Chapter VIII: Front Matter (8)

Butter thin crackers—water, butter, cream or saltine—dip each lightly into hot milk and lay in a buttered bake-dish. Sprinkle the layers with salt and paprika and every other layer with a spatter of French mustard. Cover each layer with dry, grated cheese. The topmost layer should be soaked crackers dotted with butter. Finally, pour in a cup of milk, heated, with a pinch of soda. Cover closely for the first half-hour of baking, then brown delicately.

Creamed cheese golden buck

This is a good way of using cream cheese which has become a little dry after the tinfoil has been removed.

Rub three tablespoonfuls of cream cheese to a paste with a teaspoonful of butter; salt and pepper it and work in a tablespoonful or two of cream, enough to make it quite soft. Set in a pan of boiling water over the fire and stir until hot, when add a beaten egg, cook one minute and spread upon buttered crackers.

Nonpareil Welsh rarebit

Half a pound of soft grated cheese; one gill of ale; two eggs; one tablespoonful of butter; one teaspoonful of lemon juice and the same of Worcestershire sauce and half a spoonful of celery salt. A pinch of cayenne and one of mustard.

Put a broad saucepan over the fire and melt the butter. When it hisses stir in the cheese, then, still stirring, the dry seasoning. Have ready the eggs beaten separately and very light, before you stir them together in a bowl with a few swift strokes. Add three spoonfuls of the hot mixture to these, rapidly, then pour the eggs (now warmed by the hot cheese) into the saucepan, never letting the spoon rest. In one minute more add the sauce and lemon juice and put upon rounds of hot, buttered toast.

STUFFED EGGS

FONDU OF CHEESE

COVERED CHEESE DISH FOR LIMBURGER, ETC.

CHEESE AND EGG-ENTREES]

Macaroni in cheese shell

Break macaroni into two-inch lengths and boil until tender in plenty of salted water; then drain and blanch by pouring cold water over it. After it has been blanched cut into pieces not over a half inch long. Have ready a cheese-shell, one from which the cheese has been thoroughly scooped out. These shells, which are frequently thrown away, make a nice receptacle for serving macaroni. Stand the shell on a piece of waxed paper and this in a baking-pan. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour in the saucepan, mix and add a pint of milk, stir until boiling, mix in the cold macaroni and stir over the fire until it is just heated through; add a teaspoonful of salt and saltspoonful of pepper and pour the mixture into the shell; cover with a piece of greased paper and leave in the oven fifteen minutes. Lift the shell carefully, putting it on a round plate and send to the table. This process imparts a most delicate cheese flavor and makes a sightly dish. If baked too long, it will become soft and fall apart. For that reason the macaroni must be hot when poured into the shell. If the shell is carefully cleaned, it may be used several times.

Cream celery in Edam cheese shell

Cut the cleaned celery stalks into inch-lengths and cook until tender in boiling water, slightly salted. For three cupfuls of the cut celery allow a pint of white sauce, using the water in which the celery was cooked, with the cream, as the liquid. Turn into the shell of an Edam cheese, cover with half a cupful of fine cracker-crumbs, mixed with two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and let it brown in the oven. Send around powdered cheese with this dish.

Cheese rings

(Contributed)

Prepare a dough as for cheese straws, but cut it out with a doughnut cutter, brown slightly in a moderate oven. Draw several cheese straws through the opening in each ring and serve with salad.

Baked cheese

(Contributed)

Dissolve three ounces of butter in a gill of hot water. Melt three ounces each of American and Gruyère cheese. Stir all together until creamy, then add enough sifted flour to make a stiff paste and the beaten yolks of two eggs. Mix the whole thoroughly. Mold with two buttered tablespoons, slip on greased paper, and when all are molded set in a moderate oven. When slightly brown brush them over with the whites of the eggs beaten stiff. Return to the oven for one minute. Take up on a hot dish, dust with pepper and fill the center with grated cheese.

Cheese cutlets

(Contributed)

To the well-beaten yolks of three eggs add one tablespoonful of cream and one ounce of grated Parmesan cheese and season with mace and cayenne. Beat until very light and add one tablespoonful of Béchamel sauce. Pour into a buttered pan and steam over hot water until firm. When cold cut in shapes with a fancy cutter, dredge with grated cheese and fry in boiling fat to a delicate brown. Serve at once on fried bread.

Cheese dates

Cut large dates two-thirds around lengthwise, and extract the seeds, leaving the back of each uncut to form a hinge. Fill them with cream cheese rubbed soft with butter, bring the sides together to hold in the filling, and pile upon a glass dish.

They are a nice accompaniment to afternoon tea.

THE TOAST FAMILY

Toast, pure and simple

Pare the crust from _thin_ slices of bread, cut each slice in two and toast to a golden brown over a clear fire; butter lightly; pile together and throw a napkin over them. The sooner they are eaten the better. This toast is the accompaniment to scores of breakfast and luncheon dishes.

Brown bread toast

Is especially good and goes well with oysters and certain salads.

Deviled toast

Is best when made of stale whole wheat or of graham bread. Toast as just directed and spread with a mixture made by creaming together a great spoonful of butter with a quarter-teaspoonful, each, of lemon juice, dry mustard and paprika. Sift, if you like, dry grated cheese over each round of toast thus deviled and set for one minute upon the upper grating of a hot oven. Eat at once.

Tomato toast

Make a pint of well-seasoned tomato sauce. Toast crustless slices of bread; butter and dip each slice in hot, salted milk, then put the slices in layers in a pudding dish. Put a spoonful of tomato sauce on each layer, and when the dish is full, pour the remaining sauce over all. Cover and set in the oven for ten minutes, then send to the table. It will be found very good.

Celery toast

Stew inch-lengths of celery until soft; run through a vegetable press; mix with a thin white sauce, seasoning with paprika, salt and a dash of onion juice; boil up once and put into a pudding dish with alternate layers of lightly toasted bread which have been dipped into the salted water poured off from the boiled celery. Cover and set in the oven for ten minutes, then serve in the bake-dish. A pleasant accompaniment to chicken or veal croquettes.

Sandwiched toast

Cut bread into very thin slices and remove all the crusts. Butter lightly, and between every two slices lay an extremely thin shaving of chicken or cold roast veal. Press the slices of bread firmly together, lay on a toaster and toast each to a delicate brown. Serve at once. These are especially nice with cucumber salad.

Toasted crackers

Butter seafoam or snowflake crackers and dust with celery salt and a little paprika. Set in the oven until very hot, then serve.

Toasted anchovy crackers

Spread crackers with anchovy paste and set in the oven until very hot before sending to the table.

Anchovy toast

Cut thin slices of bread into rounds; toast delicately on both sides, lay a coiled anchovy on each round and set in the oven for three minutes to heat.

LUNCHEON VEGETABLES

Hashed potatoes, browned

Pare, wash and cut eight fine potatoes into small cubes, not more than half an inch square. Put these over the fire with two tablespoonfuls of minced celery and half as much grated onion. Salt to taste, and cook until tender but not broken; drain off the water and turn the potatoes into a buttered dish. Have ready a cupful of hot milk, into which stir a large tablespoonful of butter rubbed into one of flour. Do not cook them together, but add a tablespoonful of finely-minced parsley, and pour over the potatoes. Cover and bake fifteen minutes, then brown upon the upper grating of your oven. Serve in the bake-dish.

The celery and onion impart a most agreeable flavor to the dish.

Potato scallop

Work gradually into your cold mashed potato a cupful of warmed milk (in which has been dissolved a pinch of soda) until you have a smooth mixture; season with pepper and salt, add an egg beaten very light, and bake briskly in a well-greased pudding dish. Serve in the dish before it has time to fall.

Potato chips

Pare, slice very thin with a sharp knife and throw into ice water for an hour. Dry between two towels, and cook until delicately colored in deep, boiling cottolene or the best salad oil, slightly salted. Drain perfectly dry, toss upon hot tissue paper for an instant and serve in a deep dish lined with a napkin, which is drawn over the potatoes.

Potato strips

Prepare in the same way, after cutting into long, thin strips, the length of the potato.

Potatoes on the half-shell

Bake large, smooth potatoes of uniform size until they yield to the pinching fingers. Divide each carefully in half, lengthwise; scrape out the interior, taking care not to break the skin; mash the potato with a little hot milk and melted butter until you can beat it to a cream; salt and pepper, beat in two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese (Parmesan is best) for two cupfuls of potato, and return to the waiting shells. Set in the oven until hot through and slightly browned. Serve in the skins.

They are very good.

Potato puff

Beat a cupful of mashed potato to a soft, creamy mass, with a cupful of warm milk and an even tablespoonful of butter. Have ready two eggs, whipped light, and add to the “cream.” Pepper and salt to your liking; turn into a warmed and buttered pudding dish; set in a quick oven and bake, covered, for half an hour, then brown. Serve at once before it falls.

Potato drop cakes

Pare, wash and grate six good-sized raw potatoes; press out the water, add three well-beaten eggs and a heaping tablespoonful of flour, with salt to taste. Beat well, and drop by the great spoonful in deep, hot cottolene or other fat. Fry to a delicate brown.

Sweet potatoes au gratin

Peel and slice cold, boiled sweet potatoes. Grease a pudding dish, put a layer of potatoes in the bottom of it, sprinkle with salt, pepper, sugar and bits of butter. Put in more potatoes, sprinkle these as you did the others, and when the dish is full pour over the contents a gill of boiling water, in which a tablespoonful of butter has been melted. Strew with fine crumbs, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake, covered, for twenty minutes. Uncover and brown.

Sweet potato puff

Into two cupfuls of boiled and mashed sweet potatoes beat three tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a cupful of milk and four beaten eggs. Salt to taste, beat hard and turn into a greased pudding dish. Bake to a golden brown.

Pea pancakes

Open a can of green peas several hours before you wish to use them, drain in a colander and cover with cold water until you are ready to cook them. Boil tender in water slightly salted, drain, and while hot rub through a colander or vegetable press. Work in a teaspoonful of butter, with pepper and salt to taste. Stir for a minute, and let the paste get cold. Beat two eggs light and add to the cold paste, alternately with a cupful of milk. Sift half a teaspoonful of baking powder twice with four tablespoonfuls of flour, and stir into the mixture.

Drop upon a soapstone griddle as you would griddle cakes. Eat while hot, as a vegetable. Peas left over from yesterday are nice made up in this way.

Buttered rice

This, too, is a nice “made-over entrée.” Boil rice in the usual way, and, after draining well, press while warm into a bowl or mold. Next day turn it out carefully upon a pie plate and set in a quick oven. When it is hot all through draw to the door of the oven and butter abundantly. Shut the oven door and brown lightly. Butter again and sift a thick coating of grated cheese (Parmesan, if you have it) over all. Leave in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese, and heap irregularly with a meringue of the whites of two eggs beaten up with a pinch of celery salt. Brown very lightly, slip a spatula under the mold and transfer carefully to a hot platter.

It is a pretty yet a simple side dish, good and easily made.

Tomatoes farcies

Carefully peel large, firm tomatoes, and scoop out the centers. In the hollow thus left in each tomato put a layer of minced ham. Set the tomatoes in a bake-pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, put a bit of butter upon the top of each and cook for ten minutes. Then drop upon the mince in each tomato a raw egg; dust with salt and pepper and cook until the eggs are “set.”

Tomato caps and saucers

Cut the tops from large, ripe tomatoes, and scoop out the insides with a small spoon. Keep these insides for the sauce, to be used later. Make a mince of cold roast beef or mutton, moisten it with a rich gravy, season to taste and half fill the hollowed tomatoes with this mixture. Set in a covered roasting-pan and bake for twenty minutes in a steady oven. Meanwhile, strain the tomato pulp, heat it and make of it a sauce thickened with two teaspoonfuls, each, of flour and butter, rubbed to a paste. Season to taste. Toast rounds of crustless bread, lay these on a platter and pour the tomato sauce over and around them. Keep hot until the tomatoes are ready. When these have cooked for twenty minutes remove the cover of the roaster and drop into each half-filled tomato a raw egg. Replace the cover and bake just long enough to “set” the eggs. Upon each round of toast lay a stuffed tomato, sprinkle with pepper and salt and send to the table.

Scallop of tomatoes and eggs

Into a pint of stewed tomatoes stir a generous cupful of fine bread crumbs, a tablespoonful of melted butter, a half teaspoonful of sugar, pepper and salt to taste. Mix thoroughly and turn into a greased pudding dish. Upon the top of this scallop break as many eggs as will lie upon it side by side. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and bits of butter and bake until the eggs are set.

Rice and cheese pudding

Boil a cup of rice until each grain is tender and stands alone. Now beat in gradually five whipped eggs and a cup of milk, in which have been stirred two tablespoonfuls of grated cheese. Stir over the fire for a minute and pour the mixture into a greased pudding dish. Bake in a good oven for half an hour.

Pilau of green peppers

Cut green peppers lengthwise, removing the seeds with care, lest they make the green shells too hot. Fill the halves with boiled rice, into which has been stirred a tablespoonful of melted butter for a cupful of the boiled rice, and two tablespoonfuls of grated Parmesan cheese, with salt to taste. Mound the rice smoothly and high, and after the pilau has cooked ten minutes in a covered pan brown lightly. Serve hot.

Scallop of sweet peppers and ham

Cut each pepper lengthwise into quarters and remove the seeds carefully, lay in iced water for fifteen minutes, then drain. Cut each quarter in half. Butter a pudding dish and put in the bottom of it a layer of minced ham, on top of this a layer of cut peppers; sprinkle thickly with fine crumbs and moisten all thoroughly with seasoned stock. Now put in more ham, another layer of peppers and crumbs, liberally dotted with bits of butter and sprinkled with salt. Bake, covered, in a good oven for half an hour, then uncover and cook ten minutes longer.

Buttered rice with peppers

Cook an even cupful of rice fast in two quarts of salted boiling water for twenty minutes, or until tender, but not broken. Drain in a colander, and set in an open oven to dry off for five minutes. Have ready one large, or two small green sweet peppers, seeded carefully and chopped fine. Put a heaping tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan; when it hisses add the minced peppers; toss and stir over the fire until smoking hot all through. Put the rice into a dish and pour the contents of the frying-pan all over it, loosening the mass with a fork to allow the sauce to penetrate it.

Boston baked beans

Soak one quart of beans over night in warm—not hot—water. In the morning cook them until the skin curls on a bean when you blow upon it. Pack them in an earthen pot. Score the skin of a pound of streaked salt pork, and almost bury it in the beans. Pour over this one dessertspoonful of molasses, mixed with as much vinegar, a good pinch of pepper and a teaspoonful of mixed mustard. Cover closely and bake six hours in a good oven.

Baked beans and tomatoes

Soak and boil as directed in the last recipe. Then put the beans into a deep pudding dish; bury a piece of pork (parboiled) in the center and pour over them a large cupful of stewed and strained tomatoes seasoned with pepper, sugar, onion juice and a good lump of butter, but not thickened. Cover closely and cook for three hours, if the dish be large.

Fried cucumbers

Peel and slice cucumbers and lay in a dressing of equal parts of oil and vinegar for ten minutes. Drain and dip in beaten egg, roll in cracker crumbs and fry in deep cottolene or other fat. Drain and serve hot.

Mushrooms on toast

Peel and broil fresh mushrooms, spread them with butter, dust with salt and pepper, and serve them on rounds of toast. Or you may cut the mushrooms in quarters, put them in a double boiler with a tablespoonful of butter and cook until tender. They may then be seasoned to taste and poured, sauce and all, on rounds or triangles of crustless toast.

Baked mushrooms

Peel and stem large mushrooms. Line a deep bake-dish with thin slices of toast, each of which has been dipped for an instant in seasoned beef stock. Fill the dish with layers of mushrooms, sprinkling each layer with salt, paprika, and bits of butter. When the dish is full, pour over all a gill of stock, and bake, covered, for twenty minutes. Uncover and cook for five minutes before sending to the table.

Dried mushrooms and eggs

Wash the dried mushrooms, boil until tender and drain the water off. Put into a pan to fry in butter for about ten minutes, sprinkle a very little caraway seed on them, and salt to taste. Break a few eggs over them.

Sauté green tomatoes

Select firm, smooth tomatoes that are fully grown, but which have not begun to redden. Wash, and without paring, cut into disks a quarter of an inch thick. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and sugar, dust with flour and sauté in hot butter. Drain and garnish with thin slices of fried bacon.

SANDWICHES

The day has passed and forever when a sandwich meant two thick slices of bread, enclosing what the boys call a “hunk” of cold meat. Now the popular delicacy is made of bread cut to wafer-like thinness and shorn of all suggestion of crust. The “filling” may be simple or composite, as taste may dictate, and the ingenious housewife will devise many delicious combinations to be spread between the two layers of her sandwiches.

Ham sandwiches

Chop lean ham fine and beat into each cupful of the minced meat a tablespoonful of salad oil, a teaspoonful of vinegar, a saltspoonful of French mustard, six olives chopped fine, and a teaspoonful of minced parsley. Work all to a paste and spread on thin slices of white bread.

Chicken sandwiches

Mince the white meat of a roast chicken and mix it with half a can of French mushrooms, chopped fine, and a half cupful of chopped English walnuts. Season to taste with pepper and salt, and moisten with melted butter. Put the mixture between slices of whole wheat bread.

Brunette sandwiches

Slice Boston brown bread very thin, butter lightly, and spread with Neufchâtel or with cottage cheese. Have ready crisp lettuce-leaves, dip each in a bowl of French salad dressing, then lay on the already spread brown bread. Press another slice of buttered brown bread on this, and the sandwich is ready. These sandwiches must be kept in a moist atmosphere until it is time to serve them.

Lamb or mutton sandwiches

Mince cold roast lamb, or tender mutton fine, and season with salt, pepper and tomato catsup. Add a few minced olives and make all into a paste with mayonnaise dressing. Spread between thin slices of bread. Cut these sandwiches into diamond shapes.

Beef sandwiches

Chop rare cold roast beef very fine, taking care to use only the lean portions of the meat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and a saltspoonful of horseradish. Mix and make into sandwiches with thinly-sliced graham bread. These may be eaten by persons of delicate digestion, and are both appetizing and nourishing.

Egg sandwiches

Mash the yolks of hard-boiled eggs to a powder and moisten with olive oil and a few drops of vinegar. Work to a paste, add salt, pepper and French mustard to taste, with a drop or two of Tabasco sauce. Now chop the whites of the eggs as fine as possible (or until they are like a coarse powder) and mix them with the yolk paste. If more seasoning is necessary, add it before spreading the mixture upon sliced graham bread.

Walnut sandwiches

Shell English walnuts. Blanch and chop, and to every tablespoonful of nuts allow a good half tablespoonful of cream cheese. Rub well together and spread on thin slices of crustless white or graham bread.

Peanut sandwiches

Shell and skin freshly-roasted peanuts and roll them to fine crumbs on a pastry-board. Add salt to taste, and mix the powdered nuts with enough fresh cream cheese to make a paste that can be easily spread on unbuttered bread. Keep in a cold, damp place until wanted.

Water cress sandwiches

Season water cress with salt, pepper, and a few drops of vinegar, and chop coarsely. Mix with creamy cottage cheese and spread on thinly-sliced white bread.

Cottage cheese sandwiches

Cottage cheese, spread upon a slice of buttered bread, and covered with a leaf of lettuce dipped in oil and vinegar, then with the second buttered slice, makes a nice relish.

Sardine sandwiches

Wipe the fish, skin, take out the backbone and rub to a smooth paste with a little butter and lemon juice. Add a dash of cayenne, or a few drops of Tabasco sauce, and spread between thin slices of brown bread.

Salmon sandwiches

(Contributed)

Remove the skin and bones from a can of salmon, shred with a silver fork and add the crumbled yolks of six hard-boiled eggs. Season to taste and add any good salad dressing. Spread on thin slices of brown bread.

Olive sandwiches

(Contributed)

Take equal parts of large and stuffed olives. Mince fine, mix with a little thick mayonnaise, and spread on thin slices of buttered bread.

Salad sandwiches

(Contributed)

Take finely-chopped chicken or veal, season with salt, pepper and a dash of onion juice. Add a little mayonnaise and spread the mixture on thin slices of bread lined with crisp lettuce leaves.

BRUNETTE SANDWICHES

CRESCENT SANDWICHES]

Nasturtium sandwiches

(Contributed)

Butter thin slices of white bread, place between them the petals of nasturtium flowers or the very young leaves. Place the flowers so that they will show along the edges of the bread and decorate the plate with the leaves and flowers.

Raisin sandwiches

(Contributed)

Make a paste of large seeded raisins and candied lemon peel chopped fine and moistened with lemon juice. Spread on lightly-buttered thin slices of bread. Serve with a cup of good tea.

Chocolate sandwiches

(Contributed)

Melt a small piece of butter in a saucepan; grate into it bitter chocolate and season with granulated sugar. When the chocolate is thoroughly melted take from the fire and cool. Moisten with a little thick cream and spread on thin slices of slightly buttered bread.

Hash sandwiches

(Contributed)

Cut pieces of bread into uniform sizes, dip them in beaten egg, to which a little milk and a pinch of salt has been added. Fry to a light brown in hot butter. Make a highly-seasoned hash of chopped meat and potatoes. Cook in stock until heated through. Arrange toast on platter, putting a spoonful of hash on each piece and covering with another piece of toast.

Date and nut sandwiches

(Contributed)

Remove the stones and the thick skin which surrounds them from the dates, then chop them fine. Add half as much finely-chopped English walnut or pecan meats; moisten with creamed butter, add a pinch of salt and spread between two thin slices of bread.

Fig and nut sandwiches

(Contributed)

For fig sandwiches use the recipe for dates and nuts, substituting figs for dates.

Ginger sandwiches

(Contributed)

Cut thin slices of plain gingerbread. Spread with soft cream cheese. Put between the slices a thin slice of preserved ginger.

Marmalade sandwiches

(Contributed)

Toast slices of bread, spread while hot with butter, fill with a thick marmalade and serve hot.

Cheese and nut sandwiches

(Contributed)

Take equal parts of grated cheese and English walnuts pounded to a meal and moisten with thick cream. Season to taste and spread between thin slices of buttered bread.

Lettuce sandwiches

(Contributed)

Lay between two thin slices of buttered bread a crisp lettuce leaf, on which has been spread a thin layer of salad dressing.

Sweetbread sandwiches

(Contributed)

Put cold boiled sweetbreads through a potato ricer, moisten with half as much whipped cream, season with salt, cayenne and lemon juice. Spread on thin slices of buttered bread and cut in fancy shapes.

Lobster sandwiches

(Contributed)

Season the finely-chopped meat of a lobster with a few drops of Tabasco sauce, lemon juice and oil and spread upon thinly-buttered bread.

Hot ham sandwiches

(Contributed)

Butter thin slices of bread. Broil some very thin slices of ham, put between the slices of bread and serve hot.

Tongue sandwiches

(Contributed)

Make a dressing one part mustard and five parts butter, add salt and pepper to taste and a little cayenne. Butter the bread with the dressing and lay between the slices thin slices of cold tongue.

Mint sandwiches

(Contributed)

Pulverize one tablespoonful of mint leaves; pour over them two tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Let it stand for about a half an hour. Soak half an ounce of gelatine in one tablespoonful of water. Dissolve it over hot water. Strain the mint into the gelatine and when cool add a pint of rich whipped cream and a pinch of salt. Let this stand in a mold until perfectly cold and firm. Slice in thin slices and put between dainty slices of bread.

Anchovy sandwiches

(Contributed)

Spread thin slices of bread with a very little butter. Cover this with a thin layer of anchovy paste. Mince finely some olives and use for filling.

Club sandwiches

(Contributed)

Toast slices of bread a nice brown, and while hot spread with butter and put between the slices a lettuce leaf, some cold baked chicken cut in thin slices, a few chopped olives and pickles, some slices of hot crisp bacon, a layer of salad dressing, another lettuce leaf and the other slice of toast.

These are very nice for Sunday evening supper.

Tomato sandwiches

Slice graham, or, better still, whole-wheat bread, thin, pare off the crust, butter on one side, spread with minced ripe tomatoes—drain off superfluous juice and sprinkle with salt, pepper and sugar. Serve at once. The tomatoes should be ice-cold and minced quickly. They are delicious and popular.

TEMPTING PREFIXES TO LUNCHEON

Grape fruit

This is among the most popular of appetizers to be served at a luncheon. Cut the fruit in half, crosswise, and with a sharp knife remove all the bitter white membrane that divides the lobes. Fill the space thus left with as much granulated sugar as the fruit will hold. Set on the ice until very cold.

Fruit baskets

Cut oranges in half so cleverly as to leave a wide strip from the upper half of the rind attached to the lower, like the handle of a basket, or the “bale” of a bucket. Should you break it at one side you can, after filling the cup or basket, put a neat stitch in and tie a bow of narrow ribbon over the join.

Empty the lower cup entirely to the white inner lining. Set on the ice while you prepare the filling. Cut the orange pulp into neat, clean bits; mix with crystallized cherries, atoms of _marrons glacés_ or of blanched nuts, add fine white sugar and a little liqueur, or if you prefer, sherry. Fill the baskets and leave half buried in cracked ice until you are ready to set them on the table.

Set each basket upon a chilled plate, laying an orange spoon beside it.

If you do not care to take the trouble of leaving the handle on, make bowls of the halved fruit. They are a delicious introduction to a company luncheon.

Oyster cocktails

Bury small oysters in the ice until needed. Have the tall, slender glasses in which they are to be served laid in the ice also that they may be thoroughly chilled. Make a sauce of two tablespoonfuls of tomato catsup, a dozen drops of Tabasco sauce, the juice of a lemon, a saltspoonful of grated horseradish and a dash, each, of salt and paprika. Add two tablespoonfuls of oyster liquor, mix thoroughly and set on the ice until very cold.

Put five oysters in the bottom of each chilled glass, pour the sauce upon them, and serve.

Raw oysters

Lay, when opened, on the deeper of the halved shells that the liquor may not escape. Have a bed of finely-cracked ice in each plate, fix five oysters in each bed, with a piece of lemon in the middle. Pass grated horseradish in vinegar with them, and small crackers, or buttered bars of graham bread.

Raw clams

Are served in the same way.

Caviar crisps

Remove the crusts from slices of white bread and cut into strips an inch wide and three inches long. Toast to a light brown and set aside to cool. Open a small can of caviar and rub into the contents a tablespoonful of salad oil and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. If the paste is not soft enough add more oil. Spread the crisp toast with this paste, garnish with sprigs of parsley, and serve cold.

Clam wafers

Chop a dozen soft clams very, very fine, and season with pepper and a few drops of lemon juice. Add to them the beaten yolk of one egg and enough finely-rolled cracker crumbs to make a soft paste. Spread seafoam wafers thickly with this paste, lay them in a baking pan and set in the oven for five or ten minutes, or until the wafers and paste are very hot and the batter is quite stiff. Serve at once.

CAVIAR TOAST GARNISHED WITH CELERY AND LEMON

OYSTER COCKTAILS]

Anchovy toast

Cut the crust from a loaf of graham bread and slice, then cut each slice in half and toast on both sides. Spread lightly with butter. Open a jar of anchovies and lay one of the tiny fish on each strip of graham toast, squeeze a few drops of lemon juice upon it, sprinkle with paprika and set in the oven until very hot.

Anchovy bars

Butter narrow saltine wafers, spread them with anchovy paste, and set them in the oven long enough to become very hot. Serve two on each plate.

Deviled crackers

Butter seafoam wafers, sprinkle lightly with paprika, then drop upon them a very little grated Parmesan cheese, and set in the oven until they brown delicately about the edges.

Hot-house grapes

Cut the larger bunches into smaller, all of uniform size. Lay on ice until just before luncheon when, tie a dainty bow of ribbon of a harmonizing color with the grapes, upon each bunch.

Jack Frost grapes

Divide a large bunch of selected grapes into smaller bunches of even proportion. With a camel’s-hair brush varnish each grape thoroughly with the white of an egg. Dust carefully with granulated sugar. Tie to each cluster a bow of narrow white ribbon.

SALADS

In a Familiar Talk, some pages back, I have alluded to the “Woman with a Way,” who will not use oil in salad dressing. A story which stuck to an eminent magazine publisher to the end of his busy career was of a new cook whose salads won the unqualified approval of her master, who was a gourmand in a gentlemanly way. She had been serving perfect mayonnaises and well-adjusted French dressings for a fortnight, when one of the children fell ill and the doctor prescribed a dose of castor oil. The mother recollected distinctly the purchase of a bottle not long before, but it could not be found. Bridget heard the inquiry going the rounds and came to the front.

“Castor ile—is it ye are wanting? And it is mesilf that was thinking this morning, as I had a right to spake to yez, mem, to order more. I put the lasht dhrop inter the castor yisterday. Salad every day uses a dale of ile.”

Bridget knows better now, and her mistress’s taste is so far cultivated by much use of salad oil that she insists upon having it “pure.”

An airy waitress, in the second day of her trial week in my household, complimented me patronizingly upon the judgment which led me to select “the best brand.”

“There’s no better oil on the market to my way of thinking than the Borducks!” holding a bottle up to let the light fall through the slow liquid amber of “Huile de Bordeaux.”

The oil of Bordeaux is good, when not doctored upon this side of the water. There are olive groves in other foreign lands that send thousands of gallons of pure oil to America to be mixed with cheaper oils, returned to the bottles bearing foreign labels, and palmed off upon the most credulous public upon the globe as the yield of the royal olive.

Pure salad oil, when it has any perceptible odor, should have a faint “nutty” perfume; it should taste like the ripe olives from which it was expressed; in color it should be palest, tenderest green; it should blend readily and harmoniously with condiments and with the body of the salad.

French dressing

Rub the inside of a bowl with a clove of garlic. Measure into a bowl six tablespoonfuls of oil, two of vinegar, two saltspoonfuls of salt, and one of pepper. Mix thoroughly before pouring over the salad.

Mayonnaise dressing

Into a chilled soup plate drop the yolk of an egg drained free of all the white, squeeze upon it a teaspoonful of lemon juice and stir in with a silver fork until well mixed. Now add gradually a few drops of salad oil, stirring steadily. As the dressing thickens, add the oil more freely until you have used half a pint. Season with a dash of paprika, a half teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoonful of mustard, and a generous tablespoonful of vinegar.

In making your chicken salad allow a cupful of celery cut into bits to every two cups of the chicken dice, and make a cupful of mayonnaise for five cupfuls of the salad.

Cream dressing

Beat three eggs, yolks and whites together, until they are very light; add one teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of red pepper, half a saltspoonful of mustard mixed with a little water, and, lastly, three or four tablespoonfuls of rich, sweet cream.

Sour cream salad dressing

Have a cupful of rich sour cream very cold, then beat hard for five minutes, adding, as you do so, a tablespoonful of powdered sugar and a half teaspoonful of lemon juice. This dressing is delicious served with chilled cucumbers, sliced thin.

Boiled salad dressing

Into three well-beaten eggs stir a cupful of vinegar, a tablespoonful of sugar, two saltspoonfuls of salt, a dash of paprika, and a small teaspoonful of French mustard. Beat thoroughly, turn into a saucepan, stir steadily until the boil begins, and add a teaspoonful of butter. When this melts remove the dressing from the fire. Beat for two minutes and set aside to cool. When cold put in the ice-box, where it will keep a week or ten days.

Chicken salad

Cut cold, boiled chicken into small dice. With two cupfuls of this meat mix a cupful of celery cut into dice. Sprinkle all with salt and pepper. Into three tablespoonfuls of oil stir a tablespoonful of vinegar. Pour this over the chicken and celery and toss until well mixed. Line a chilled bowl with crisp lettuce leaves, fill with the chicken salad and pour mayonnaise dressing over all.

Turkey salad

Is made in like manner, rejecting the dark meat of the legs, unless it is very tender.

Lobster salad

Pick out the meat from a fresh, well-boiled lobster. Cut with a sharp knife into small dice, taking care not to tear the meat. Set on ice while you make a good mayonnaise, which, in turn, must go on the ice. Have ready one-third as much celery as you have lobster, cut into half-inch lengths. Mix together in a bowl, sprinkle with cayenne and salt and stir lightly into it a cupful of mayonnaise. Line a chilled bowl with crisp lettuce, arrange the salad within this; garnish with the lobsters’ claws and hard-boiled eggs cut into lengths lengthwise. Set on ice until it goes to table.

Crab salad

Is made in the same way, omitting the eggs from the garnish.

Oyster salad

Choose small oysters for this salad. If you can not get these, cut each oyster in half, but do not chop them. Drain the liquor from the oysters, and to every cupful of these add a cupful of crisp white celery cut into half-inch bits sprinkled lightly with salt. Mix and stir mayonnaise dressing through the mixture. Line a chilled bowl with lettuce leaves, fill with the oyster salad and pour a rich mayonnaise over all. Garnish with stoned olives.

Shrimp salad

For this dish you can use either the fresh or the canned shrimps. If the former, they must be shelled. If the latter, they must be taken from the can several hours before they are to be used and set on the ice. Line a salad bowl with crisp lettuce leaves, lay the shrimps upon these and cover with mayonnaise dressing. Serve at once.

Shrimp and tomato salad

Cut the tops from ripe tomatoes and remove the insides. Fill the tomato shells with cold boiled shrimps, with their backs up; set each tomato upon a leaf of lettuce and pour mayonnaise dressing over all. A pretty salad.

Crab and tomato salad

Carefully strip the skin from six large, firm tomatoes, and remove the centers. Fill the hollowed vegetables with the chopped and seasoned meat of six boiled crabs. Set the stuffed tomatoes in the ice for several hours. Lay on crisp lettuce leaves, and put a spoonful of mayonnaise dressing upon each tomato.

Shrimp salad and tomato aspic

Strain the liquor from a can of tomatoes through coarse muslin. Put over the fire, season with salt and paprika and the strained juice of a small onion. When it boils skim well and pour over half a box of Coxe’s gelatine, which has been soaked three hours in a cup of cold water. Set away to form into a jelly.

When ready to use it line a salad dish with lettuce, arrange the contents of a can of shrimps (strained) upon the leaves, and spoonfuls of tomato jelly upon the shrimps. Send around French salad dressing with it.

Salmon mayonnaise

Boil eight eggs hard, throw into cold water; peel and lay in ice. Make a cup of mayonnaise and rub into it five large clean-cut pieces of canned salmon. Slice the eggs, lay them on lettuce leaves and pour over them the salmon mayonnaise.

Sardine salad

Drain the oil from a box of sardines and squeeze three drops of lemon juice on each fish. Lay crisp lettuce leaves in iced water for half an hour, then shake free of moisture and lay on a chilled platter. On each leaf lay a sardine, and upon this pour a spoonful of thick mayonnaise dressing. Garnish the edge of the platter with cold boiled beets cut into star shapes. Serve with crackers and cream cheese.

Egg salad with sardine mayonnaise

Boil eight eggs hard, throw into cold water; peel and lay in the ice. Make a cup of mayonnaise and rub into it four sardines that have been skinned and mashed to a paste. Halve the eggs, lay them on crisp lettuce leaves and pour a spoonful of the sardine mayonnaise over all.

Egg salad with boiled dressing

Beat smooth the yolks of three eggs with one teaspoonful of sugar, a half teaspoonful of mustard, one-half teaspoonful of salt, dash of celery salt, one cup of vinegar and one cup of milk, added alternately to prevent curdling, and two tablespoonfuls of oil; put into double boiler and cook to the consistency of thin custard, stirring all the time. Let it get perfectly cold. Line a chilled dish with lettuce leaves, heap hard-boiled eggs, cut into quarters, upon these and pour over them the dressing.

Simple lettuce salad

Unless you have an exceptionally deft and cool-fingered cook or waiter, make the salad on the table yourself. Have, first, a finger-bowl passed quietly to you, into which dip your fingers, drying them on your napkin. While you do this the waitress or butler should set before you the oil, vinegar, pepper and salt, with salad spoon and fork and a small bowl, in the bottom of which is a tablespoonful of finely-minced green chives. If you have not these, the inside of the bowl should have been rubbed well with garlic. Mix in the bowl of the spoon a teaspoonful of salt with half as much pepper; fill the large spoon with vinegar, mixing salt and pepper well in this; turn into the mixing bowl; then fill the spoon three times with oil. Stir and toss until the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated. Two larger bowls should be ready at hand, one empty, the other heaped with crisp, cold lettuce leaves. Pick these apart lightly with the tips of your fingers and put into the empty bowl. When all are in pour the dressing over the lettuce, tossing lightly and quickly with salad fork and spoon. Pass at once with heated crackers and fancy cheese of some kind.

Lettuce and tomato salad

After tearing the lettuce apart, lay, as on a bed, tomatoes pared and sliced, or cut into eighths. Pour the dressing over them.

Salad should never be touched with one’s own knife, but divided, if need be, with the fork. It should not be necessary to remind people who know anything of the by-laws of dining and lunching as received by polite society, that it is awkward and unconventional to hash tender lettuce, celery or cress with knife and fork, clinking against the plate in a castanet accompaniment to table talk. Yet it is done in our sight and hearing almost every day.

Water cress salad

Tear apart gingerly, pile in a bowl, and pour a French dressing over it. Some like to dip it into salt, as celery is eaten, without other dressing.

Potato salad (No. 1)

Cut cold-boiled potatoes into tender slices and mix with them two raw white onions, minced, and a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and two tablespoonfuls of salad oil mixed with a dessertspoonful of vinegar. Toss and turn, and put into a salad bowl. Set in the ice for two hours. Just before sending to the table stir into the salad a half cupful of mayonnaise, and pour the rest of the dressing over the top of the salad.

Potato salad (No. 2)

Peel eight potatoes that have been boiled in their skins and allowed to cool. Slice the potatoes into a bowl and add to them a chopped onion, which has been scalded after it was minced. Season the potato and onion with salt and pepper to taste. Pour upon them five tablespoonfuls of oil and two of vinegar. Toss up well and let them stand an hour before serving.

Cauliflower salad

Cut a young cauliflower into clusters, boil tender, drain and lay in the ice until very cold. Arrange on leaves of lettuce and serve with mayonnaise dressing. A delicious salad.

Beet salad

Boil eight young beets tender; drain, and lay in iced water until thoroughly chilled. Drain once more and scrape off the skins. Pour into a bowl six tablespoonfuls of salad oil with one tablespoonful of vinegar, and stir into them two saltspoonfuls, each, of salt and pepper. Stir this dressing thoroughly. With a sharp knife cut the chilled beets into tiny dice of uniform size, and as you do so drop these dice into the French dressing in the bowl. When all the beets are cut, turn them over and over in the dressing that they may become well coated. Set the bowl and its contents on the ice for an hour, or until very cold. Line a chilled salad bowl with crisp lettuce leaves. Drain all the dressing from the beets into a small glass bowl. Upon each lettuce leaf put a spoonful of the beet dice. When serving, put a spoonful of dressing upon each leaf.

A macedoine salad

One cup of green peas, boiled and cold, and the same of string beans cut into half-inch lengths, well cooked and suffered to get cold. One cup of celery cut into inch-lengths. One-half cup of boiled carrots, cut into tiny dice, also cold. One cup of red beets boiled and cut into small dice. Leave all these ingredients in the ice-box until chilled and stiff. Have ready a chilled glass or silver bowl—a shallow one is best; heap the beets in the center, arrange next to them a ring of celery dice, then the beans, next the carrots, lastly the peas—all forming a mound. Pour over this a good French dressing, garnish with a wreath of nasturtium blooms about the base and set on the ice until needed. Pass, if you like, a mayonnaise dressing with it. The true salad lover will, however, prefer the French dressing alone. It is a beautiful salad and easily made. If you can not get celery in summer, substitute boiled corn cut from the cob to make the white ring.

A fruit salad

Pare four juicy, sweet oranges, peel off every bit of the white inner skin from the fruit it incloses, pull the lobes apart, and cut each into four pieces.

Scald a cupful of English walnut kernels, strip away the bitter skin and let the kernels get dry and cold. Mix with the bits of orange, set on the ice for an hour, heap in a glass salad dish lined with crisp lettuce and cover with a good mayonnaise dressing.

Some consider a tablespoonful of celery cut into small pieces an improvement to this dish.

Apple and nut salad

Scoop the inside from fine, smooth, tart apples, and fill them with a mixture of cut-up celery and walnut meats, blanched and chopped, the whole well moistened with mayonnaise. Slices of pippins are sometimes mixed with watercress and covered with French dressing, making a piquante salad that is especially good with roast duck.

Apple and celery salad

Cut enough crisp celery into small bits to make a cupful. Lay in iced water. Peel and cut four large apples into small dice, dropping these into water as you do so. Drain the celery and sprinkle it with salt. Drain the apples, mix with the celery, and pour over all a thick mayonnaise dressing. Serve very cold.

Orange salad

Peel and divide the oranges into lobes, then cut each of these into three pieces. Have ready four tablespoonfuls of blanched English walnut kernels, cold and firm, for the same number of oranges. In serving, put a leaf of lettuce upon each plate, a great spoonful of the cut oranges upon the leaf and on this last a spoonful of nut-meats. Pour a good mayonnaise over all.

Bean and beet salad

Boil a half cupful of small kidney beans. There should be a cupful when cooked. Cook until soft a pint of tender string beans, cut into inch-lengths. Boil tender four large, or six small red beets. Let all get stone-cold. Cut the beets, then, into tiny dice. In the center of a glass dish heap the beets, next the white beans, and, as an outer circle, the green. Edge with white “heart” lettuce leaves, and pour a French dressing over all.

CHICKEN SALAD MANTLED WITH CREAM MAYONNAISE AND GARNISHED

FRUIT SALAD GARNISHED WITH MARRONS GLACÉS]

A pretty and palatable salad.

If you use dried white beans they must be soaked for six hours before boiling.

Nasturtium salad

Cut fine the heart of a large bunch of celery, mince a tablespoonful of parsley and six blades of chives. Mix with a French dressing, stir in lightly the petals of a dozen large nasturtium blossoms; line a salad bowl with crisp lettuce, and put this mixture in the center. Garnish elaborately with nasturtium leaves and blossoms.

Dandelion salad

Pick the young tender leaves of the dandelion, wash and lay in ice water for half an hour. Drain, shake dry and pat still drier between the folds of a napkin. Turn into a chilled bowl, cover with a French dressing, toss the greens over and over in this and send at once to table.

This is very wholesome—and palatable—to those that like it!

Cabbage salad

Shred a small white cabbage very fine. Heat a gill of vinegar, add to it a tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of sugar, and a dash of celery salt and white pepper. Bring to a boil, stir in the shredded cabbage, and stir until very hot. Have ready a half cupful of milk, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved, and stir it slowly into three beaten eggs. Boil until it is like thick cream. Pour this mixture over the hot cabbage, mix well together, season to taste, and turn into a chilled bowl. Bury in the ice until very cold.

Cold slaw

Shred a white cabbage fine. Heat a cup of milk. Heat, also, a gill of vinegar, and when this last is boiling, stir into it a tablespoonful, each, of butter and sugar, a teaspoonful of celery essence, two saltspoonfuls of salt and one of pepper. When boiling hard, stir in the shredded cabbage, and as soon as this is really hot, remove it from the fire. Pour the scalding milk slowly upon two beaten eggs and cook, stirring steadily until thick, then pour upon the cabbage and toss until well mixed. Set in the ice for two hours. Serve very cold.

Cucumber salad

Select small, firm cucumbers of uniform size. Wash well in cold water. Dry thoroughly. Make two incisions in the top of the cucumber about an inch from each end and about one-half inch deep. Next cut lengthwise from one incision to the other carefully and remove the top. Scoop out the pulp and mix with salt. Then chop some celery fine (if celery is out of season substitute cabbage), and some blanched walnut meats, also chopped. After the cucumber pulp has stood about an hour in the salt drain off the water and add the celery and the nuts. Mix thoroughly with a French dressing, and about twenty minutes before serving fill up the shells, placing a piece of parsley in each end.

Cucumbers with lemon juice

Lay fresh cucumbers in the ice for twelve hours. Peel and slice very thin, and send immediately to the table covered with crushed ice. As you dish them put some of the ice on each plate and pour over the cucumbers a dressing made of two parts of salad oil and one part of lemon juice, with salt and paprika to taste.

Daisy salad

Cut two-inch rounds of cream or Neufchâtel cheese one-half inch in thickness, and place on crisp lettuce leaves. Put the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs through the vegetable-press and place a teaspoonful of this yellow powder in the center of each round. Serve mayonnaise or French dressing in a separate bowl.

Tongue salad