Chapter III: Part II: Luncheon or Supper Dishes

So many things in this part of Margaret’s book called for white sauce, or cream sauce, that the recipe for that came first of all.

WHITE OR CREAM SAUCE

1 tablespoonful of butter.
1 tablespoonful of flour.
1 cup hot milk or cream.
⅓ teaspoonful of salt.

Melt the butter, and when it bubbles put in the flour, shaking the saucepan as you do so, and rub till smooth. Put in the hot milk, a little at a time, and stir and cook without boiling till all is smooth and free from lumps. Add the salt, and, if you choose, a little pepper.

Cream sauce is made exactly as is white sauce, but cream is used in place of milk. What is called thick white sauce is made by taking two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and only one cup of milk.

CREAMED OYSTERS

1 pint of oysters.
1 large cup of cream sauce.

Make the sauce of cream if you have it, and if not use a very heaping tablespoonful of butter in the white sauce. Keep this hot.

Drain off the oyster juice and wash the oysters by holding them under the cold-water tap. Strain the juice and put the oysters back in it, and put them on the fire and let them just simmer till the edges of the oysters curl; then drain them from the juice again and drop them in the sauce, and add a little more salt (celery-salt is nice to use if you have it), and just a tiny bit of cayenne pepper. You can serve the oysters on squares of buttered toast, or put them in a large dish, with sifted bread-crumbs over the top and tiny bits of butter, and brown in the oven. Or you can put them in small dishes as they are, and put a sprig of parsley in each dish.

PANNED OYSTERS

Take the oysters from their juice, strain it, wash the oysters, and put them back in it. Put them in a saucepan with a little salt--about half a teaspoonful to a pint of oysters--and a little pepper, and a piece of butter as large as the end of your thumb. Let them simmer till the edges curl, just as before, and put them on squares of hot buttered toast.

PIGS IN BLANKETS

These were great fun to make, and Margaret often begged to get them ready for company.

15 large oysters.
15 very thin slices of bacon.

Sprinkle each oyster with a very little salt and pepper. Trim the rind from the bacon and wrap each oyster in one slice, pinning this “blanket” tightly on the back with a tiny Japanese wooden toothpick. Have ready a hot frying-pan, and lay in five oysters, and cook till the bacon is brown and the edges of the oysters curl, turning each over once. Put these on a hot plate in the oven with the door open, and cook five more, and so on. Put them on a long, narrow dish, with slices of lemon and sprigs of parsley round. Or you can put each one on a strip of toast which you have dipped in the gravy in the pan; this is the better way. This dish must be eaten very hot, or it will not be good.

CREAMED FISH

2 cups of cold fish.
1 cup of white sauce.

Pick any cold fish left from dinner into even bits, taking out all the bones and skin, and mix with the hot white sauce. Stir until smooth, and add a small half-teaspoonful of salt, two shakes of pepper, and sometimes a half-teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

You can put this in a buttered baking-dish and cover the top with crumbs and bits of butter, and brown in the oven, or you can put it in small dishes and brown also, or you can serve it just as it is, in little dishes.

CREAMED LOBSTER

1 lobster, or the meat from 1 tin.
1 large cup of white or cream sauce.

Take the lobster out of the shell and clean it; the cook will have to show you how the first time. Or, if you are using tinned lobster, pour away all the juice and pick out the bits of shell, and find the black string which is apt to be there, and throw it away. Cut the meat in pieces as large as the end of your finger, and heat it in the sauce till it steams. Put in a small half-teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of cayenne, and a squeeze of lemon. Do not put this in a large dish, but in small ones, buttered well, and serve at once. Stand a little claw up in each dish.

DRESSED CRAB

Crack all the claws of the crab, and pick out all the fish into a basin. Take all the yellow part out of the body of the crab and mix it with the other. Mix together one teaspoonful of mustard in a quarter-pint of salad oil, one tablespoonful of vinegar, and two tablespoonfuls of cream; salt and pepper to taste. Scrape and wash the body shell of the crab, then put in the crab which has been mixed in the sauce; pile it up, put it on a dish, and serve with parsley round it.

HOT CRAB

Buy a very nice, fresh crab. A very delicious dish is made by mixing a cup of rich cream sauce with the crab meat, seasoning it well with salt and pepper, and putting in the crab-shells; cover with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven. This is a nice thing to have for luncheon when there are visitors.

CREAMED CHICKEN OR TURKEY

2 cups of cold chicken.
1 large cup of white or creamed sauce.
½ teaspoonful of chopped parsley.
Salt and pepper.

Pick the chicken or turkey off the bones and cut into small bits before you measure it. Heat it in the sauce till very hot, but do not let it boil, and add the seasoning: about half a teaspoonful of salt, and a tiny bit of cayenne, or as much celery-salt in the place of the common kind. Put in a large buttered dish and serve, or in small dishes, either with crumbs on top or not.

SCALLOPED EGGS

6 hard-boiled eggs.
1 cup cream or white sauce.
1 cup fine bread-crumbs.
Salt and pepper.

Cook the eggs twenty minutes, and while they are cooking make the white sauce, and butter one large or six small dishes. Peel the eggs and cut them into bits as large as the end of your finger. Put a layer of bread-crumbs on the bottom of the dish; then a layer of egg; then a sprinkling of salt, pepper, and bits of butter; then a layer of white sauce. Then more crumbs, egg, and seasoning, till the dish is full, with crumbs on top. Put bits of butter over all, and brown in the oven.

EGGS IN DOUBLE CREAM

This is a recipe Margaret’s Pretty Aunt got in Paris, and it is a very nice one. Have half a pint of very thick cream--the kind you use to whip; the French call this double cream. Cook six eggs hard and cut them into bits. Butter a baking-dish, or small dishes, and put in a layer of egg, then a layer of cream, then a sprinkling of salt, and one of paprika, which is sweet red pepper. Put one thin layer of fine, sifted crumbs on top with butter, and brown in the oven. Or you can put the eggs and cream together and heat them, and serve on thin pieces of buttered toast, with one extra egg put through the sieve over the whole.

CREAMED EGGS ON TOAST

Make small pieces of nice toast and dip each one in white sauce. Boil hard four eggs, and cut in even slices and cover the toast, and then spread the rest of the white sauce over all in a thin layer.

EGGS IN BEDS

Chop a cupful of nice cold meat, and season with a little salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. Add enough stock or hot water just to wet it, and cook till rather dry. Put this in buttered baking-dishes, filling each half-full, and on top of each gently slip from a cup one egg. Sprinkle over with salt and pepper, and put in the oven till firm.

COTTAGE PIE

This was a dish Margaret used to make on washing-day and house-cleaning-day, and such times when everybody was busy and no one wanted to stop and go to market to buy anything for luncheon.

Put one ounce of butter into a saucepan, and when melted add a tablespoonful of flour, and when mixed add half a pint of stock and colour it with gravy browning. Have ready any cold meat which has been minced. Flavour it with salt, pepper, a teaspoonful of Worcester sauce, and a little chopped parsley and onion if liked. Put it all into the sauce and stir it well round. If too thick, add a little more stock. Turn it out into a pie-dish and cover it over with very soft-mashed potatoes, and put in the oven to brown.

MINCED CHICKEN

1 cup of cold chicken, cut in small, even pieces.
½ cup of chicken stock.
1 teaspoonful of chopped parsley.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
A pinch of pepper.
1 oz. of butter.

Put the chicken stock--which is the water the chicken was cooked in--or good stock into the saucepan, and mix in the chicken and seasoning, and cook and stir till it is rather dry. Serve as it is, or on squares of buttered toast. You can make any cold meat into hash in this way, having it different every time. Sometimes you can put in the chopped onion, or a cup of hot peas.

SARDINES ON TOAST

Split the sardines, take out back-bone, and remove all skin; put on each a little butter and pepper. Dish on squares of buttered toast, and serve very hot.

CHEESE FONDU

This was a recipe her Aunt put in Margaret’s book out of the one she had made at the cookery-school.

1 cup of fresh bread-crumbs.
2 cups of grated cheese.
1 cup of milk.
1 bit of soda as large as a pea.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
1 pinch of red pepper.
1 teaspoonful of butter.
2 eggs.

Put the butter in a saucepan to heat while you beat the eggs light, without separating them; let these stand while you stir everything else into the pan, beginning with the milk. Cook this five minutes, stirring all the time, and then put in the eggs and cook three minutes more. Put six pieces of toast on a hot plate, and pour the whole over them, and send at once to the table to be eaten very hot.

WELSH RAREBIT

Cut one or two slices of bread half-inch thick, and toast it on both sides and well butter it. Take half-pound of good Cheddar cheese, cut it up in very thin slices, and put in a stewpan, with two tablespoonfuls of thick cream, a teaspoonful of mixed mustard, and a little pepper. Stir all these over the fire till the mixture is like cream; cut the toast in square pieces and place on a hot dish, and pour the cheese mixture all over them, and brown quickly with a red-hot salamander.

PLAIN DRESSED LOBSTER

Lay the lobster out flat, with the back up. Get a knife into the middle of the head and cut right down the middle of the lobster. Break the claws from the body and crack the shell, also cut the body away from the head. Stick the head up in the middle of the dish; place the two halves of the body round it, and the claws each side. Decorate with parsley. Vinegar must be handed with it.

VEAL LOAF

1½ lbs. of veal and
2 strips of bacon, chopped together.
½ cup of bread-crumbs.
1 beaten egg.
½ teaspoonful of grated nutmeg.
½ teaspoonful of black pepper.
1½ teaspoonfuls of salt.

Bake three hours.

Chop the meat all together; then put everything in a dish and stir in the egg, beaten without separating, and mix very well. Press it into a bread-pan and put in the oven for three hours by the clock.

Every half-hour pour over it a tablespoonful hot water and butter mixed. You can put a tablespoonful of butter into a cup of water, and keep it on the back of the stove ready all the time. After the meat has baked two hours, put a piece of heavy brown paper over the top, and keep it there till the meat is done, or it may get too brown. This is to slice cold; it is very nice for a picnic.

PRESSED CHICKEN

This was one of the things Margaret liked to make for Sunday-night supper. Have a good-sized chicken cut up. Put it in a saucepan and cover with cold water, and cook very slowly and gently, till the meat falls off the bones. When it begins to grow tender, put in a half-teaspoonful of salt. Take it out, and cut it up in nice, even pieces, and put all the bones back into the saucepan, and let them cook till there is only about a pint and half of broth. Add a little more salt, and a sprinkling of pepper, and strain this through a jelly bag. Mix it with the chicken, and put them both into a mould, and when cold put it on ice over night. After it has stood for an hour, put a weight on it, to make it firm. Slice with a very sharp knife, and put on a dish with parsley all round. This is a nice luncheon dish for a summer day, as well as a supper dish.

When you have bits of cold meat which you cannot slice, and yet which you wish to serve in some nice way, make this recipe, which sounds difficult, but is really easy and very nice:

MEAT SOUFFLÉ

1 cup of white sauce.
1 cup of chopped meat.
2 eggs.
Teaspoonful of chopped parsley.
Half a teaspoonful of minced onion.

Put the parsley and onion in the meat, and mix with the white sauce. Beat the yolks of the eggs and stir in, and cook one minute, and then cool. Beat the whites of the eggs and fold in, and bake half an hour, or a little more in a deep, buttered baking-dish. You must serve this immediately, or it will fall.

LUNCH ROLL

Half a pound of beefsteak, all lean; half a pound of cooked ham, quite lean; both to be passed through the mincing-machine; half a pound of bread-crumbs, two sprigs of mace, half a nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste; two eggs, the yolks and whites well beaten; two hard-boiled eggs.

Mix all together and make in the shape of a sausage. Tie very tightly in a cloth and boil for two hours.

Glaze it and serve cold. The ham usually makes it salt enough, and cayenne is a great improvement.

HASH

Remove all fat and sinews from the meat, and cut it into neat pieces and leave these to marinate.[A] Take a wineglassful of stock, half a wineglassful of white wine, a dessertspoonful of lemon juice or vinegar, a teaspoonful of Harvey’s or Worcester sauce, a teaspoonful of finely chopped parsley, and a finely chopped onion. Leave the meat in this for two or three hours, then make the following sauce:

For each half-pound of meat used, peel and mince a small onion, and a mushroom if at hand, and fry these lightly in half an ounce of butter or dripping. Next sprinkle in half an ounce of flour. Then gradually add half-pint of stock, using the marinate also. Allow to cool a little. Lay in the meat and let it stand by the fire until quite hot, but not to boil.

[A] To soak up the flavour.

Some of the things Margaret made for breakfast she made for lunch or supper, too, such as scalloped eggs and omelettes. She had some vegetables besides, such as--

BAKED TOMATOES

6 large tomatoes.
1 cup of bread-crumbs.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
1 tablespoonful of butter.
1 slice of onion.

Put the butter in the frying-pan, and when it bubbles put in the bread-crumbs, the salt, and onion, with a dusting of pepper, and stir till the crumbs are a little brown and the onion is all cooked; then take out the onion and throw it away. Wipe the tomatoes with a clean wet cloth, and cut out the stem and a round hole or little well in the middle; fill this with the crumbs, piling them up well on top; put them in a baking-dish and stand them in a hot oven; mix a cup of hot water with a tablespoonful of butter, and every little while take out the baking-dish and wet the tomatoes on top. Cook them about half an hour, or till the skins get wrinkled all over. Serve them in the dish they are cooked in, if you like, or put each one on a small plate; pour some of the juice in the baking-dish over it, and stick a sprig of parsley in the top.

STUFFED POTATOES

Wash six large potatoes, and scrub them with a little brush till they are a nice clean light brown, and bake them for half an hour in a hot oven; or, if they are quite large, bake them till they are soft and puffy. Cut off one end from each and take out the inside with a teaspoon, holding the potato in a towel as you do so, for it will be very hot. Mix well this potato with two tablespoonfuls of rich milk or cream, a half-teaspoonful of salt and just as much butter, and put this back into the shells. Stand the potatoes side by side in a pan close together, the open ends up, till they are browned.

PASTRY FOR PORK PIES

6 ozs. of lard to 1 lb. of flour.
Pinch of salt.
1 pint of boiling milk.

Six pounds of flour generally makes seven pies.

Put the flour into a deep pan, rub in the lard till not a bit is left, add the salt. Make a hole in the centre of flour, take the boiling milk, pour with the left hand and stir with a large wooden spoon with the right hand. Work all together into a stiff paste. It may want a little more milk, so it is best to have more ready.

When all the flour is well worked in, knead it for twenty minutes (near the fire), it should then be quite smooth. Cover over to keep warm, but not too near the fire, and in an hour’s time it will be ready for use.

FRENCH DRESSING

3 tablespoonfuls of oil.
½ tablespoonful of lemon juice or vinegar.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
3 shakes of pepper.

Stir together till all is well mixed.

Many people prefer this dressing without pepper and with a saltspoonful of sugar in its place; you can try it both ways.

TOMATO AND LETTUCE SALAD

Peel four tomatoes; you can do this most easily by pouring boiling water over them and skinning them when they wrinkle, but you must drain off all the water afterward, and let them get firm in the refrigerator; wash the lettuce and gently pat it dry with a clean cloth; slice the tomatoes thin, pour off the juice, and arrange four slices on each plate of lettuce, or mix them together in the large bowl, and pour the dressing over.

EGG SALAD

Cut up six hard-boiled eggs into quarters, lay them on lettuce, and pour the dressing over.

HAM MOUSSE

Whip two gills of cream stiffly, and stir into this one gill of liquid aspic and half-pound of cold cooked minced ham, and just enough cochineal to make it all a very delicate pink. Whip this together for two or three minutes, pack it into a tall slender mould, and set it on ice for two or three hours.

CAULIFLOWER SALAD

Take cold boiled cauliflower and pick it up into nice pieces; pour the dressing over, and put on the ice till you need it.

PORK-PIE MEAT

One pound of pork meat and about three ounces of pork fat. Cut this up into small squares. Flavour this with a quarter-ounce of salt and a quarter-ounce of pepper. Put this into your pie-crust and bake for three hours. The paste must be brushed over with egg, so that it looks yellow when it is cooked. Be careful it does not burn.

Have some stock made from pork bones which has been flavoured with about one ounce of whole mixed spice and pepper and salt. When the pie is warm, cut a small hole in the top and pour into it as much of the stock as the pie will hold. When cold it will have jelly inside it.

HASH (ORDINARY)

Cut up into slices any cold meat, removing all fat and sinews. Put in a saucepan an ounce of butter and a tablespoonful of flour. Mix together when hot, and add a pint of stock; colour it with browning, and add salt and pepper to taste and a teaspoonful of Worcester sauce.

BRAWN

To a pig’s head weighing six pounds, add one and a half pounds of lean beef, two tablespoonfuls of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, three pounded cloves, and half a blade of mace. Boil the beef and head three hours. Take away all the bones, chop the meat up, add the seasoning and some of the liquor it is boiled in, to make it moist, and put it in a mould and turn out when cold.

MAYONNAISE

Yolk of 1 egg.
½ cup of olive-oil.
1 tablespoonful of lemon juice or vinegar.
½ teaspoonful of salt.
Pinch of red pepper.

Put the yolk of the egg into a very cold bowl; it is better to put the bowl, the egg, the oil, and the beater all on the ice a half-hour before you need them, for then the mayonnaise comes quicker. Beat the egg till the yolk is very light indeed; then let some one else begin to put in the oil, one drop at a time, till the mayonnaise becomes so thick it is difficult to beat; then put in a drop or two of lemon or vinegar, and this will thin it so that you can use the oil again; keep on doing this till you have nearly a cup of the dressing. If you need more oil than the recipe calls for, use it, and towards the last add two or three drops at a time. When you have enough, and it is stiff enough, put in the pepper and salt and it is done. Never use mustard except with lobster, as this will spoil the taste. Some salads, especially vegetable, need very thick mayonnaise, and then it is better to make it with lemon juice, while one to use with meats may be thinner, and then the vinegar will do; the lemon juice makes it thick. Always taste it before using it, to see if it is just right, and, if not, put in more salt, or whatever it needs. You will soon learn. Most people think mayonnaise is very difficult to make, but, really, it is as easy as baking potatoes, after you have once learned how. Every salad given before is just as nice with mayonnaise as with French dressing, and you can try each one both ways; then there are these, which are better with mayonnaise:

CHICKEN SALAD

1 cup of chicken, cut in large bits.
½ cup of celery, cut up and then dried.
2 hard-boiled eggs, cut into good-sized pieces.
6 olives, stoned and cut up.
½ cup of mayonnaise.

Mix all very lightly together, as stirring will make the salad messy; put on lettuce.

LOBSTER SALAD

1 cup of lobster, cut in large bits.
2 hard-boiled eggs, cut in pieces.
½ teaspoonful of dry mustard, stirred in.
½ cup of mayonnaise.

Mix and put on lettuce.

CELERY SALAD

2 heads of celery.
3 hard-boiled eggs (or else 1 cup of English walnuts).
½ cup of very stiff mayonnaise.

Wash, wipe, and cut the celery into pieces as large as the first joint of your little finger, and then rub it in a clean towel till it is as dry as can be. Cut up the eggs, sprinkle all with salt, and add the mayonnaise and lay on lettuce. Or mix the celery and the walnuts and mayonnaise; either salad is nice.

SCOTCH WOODCOCK

Cut one or two slices of bread half an inch thick, toast it and butter it well. Spread over it some anchovy paste and cut into as many pieces as you require. Have a saucepan ready and one egg for each person; just break the yolks and half an ounce of butter to each egg. Put salt and pepper into it, put it on the fire and stir till it becomes thick, then add one tablespoonful of cream. Put the buttered eggs on the top of the anchovy toast and serve very hot. The buttered egg must not be too thick.

SHRIMP TOAST

Mix in a stewpan the yolks of two eggs, a tablespoonful cream, one teaspoonful anchovy sauce. Soak in this a thick round of buttered toast. Peel some shrimps and place on the toast and serve very hot.

TO PICKLE BEEF OR TONGUE

Put into a large saucepan four quarts of cold water, two pounds common salt, two ounces of saltpetre, half-pound brown pickling sugar, a few peppercorns, four bay-leaves, six cloves.

Let it all boil up well; then skim. When cold pour into an earthenware pan; then put in the meat and turn it every day for ten or fourteen days.

TONGUE TOAST

Grate finely the remains of a tongue, and mix it with the yolk of an egg, a tablespoonful of cream, finely chopped parsley, pepper, and a little salt.

Make it very hot, but not boiling, and pour it on to fingers of well-buttered toast.

Grated ham can also be prepared exactly the same, with a little fine chopped onion if liked.

CHEESE STRAWS

One ounce grated cheese, one ounce butter, slightly over one ounce of flour, a little pepper and salt.

Put all into a basin and work into a stiff paste; then roll out and cut them evenly with a knife in lengths. Place on a baking-sheet, a little distance apart, and bake in a warm oven about ten minutes, but they must be watched, so as not to get too brown. They should be a pale straw colour.

POTATO SALAD

3 cold boiled potatoes.
3 hard-boiled eggs.
½ cup of English walnuts.
12 olives.

Break up the walnuts, saving a dozen halves unbroken. Cut the potatoes and eggs into bits of even size, as large as the tip of your finger; stone the olives and cut them up, too; mix them together in a bowl, but do not stir them much, or you will break the potatoes; sprinkle well with French dressing, and put on the ice; when it is lunch or supper time, mix quickly, only once, with stiff mayonnaise, and put on lettuce. This is a delicious salad to have with cold meats.

Margaret’s mother liked to have gingerbread for lunch often, so those things came next in the cookery-book.

GINGERBREAD

1 cup of sugar.
1 egg.
1 teaspoonful of soda.
1 teaspoonful of ginger.
1 tablespoonful of melted butter.
½ cup of milk.
2 cups of flour.

Beat the eggs without separating, but very light; put the soda into the sugar, put them in the milk, with the ginger and butter, then one cup of flour--measure in a medium-sized cup and only level full--then the egg, and last the rest of the flour. Bake in a buttered biscuit-tin. For a change, sometimes add a teaspoonful of cloves and cinnamon, mixed, to this, and a cup of chopped raisins put in the flour, or a cup of chopped almonds.

SOFT GINGERBREAD, TO BE EATEN HOT

1 cup sugar.
½ cup boiling water.
¼ cup melted butter.
1½ cups flour.
¾ teaspoonful soda.
1 teaspoonful ginger.
½ teaspoonful salt.

Put the soda in the sugar and beat it well in a good-sized bowl; then put in the melted butter, ginger, salt, and flour, and beat again; and add last the water, very hot indeed. Have a buttered tin ready, and put it at once in the oven; when half-baked, it is well to put a piece of paper over it, as all gingerbread burns easily.

You can add cloves and cinnamon to this recipe, and sometimes you can make it and serve it hot as a pudding, with a sauce of sugar and water, thickened and flavoured.

GINGER BUNS

½ cup butter.
1 cup sugar.
½ cup brown sugar.
1 teaspoonful ginger.
1 tablespoonful mixed cinnamon and cloves.
1 teaspoonful soda, dissolved in a tablespoonful of water.
Flour enough to make it so stiff you cannot stir it with a spoon.

Melt the sugar and butter together on the stove, and then take the saucepan off and add the rest of the things in the recipe, and turn the dough out on a floured board and roll it very thin, and cut in circles with a biscuit-cutter. Put a little flour on the bottom of four shallow pans, lift the buns with the cake-turner and lay them in, and put them in the oven. They will bake very quickly, so you must watch them. When you want these to be extra nice, put a teaspoonful of mixed cinnamon and cloves in them and sprinkle the tops with sugar.

GRANDMOTHER’S SUGAR BUNS

1 cup of butter.
2 cups of sugar.
2 eggs.
1 cup of milk.
2 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder.
½ teaspoonful of vanilla.
Flour enough to roll out easily.

Rub the butter and sugar to a cream; put in the milk, then the eggs beaten together lightly, then two cups of flour, into which you have sifted the baking-powder; then the vanilla. Take a bit of this and put it on the floured board and see if it “rolls out easily,” and, if it does not, but is soft and sticky, put in a handful more of flour. These buns must not be any stiffer than you can help, or they will not be good, so try not to use any more flour than you are obliged to.

TEA

1 teaspoonful of black tea for each person.
1 teaspoonful for the pot.
Boiling water.

Fill the kettle half-full of fresh, cold water, because you cannot make good tea with water which has been once heated. When it is very hot, fill the teapot and put it where it will keep warm. When the water boils very hard, empty out the teapot, put in the tea, and pour on it the boiling water; do not stand it on the stove, as too many people do, but send it right to the table; it will be ready as soon as it is time to pour out--about three minutes. If you are making tea for only one person, you will need two teaspoonfuls of tea, as you will see by the recipe, and two small cups of water will be enough. If for more, put in a teaspoonful for each person, and one cup of water more.

GINGER BEER

4 gallons water.
4 lbs. lump sugar.
4 oz. ginger.
3 oz. cream of tartar.
4 lemons.

Bruise the ginger and slice the lemons; take out the pips, then put all the ingredients into a pan and pour over the boiling water. Let it stand until it is luke-warm, then add one tablespoonful of fresh barm put on a piece of toasted bread to remain on the top. If this is done at night it will be ready to bottle next morning.

LEMONADE

Slice up six lemons and pour over them three quarts of boiling water and enough sugar to taste. Can be used when cold.

CHOCOLATE

2 cups of boiling water.
2 cups of boiling milk.
4 teaspoonfuls of grated chocolate.
4 teaspoonfuls of sugar.

Scrape the chocolate off the bar, mix it with the boiling water, and stir till it dissolves; mix the milk and sugar in them and boil for one minute. If you wish to have it nicer, put a small teaspoonful of vanilla in the chocolate-pot, and pour the hot chocolate in on it when it is done, and have a little bowl of whipped cream to send to the table with it, so that one spoonful may be put on top of each cup.

COCOA

6 teaspoonfuls of cocoa.
1½ cups of boiling water.
1½ cups of boiling milk.
1 tablespoonful of powdered sugar.

Put the cocoa into the boiling water and stir till it dissolves, then put in the boiling milk and boil hard two minutes, stirring it all the time: take from the fire and put in the sugar and stir again. If you like it quite sweet, you may have to use more sugar.