unpleasantly of the bestowal of "broken victuals" and cold bits upon
the beggar at the kitchen door.
Not until she gives the matter serious thought does the housewife
appreciate what a variety she can select for the lunch basket of her
boy or girl, or of her husband. Hot foods are out of the question,
of course, and even hot drinks, unless a tiny alcohol "pocket
stove," filled and ready for lighting, and a tin or agate-iron cup,
accompany the outfit. In that case, many a hot cup of _café au lait_ or
chocolate, of soup or bouillon, may be enjoyed by the luncher.
But even when this cannot be managed, cold coffee and tea are not to be
despised, while cold bouillon is preferred by many to the hot beef tea.
Or, for a change from this, a small flask of milk or of lemonade may
be carried. In any case the bottle should be a stout one, and provided
with a good stopper, that no break or leakage may cause the ruin of the
rest of the refection.
China makes the lunch basket too heavy, and takes up too much room. If
a plate is required, let it be one of the little wooden butter plates
that can be thrown away after using. It is often possible to procure
a glass from which to drink, but even when it is not, a flat glass or
a collapsing cup may easily be carried in the pocket; or an ordinary
flask, having a cup fitted to the bottom, may be purchased and kept for
service in the lunch basket. A tiny cruet for salt and another for
pepper should also be part of the outfit.
Often it does not seem to occur to the housekeeper that it is quite
practicable to carry a cup custard, a baked apple or pear, a tiny mould
of jelly or blanc-mange, as well as uncooked fruit. While the latter
is always wholesome and generally popular, there are times when one
wants something else. To paraphrase Miss Woolson's words in "For the
Major," "A large cold apple on a winter day is not calculated to arouse
enthusiasm."
Other dainties are easily prepared. Every one who has read "Little
Women"—and who has not read it?—will remember Meg and Jo March trudging
off to their work on frosty mornings, each carrying the turnover that
was to compose her lunch, and gaining comfort for the cold fingers from
its warmth.
A tiny pie baked in a saucer, a small tart, a diminutive rice or
tapioca pudding in a patty-pan, are not hard to make, and are a welcome
variety at the midday "snack."
While it might possibly be an expensive item to provide potted meat
for sandwiches for every day in the week, there are often odds and
ends that, with a little "doctoring," may be made into excellent
substitutes. The meat on the drumstick left from the roast or stewed
chicken of last night may be chopped fine, moistened with a little
gravy or melted butter, seasoned, and spread on thin slices of buttered
bread. The bit of steak that clung to the bone may be minced, and
have stirred into it a little Worcestershire sauce and a suspicion of
made mustard; while the slice of cold lamb or veal, also minced, may
be flavored with curry-powder and softened with melted butter to make
filling for sandwiches.
The one or two cold sausages left in the pantry will make an appetizing
sandwich when crushed fine with the back of a spoon, and laid between
the two sides of a buttered roll or biscuit; while the last spoonful
of lobster or chicken salad scraped from the bottom of the dish may be
spread on buttered bread for yet another kind of sandwich.
White, Graham, brown, or whole-wheat bread may be used in turn,
with an occasional roll or biscuit to still further vary monotony.
Egg sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, sweetbread sandwiches, sardine
sandwiches, minced ham, tongue, ham and chicken, chicken and bacon
sandwiches—their name is legion.
But some one may object, one does not want _all_ sandwiches. True
enough, but they are the _pièce de résistance_ of the lunch. They
may be supplemented, however, by a piece of cold fowl, by, once in a
while, a broiled bird, by a few pickled oysters, by deviled and plain
hard-boiled eggs, by salads without number, by olives, cheese, and
pickles. And for desserts are there not the little dishes already
suggested, to say nothing of cake, cookies, ginger-snaps, apples,
oranges, mandarins, bananas, pears, grapes, and other fruits? For
school children there are such simple dainties as bread or rolls spread
with jam, jelly, marmalade, or apple-sauce. And are not crackers and
cheese always at hand, and almost always popular?
While all this may at first seem to impose additional labor upon the
housekeeper, she will soon find, when the habit is once established
of providing regularly for the lunch, that she feels it no more of
a burden than she does to cater for the other meals of the day. Let
her keep on the alert for new fancies, and they will come to her more
rapidly than she can utilize them.
FAMILY LUNCHES FOR SPRING
These _menus_ for simple home lunches, given as were those for
breakfasts—ten for each season—are not designed to serve as exact
guides, but merely as suggestions to the housekeeper. They may easily
be improved upon or altered. To some they will doubtless appear much
too simple, while others may condemn them as being too elaborate.
Certain selected recipes will accompany them.
1.
Baked Cheese Omelet. Toasted Crackers.
Strawberry Jam.
Cocoa.
_Baked Cheese Omelet._—Two eggs, two cups milk, one small cup grated
cheese, one small cup fine bread-crumbs, salt and Cayenne pepper to
taste, one tablespoonful melted butter. Soak the crumbs in the milk, in
which you have dissolved a _tiny_ pinch of soda; beat the eggs light,
and add to the bread and milk; stir in the butter, the seasoning, and,
last of all, the cheese. Bake in a well-greased pudding-dish, and eat
at once, before it falls.
_Toasted Crackers._—Split and toast Boston crackers. Butter them well
on the inside, lay the two halves together, and serve them in a hot
covered dish. They are not nearly so good when they are cold.
2.
Ham Fritters. Baked Bananas.
Bread-and-Butter.
Ginger Snaps.
Tea.
_Ham Fritters._—Two cups minced cold ham, one egg, half-pint good
stock, saltspoonful dry mustard, teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce, tiny
bit of scalded onion (chopped), half-teaspoonful minced parsley, one
tablespoonful butter, one teaspoonful flour. Heat the stock to boiling,
and thicken it with the butter and flour rubbed together; stir into it
the ham, seasoned with the mustard, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and
parsley; add the beaten egg. Pour the mixture on a flat plate to cool.
When cold and firm, make into flattened balls about the size of a small
plum; drop each into a batter made of a cup of flour, two teaspoonfuls
of melted butter, a small cup of warm water, the beaten white of an
egg, and a little salt. Lay each fritter out of the batter into boiling
fat. They will puff up at once, and should be of a delicate brown.
_Baked Bananas._—Select large ripe bananas, and bake them in the oven
as you would potatoes. When the skin begins to split at the seams they
are done. Take them out, and serve one to each person, as a vegetable.
They should be peeled, and eaten with butter and a little salt.
_Bread-and-Butter._—Butter bread a day old on the loaf, and cut into
thin slices. Double, the buttered side inward.
_Ginger Snaps._—Two eggs, two cups sugar, one cup butter, two
teaspoonfuls ginger, one teaspoonful cinnamon, flour to make a stiff
dough. Roll into a thin sheet, cut into rounds, and sprinkle with
granulated sugar before baking. Watch closely or they will burn.
3.
A Scrap Hash. Rice Bread.
Oranges.
_A Scrap Hash._—Two cups cold beef (roast, boiled, corned, or fresh),
one or two cold sausages, two or three slices cold bacon, one cup cold
potato, four olives, tablespoonful Worcestershire sauce, a little cold
stewed tomato (if you have it), half an onion minced fine, one cup
gravy or soup stock, _or_ one cup boiling water and a tablespoonful of
butter. Heat the gravy or stock to boiling in a frying-pan; stir into
it the other ingredients chopped _fine_; simmer for fifteen minutes,
stirring constantly. You can either serve the hash soft or let it brown
on the bottom. Olla-podrida though it seems, it will be savory, and
will be relished by nearly every one.
_Rice Bread._—Two cups milk, two cups boiled rice, one cup white
corn-meal, three eggs well beaten, two tablespoonfuls butter,
teaspoonful salt. Bake in a hot oven, in rather shallow pans.
4.
Liver Toast. Rusk. Radishes.
Stewed Pie-plant.
Light Cakes.
_Liver Toast._—One cupful cold boiled or stewed liver, half
cupful brown gravy of any sort, enough mustard, salt, pepper, and
Worcestershire sauce to season the liver highly, several squares of
buttered toast. Rub the liver smooth with the back of a spoon, add the
seasoning, heat to boiling with the gravy, and heap or spread upon the
toast. Set in the oven two minutes before sending to table.
_Rusk._—Two cups milk, two eggs, two and a half cups flour, half cup
butter, one cup sugar, half a yeast-cake dissolved in warm water. Set
a sponge made of the milk, the yeast, and part of the flour—enough to
make a good batter. Let this rise all night. In the morning work in the
beaten eggs, the sugar, butter, and the rest of the flour. Knead well,
and make into balls with the hands. Set these together in the pan, let
them rise until light, and bake in a steady oven. Just before taking
them out brush the tops with molasses and water.
5.
Panned Oysters. Lunch Biscuit.
Stewed Prunes.
Ginger Snaps.
_Panned Oysters._—Cut small rounds of toast to fit the bottom of
deep, straight-sided patty-pans. Prettier than these are the little
"nappies," or china fire-proof dishes, that come for this purpose.
Moisten each piece of toast with a spoonful of oyster liquor, lay on it
as many oysters as the pan will easily hold, sprinkle with pepper and
salt, lay a small piece of butter on top, and set in the oven for a few
minutes until the oysters begin to crimp. Serve in the pans.
_Lunch Biscuit._—Two cups flour, half cup milk, one egg, one
tablespoonful butter, one tablespoonful baking-powder, saltspoonful
salt. Chop the shortening into the salted flour, pour in the beaten egg
and milk, making a soft dough, roll out, cut into rounds, and bake.
6.
Deviled Mutton. Hashed Potatoes.
Hot Loaf Bread.
Orange Marmalade.