BERKELEY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY Of CALIFORNIA THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURE BEQUEST OF ANITA D. S. BLAKE CATERING FOR TWO COMFORT AND ECONOMY FOR SMALL HOUSEHOLDS BY ALICE L.' JAMES SECOND IMPRESSION G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON &\t Jinkkerbocktr |jresg 1899 COPYRIGHT, 1898 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS AGRICULTURE GIFT Ube fmicfeerbocfeer preag, Hew 7T7A5 AGRIC. LIBRARY To MARY FRANCES HARMAN 134 PREFACE. THE difficulty of reducing the average rules of the cook books to meet the wants of a family of two or three, added to the urgent solicitations of friends, has suggested to the writer the need of this little book. Dining well on small means is an art only to be acquired by long experience, and the object of the following chapters is to give the result of sixteen years' labor and study, so that the way may be made easier for others just taking upon themselves the duties of a housewife. In the accompanying menus the directions are exact and absolutely reliable. There is no indefinite "a little" of this, or "just enough " of that, to puzzle the beginner, and the dishes, which are nourishing and ap- petizing, are inexpensive as well, a considera- tion not always taken into account. Catering for Two is for the inexperienced cook, and while the proportions are limited to the needs of two, or at most three, it is only necessary to double the rules to make the quan- tities sufficient for the ordinary family. CONTENTS. PAGE DINNERS I COMPANY LUNCHEONS . . . .183 BREAKFAST, TEA, AND LUNCHEON DISHES. 192 FANCY DESSERTS 229 MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES .... 245 HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS .... 262 INDEX 28l Vll CATERING FOR TWO. DINNERS. I. Consomme" with rice. Oyster pie. Pickled cabbage. Grape jelly. Egg salad with greens. Crackers. Cheese. Roly-poly peach pudding. Egg sauce. Tea or coffee. Caramel jelly. Alternative : Round steak (fried). Farina pudding. CONSOMM6 WITH RICE. Get a shank of mutton weighing about two pounds, or two shanks weighing a pound each. Wipe with a damp cloth and cut off any dried Catering for outer skin, dredge with two tablespoon fuls of flour, pour on a quart of cold water, and, after soaking a few hours, simmer for several hours, covered closely. Strain off this liquor, pour over the bones and meat enough cold water to cover, and cook again for another hour. Strain and add to the first quantity of liquor and throw away the bones and meat. Salt to taste, add an onion, carrot, and turnip, and cook until the vegetables are tender ; these may be put away for a salad, and when the broth is cold, take off the cake of fat. There should be nearly a quart of solid jelly. Take a pint of this, add a tablespoonful of washed rice, and cook gently until the rice is tender. A little minced parsley may be added at the last moment. This broth is much relished by the sick, and may be varied in many ways. OYSTER PIE. Twenty-five medium-sized freshened oysters. Slice very thin a cupful of raw potatoes, pour on them one cup of rich, sweet milk, cover the dish (of earthenware) closely, and cook on top of the stove until done. Do not stir them, but watch carefully that they do not burn. When the potatoes are cool, place the oysters on top of them, pepper and salt lightly, add the Catering for {Two. 3 oyster liquor and a tablespoon ful of butter in small pieces. Place over all a cover of pie- crust, made as follows, and bake in a very hot oven for fifteen minutes. Sift together a cup of flour and half a tea- spoonful of salt and cut into it with a knife two heaping tablespoon fuls of lard as cold and hard as ice can make it. When the lard is the size of peas, stir in with a fork four tablespoon fuls of ice-water, and mould quickly into a ball ; flour the mould- ing-board, roll out once, cut a few little slits or fancy figures in the centre, and lay upon the oysters. Trim off the overlapping edges and bake at once. Make any paste that is left into a little tart. ROLY-POLY PUDDING (BAKED). Sift together one cup of flour, one teaspoon- ful of baking powder, and half a teaspoonful of salt. Chop this with a scant half-cup of suet (ice cold) and mix quickly with two thirds of a cup of ice-cold water. Mould into a long roll and roll out on a floured moulding-board as thin as it will hold together. Have ready three or four peeled and sliced fine juicy peaches (canned will do), cover the paste with them, dredge lightly with flour, and roll up like a ielly roll. Catering for Place in an earthen dish, and bake in a mod- erately hot oven for three quarters of an hour. Serve hot with the following sauce : Cream with a fork a half-cup of sweet butter, add a cupful of granulated sugar, and stir well ; then add the yolk of a small egg and stir, then the frothed white, whipping the whole until very light. Now add a quarter-cupful of boiling water, set over the teakettle, and cook and stir for several minutes. It should be a little thick, and quite foamy. Flavor with a tablespoonful of wine or brandy, or vanilla to taste. This sauce will keep a week or longer in a cool place, and may be warmed up by setting over a teakettle. The pudding may be warmed in the oven in a covered dish. PICKLED CABBAGE. One cabbage, solid and crisp. Two ounces mustard seed, one heaping table- spoonful of black pepper. Two tablespoonfuls of salt, one quart cider vinegar, three onions, one red-pepper pod, one tablespoonful sugar, one heaping tablespoonful mixed spices, whole cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and a speck of mace. Tie the spices in a piece of cheese-cloth, giving them plenty of room. Catering for wo* 5 Chop the cabbage, or, if preferred, shave into ribbons, put it with the onions and pepper pod chopped fine into an earthen crock, in alternate layers with the salt, pepper, and mustard seed. Stamp with a potato masher, to press all to- gether closely, but not hard enough to bruise the cabbage. Put the bag of spices on top, and over the whole lay a heavy plate, pouring the vinegar on at the last. Put on the cover of the jar and set in a cool place. It will be ready for the table in a few days, and will keep for months in cool weather if made after frost sets in. The vinegar must not be heated, nor the cab- bage. Everything is in the raw state for this pickle. CARAMEL JELLY. Melt one heaping tablespoonful of gelatine in two tablespoon fuls of cold water, add the juice and grated rind of half a lemon, three tablespoon fuls of granulated sugar, a pinch of ground cinnamon, a teaspoonful of sugar burned brown, a few grains of salt, and one cupful and four tablespoon fuls of boiling water (in hot weather omit the extra four tablespoons of boiling water). Stir and strain, and set away to harden on ice. This makes a delicious dessert with whipped cream (and gelatine) heaped on top. Catering for FRIED ROUND STEAK. Ask for the prime cut of round steak. Trim off the outer edges of fat, cut a piece from the steak large enough for a meal, and pound with a hammer until it becomes like jelly. Press into shape and fry in a smoking- hot spider ; it will take only a minute for each side to become brown, as the fire must be very hot. Place upon a bed of fresh water-cresses. Add a tablespoonful of butter to the spider, which must now be slightly cooled, stir in an even teaspoon ful of flour, salt, and pepper ; pour in four tablespoonfuls of boiling water, cook a minute, and pour over the steak. Serve at once. The remainder of the steak may be broiled or made into a beefsteak pudding with suet crust. FARINA PUDDING. Stir with a spoon a cup and a half of boiling milk until it whirls, then slowly pour in a heaping tablespoonful of farina, stirring all the time. Add one fourth of an even teaspoonful of salt, cook five minutes, and then set in another saucepan containing boiling water and cook, covered, fifteen minutes, stirring occa- sionally. Flavor with lemon or vanilla and turn into cups. Serve cold with sweetened cream. II. Chicken broth. Sirloin steak (oven roast). Lyonnaise potatoes. Macaroni with cheese. Stewed peaches or prunes. Tomato salad. French dressing. Whipped-cream cake. Stewed strawberries. Tea or coffee. Alternative : Beef stew with sweet potatoes. Tomato fritters. CHICKEN BROTH. Put into a kettle the neck, lower parts of the leg, and the wing tips of a large fat fowl. Dredge with flour and add a pint of cold water. After soaking an hour, simmer gently, closely covered, until the meat drops from the bones, strain and put the broth back on the fire, then add a cupful more water to the bones 7 8 Catering tor and cook an hour longer ; add this liquor also to the broth and throw away the chicken. There should be a scant pint of broth. Season with onion juice, salt and pepper, and a little parsley, boil up, and serve with squares of bread toasted brown in the oven. Make chicken salad of the body of the fowl. SIRLOIN STEAK. A prime cut of sirloin steak will weigh about two pounds and a half. Cut off enough for two broils, and use the rest for the oven roast. Trim off the outside edges of fat, dust the meat lightly with pepper and flour, and roll it into a compact roll, pinning securely together with a long clinch-nail. These nails may be found at a hardware store, and are just the thing to use for little roasts. Broil the meat over a clear, fierce bed of coals just long enough to seal up the juices (hasten- ing the process as much as possible). Place a piece of fat on a baking-tin, put the meat upon it, and roast in a hot oven for about twenty minutes. Take from the oven, remove the skewers, being careful not to disturb the shape of the meat, sprinkle with salt, and pour over a gravy made by adding a scant half-cup- ful of boiling water to the baking-pan in which a teaspoonful of flour has been browned ; salt to taste and pour off the grease. Catering for {two. 9 LYONNAISE POTATOES. Slice a cupful of onions and two cupfuls of cold boiled or baked potatoes. Put them in alternate layers in a baking-dish for the table. Cream a tablespoonful of butter with a teaspoonful of flour, add half a teaspoon- ful of salt and a cupful of boiling milk, cook up, and pour over the potatoes and onions. Dust with pepper and bake half an hour, un- covered, in a moderate oven, or cover and cook on top of the stove ; they are better baked, however. MACARONI WITH CHEESE. Soak half a cupful of macaroni in two cups of boiling water twenty minutes, then boil until tender, about thirty minutes. Skim out the macaroni, put into an earthen dish, sprinkle with half a teaspoonful of salt, a dust of pepper, and spread over the top thin slices of old English cheese. Add a teaspoonful of butter and half a cup of milk. Bake twenty minutes and serve in the baking- dish. TOMATO SALAD. Serve the tomatoes (pared) on lettuce leaves, either with a mayonnaise or French dressing. They must be ice cold, to be good. io Catering for WHIPPBD-CREAM CAKE. Sift three times one and a half cupfuls of flour lightly put into the measure, with one and a half teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, and one scant half-teaspoonful of salt. Rub into the flour a lump of butter the size of an egg (this will be a little less than a fourth of a cupful). Put an egg into a bowl, pour on one scant cup- ful of sugar, and beat together, then add slowly two thirds of a cupful of water. Add flavoring, and pour slowly into the flour, beating it in with the hand until the batter is smooth and foamy. This should take about five minutes ; the hand should be freshly washed in hot water for the purpose, and the fingers must be spread apart in order to beat properly. Fill two shallow layer-cake pans half full, not more, and bake in a hot oven. When cold, put between and on the top layer two thirds of a cup of cream whipped to a stiff froth. Keep in a cold place several hours before serving. The remainder of the batter may be made into little drop cakes, half a teaspoonful for each, and baked on the bottom of inverted tins. If whipped cream is not at hand, proceed as follows, making a lemon cake. Catering for Gwo. n LEMON CAKE. Dissolve half a teaspoon ful of corn -starch in one tablespoonful of cold water, add three table- spoonfuls of boiling water, a few grains of salt, and boil several minutes. Put into a deep bowl two cupfuls of confectioner's sugar, and one third of the juice of one lemon. Add by the teaspoonful enough of the corn-starch mix- ture to make a paste thin enough to spread easily between and on top of the cakes. This is a delicious frosting for any cake, and it will always be soft. Orange may be substituted for lemon if preferred. STEWED STRAWBERRIES. One cupful of water, one cupful of sugar, three cupfuls berries, measured after being picked over and rinsed. Boil the sugar and water until clear, add the berries, and cook two or three minutes after boiling begins. This rule will serve for blackberries and rasp- berries also, and may be used when canning these fruits. Fruit should always be put into a boiling syrup ; and this is the rule for dried fruits also. They should never be soaked ; simply washed, and put immediately into the boiling syrup. A cupful of berries with a third of a cup each of sugar and water is enough for one meal. 12 Catering tor STEWED PEACHES (RIPE). Rub the down from the peaches with a coarse towel, quarter and stone them. Allow one tablespoonful of sugar and one tablespoon ful of water for every medium-sized peach. Put the stones, water, and sugar on to boil for a few minutes, remove the former, put in the fruit, and when boiling begins cook gently for five minutes. Peaches may be peeled if liked, but the skins are very delicious. They may be baked by cutting in halves, filling with a tablespoonful of sugar, and add- ing a tablespoonful of water to the pan. Cover and bake. STEWED PRUNES (RICH). Make a syrup of two cups of water and one cup of sugar, add half a lemon thinly sliced, and one pound of prunes which have been rinsed, but not soaked, in cold water. Sim- mer gently in a covered earthen or agate-ware vessel for four hours. Then pour over them a syrup made of one cupful of sugar and one (or two) cupfuls of boiling water cooked to- gether ten minutes. Boil the prunes a few minutes longer and serve either hot or cold. Catering for Gwo. 13 Covered, in a cool place they will keep weeks. The little Turkish prune is the best, and this will not need the lemon. BEEF STEW WITH SWEET POTATOES. Have one pound of chuck or stewing beef cut into two-inch pieces. Dredge with a tablespoon of flour, add a table- spoonful of fried salt pork cut into dice (but not the grease), and either a piece of red-pepper pod the size of a thumb-nail, or a pinch of cayenne. Use an earthen or agate vessel with a fitted cover, and simmer the meat for two hours in a scant cupful of boiling water. Then add two small sweet potatoes, peeled and washed ; add a scant teaspoonful of salt, cook until the po- tatoes are done, and serve on a platter. Be careful not to break the potatoes. III. Broth. Mutton with caper sauce. Boiled rice. Parsnip with cream sauce. Crab-apple jelly. Bread and butter. Celery hearts. Neufchatel cheese. Salted Saratoga chip crackers. Steamed dumpling (raised). Caramel sauce. Canned or stewed fresh cherries, strawberries, or peaches. Oranges. Tea or coffee. BROTH. Take the bone cut from a mutton shank weighing a pound and a half. Cover with a quart of cold water, and, after soaking an hour or so, heat gradually, and boil gently until meat and bone separate. This will take several hours. Then add two tablespoonfuls of tomatoes, one teaspoonful washed rice, half an onion, grated, and boil 14 Catering for ftwo. 15 until there is a pint of broth. Strain, skim off fat, add salt to taste, and serve. A tiny pinch of red pepper is an addition. BOILED MUTTON WITH CAPER SAUCE. Get a shank of mutton weighing one and a half pounds. Trim off the outer skin, which generally is the cause of the " woolly taste " so often complained of in mutton. Cut out the bone, dredge the meat on all sides with flour, dust with black pepper, and put it into a small deep agate pot with a close- fitting cover ; pour over one and a half cupfuls of boiling water, and when boiling begins, set on the back of the stove to cook gently for about two hours. When done, put the mutton on a deep platter and season with salt and pepper. Skim the fat from the gravy, which will be reduced to a cup- ful, add a teaspoon ful of flour blended with .a teaspoonful of butter, stir well, cook a few min- utes, add salt to taste and one or two table- spoonfuls of capers, boil up, and serve either poured around the mutton or in a gravy tureen. If capers are not liked, a spoonful of tomato catsup, or an onion sliced 'and cooked with the mutton, can be substituted. If greater deli- cacy is preferred, do not use the gravy at all, but make a white sauce, called drawn butter. 16 Catering for Gwo. Mix an even tablespooiiful of flour with a lump of butter the size of an egg, stir to a cream, and slowly add a cupful of boiling water, stirring and cooking several minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, with the capers, boil up, and serve. A tablespoonful of minced parsley may be used instead of the capers. The gravy may be added to the broth, or it may form the basis of a soup for another day. It is not safe to keep mutton stock more than twenty-four hours, except in freezing weather. BOILED RICE. Wash half a cupful of rice, drain, and pour it gradually into a pint of fast-boiling water, to which half an even teaspoonful of salt has been added. Stir all the time the rice is being poured in. Boil hard for a minute, then cover closely, and set upon a part of the stove where it will simmer for an hour or a little longer, covered all the time. The rice will be per- fectly soft and yet retain its shape, and the water will all have been absorbed. Heap on a dish, butter liberally, and dust with pepper. PARSNIP WITH CREAM SAUCE. Scrape and wash, but do not soak, a fine large parsnip. Cover it with boiling water and cook until tender. Catering for (Two. 17 Cut into slices half an inch thick, put into a vegetable dish, and pour over a sauce made by stirring to a cream one tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and adding a cupful of boiling water, with salt and pepper to taste. This sauce should boil ten minutes. Sometimes parsnips have a core so hard that no amount of boiling will make it tender. From twenty to thirty minutes is the time allowed, and if the core still remains unyield- ing, cut it out of each slice and discard. Any parsnip left over may be mashed and served in a little cake browned in a frying-pan. CELERY HEARTS. Wash the hearts of fine crisp celery, place upon a celery dish, and pass with Neufchatel cheese and Saratoga chip crackers, salted. It is not necessary to bring on fresh plates for this little course, as the bread-and-butter plates at each place will answer, if one wishes to save steps or time. STEAMED DUMPLING. One half yeast-cake, three quarters cup of water, or milk and water mixed, one heaping cup of flour, one half-teaspoonful of salt, one tablespoonful of sugar, one egg, heaping table- spoonful butter. is Catering for Melt the butter and yeast-cake in the warmed milk, beat the egg, and sift flour, salt, and sugar together. Mix all these ingredients, and set in a warm place for one hour. At the end of this time, beat the mixture, fill a mould one third full, and let the dough rise until it is nearly doubled in bulk, which will be in about half an hour. Set in a steamer and cook one hour, then cover and keep hot until ready to serve. CARAMEL SAUCE FOR STEAMED DUMPLING. Stir to a cream one tablespoon ful of butter, two tablespoonfuls of confectioner's sugar. Add a little caramel (directions to follow) and the yolk of an egg. Beat for several minutes. Add more, or all, of the caramel, and more sugar if desired, and, at the last, one table- spoonful of wine or brandy. This pudding will keep a week in a cool place, if covered, and may be warmed for another meal by setting on a plate, covered closely with a bowl, and set in the oven, or in a steamer. CARAMEL OR BURNT SUGAR. To make the caramel, put on a cool part of the stove, to melt, four heaping tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar with two tablespoonfuls Catering for wo. 19 water, and let it cook gently for half an hour, covered. At this time it should be bright, coffee-brown syrup, clear as amber. Be careful not to have the fire too hot, or the caramel will be burned and have a bitter taste. It must not be stirred, as this will grain the sugar, but the saucepan can be shifted from side to side, carefully, if necessary. Now add to the syrup six tablespoon fuls boil- ing water, one spoonful at a time, pouring it directly into the middle of the mass. Let this boil gently for two minutes without stirring, then mix with a spoon, cooking and stirring for another minute. There should be just a half-cupful of syrup, perfectly clear and free from lumps. Cool before using. ORANGES. Select fine, large oranges. Soften them a little by rolling gently on the kitchen table with the hand. Cut off an inch-thick slice from the stem end and replace it, so that the fruit will present a whole appearance. Serve on dessert plates with orange spoons or stout teaspoons. The choice or delicate teaspoons are apt to be twisted and ruined when used as orange scoops. The oranges may be cut in halves if preferred. IV. Tomato bisque. Porter-house roast. White turnips and potatoes mashed together. Baked rhubarb sauce. Celery salad. Cream cheese. Graham wafers. Corn-starch pudding with candied fruits. Tea or coffee. Bread and butter served with second course. TOMATO BISQUE. Put the bone cut from a porter-house roast into an agate pot having a fitted cover, and soak for an hour or so in a quart of cold water. Then bring slowly to a boil and cook gently until the liquor is reduced to a cupful. Bone and meat should have dropped apart by this time (about four hours). Add half a cupful of tomatoes, in which is well mixed a dessert- spoonful of flour ; add also a teaspoonful of onion juice, and boil gently for half an hour. 20 Catering for {Two. 21 Strain, skim off the fat, return to the pot, and add half a cupful of milk (fresh and rich) in which a pinch of baking-soda has been dis- solved. Stir well while heating, and when it boils up, season to taste and serve. ROAST BEEF. Order about three pounds from prime cut of porter-house roast. Have the bone taken out and sent home for soup-stock, and have also the long coarse end cut off and corned for twenty-four or thirty hours, or a little longer if preferred. Cut off the outer edge of fat, as it is dry and likely to be bitter. Skewer the meat firmly with a long clinch-nail. These nails make the best skewers for small roasts or cuts, as, having broad, flat heads, they can be removed with ease. The meat should now be browned on all sides. This is not necessary for large roasts, but for small ones ; it is the best way to make them retain their juices and sweetness. Either broil over a fierce bed of coals, or fry in a smoking-hot frying-pan. The meat does not want to be cooked, only browned well, and this process should take but a few minutes. Now dredge with flour on all sides, pepper lightly, and place, fat side down, on a meat-rack (a wire tea-stand will do) in a small dripping-pan. 22 Catering for Roast in a hot oven for fifteen minutes, then add a half-cupful of boiling water, cover the meat with a pan, and in thirty minutes take from the oven. Cut a deep, narrow slit, and pry apart to see if it is done to suit. If too rare return to the oven for fifteen or twenty minutes longer. Never allow the water in the pan to boil en- tirely away, or the gravy will be scorched to bitterness ; it should be merely browned. Put the roast on a platter, dust on all sides with salt, and garnish with celery tops. Stir together a teaspoonful of flour, and enough cold water to blend together smoothly (about two tablespoonfuls), add this to the sediment in the dripping-pan, and boil up. Add also a little boiling water and salt to taste. There should be half a cupful of gravy. Serve in a tureen. If the gravy is too pale, add a few drops of caramel. If there is no sediment and no grease, which often occurs, put a tablespoonful of butter in the pan, brown it slightly, and then add flour and water as directed. The meat is far more delicious when it keeps its juices while cooking. In carving, cut across the grain, and always add to each plate a spoonful of red juice from the platter ; this is called " dish gravy," and is the life of the meat. The roast may be served for another dinner by Catering tor Gwo. 23 putting it in a moderate oven and simply heat- ing it through. For still another time, cut the meat into dice, always cutting across the grain, dredge with flour, and cover with boiling water. Cover closely and stew gently from two to two and a half hours. Add onions or tomatoes, or serve plain. Salt and pepper to taste. Chop fine any which may be left, and add one fourth as much cold baked potatoes, a few drops of onion juice, a little flour, butter, and milk, and you have a hash for breakfast. Either fry in cakes, or serve with dipped toast. When cutting meat for a stew do not use the fat ; if you want fat, get salt pork and brown it, and use this without the grease. If any hash is left, do not throw it away ; it can go into the soup-pot with other scraps of meat, bones, and vegetables. When the coarse end comes, which you have left with the butcher to be corned, cover it with a quart of boiling water, and cook gently for three hours. This piece is not good when hot ; let it get cold in the liquor it boiled in, and slice for luncheon or tea, or make into hash. Soups and corned beef may be cooked in a slow oven after they are started to boil on top of the stove, thus saving the house from the long-continued odors ; onions and cabbage may be treated in the same way. 24 Catering for WHITE TURNIPS AND POTATOES MASHED TOGETHER. Wash and peel two medium-sized potatoes and two turnips equal in size to the potatoes. Cut in halves and cook, in enough boiling water to cover, from twenty minutes to half an hour. Test with a fork, and when tender drain by turning into a sieve or colander. Return them to the pot which has been dried, mash thoroughly, add a dessert-spoonful of butter, and one third of a teaspoonful of salt. Stir with a fork and add more salt if needed. Heap in a vegetable tureen, smooth the top, put on a lump of butter the size of a walnut, sprinkle with pepper, and keep hot, uncovered in the oven, until wanted. If any is left, either make it into a little cake and fry in butter, or add to the soup vegetables. CELERY SALAD. Break into half-inch pieces one cupful of crisp, blanched celery stalks. Little tough strings will hold the pieces together ; strip these off. Make a dressing of one tablespoonful of olive- oil, a dash of cayenne pepper, one fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, and a teaspoonful of real cider vinegar. Toss the celery about in this and serve in Catering tor {Two. 25 shallow salad bowl, either on a bed of lettuce leaves, or garnished with watercress or parsley. Pass Graham wafers and any preferred cream cheese, Eagle, or Philadelphia, Neufchatel, etc. CORN-STARCH PUDDING WITH CANDIED FRUIT. Put one cup of milk on the stove, and when it boils add two level tablespoon fuls of corn- starch mixed with a pinch of salt, and two tablespoon fuls cold milk. Boil for a few min- utes, stirring constantly from the bottom and sides ; then put the saucepan into another con- taining boiling water, cover, and stir occasion- ally to prevent a crust forming. Cook ten minutes. Beat one egg until very light, add one tea- spoonful of sugar, beat a few minutes longer, and stir into the corn-starch. Cook one minute, stirring well, add one fourth of a teaspoonful of lemon extract, remove from the fire. Beat a few minutes with a wire spoon and pour into a mould. When cold, turn out on a dish, place candied cherries, or any other candied fruit or rich pre- serves, around the edge, and serve with cream sweetened to taste and flavored with a teaspoon- ful of sherry or lemon extract. Be exact in measuring the milk and corn -starch, as a little more or less will spoil the pudding. 26 Catering for Smooth off the corn-starch with a knife-blade, to be sure that the spoonfuls are level ones. TEA. Put into a dry, heated earthenware teapot two level teaspoon fuls of tea, and pour on one pint of freshly boiling water. Cover and set on a hot part of the stove where it will not boil-but simply keep hot for ten min- utes ; then strain into a heated china teapot for the table. Throw away the tea-leaves ; they have been exhausted of all that is fit for use. V. Soup. Roast lamb. Grape jelly. Bscalloped potatoes. White turnips with cream sauce. Bread and butter. Salad. Chicory or lettuce. Cheese sandwiches. Orange tapioca pudding with whipped cream. Tea or coffee. Dates and Bnglish walnuts. SOUP. Take one and a half cupfuls of clear soup- stock, heat, and add the yolk of a hot hard- boiled egg which has been mashed to a smooth paste with a level teaspoonful of flour and a heaping teaspoonful of butter. Stir this well into the boiling stock, cook for a minute, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve. The white of the egg may be sliced and added if desired. 27 28 Catering for If the soup is lumpy after the paste is added, strain before serving. If more onion flavor is liked, grate in a few drops. CIvEAR SOUP-STOCK. In the family where soup is considered a daily necessity, the housekeeper will find that a soup- stock kept in bulk, ready for use, will be not only of great convenience, but a saving of time and labor as well. The following is a delicious white stock which will keep a week in cold weather. Soak over night in two quarts of cold water, one cupful of split peas. Next morning add a quarter of a pound of delicately browned fried salt pork (do not use the grease), one pound of stewing veal from the neck, dredged lightly with flour, one chopped onion, one chopped carrot, several sprigs of parsley, a pinch of cay- enne pepper, and one teaspoonful of sugar. Set on the back of the range to heat slowly, and cook for five or six hours, closely covered, very gently. Add salt to taste, the last half- hour. When done, pour into a soup-strainer set over a deep dish, and let it drain. Put that which remains in the sieve back into the pot, add a cup of hot water and boil ten or fifteen minutes, then drain again, throwing Catering for Gwo. 29 away that which remains in the strainer. There should be something over a quart of liquor. When cold, carefully remove the clear layer of jelly on top and use it for clear soup. The thick part remaining in the bottom of the dish may be converted into a tomato soup by adding the same quantity of tomatoes which have been cooked and strained. This makes a fine thick soup for luncheon or for a dinner when cold sliced roasts are used. The addition of a turkey or chicken carcass makes this stock still more delicious. Break the bones into small pieces, cover with cold water, and boil for several hours. Strain and add to the stock. A fine large turkey carcass will yield a pint of jelly, and a chicken carcass half a cup- ful. Hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, rice, noodles, or milk and macaroni, may be added to the clear stock as desired, making agreeable changes from day to day. ROAST LAMB. Take a chop two inches thick from the prime part of a fine leg of lamb. Dust it with pepper, dredge with flour, and put it into a hot spider to brown on all sides over a hot fire ; or broil it 30 Catering for Gwo. over a clear fierce fire. This seals up the juices, preventing their escape while roasting. The meat should cook only long enough to become brown. Do not puncture with a fork, but use a broad knife for turning. Time, from five to eight minutes. Put a meat-rack or wire tea-stand into a drip- ping-pan or pie-pan, lay the meat on it, and roast in a moderate oven from thirty to fifty minutes. Take it out at the expiration of thirty minutes and cut a small deep gash in the cen- tre ; pry apart, and if not cooked to suit, return to the oven and bake longer. The juice should be red, but the meat a brownish pink. Dust with salt, and put it on a small warmed platter. Mix a rounded tablespoonful of flour with two tablespoonfuls of cold water, and stir this into the gravy in the pan ; add a half-cupful of boil- ing water, stir well, boil a few minutes, add salt to taste, and serve either in a gravy-boat or pour it over the meat on the platter. Serve as soon as possible, garnished with parsley. In carving, serve only the choice portions cut in wedges. Reserve the poorer part and bones for a sec- ond meal, which is prepared in this way : Cut into dice, dredge with flour, cover with boiling Catering for ftwo. 31 water, and stew gently, closely covered, for an hour, or longer if necessary. Add any gravy which was left, salt to taste, take out the bones, add two tablespoon fuls of capers, and, after boiling up once, serve. If there was no gravy, make some by blending together one table- spoonful of butter and one teaspoonful of flour, and stir into the stew before adding the capers. Add also a little water if needed. ESCALLOPED POTATOES. Slice in thin slices two cupfuls of cold boiled or baked potatoes. Dust with flour, salt, and black pepper, put into an earthen baking-dish, distribute a dessert-spoonful of butter over the top in small pieces, and fill the dish with milk to just cover the top of the potatoes. Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. The top should be a delicate brown, and the potatoes a little creamy. If baked too long or too fast they will be hard and dry. Serve in the dish in which they were baked. TURNIPS WITH CREAM SAUCE. Wash and peel two medium-sized white tur- nips. Slice in inch pieces and cook in boiling water just enough to cover, with half a tea- spoonful of salt. When tender, drain and put them in a hot vegetable dish. Make a sauce 32 Catering for Gwo. of a dessert-spoonful of butter, one of flour, and a pinch of salt blended together. Add half a cupful of hot milk, boil up, and pour over the turnips. Sprinkle with pepper and send to the table. SALAD OF CHICORY OR LETTUCE WITH FRENCH DRESSING. Wash and pull apart a crisp head of chicory and serve with a dressing of three scant table- spoonfuls of vinegar (real cider vinegar), one saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and six tablespoonfuls of olive-oil. Pass, with this, small cheese sandwiches made in this way : Grate three tablespoonfuls of cheese, add one teaspoonful of butter and a pinch of cayenne pepper; work into a paste with a knife-blade and spread on the end of a loaf of bread. Cut this off in a slice a quarter of an inch thick, re- move the crust and double together, cutting the sandwiches about three inches square. Use old English cheese. ORANGE TAPIOCA PUDDING WITH WHIPPED CREAM. Put two heaping tablespoonfuls of flake tapi- oca in a cloth and pound it to the size of small peas. Rinse in cold water and soak over night Catering for Gwo. 33 in a cupful of cold water. Next morning add an eighth of a teaspoonful of salt, three table- spoonfuls of sugar, and two thirds of a cupful of orange juice. Add more sugar if the oranges are very sour. Cook until clear (about five minutes after the boiling begins), stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Pour into a glass dish and, when cold, heap whipped cream on top. Serve with sponge cake, lady-fingers, or del- icate crackers. The cream is prepared in this way : Put into an ice-cold bowl four tablespoon fuls of ice-cold cream and whip with a wire spoon for about ten minutes, or until it is stiff, then add a few grains of salt, one heaping table- spoonful of confectioner's sugar, and either a pinch of grated orange rind or a quarter of a teaspoonful of vanilla extract. To get the juice from oranges, cut crosswise and take out with a spoon the pulp in each sec- tion, rejecting seeds and all tough portions. The cream sold from the dairies where a "separator" is used is easily whipped. It is often called "new process cream" and does not need to be drained after being beaten stiff. If the cream will not whip readily it may be used plain with a little sugar and gelatine in this way : 34 Catering for SUBSTITUTE FOR WHIPPED CREAM. Put one even teaspoonful of gelatine in three teaspoonfuls of cold water, soak ten minutes, then melt in a warm place until it is liquid. Whip for five or six minutes with a wire spoon in a warm room, when the gelatine will become stiff froth. Add five tablespoonfuls of rich cream, very cold, one tablespoonful confectioner's sugar, a few grains of salt, and flavoring to suit. Pour immediately over the pudding, which must be quite cold. VI. Potato pure"e. Fried ham. Cream gravy. Fried hominy. Stewed corn or parsnip patties. Tomatoes stewed in butter. Escalloped oysters. Cold slaw. Crackers. Cheese. Lemon meringue pie. Tea or coffee. Alternative : Mutton pot-roast. Cherry pudding. PURI3E OF POTATOES. To a heaping cupful of mashed potatoes add a tablespoonful of butter rubbed with a tea- spoonful of flour. Stir into this a pint of boiling milk (carefully, to prevent lumping), add a tea- spoonful of onion juice, half a teaspoonful of salt, boil up, and strain. Serve with minced parsley and squares of bread toasted brown in the oven. 35 36 Catering for FRIED HAM. One slice of ham three quarters of an inch thick. Cut off the rind, put ham into a smokiug-hot spider, and fry each side one minute. Remove to a cooler part of the range and fry each side ten minutes ; sprinkle with a teaspoonful of granulated sugar after turning the last time. Put the meat on a platter, pour into the spider two thirds of a cup of milk, stir the sediment, boil once, and pour over the ham. If ham is suspected of being too salt, soak a few hours in the milk which should afterwards be used for the gravy. FRIED HOMINY. Slice cold boiled hominy, dredge with flour, and fry brown in a little hot salt-pork drippings. Serve buttered and peppered. STEWED CORN. Grate a heaping cupful of green uncooked corn, add one fourth of a cupful of rich milk, a dust of flour, pepper and salt to taste, and a teaspoonful of butter. Boil up once and take from the fire. If cooked corn is used, do not boil it, but add to the milk, etc., which must be boiling, stir, and serve as soon as it is hot. Canned corn may be used in the same way. Catering for {Two* 37 PARSNIP PATTIES. Wash and boil till very tender in salted boil- ing water, one large parsnip. Scrape off the skin and mash to a pulp while hot ; there should be a cupful. Add one heaping teaspoonful of butter, one of flour, and half an even teaspoonful of salt. Stir well, and add the yolk of an egg, and mould into four little flat cakes. If the mixture sticks, dip the hands into cold water, shake off the drops, and proceed. Dip the cakes into powdered cracker crumbs, and when cold fry a delicate brown in hot butter. It will take a teaspoonful of butter for each side. Do not cook longer than actually neces- sary to brown and heat through, or the egg will harden and the cakes lose their creaminess. TOMATOES STEWED IN BUTTER. Put a lump of butter the size of a large nut- meg into a saucepan, dredge with half a tea- spoonful of flour, and on this, carefully, so as not to displace the butter, pour two thirds of a cup of canned tomatoes or a full cup of sliced fresh tomatoes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and a tea- spoonful of flour, cover, and cook gently twenty- five minutes. 38 Catering tor Do not stir while cooking, and use an earthen- ware dish that may be sent to the table. Butter, flour, and tomatoes should all remain in separate masses, blending only at the point of contact. ESCALLOPED OYSTERS. One solid pint of oysters. On the bottom of an earthen- or agate-ware baking-dish put a layer of whole sea-foam or milk crackers, liberally spread with sweet butter. Cover with a layer of oysters, then one of buttered whole crackers, and another layer of oysters. Pour in a half-pint of milk, sweet and rich ; poor milk is apt to curdle. Add to any liquor that remains, enough rolled cracker to make a paste with a tablespoonful of melted butter, and spread over the top of the oysters. If not enough liquor remains, use milk in- stead. Bake in a hot oven long enough for the milk to reach the boiling point ; twenty minutes will probably suffice. The top should be brown. Serve in the bak- ing-dish. COLD SLAW. Shave the crisp inner leaves of cabbage as Catering for wo. 39 thinly as possible, cover with ice-water, and set in a cold place until wanted. Drain, and serve with any preferred dressing. LEMON MERINGUE PIE. Line a pie-pan of medium size with pie-crust and bake ; then fill with the following mixture : Beat the yolks of two large fresh eggs with four tablespoonfuls of sugar, a pinch of salt, the juice of a whole lemon, and the grated rind of half. Mix one even teaspoonful of corn-starch with a tablespoon ful of melted butter and stir it into one cupful of boiling milk ; cook and stir for a minute, and when cold pour slowly over the egg mixture. Stir all together and bake in the baked crust about fifteen minutes. Take from the oven and spread over the whites of the eggs which have been frothed and beaten with four tablespoon- fuls of sugar and a tiny pinch of salt, return to the oven, and brown a few minutes, being care- ful not to burn. Serve cold. MUTTON OVEN POT-ROAST. Two slices, each one inch thick, from the middle part of the leg, either raw or cold roast. Trim off the outer edge of fat, put one slice on a meat-rack in an earthen baking-dish, dust 40 Catering for {Two. with flour and pepper, and dot with butter. Lay the second slice on this and treat in the same way. Pour over half a cup of boiling water, cover closely, and bake in a slow oven two hours. Sprinkle with salt, and send to the table in the baking-dish, after removing the rack. Mint or wine sauce. CHERRY PUDDING (STEAMED). Stone a pound of cherries, put them in a deep quart bowl, and scatter two tablespoonfuls of sugar and two of water over them. Make a crust of one cupful of flour, sifted with one teaspoonful of baking-powder and half a teaspoouful of salt, and chop with half a cupful of kidney suet. Mix with a scant half-cupful of ice-water, pat into shape, and lay on top of the cherries. Steam in a steamer one hour, and serve on a deep platter with rich sauce. The whipped-egg sauce may be used. "' VII. Consomme. Roast chicken, stuffed. Fried rice. Escalloped tomatoes. Parsnips browned in butter. Radishes or celery. Currant or grape jelly. Lettuce or celery with French dressing, or Oyster salad. Cheese. Crackers. Strawberry shortcake. Tea or coffee. Nuts. Bonbons. CONSOMM&. This is a clear soup and the basis of nearly all soups. By adding different vegetables and flavorings one has the tomato, julienne, rice, macaroni, etc. Consomme" is only another term for stock or bouillon : it is made of meat, water, and vege- tables, sometimes spices, and strained through 42 Catering for a strainer set over a napkin wrung out of hot water. Take two pounds of soup-beef and a bone, extra. Soak for two hours in two quarts of cold water to draw out the juices. Add a sliced carrot, an onion, a few celery stalks, and boil slowly until the meat is in shreds. There should be one quart of liquor after straining. Season and set away to get cold, when skim off any fat there may be on top. Heat one cupful of this for two portions, and serve with small crackers. A few sprigs of parsley or a slice of lemon or a poached egg in each portion makes a change. The meat is now useless ; if soup-meat is wanted for food it is better to buy what is called a " fresh plate piece," two pounds of which will make a quart of soup. Wipe off the meat with a cloth, pour on a quart of boiling water, bring to a quick boil for a few minutes, then merely simmer on a cool part of the stove, covered, for four hours, or until the bones drop out. Put the meat on a platter, make a gravy of one cupful of the liquor mixed with a teaspoonful of flour, with pepper and salt, and pour over. Add vegetables and a cupful of water to the liquor, cook and strain, and set away for next day's soup. The vegetables may be served with the meat. Catering for Gwo. 43 ROAST CHICKEN. Select a fine fat yellow fowl weighing four or five pounds (a thin white-skinned chicken is apt to be tasteless and tough), and ask the butcher to draw it. Cut off the legs, wings, and neck, and put away for a fricassee. Rinse the body of the chicken quickly in cold water inside and out, wipe dry, and fill with the following stuffing : Put a quart of stale bread-crumbs into a vessel with a cover, pour in a cup of cold water, drain, and steam, covered, in a hot oven for half an hour. Then add a quarter of a teaspoonful of black pepper, half a teaspoonful of salt, two heaping teaspoon fuls of thyme, and one of chopped onion. Work this into a paste with a table- spoonful of butter. Add a few spoonfuls more of water if needed. Fill the chicken and sew up with coarse darn- ing-cotton. Dredge with flour and black pep- per, place upon a meat-rack in a deep saucepan or pot with a close-fitting cover, add half a cup of boiling water, and bake from two to four hours in a moderate oven. The time will depend on the toughness of the fowl. Leave off the cover the last half-hour, and at this time sprinkle with salt. Meanwhile cook the heart, liver, and gizzard half an hour in a cupful of boiling water. 44 Catering for Gwo. Take out the gizzard and put it with the parts reserved for the fricassee. Chop heart and liver, mix with them a table- spoonful of flour and half a teaspoonful of salt, stir into the water they boiled in, cook a few minutes, and add any gravy there may be in the roasting-pot. For the fricassee wipe the pieces (legs, wings, etc.) with a damp cloth, dredge with flour and black pepper, place in a stew-pan, pour on one and a half cups of boiling water, cover closely, and cook very gently from one to four hours, or until tender. When done, blend a tablespoon ful of flour with a lump of butter the size of an egg, add half a cupful of boiling water, the gizzard chopped very fine, salt to taste, cook with the chicken, and serve on a deep platter. If the chicken is very fat, the butter will not be needed. FRIED RICH. Pack into a square pan two cupfuls of well- boiled rice. When cold, cut into inch-thick slices, dredge with flour, and fry brown in a spoonful of hot butter or salt-pork drip- pings. Serve with a lump of butter on each piece, and dust with black pepper. Catering tor {Two. 45 ESCALLOPED TOMATOES. Use either a small baking-dish or individual moulds (cups will do). Skin and slice two fine ripe tomatoes, and lay them in a dish with al- ternate layers of fine cracker-crumbs, pepper, salt, and bits of butter. A teaspoonful of butter for each tomato is about right. Sprinkle with cracker-crumbs and bake half an hour in a hot oven. Serve in the baking- dish. Canned tomatoes may be used, but are not so good as fresh ones. BUTTERED PARSNIPS. Boil in salted water until tender one fine large parsnip. Scrape and cut in halves lengthwise. Dredge with a little salt, flour, and pepper, and fry brown in a spoonful of butter. OYSTER SALAD. Dip six freshly opened medium-sized oysters in cracker-crumbs, and fry a delicate brown in a spoonful of hot sweet butter. L,ay on a plate to get cold, then cut them into half-inch pieces and mix with six tablespoonfuls of finely chopped crisp white celery. Put this in the salad bowl, first rubbing the inside of the bowl with a slice of raw onion, and set where it will get very cold. 46 Catering tor Just before serving make the dressing. Whip to a stiff froth a fourth of a cupful of sour cream. Beat the yolk of one egg with a pinch each of salt, mustard, cayenne, and sugar ; add one spoonful of olive-oil and then the whipped cream. Add more salt if neces- sary, and a spoonful of either lemon juice or cider vinegar ; the size of the spoonfuls should be governed by the acidity of the cream. Pour over the salad and serve. STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. Sift together half a cupful of flour, half a rounded teaspoonful of baking-powder, and a large pinch of salt. Cut into this a lump of table butter the size of half an egg, and add one fourth of a cup of milk. Spread this paste on a jelly-cake pan and bake fifteen or twenty minutes in a hot oven, or bake in muffin rings. Spread, when done, liberally with butter, add the fruit, and serve either hot or cold. Prepare the berries in the following way : An hour before dinner pick over and rinse quickly two cupfuls of fine juicy strawberries, and cover with a cupful of sugar ; set in a cool place until wanted. Just before the shortcake goes to the table, spread over it one cupful of mashed berries, and put on top the berries which have been standing in sugar. Serve with cream, or make a sauce as follows : Catering for Cwo. 47 Boil a cupful of milk, pour it upon the yolk of an egg beaten with one teaspoonful of sugar, add a few grains of salt, and set over a boiling tea- kettle about two minutes, stirring constantly. The white of the egg may be frothed and added if liked. Serve hot or cold. Canned cherries or peaches may take the place of the strawberries. VIII. Broth with lemon. Stuffed leg of lamb. Potatoes with cream sauce. Green peas. Cape May omelette. Bread and butter. Grape jelly. Olives. Salad of lettuce or cabbage with a boiled dressing. Saltine crackers. Cheese. I/oaf cake with cut fruit. Berries or canned fruit. Tea or coffee. Nuts and cream candy. BROTH. Dredge with flour and cover with cold water the bone taken from a leg of lamb. Add one clove, an inch piece of stick cinnamon, a few inches of carrot, parsnip, and one onion. Heat slowly and boil gently until the bones drop apart, which will be at the end of several hours ; there should be a generous pint of broth after straining and skimming off the fat. 48 Catering for Cwo. 49 Add a few sprigs of parsley, salt and pepper, return to the pot, boil up, and serve with a thin slice of lemon in each portion. If a larger amount of broth is wanted, add a part of the extreme lower end of the leg to the bone when putting on to cook ; this also should be dredged with flour. One pound of meat will yield a pint of rich broth. ROAST LAMB. Order a small leg of lamb, weighing about five pounds, boned and trimmed. From the large end have two slices cut for broiling, and put on ice for next day's breakfast. Have two thirds of the small end cut off also, and reserved for a stew ; the bone is for soup. The portion left is the prime part to be used for the roast. Pour a cupful of boiling water over a pint of stale bread-crumbs, and pour off immediately ; cover the bread closely, and set in a warm place to steam for about twenty-five minutes. Add a piece of butter the size of half an egg, a salt-spoon of salt, the same of pepper, and mix ; a little more water may be needed to make the stuffing pliable. Broil the meat on every side over a fierce fire, or fry in a smoking-hot frying-pan just long enough to seal up the juices ; place it on a small rack in a dripping-pan, and press the stuffing 4 50 Catering for into the cavity made by the removal of the bone. Cover with a piece of the sheet of fat accom- panying the lamb, dredge with flour, pour into the pan a cup of boiling water, and roast in a hot oven for half an hour. If the rack is not high enough to admit of a cup of water, put in less, as the water must not touch the meat. When done, dredge liberally with salt and pepper, and serve on a heated platter. Pour off the grease from the gravy in the pan, add a pinch of salt, and a teaspoonful of flour blended with a little cold water, boil up, and serve in a gravy-boat. If preferred, a mint sauce may take the place of the gravy, or, if mint is not at hand, a wine sauce. When either of these sweet sauces are used, omit the grape jelly. Next day the remains of the lamb may be sliced and made into cutlets. Dip them first into beaten egg, and then in bread-crumbs or cracker dust, and fry quickly in hot butter. Fry just long enough to heat thoroughly, or the meat will be tough and fit only for the stew- pot. For another meal, cut that which remains into dice, cover with boiling water, and stew one hour ; season with salt, and add flour and capers, or serve with dumplings. Lamb's kidneys may be added, also a table- Catering for Gwo. 51 spoonful of fried salt pork, or, in time of green peas, a cupful added to the gravy is a great improvement. For mint sauce, pour half a cupful of boil- ing water on a tablespoonful of green mint (chopped). Add two tablespoon fuls of sugar, boil up, and serve with or without a spoonful of vinegar. For wine sauce, melt one teaspoonful of grape jelly over a teakettle, add one table- spoonful of sherry, and serve hot. BOILED POTATOES. Wash, peel, and cut in half-inch slices, two medium-sized potatoes, and rinse in cold water. Cover with boiling water, and cook gently, so as not to break, until a fork will pierce them easily. Then pour off the water, uncover for an instant, replace the lid, and holding it securely shake the pot violently up and down once. Now partly remove the cover, and set the pot on the stove for a few minutes to allow the potatoes to dry and become flaky. Then put them in a hot vegetable dish, sprinkle with salt, and pour over a sauce made as follows : Stir a heaping table- spoonful of butter to a cream, add a rounded dessert-spoonful of flour, a fourth of a teaspoon- ful of salt, beat well, and add a cupful of boiling milk. Boil gently, about ten minutes, adding a tablespoonful of finely minced parsley, and a dust of pepper. Serve at once. 52 Catering for GREEN PEAS. Peas will take from twenty to forty minutes to cook, according to size and age. Boil in two cups of boiling water, with an even teaspoonful of salt, three cups of peas, which are fresh and crisp. Do not wash them at all, and see that they are not shelled long before using. If the water cooks away, add more from the boiling teakettle, just enough to keep them covered. When done, add pepper, dredge in a little flour, and stir in a tablespoonful of butter. Serve in sauce-plates. If preferred, they may be boiled down very dry, and poured around the lamb ; in which case a portion should be served with each plate. CAPE MAY OMELETTE. Pour one third of a cup of cold milk on half a cup of stale bread-crumbs ; if the crumbs are very dry, a little more milk may be required. Beat well one egg with half an even tea- spoonful of salt, a dust of pepper, and a table- spoonful of butter, melted. Add half a cup of green corn, grated, or the same amount of canned corn, and mix with the crumbs and milk. Bake in a buttered earthen dish in a hot oven, Catering tor {Two. 53 just long enough to set the egg and brown the top, from ten to fifteen minutes. Be careful about the quantity of milk, as too much will make the omelette thin, while it will be stiff if too little is used. To be right, it should be about as stiff as light mashed potatoes. CABBAGE SALAD. Shave very fine half a pint of cabbage ; only the tender inner parts should be used. Make a dressing of the yolk of one egg beaten with one third of a teaspoonful of flour, the same of salt, and a pinch of sugar, and a dust of cayenne pepper. Add two tablespoonfuls of boiling water and cook and stir over a boiling teakettle until thick ; then add a tablespoonful of cider vinegar, a tablespoonful of cream or milk, and a teaspoonful of butter. Beat until cold and mix with the cabbage, or pour over lettuce leaves and serve in a salad bowl. Oil may be used instead of butter, if preferred. LOAF CAKE. Haifa cupful of butter, one cupful granulated sugar, three eggs, half a cupful of lukewarm water, one and a half cupfuls flour, one and a 54 Catering for half teaspoonfuls baking-powder, one teaspoon- ful flavoring, half a scant teaspoonful salt. Beat the butter to a cream with the hand, add the sugar, and mix until it is a creamy mass. Add the yolks of the eggs, beating (still with the hand) for fully five minutes, then add by degrees the water. Beat from five to ten minutes and put in the flavoring. Measure the flour carefully, lifting it lightly in the cup, add the baking-powder and salt, and sift four times. Beat the flour into the egg mixture with a spoon, putting it in by degrees, about a third at a time. Beat thoroughly for five minutes, then grease the baking-pan ; then beat the cake again for a few minutes ; this alternate beating and resting improves it very much. Whisk the whites of the eggs, which have been standing in a cool place, and, as soon as they are stiff, beat up the cake batter once more and fold or cut them in lightly. The cake should only be beaten enough at this stage to mix in the whites of the eggs, as long beating after they are in always tends to make cake tough. Pour into a paper-lined tin (fill a little over half full), smooth the top evenly, and bake in a moderate oven from fifty to sixty minutes. In baking see that the fire is right before adding flour to the cake, and after it goes into the oven do not slam doors nor open 1 windows to Catering tor awo. 55 make a draught across the stove. A jar or draught will often cause cakes to fall. When looking into the oven, open the door only part way (to prevent the escape of hot air), and always open and close it gently. When the cake is done it will be a beautiful golden brown, slightly raised in the centre, with the edges fallen away from the sides of the pan. This cake will keep for a week in a closely covered stone jar and is almost equal to pound cake in closeness and richness. Do not use milk instead of water, and be exact in measuring everything. The butter should be pressed closely into the cup in order to get the full quantity. This same batter may be used for layer cake. Do not fill the pans quite full ; and smooth the top of each with a knife-blade, or the cakes will not be even when baked. Have a quick oven and turn the cakes, when done, upon a clean cloth, with the inverted pans over them so they will keep moist until ready for the filling, which may be either chocolate, jelly, or custard. I/ayer-cake batter needs but little beating after the flour is added. IX. Macaroni soup. Chicken browned in butter ; Giblet gravy. Currant jelly. Hashed potatoes with parsley. Lima beans. Bread and butter. Olives. Lettuce ; French dressing. Philadelphia cream cheese. Educator crackers. Jelly with preserved pineapple and whipped cream. Lady-fingers or sponge cake. Tea or coffee. Nut cream candy. MACARONI SOUP. Use stock, but if none is at hand, then, sev- eral hours before dinner, put into an earthen pot half a pound of raw chopped soup beef, a small bone, and a generous half-pint of cold water. Set on a cool part of the range for three hours where it will heat gradually ; then bring 56 Catering tor Cwo. 57 to a boil and cook gently for half an hour with one chopped onion, two inches of carrot, and a sprig of parsley. Strain through a soup-strainer, and again through a piece of old table-linen wet in cold water, if a clear soup is desired. If the soup has boiled away, add enough boiling water to make a generous half-pint and set away in a cold place. Half an hour before it is wanted, break into a cup of boiling water a heaping tablespoonful of macaroni and cook until tender. Remove the cake of fat from the soup, add one third of a teaspoonful of salt, a dust of pepper, a pinch of sugar, and one clove, heat, and pour over the macaroni just before serving. There should be a cupful and a half of soup. The coarse end of porter-house steak and its bone can be used for this soup, and also the ends from lamb chops. CHICKEN BROWNED IN BUTTER; GIBLET GRAVY. Cut wings and legs from a fine fat chicken weighing four or five pounds. Singe over a flame to burn off hairs and the little feathers which cannot be plucked out. Rinse quickly in cold water, wipe dry, and put into a saucepan or frying-pan in which a lump of butter the size of an egg is heating. 58 Catering for The bottom of the pan should be broad enough to admit of all the pieces of chicken being spread upon it at one time. Dust each piece with a little flour and pepper and fry delicately upon both sides for a few minutes: then cover the saucepan closely, set on a cool part of the stove where it will only simmer very gently, and cook from half an hour to two hours, according to the age of the fowl. Turn each piece occasionally and keep con- stant watch to see that the heat is not too great, as burning would impart bitterness to the gravy. The chicken when done should be a rich golden brown and so tender that the meat can easily be twisted apart with a fork. Place on a hot platter and garnish either with parsley or watercress. Do not season with salt until ready to go to the table. Stir into the saucepan one teaspoonful of flour, one fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, and half a cup of boiling water. Chop the heart and half of the liver, and add this with a little pepper. Cook gently for fifteen minutes and serve in a small gravy- boat. If the butter in the pan should have become scorched, do not use it for the gravy, but take a fresh supply. The body of the chicken can be roasted Catering for wo. 59 another day, using the gizzard and the other half of the liver for gravy. The grease from salt pork may be used instead of butter, and if the chicken is known to be old it may be steamed for an hour, to make it tender, before frying. HASHED POTATOES WITH MINCED PARSIvEY. Stir together in a small frying-pan one even dessert-spoonful of flour, one teaspoouful of butter, one fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, and, when hot, add a third of a cup of rich milk ; stir constantly and cook for a minute, then add two even cupfuls of thinly sliced, cold, baked or boiled potatoes. Stir lightly so that every piece may be coated with the sauce, add a tablespoon- ful of minced parsley, and do not stir again. Cover and cook gently a few minutes, then dust with pepper and serve. LIMA BEANS (DRIED.) Soak half a cupful of dried lima beans for twenty-four hours in one pint of cold water. Rinse thoroughly, and cook gently for two hours in a cup of cold water : if cooked fast they will break and become mushy. When tender, add a lump of butter the size of an English walnut, a quarter of a teaspoonful 60 Catering for Cwo. of salt, and a sprinkle of pepper. If too dry, add one or two spoonfuls of milk just before serving. LETTUCE; FRENCH DRESSING. Wash with care, in cold water, the tender inner leaves of a crisp head of lettuce. Shake out the water, put in a salad bowl, and serve with the following dressing : Mix one tablespoonful of real cider vinegar with three tablespoonfuls of olive-oil, a generous pinch of salt, a tiny one of red pepper, and a dust of black pepper. Toss the leaves about in this, being careful that each is well coated. Pass crackers and cheese with this course. JELLY WITH PRESERVED PINEAPPLE AND WHIPPED CREAM. Soak four even teaspoonfuls of gelatine in two tablespoonfuls of cold water for ten minutes. Add the juice of half a lemon, granulated sugar to taste, one cup of boiling water, and four table- spoonfuls of juice from some canned pineapples. Cut into dice two slices of the pineapple and cook gently for fifteen minutes with two table- spoonfuls of sugar, being careful not to let it burn. Spread this on the bottom of a glass dish, and pour the gelatine mixture over it. When ice-cold and hard, heap on top four Catering for Gwo. 61 tablespoonfuls of cream, which have been whipped with one teaspoonful of confectioner's sugar. In warm weather use three tablespoonfuls less water in the jelly. X. Pure"e of green peas. Veal pot-pie (raised crust). Cauliflower fritters. Baked tomatoes. Bread and butter. Olives. Green corn on the cob. Lemon pudding. Tea or coffee. Chocolate creams. PURI3E OF GREEN PEAS. Barely cover with boiling water one cup- ful of fresh green peas, adding more from the boiling teakettle as the peas become dry. When tender, press through a coarse sieve or mash very fine, add two scant cupfuls of boil- ing milk, and to this a teaspoonful of butter blended with one of flour. Boil a few minutes, add salt to taste, a dust of pepper, strain if lumpy, and serve with small squares of bread browned in the oven. 62 Catering for Gwo. 63 VEAL POT-PIE. (YEAST CRUST.) Put one pound of stewing veal lightly dredged with flour into one pint of boiling water. Add two tablespoonfuls of chopped salt pork fried a rich brown (not the grease) and a piece of red pepper pod the size of a thumb-- nail or a pinch of cayenne. Cover the pot and stew gently for three hours, then add a dessert- spoonful of flour and an even teaspoonful of salt to half a cupful of melted butter, stir well, and mix with the veal. Boil a few minutes, add a half-cup of boiling water, stir and boil up, then set away until next day in a very cold place. Veal is always improved by standing a day in its juices, being sweeter and firmer. Six hours before dinner mix the sponge for the crust. Take a half-teaspoonful of salt, the same of sugar, a half-cup of warm water, a half- teaspoonful of butter, and one fourth of a yeast-cake. Melt and mix all together and stir in one cupful of flour sifted after measur- ing. Let it rise to double its bulk in a temperature of about ninety degrees : this will take about three hours. Make into biscuits by rolling small pieces between the floured palms, and set to rise again in the same temperature, always keeping the vessel closely covered. 64 Catering for At the end of this time the rolls should have become three times the original size and are now ready for the steamer : steam one hour : break apart, place on a deep platter, and pour the stew (which has been getting hot but not cooking for the past half-hour) over them. If more gravy is needed, melt and brown slightly one tablespoon ful of butter, add a teaspoonful of flour, a little salt and pepper, and half a cup of boiling water. Lamb may be used instead of veal, and should be cooked in the same way. Get stewing lamb, and remove the fat, if there is any, before cooking. Buy large, old veal. CAULIFLOWER FRITTERS. Boil for twenty minutes in boiling salted water three cupfuls of cauliflower. Take from the fire, mash fine with a fork, add a tablespoonful of butter, and form into little flat cakes. When cold, dip them iu a batter made of beaten egg, a pinch of salt, a tablespoonful of milk, and a teaspoonful of flour. Fry to a light brown in a spoonful of hot butter, or, if preferred, in salt-pork drippings. Cook the fritters the last thing, as they should be served at once. Catering for Gwo 65 BAKED TOMATOES. Skin ripe tomatoes by pouring boiling water over them to cover. Place them in an earthenware dish, put on each tomato a walnut of butter, a large pinch of salt, and a dust of pepper, and dredge with flour. Cover the dish closely and bake in a moderately hot oven from one and a half to two hours or longer, according to the size and ripeness of the tomatoes. Remove the cover and bake fifteen minutes to half an hour longer. If there is any juice at this time, dip it out of the dish, and add to it butter, flour, and salt enough to make a rich sauce ; pour this over the tomatoes and serve hot in the baking-dish. If there is no juice (which will be the case if the tomatoes are not particularly fine and ripe, or if they have cooked in an oven that is too hot or too cool), make a sauce of butter and flour stirred smooth with a little boiling water added. Each tomato of medium size will require half a teaspoonful of butter, the same of flour, and two dessert-spoonfuls of boiling water, with a pinch each of salt and pepper. The tomatoes when done should be soft and juicy but not broken. They may be browned by sprinkling with bread crumbs and holding over them a hot stove-lid. 5 66 Catering tor GREEN CORN ON THE COB. Strip the husks and silk from two ears of freshly pulled corn. The sooner corn is eaten after being gathered, the sweeter it is. Steam in a steamer for twenty minutes, or boil ten minutes. In either case serve soon, each ear wrapped in a small napkin. To roast, lay on a gridiron over a clear but not fierce fire, turning over a little at a time as the surface becomes browned : time about twenty-five minutes. Wrap in a napkin and eat with butter, salt, and pepper the same as boiled corn. The napkin is used to protect the fingers from the heat. Serve as a separate course. LEMON PUDDING (MERINGUE). Heat two thirds of a cup of rich milk, add an even tablespoonful of sugar, and the same of melted butter. Pour this over a cupful of bread crumbs, two days old, freed from crust, and, without stirring, set it on the stove to keep hot, but not to cook, while the yolk of an egg is be- ing beaten with an even tablespoonful of sugar, the grated rind of a quarter of a lemon, and the juice of a fourth of it. Add a pinch of salt, stir, and then pour in one third of a cupful of cold milk. Catering for Gwo 67 Pour this over the bread, and bake in a hot oven a few minutes. Whip the white of the egg to a stiff froth, add the juice from one fourth of the lemon with one third of a cupful of sugar, spread over the hot pudding, and brown in the oven from eight to ten minutes. Serve cold the day it is made. The dish must be a third larger than the pud- ding to prevent the meringue from overflowing. BAKED MEAT PIE. The preceding dinner may be varied by serv- ing a meat pie instead of the veal pot-pie, in which case a strawberry jelly may take the place of the lemon meringue. For the meat pie, use any meat from roast or poultry, and if it is not perfectly tender dredge it (one cupful) with flour, barely cover with boil- ing water, and simmer from one to three hours, or fry it in a closely covered saucepan, just al- lowing it to simmer (using a thin slice of fat salt pork in the bottom of the pan to furnish fat) for the same length of time. Put the meat, cut into dice, in a deep baking- dish, fill up with gravy, cover with the follow- ing crust, and bake half an hour in a hot oven. Take half a cupful of flour, sift it with half a 68 Catering for teaspoonful of baking-powder, a salt-spoonful of salt, and chop with it a lump of suet the size of a hen's egg. Mix in four tablespoonfuls of ice-cold water, roll out very lightly, place lightly on top of the meat, and get it into the oven as quickly as possible. If no gravy remained from the roast, make some after directions previously given. STRAWBERRY JELLY. Soak for half an hour three tablespoonfuls of gelatine in one cup of cold water, with the juice of a quarter of a lemon. Stem and mash a quart box of juicy strawberries and strain through a coarse cloth wrung out of cold water : squeeze out all the juice possible. Add five tablespoon- fuls of confectioner's sugar, a few grains of salt, and set the gelatine on the stove, stirring until it is all melted. Then add the strawberry juice and taste to see if more sugar or lemon is needed. When cold, but before it stiffens, whip with an egg-beater until nothing is visible but a froth : this will take from ten minutes to half an hour. Now add the frothed white of an egg, whip a few minutes longer, and set on ice for several hours in the dish in which it is to be served. Catering for wo, 69 Whipped cream is an addition to this jelly but it is very nice without. To be right, one third should be a rose col- ored foam, resting upon a clear rose jelly. Currant juice may be used instead of lemon. XI. Split-pea soup. Pot roast, top sirloin. Mashed potatoes. Tomatoes on toast. Watercress. Bread and butter. Tapioca pudding. Hard sauce. Tea or coffee. Dates. English walnuts. Serve cresses with the meat, or, if preferred, in a separate course with crackers and cheese, SPLIT-PEA SOUP. Wash half a cupful of split peas and soak them over night in a quart of cold water. About noon put them, with the water they have soaked in, on a cool part of the stove, add two tablespoon fuls of chopped salt pork, fried brown (do not use the grease), a half-cupful of tomatoes, a few sprigs of parsely and celery 70 Catering for Ewo. 71 stalks, and one onion, one small turnip, and a medium-sized carrot chopped fine. Heat gradually and cook slowly until the peas are a mush, which will take several hours. Then add one half of the gravy from the pot roast, boil a few minutes, and strain through a soup-strainer. There should be a quart of soup. If the liquor has boiled away, add boiling water to the pot, cook a little longer, and strain. Salt and pepper to taste and serve with small oyster- crackers. This quantity is enough for two meals. That which is left can be warmed up with a few spoonfuls of milk to thin it. Heat milk and soup in separate vessels and put together after taking from the fire. Add a little salt and some minced parsley. POT-ROAST. Top Sirloin (Two Pounds). Trim off all the dried outer edges and brown on all sides in a hot spider over a hot fire to seal up the juices. Dredge plentifully with flour and place the meat on a layer of thin slices of salt pork, or suet if preferred. Use an agate-ware pot and keep the meat closely covered so that the steam will not escape. Set on a hot part of the stove until the fat 72 Catering tor begins to fry vigorously, then place where it will only simmer. Cook for two hours and a half, being careful that it does not burn. Suet especially is most disagreeable when burned, making the gravy quite unfit for use. Be sure that the salt pork is fresh and sweet, as otherwise the dish will be ruined. When done, take out the meat, dust it liber- ally with salt and a little pepper, and put it on a dish which can be covered, so that it will keep moist until ready to serve. After taking out the pork, skim the fat from the gravy and put half of it in the soup as di- rected. Add to the remaining half a teaspoon- ful of flour mixed with a spoonful of cold water and a half-cupful of boiling water, salt to taste, and boil five minutes. If lumpy, strain through a wire strainer. In serving the roast be sure to cut across the grain, and always observe the same rule when cutting meat for stews or pies, or to serve cold, sliced. A delicious pie may be made from the re- mains of this roast for the following day. Cut up a heaping cupful of the meat into dice and put it into a small, deep pie-dish. Make a gravy of one heaping tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of flour, half a teaspoonful of salt, pepper, and a cupful of boiling water. (Brown the butter before adding the other Catering for wo. 73 ingredients.) Pour this gravy over the meat, place on top a crust which has been previously baked, and set in the oven for fifteen or twenty minutes. Make the crust of one half cup of flour sifted with one fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, one fourth of a cup of lard (solid and cold), and two tablespoon fuls of ice-water. Roll out an eighth of an inch thick, spread on half a teaspoonful of butter,, dust with flour, fold up into a ball and roll out again to the size and shape of the baking-dish, slash it once or twice, and bake in a hot oven. Handle the dough as little and as lightly as possible ; have the hands cool and work quickly. The crust may be baked at any time so as to be in readiness when wanted. MASHED POTATOES. Wash, peel, and cook in enough boiling water to cover, three medium-sized potatoes. When done a fork will pierce to the heart without resistance. Potatoes boil more quickly if cut in halves, but if small they do not need to be cut ; try to have them of uniform size. Drain off the water, take the lid off for a moment, slip it back, and, holding the pot and lid firmly together, shake up and down twice violently. This forces the steam to escape and makes the potatoes mealy, if it is possible for them to be so. Now pass through the potato 74 Catering for press or mash thoroughly, until every lump dis- appears. Add one third of a teaspoon ful of salt, one teaspoonful of butter, and three tablespoonfuls of boiling milk. Whip with a fork for two minutes and if not creamy enough add another spoonful of hot milk. If too much milk is used the potatoes will be thin, if too little, they will not be creamy. If possible use cream instead of milk. Heap in a vegetable dish, put on top a lump of butter the size of a walnut, dust with pepper, and set in the oven until wanted for the table. TOMATOES ON TOAST. Skin two solid, ripe tomatoes, slice, dredge with flour, salt and pepper, and fry slowly in a teaspoonful of hot butter ; they should be done in about ten minutes. L/ift out carefully with a cake-turner and lay upon a thin slice of deli- cately toasted bread which has been freed from crust. Add to the gravy in the pan an even table- spoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of flour, and two spoonfuls of milk or cream ; cook a few minutes, salt and pepper lightly, pour over the tomatoes and toast, and serve. If canned tomatoes are used, put a tablespoon- ful of butter in small lumps in the bottom of a Catering for ftwo. 75 saucepan, dredge lightly with flour, and pour over a scant cupful of canned tomatoes. Add one fourth of a teaspoon ful of salt, a dust of pepper and another sprinkling of flour, cover, and stew gently half an hour or longer without stirring. Pour over toast, and serve. TAPIOCA PUDDING (BAKED). Soak over night one even gill of flake tapioca in one cupful of cold water. An hour before dinner add half a cupful of cold milk, and heat gradually. Beat up one egg with one tablespoon ful of sugar, half a teaspoonful of salt, the grated rind of one third of a lemon, and pour upon this a half-cupful of boiling milk, stir well, and add to the tapioca. Bake in a moderate oven about fifteen min- utes ; long cooking makes tapioca tough. Serve hot with a sauce made of one scant cupful of confectioner's sugar, stirred with a lump of butter the size of a small egg and one teaspoonful of lemon juice. The longer and harder this sauce is beaten the creamier it will be. A gill measures one half of a cup. Be care- ful to have the measure exact, as too much tapioca will make the pudding stiff, and too much milk and water will make it insipid. XII. Celery soup. Loin of lamb chops (broiled). Baked potatoes. Lemon marmalade. Salted almonds. Pot-cheese. Saltine crackers. Watercress or celery. Fruit dumplings (baked). Liquid and hard sauce. Tea or coffee. Mixed nuts and raisins. Any preferred table water. Claret or cider. CELERY SOUP. This soup is made from white stock of mut- ton, veal, or chicken. The long stringy ends from loin of lamb or mutton chops can be used to advantage here, and four chops with the bones will generally yield sufficient for two people. 76 Catering for tTwo. 77 Free the meat from fat and chop fine in a chopping-bowl ; it must be raw, and should measure a cupful. Dredge with a tablespoon- ful of flour, and put it into an agate-ware pot having a close-fitting cover. Add the bones, pour over a pint of cold water, and let it soak an hour or longer before putting on to cook. Heat gradually, and let simmer, closely cov- ered, for several hours. When done, the bones will drop apart, and the meat will slip from them. Now add a cupful of celery stalks and roots, chopped fine, and a tablespoonful of onion juice, and cook an hour or a little less ; strain through a soup-strainer, add three tablespoon- fuls sweet cream, boil up, salt and pepper to taste, and serve in cups. Pass the salted crack- ers known as "Banquets." There should be, when the soup is done, three fourths of a pint ; if cooked so fast as to cook away, add a little boiling water. Use milk in the absence of cream, and thicken with a teaspoonful of flour blended with the same quantity of butter. This substitute does not equal rich cream, but it will serve if necessary. LAMB CHOPS (BROILED). Order four fine lamb chops from the loin, lay them on a meat-board, and with a small, sharp 78 Catering for {two. knife cut out the bone from each one, careful not to spoil the shape of the chops. Cut away carefully the long stringy ends, but leave the border of fat and the outer pink skin intact. Scrape from the bone the tiny roll of marrow, put it in the chop, press together gen- tly, and wrap the long strip of fat around the whole, pinning securely with a small wooden skewer or a long clinch-nail. You now have a round, compact chop, encir- cled with a border of delicious fat. The ends and bones are to be used for celery soup. If but two chops are required for dinner, the others may be kept in the ice-chest and served, with a slice of lemon, for next morning's break- fast. In broiling, observe the directions with the rule for serving porter-house steak. Chops an inch in thickness will take about ten minutes to cook. Count one hundred and fifty, turn ; then count the same number for the other side. Now count ten, turn, and keep on in this way until four hundred has been counted. Test by cutting into one of the chops, and if the meat looks red and raw return to the fire for a few more turns, counting five between each turn. This constant turning prevents burning and over-cooking. Take out the skewers, and put the chops on Catering for Gwo. 79 warm, but not hot, plates, with a piece of but- ter, salt, and a spring of parsley or cress on each. Broiled meats must be served immediately to be at their best. BAKED POTATOES. Select six potatoes, all of one size and as free from blemishes as possible. Wash thoroughly in several waters, cut a small strip of skin from each end, and bake in a hot oven from thirty to sixty minutes. The time required depends upon the size, age, and quality of the potatoes and the heat of the oven. Test occasionally with a fork, and when done puncture them all over to enable the steam to escape : this makes them light and mealy. Keep hot in the open oven, uncovered, until ready to serve. Peel those which are left over, slice, and warm up with white sauce for another meal. LEMON MARMALADE. Put the rind of a lemon on the stove to boil for half an hour in a pint of cold water. Drain (throw away the water) and chop very fine, add- ing also the lemon pulp, which should be freed from seeds, and a cupful of fresh water. Return 8o Catering for to the fire and cook gently until the rind is very soft, about an hour : add a cupful of sugar and cook fifteen or twenty minutes longer, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. When skim- ming take off only the fine yellow froth gath- ered in little patches here and there. When cool, put in a glass dish for the table. This marmalade may be boiled down very thick, when it will keep in a dry place for months. Put in tumblers with brandied paper over the top the same as jellies. SAI/TED ALMONDS. These may be purchased at the confectioner's but can easily be done at home by any one with sufficient leisure. Blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them ; the skins will slip off readily in a few minutes. Then coat them with melted butter or olive- oil a teaspoonful of oil to a cupful of nuts will be about right ; spread on an agate-ware dish and brown in a hot oven. They will need close watching and stirring to prevent burning. Sprinkle with salt while roasting. Salted almonds are passed between the courses as an appetizer. Catering for Gwo. 81 POT-CHEESE WITH WATERCRESSES. Take half a cupful of fine fresh pot-cheese, add salt to taste, and as much sweet butter and cream as will be needed to make a soft, pliable mass ; butter size of an egg will generally be enough. Work this together with a four-tined fork and afterwards with a broad-bladed knife until thoroughly incorporated, then smooth into a round mound, and garnish with water- cresses. Do not add the cream until the butter and cheese are thoroughly mixed together. Pass saltine crackers. If this is made a separate course, use little cheese-plates, and pass any candied fruit pre- ferred, cherries or plums, ginger or pineapple. FRUIT DUMPLINGS (BAKED). Rub together a heaping dessert-spoonful of sweet butter with an even half-cupful of flour sifted with half a teaspoonful of baking-powder and one third of a teaspoonful of salt. Add three even tablespoonfuls of cold water and mix lightly with a spoon. Divide into halves, form each in a ball, lay on a floured board, and roll out lightly and quickly to the size of a large saucer. Put into the middle of each round, half of a fine winter greening (sliced), add a table- spoonful of sugar, a dust of flour, and a small lump of butter, and bring the paste up to the 6 82 Catering for Cwo. top and pinch it into ball shape, leaving a half- inch opening at the top for the steam to escape. Bake in deep saucers, well buttered, for half an hour in a hot oven. Serve hot with sauce made of one even tablespoonful of flour with two tablespoon fuls of sugar and one tablespoon- ful of butter. Add a pinch of salt, stir until creamy, and then add a cupful of boiling water. Cook several minutes, and just before serving add flavoring of vanilla, wine, or brandy. For the hard sauce, cream a dessert-spoonful of butter, add two thirds of a cup of confection- er's sugar, and a teaspoonful of water if neces- sary to make it soft and creamy. Stir at least ten minutes and grate nutmeg over it. Peaches, fresh or canned, or cherries, pitted, may be substituted for the apples, if preferred. XIII. Tomato cream pure*e. Pork chops or tenderloin. Cream gravy. Browned sweet potatoes, or turnips browned in butter. Hot apple sauce. Bread and butter. Celery. Water crackers. Cheese. Preserved citron. Tapioca meringue. Tea or coffee. Salted almonds. TOMATO CREAM PUR^E. Fry a slice of salt pork, half an inch thick, until brown and put it, without the grease, into a saucepan with one cupful of tomatoes ; boil gently half an hour, then strain through a coarse sieve and put back upon the stove while the dumplings are being prepared, thus : Rub together half a teaspoonful of butter with two rounded tablespoonfuls of prepared flour, add a pinch of salt, and mix with the 83 84 Catering for Gwo. yolk of one egg beaten with a tablespoonful of milk. Mould into ten flat cakes, put them into the boiling tomatoes, cover, and cook two min- utes ; then add a cupful of rich, creamy milk in which has been boiled a teaspoonful of butter mixed with a teaspoonful of flour, and a piece of soda the size of a pea. Take from the fire immediately, season to taste, and serve. PORK TENDERLOIN OR FRIED PORK CHOPS. (TWO RIBS OF FRESH PORK.) Have the chops cut from the prime part of the meat about an inch in thickness. Heat a spider smoking hot so as to brown the chops instantly when they go in. Cover and fry rapidly for a minute, turn and fry the other side, then remove to a cooler part of the stove and cook each side ten minutes. Pork should always be cooked slowly and thoroughly. Put the chops on a platter, season, and set in the oven to keep hot. Put a level teaspoonful of flour into the spi- der with a salt-spoonful of salt and a dust of pepper, stir the grease and brown sediment well into the flour, cook a moment, and add half a cupful of good, rich milk ; stir till it is a smooth, creamy gravy and pour over the chops. Catering for {Two. 85 Pork tenderloins should be cut in pieces of uniform size, and a quarter of a pound of fresh fat pork should be allowed for each one. Make gravy as directed for the chops. APPLE SAUCE (HOT). Pare, quarter, and core four medium-sized Rhode Island Greening or Baldwin apples, put them in an earthen or agate dish with a close cover, pour on six tablespoonfuls of boiling water and six tablespoonfuls of granulated su- gar. Cook rapidly ten minutes, then remove to a part of the stove where they will cook gently for an hour. Do not stir, and keep con- stantly covered. Be careful not to burn, but if they color a fine golden brown the flavor will be improved. SWEET POTATOES BROWNED IN THE OVEN. Wash two medium-sized sweet potatoes and cook either in boiling water or steam in a steamer ; time from twenty to forty minutes. Scrape off the skins with a knife, holding the potatoes in a napkin during the process. Slice once lengthwise, sprinkle with sugar and a little butter, and brown in a quick oven. Salt and pepper to taste. 86 Catering for Cwo. TURNIPS BROWNED IN BUTTER. Slice very thin two boiled white turnips, and dust them with flour, salt, and pepper. Heat a tablespoonful of butter and one of milk, and fry the slices in this until a delicate brown. Only a moderate heat is required, as butter burns quickly. The milk produces a fine crust. TAPIOCA MERINGUE. Scald a pint of rich fresh milk, and when cold soak a half-cupful of flake tapioca in it over night ; in warm weather keep it in the re- frigerator. The next morning add the yolks of two eggs beaten with one heaping tablespoonful of gran- ulated sugar, half a teaspoonful of salt, and the grated rind of nearly half a lemon. Bake half an hour in a moderate oven in a deep dish. Whisk the whites of the eggs to a froth, add the juice of half of the lemon and two thirds of a cupful of sugar, spread over the top of the pudding, and brown a few minutes in the oven. Serve cold. XIV. Ox-tail soup. Roast veal, stuffed. Rice croquettes. Mashed squash. or Boiled onions. Drawn butter. Rhubarb sauce (cold). Bread and butter. Asparagus on toast. Wine jelly. Macaroons. Tea or coffee. Crystallized fruit. OX-TAIL SOUP. Order a fresh ox-tail jointed. Wash in cold water and put it into a porce- lain or agate kettle. Pour on five quarts of cold water and after soaking for two hours bring gradually to a boil and simmer until the meat drops from the bones. Add a chopped carrot, a leek, several stalks of celery, some parsley, and a cupful of tomatoes. When these are soft, strain the soup and set it away to get cold : there should be a 87 88 Catering for tlwo. quart. Next day skim off the fat, put the soup over the fire, and, when hot, add a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of browned flour, half a teaspoonful of mixed spices (cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg), a pinch of cayenne, and half a teaspoonful of sugar. Sealed up hot in a glass preserving-jar, this soup will keep for two weeks in cold weather. Use one cupful for two people, and add a few spoonfuls of water when re-heating it. ROAST VEAL, STUFFED. Cut the edges of a veal cutlet (to prevent curling) weighing about a pound and a half. Pepper lightly and sprinkle over it about a quarter of a teaspoonful of thyme. Dredge with flour, put a bread-and-butter stuffing on one half, fold the other half over it, and lay the veal on a thin slice of fresh fat pork, on a deep earthen dish, cover tightly, and bake in a mod- erate oven for two hours. Remove the veal to another dish, sprinkle with salt and browned bread crumbs, and return to the oven for a few minutes. Add a little flour and water to the sediment in the baking-dish, salt to taste, boil up, and pour around the veal. STEWED RHUBARB. Make a syrup of one and a half cupfuls of Catering for Hwo. 89 boiling water and one heaping cup of sugar: boil for a few minutes and add three cupfuls of rhubarb, skinned and cut into inch pieces. Do not skim the rhubarb, as much of the richness is lost in this way. Stir for a minute, cover closely, and do not stir again. Simmer for fifteen minutes, and when cold pour carefully, so as not to break the pieces, into a dish for the table. Each piece should lie by itself, surrounded by the rich syrup. Rhubarb becomes very acid late in the sea- son, when it would be well to make an extra quantity of syrup, which might be passed when serving the dish. One cup of sugar to half a cup of water is right proportion for the syrup. RICE CROQUETTES. Boil for half an hour, in a covered saucepan, a scant half-cupful of rice in one pint of boiling water, with half a teaspoonful of salt. Make into oblong rolls the size of a hen's egg before the rice becomes entirely cold, and set away. When cold, dip each into a batter made of an egg beaten with a tablespoonful of flour, one of melted butter, and one of milk. Fry in a tablespoonful of salt-pork drippings or butter, turning frequently so that all sides will be deli- cately browned. Some cooks prefer deep fat for frying cro- go Catering for ZCwo. quettes. In this case, use a frying-basket, see that the fat is smoking hot, and lay the cro- quettes, when done, on brown paper, or, better still, on a piece of soft linen. Old table-linen when good for nothing else is of use here, but it must be kept scrupulously clean. MASHED SQUASH. Cut from a fine Hubbard squash enough to fill a pint bowl heaping full. Remove the seeds and soft part, peel, and cook in a steamer until very tender. Mash fine, stir in one fourth of a teaspoon ful of salt and one of butter, heap smoothly in a vegetable dish, pepper lightly, and put in the centre a lump of butter the size of an English walnut. If summer squash is used, steam whole and mash seeds and skin. BOILED ONIONS. Peel and boil in boiling salted water, four medium-sized white onions ; time, about thirty- five to forty minutes. Take out with a skimmer, drain, and pour over them a sauce made in this way : Stir to a cream a dessert-spoonful of butter, add one of flour, one third of a teaspoonful of salt, and, slowly, one third of a cupful of boil- Catering for Gwo. 91 ing milk, stirring constantly until smooth : cook a few minutes. If preferred, the onions may be served with a simple dressing of salt and pepper, with a small lump of butter in each onion. ASPARAGUS ON TOAST. Get large-sized white asparagus ; Oyster Bay is considered fine. Remove the string, put in a pan of cold water, and rinse well to get out the grit. Tie together loosely with a broad band of muslin (or lay in the frame of an asparagus boiler) so that it may be lifted out easily when done. Pour on about a quart of boiling water with half a teaspoon ful of salt, and cook gently, but steadily, for twenty minutes. Reserve, when done, a dozen stalks for next day's salad. Lay the asparagus on a platter with the heads on two slices of well-toasted bread which have been slightly moistened with asparagus water. Make a sauce of one dessert-spoonful of butter, one of flour, a pinch of salt, dust of pepper, and one third of a cupful of the water the as- paragus boiled in : cook a few minutes and pour over. Serve as a separate course in place of a salad. WINE JELLY. Soak for ten minutes, four rounded teaspoon- 92 Catering for fuls of gelatine in two tablespoonfuls of cold water. Add a pinch of cinnamon, three heap- ing tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, a few grains of salt, one even cup of boiling water, and stir well together. When cool, add five tablespoonfuls of sherry, cover closely to keep in the flavor of the wine, and set on ice to harden. In hot weather use five teaspoon fuls of gela- tine and make the day before it is wanted. XV. Boiled fish. Hollandaise sauce. Cucumbers or pickled cabbage,, Beef d la mode. French fried potatoes. Succotash. Preserved grapes. Lettuce or Apple salad. Crackers. Cheese. Prune pudding. Tea or coffee. Nuts. Crystallized ginger. BOILED FISH. Wash the fish quickly in cold water and wipe dry. Dredge lightly with flour and pepper, roll in a napkin, place in a quart of boiling water to which has been added a little salt and a spoon- ful of vinegar, and cook, allowing about ten 93 94 Catering for mintues to the pound for fresh fish. Salt, and serve on a platter garnished with parsley. Any fish which remains may be made into a salad or into cakes and warmed in a steamer for next day. HOLLANDAISE SAUCE. Put into a saucepan which fits into the tea- kettle, a tablespoonful of butter ; whip into it the yolk of an egg, add a pinch of salt and cayenne, two tablespoonfuls of boiling water, and a teaspoonful of cider vinegar. Cook and stir until it is a little thick. A few drops of lemon juice may be added. See that it is very hot, and keep the vessel cov- ered to prevent a crust forming. Serve a portion with each plate of fish. BEEF A LA MODE. (Top sirloin, one pound.) Dredge a pound of top sirloin with a table- spoonful of flour and a dust of pepper, roll up, and put in a pot with a cupful of tomatoes. Add a tablespoonful of chopped salt pork (fried to extract the grease), pepper, dredge again with flour, cover closely, and bake four hours in a slow oven. Serve the meat on a deep platter and pour the gravy (salted) over it. The " Universal Pot " is best for this dish. Catering for Gwo. 95 FRENCH FRIED POTATOES. Wash and peel three potatoes, each the size of an egg, quarter them lengthwise, soak in cold water a few minutes, wipe dry, and fry in hot lard in a frying-basket. Salt and pepper and serve hot. If preferred the potatoes may be fried in a spider in a spoonful of hot pork drippings : keep the cover on until they are done, turning as the underside becomes brown. Then remove the cover and allow them to get crisp. Serve at once. SUCCOTASH. A half-cupful of corn, either grated or canned, a half-cupful of cooked beans, salt and pepper to taste, and enough milk to make it a little juicy : add also a teaspoonful of flour and a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Stir, boil up and serve ; long cooking toughens corn. If string-beans are used, cut them into inch pieces and cook until tender in just enough salted water to cover : if lima beans, cook these also until done, or if they have been dried, soak twenty-four hours in cold water and then cook before adding. APPLE SALAD. Chop fine or slice in very thin slices a juicy Greening or Baldwin apple. 96 Catering for Add an equal amount of crisp white celery, a pinch each of salt and mustard and pepper, and finally two tablespoon fuls of cider vinegar. Stir and cover closely in a cold place for half an hour. A few minutes before serving pour over the following dressing : Stir together the yolk of an egg, a pinch of salt, one of sugar, a dust of cayenne, and add, drop by drop, two spoonfuls of olive-oil or melted butter. The bowl may be rubbed with a slice of onion if that flavor is liked. PRUNE PUDDING. Rinse one scant cupful of prunes in cold water, pour on them one cupful of boiling water, add a scant cupful of granulated sugar, the grated rind and juice of a quarter of a lemon, and cook gently four or five hours, covered closely, in an earthern dish. About three hours before dinner, melt a rounded tablespoonful of sweet butter in a cup nearly full of lukewarm milk which has been scalded. Add half a compressed yeast-cake, one table- spoonful of sugar, one level teaspoonful of salt, and when these are dissolved, a well-beaten egg. Beat and add two cupfuls of flour, sifted be- fore measuring. Catering for awo. 97 Stir thoroughly and set to rise, covered, ill a temperature of about 90 degrees. At the expiration of an hour, stir, and pour one third of the batter over the prunes, which have been taken out of the syrup and placed close together in an earthen pudding-dish (they should be cooled). Sprinkle over the top of the batter a table- spoonful of sugar and grate on a little lemon rind, cover closely with a high cover (to give room for the batter to rise), and set for another hour in a warm place (90 degrees). Bake in a moderate oven twenty or twenty- five minutes, uncovered. Serve hot with a sauce made from the juice of the prunes as follows : Mix together one dessert-spoonful of butter, one teaspoonful of flour, one tablespoonful of sugar, the juice of quarter a lemon, the juice from the prunes, and enough boiling water to make a cupful. Boil and serve hot. Pour the remainder of the batter into patty-pans, let them rise, covered, the same as the pudding, and bake. Eat hot, in place of bread, for dinner. 7 XVI. Consomme julienne. Fresh fish (baked)." Potato cakes. Hot slaw. String- or butter-beans. Bread and butter. Cucumbers. Chicken salad. Crackers. Cheese. Apple, peach, or rhubarb pie. Tea or coffee. Crystallized pineapple. Alternative : Fried oysters. Suet pudding. Oranges. CONSOMME: JULIENNE. Heat a pint of soup-stock and add to it half a cupful of spring vegetables, shredded fine ; cook until tender and serve. FRESH SHAD, BLUEFISH OR MACKEREL, WHITEFISH, PIKE, BASS, ETC. (One to two pounds, stuffed and baked. ) If small use the whole fish, but if a large one take only one side. After cleaning inside and 98 Catering for Gwo. 99 out, immerse in cold water, wash thoroughly, but quickly to avoid losing the sweet flavor, wipe gently with a clean napkin, dredge all over with flour, dust with pepper and a tea- spoonful of salt, and fill with a stuffing of bread crumbs, the rule for which is given in Roast Pork. Place the fish in a pan just wide enough for it and if half a fish is used lay two thin slices of salt pork on top of the stuffing if an entire fish, on top of the fish. Dredge with flour and bake in a hot oven one hour. Lift carefully, so as not to break, and serve on a platter. If pre- ferred the head and tail may be cut off before cooking ; some cooks prefer to send to table whole, but to do so one must be expert in dish- ing, as the fish breaks easily. The remainder of the uncooked part may be broiled or fried for another meal, but it must be kept directly on ice, as it spoils quickly. The sooner fish reaches the fire after being taken from the water the finer the flavor. Cold fish makes an excellent salad. POTATO CAKES. Mince very fine in a chopping-bowl two cup- fuls of cold boiled or baked potatoes ; sprinkle with half a teaspoon ful of salt and a teaspoonful of flour ; mix thoroughly with the yolk of an egg and a teaspoonful of butter, and mold into Catering for four round flat cakes. If the potatoes are too mealy to knead easily, add enough milk to make them of proper consistency ; the cakes should be so soft as barely to hold together before cooking. Make a batter of one tablespoonful of melted butter, two tablespoonfuls of cold milk, and one tablespoonful of flour, in a saucer. Dip each cake in the batter, careful not to break, and fry a delicate brown in either a teaspoon ful of hot butter or salt- pork drip- pings. If any batter is left, pour it over the cakes before turning to fry on other side. Use a pancake-turner. Garnish with parsley. HOT SLAW. Put into a saucepan a quart of finely shredded cabbage ; sprinkle with half a teaspoonful of salt, pour on a cupful of boiling water, cover, and cook half an hour. At the end of this time add half a cup of milk and a teaspoonful of butter, and cook down quite dry. Serve in a vegetable-dish with the following sauce : Beat an egg until frothy, add a tablespoon ful of cider vinegar in which have been dissolved a pinch each of red pepper, mustard, salt, and sugar. Add a teaspoonful of butter, and set over a tea- kettle until a little thick, then add a quarter of a cup of boiling milk. Stir, and serve. Catering for (Two* 101 STRING-BEANS. Wash and pull the strings from a quart of fresh brittle string-beans ; break into inch pieces. If they do not snap easily they are old and will prove neither tender nor delicious. Cook for two hours in one pint of boiling water with half a teaspoonful of salt and a thin slice of fried salt pork without the grease. Throw away the pork at the end of two hours, add to the beans a heaping tablespoonful of but- ter, a tablespoonful of flour, and plenty of pep- per, cook up, and serve in a vegetable-tureen. BUTTER-BEANS. These are string-beans of a bright yellow color which will require only half as long time to cook as the green variety. Cook until tender in enough boiling salted water to cover. Add a tablespoonful each of butter and flour, and cook down to a rich sauce. A quart is enough for two meals, and they will be just as good warmed over. Do not use pork with the butter-bean. CUCUMBERS. Peel a fresh, crisp cucumber, slice as thin as a knife blade and lay in strongly salted ice- water in the refrigerator for several hours. 102 Catering for Drain and serve (in a dish rubbed with an onion) with cayenne pepper, oil, and vinegar. The hot slaw should be omitted if cucumbers are served. CHICKEN SALAD. Place the body of a chicken, with the giblets, in a kettle, dredge with two teaspoonfuls of flour, pour on one cupful of boiling water, cover, and cook until the meat is so tender that it will break easily when twisted gently with a fork. Cook so slowly and cover so closely that there need be no renewing of the water. When done, take a cupful of the meat freed from bone and skin, cut (do not chop) into half-inch bits. Mash the liver with a knife- blade and stir it into the gravy. Take a table- spoonful of the gravy prepared in this way and stir it in with the cupful of chicken, add salt and pepper and, when cold, a cupful of celery, salted, peppered, and cut into half-inch pieces. Cover and put away in a cold place. Only the finest and whitest celery is fit to use for chicken salad. Just before sending to the table pour over the salad the following dressing. The quantity is sufficient for several salads and it will keep in a cold place for a week. The cream may be sweet or sour, and if it will not whip readily, use it plain. Catering for ftwo. 103 CREAM DRESSING. In an agate-ware saucepan that fits over the teakettle, beat the yolk of one egg with half an even teaspoonful of salt, same of sugar, a pinch of cayenne, and half an even teaspoonful of flour. Mix in a cup one tablespoonful of cider vinegar and half a teaspoonful of mustard, and add to the mixture in the saucepan. Stir well and add two tablespoonfuls of milk ; cook over the teakettle for two minutes, stirring constantly from the bottom and sides. Remove from the fire and whip until cold, with a fork ; then add four tablespoonfuls of cream, whipped to a stiff froth, and from three to eight tablespoon- fuls of olive-oil. If it should separate, warm it slightly by set- ting the bowl in warm water for a minute, and beat thoroughly. PIE-CRUST (FLAKY). Dip from the bag one even cupful of flour, add half a teaspoonful of salt, and sift two or three times. With a knife cut into the flour half a cup of ice-cold lard to the size of peas, add four table- spoonfuls of ice-cold water, and stir with a spoon. If more water is needed, sprinkle in a few drops, but not as much as a tablespoon- fill. 104 Catering for Divide the paste in two equal parts, roll out one half and fit it into a pie pan. Roll out the other half an eighth of an inch in thickness, dot it with a tablespoon ful of sweet butter, dredge lightly with flour, fold up to the smallest compass possible, beat with the rolling-pin, and roll out once, pressing the roll- ing-pin this way and that during the process. Slash with a knife in any desired pattern, lay upon the fruit in the pan, which contains the under crust, and pinch the edges together ; then trim and bind the edges with a strip of muslin two inches wide, wet in cold water: this will keep in the juices. Bake at once in a hot oven. The under crust may be baked first if preferred. Prick it all over with a fork to prevent blis- tering. Never handle pie-crust any more than is absolutely necessary ; the quicker it is made, and the colder the materials, the better it will TDC when baked. Use just enough flour to keep it from stick- ing to the board and rolling-pin, and see that the hands are cool. Prepare the fruit before beginning the paste, and be particular to have lard and butter as cold as possible. RHUBARB, PEACH, OR APPLE PIE. Rhubarb pies need an upper and lower crust, but peach and apple pies are delicious if made Catering for ftwo. 105 in deep saucers with only a round of upper crust laid lightly on top of the fruit, and not pinched to the edge of the saucer. Peel and cut the fruit in slices, fill the saucers, sprinkle with sugar (two tablespoonfuls for each greening apple, and more or less accord- ing to the sourness of peaches), dredge with flour, dust on nutmeg or cinnamon, and they are ready for the covers. Peel and cut the pie-plant into inch pieces, add one cup of sugar to three heaping cupfuls of rhubarb and a tablespoonful of flour, mix together, and place on the pan with the under crust, cover and bind as directed, and bake. Some cooks prefer not to peel the pie-plant for pies ; the flavor however is more delicate to peel. If cherries are used do not stone them. If canned fruit, reserve the juice, boil it with sugar and a little flour, and pour it into the pie after baking. Pies need plenty of sugar. CANDIED PINEAPPLE. Cover one pint of sliced pineapple with half a pint of granulated sugar, let it stand until the sugar is dissolved, then drain off the juice closely. Cook for a few minutes, add the pine- apple, cook two minutes, spread on a platter, and keep either in the warming-oven or the 106 Catering for Gwo. sunshine for a day. Turn the pieces and let it stand for another day. Put away in glass, covered, in a dry place. FRIED OYSTERS. (Twenty medium-sized oysters.) Crush to a powder four milk or sea-foam crackers : mix thoroughly with a half-teaspoon- ful of salt, unless the oysters are of the salt variety, which may be ascertained by tasting the juice. Roll each oyster in the cracker crumbs and fry to a delicate brown in hot butter. A lump of butter the size of an egg will be required, putting on the second half when the oysters are turned. Fry quickly, as oysters toughen and deteriorate by long contact with heat, every instant counting after they are done. Have the pan and half of the butter hot when the oysters go in, but do not cover. As soon as they are browned, turn with a broad-bladed knife : avoid using a fork, as oys- ters should not be pierced. Put in the other half of the butter and brown the other side of the oysters. Pepper lightly and serve on a hot platter. The sooner oysters and clams are cooked after leaving the shell, the better. If any juice is left, mix with rolled cracker and fry in butter. Catering for wo. 107 SUET PUDDING. Sift twice, one and a half cupfuls of flour with one teaspoonful of baking-powder, half a tea- spoonful of salt, and a quarter of a teaspoonful each of cloves and cinnamon. Chop into this half a cupful of suet, add half a cupful of stoned raisins, and mix well with the flour. Beat together half a cupful each of milk and molasses and stir with the other ingredients. Steam in a steamer an hour and a half. The fire should be steady and the water boiling be- fore the pudding is put together. The fire should not get low nor the water stop boiling before it is done. For the sauce, cream a lump of butter the size of an egg, add a scant cupful of sugar, a tablespoonful of flour, a pinch of salt, and, gradually, a generous half-cup of boiling water. Cook a few minutes and flavor with a wine- glass of wine or brandy. XVII. Cream of Asparagus. Veal cutlet (breaded). Potatoes browned in milk. Spinach. Bgg sauce. Bread and butter. Grape jelly. Sliced tomatoes. French dressing. American club-house cheese. Saratoga chip crackers. Cottage pudding. Wine sauce. Tea or coffee. Bananas. Bonbons. CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP. Two thirds of a pint of water in which aspara- gus has boiled. To this add three or four stalks of fresh aspar- agus and one dessert-spoonful of butter mixed with one teaspoon ful of flour, and let it boil until the stalks are tender. Mash these through the soup, add a pinch of cayenne pepper, two tablespoon fuls of cream, and salt to taste ; 108 Catering tor wo. 109 strain and serve with any kind of delicate crackers. If preferred, instead of using water in which asparagus has been boiled, cut up half a dozen stalks, and cook until tender in a pint (scant) of water : mash, and proceed as directed. VEAL CUTLET. Get a slice from the thick part of the leg weighing about a pound and a half. Divide in two pieces, using but one for the present dinner : the butcher will keep the other in his ice- chest. Lay the veal on a meat-block or old pie tin and pound with a hammer until it becomes a jelly, pushing it together here and there to keep it thick and in shape : cut the edges every half-inch to prevent curling. Roll lightly in fine cracker crumbs and put it in a spider where a dessert-spoonful of butter is frying. Put another spoonful of butter in dots over the meat, fry rapidly for a minute, careful not to burn the butter ; then remove to a cooler part of the range and cook each side for twenty minutes : it should be a fine brown. Put the cutlet on a heated platter, and salt and pepper lightly. Add to the pan a teaspoon- ful of flour, stir and pour on half a cupful of boiling water : cook, add salt, and pour over the meat. Garnish with slices of lemon and serve a slice with each plate. no Catering for tFresh fat pork is very nice for frying veal in instead of butter. Cut it into bits and use two tablespoonfuls. Six oyster crackers are suffi- cient for the breading. Pound and cut the second cutlet in the same way : dip into a batter made of one tablespoon- ful of flour, a heaping tablespoon ful of butter, melted, and half of a beaten egg. Fry slowly in a little butter and make the gravy as directed for the breaded cutlet, adding a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Garnish with watercresses. Any meat left may be used for a salad ; chop, mix with lettuce, and serve with salad dressing. POTATOES BROWNED IN MILK. Melt in a small spider a heaping teaspoonful of table butter ; take from the fire and add a large pinch of salt, one third of a cup of milk, and one teaspoonful of flour ; stir, and add two cupfuls of very thinly sliced cold baked or boiled potatoes. Stir all together, dust with black pepper, cover, and cook without further stirring for about fifteen minutes. Set the spider on a wet cloth for a few min- utes to sweat, and turn out on a dish for serv- ing. The bottom will be brown and richly glazed, and the upper portion will be creamy. Catering for Gwo, m Serve bottom upward and be careful not to break. SPINACH WITH BGG SAUCE. Put a small measure of spinach (beet tops, or dandelions may be substituted) in a pan of cold water for several hours. Pick over each leaf carefully, using the en- tire root of the beets and as much of the roots of the spinach as possible. Wash in several waters to get out all the sand ; when perfectly clean there will not be any sand on the bottom of the pan. Cook in one quart of boiling water, to which a teaspoonful of salt has been added, for twenty minutes. Skim out the greens and heap in a mound on a vegetable dish ; serve with the following sauce : Mash fine the yolk of a hard-boiled egg with a tablespoonful of melted butter ; add a large pinch of salt, one of cayenne and one of mus- tard. Beat the whole of one raw egg with a table- spoonful of melted butter, or olive-oil, add two tablespoonfuls cider vinegar, add the other in- gredients, also two tablespoonfuls of milk. Cook over the teakettle until it is a little thick, add the white of the hard-boiled egg, finely chopped, and pass with the spinach. H2 Catering for Greens may also be served with hard-boiled eggs, sliced, and with a French dressing of vinegar, salt, oil, and pepper. SLICED TOMATOES. Pare with a sharp knife, two medium-sized, ripe, sound tomatoes. Put them on ice to be- come very cold, and, when ready to serve, slice and arrange them on a salad dish. The dish may first be rubbed with a slice of raw onion, if that flavor is liked. Serve with French dressing ladled from a gravy-boat. COTTAGE PUDDING. Cream with the hand one fourth of a cup of butter, add a half-cup of sugar and the yolk of one egg. When very light add half a cup of milk which is blood warm, then one cup of flour sifted four times with a rounded teaspoon- ful of baking-powder and one fourth of a tea- spoonful of salt. Whisk the white of the egg to a stiff froth, stir the cake up again, and add the egg. Bake in muffin-rings, filling them a little less than half full. Use two of these little cakes for dinner. They should be served with wine sauce, made as follows : Mix one even teaspoonful of corn-starch with Catering foe Gwo. 113 an even teaspoonful of butter and one heaping tablespoonful of sugar, add half a cup of boiling water, half a teaspoonful of caramel, and a small pinch of salt, and boil, covered, for. a few minutes. When ready to serve add a tablespoonful of sherry. Oranges may be cut up and placed around the base of these puddings. The remainder of the cakes may be frosted with confectioner's sugar and a little lemon juice, with sufficient water to make it a pliable paste. This batter makes a good layer cake : bake in three layers, in a quick oven. For chocolate filling, melt one cake (square) of chocolate in a saucepan over the teakettle, add eight even tablespoonfuls of confectioner's sugar, and thin the mixture with four table- spoonfuls of cream : flavor with half a teaspoon- ful of vanilla extract. For cream cake, beat one egg with a table- spoonful of sugar, a pinch of salt, half a tea- spoonful of lemon extract, and add slowly half a cup of boiling milk in which a heaping tea- spoonful of flour has been cooked. Boil over the teakettle a few minutes, stirring constantly. Mix the flour first with a spoonful of cold milk, then add to the boiling milk. Spread on the cakes when cool : frost the top layer. XVIII. Vegetable soup. Beefsteak pudding. Browned potatoes. Stewed tomatoes. Bread and butter. Onion salad. French dressing. Banquet crackers. Old English cheese. Floating island. Wafers. Tea or coffee. Apples. Assorted nuts. VEGETABLE SOUP. Blend a tablespoonful of butter with one tea- spoonful of flour, and pour on it, stirring con- stantly, three cupfuls of boiling water ; cook for fifteen minutes, then add one and a half cupfuls of onion, turnip, and carrot, cut in quarters, salt to taste, a pinch of cayenne, and boil half an hour. At the end of this time skim out the vegetables, add to the soup two table- spoonfuls of tomatoes, and boil fifteen or twenty minutes. 114 Catering for Gwo. 115 Strain, and serve with minced parsley stirred through it. Small oyster-crackers or Saratoga chips may be passed with this soup. Serve the vegetables the following day warmed up in a cream sauce. BEEFSTEAK PUDDING. Put into the bottom of a quart earthen bowl two slices of salt pork which have been fried a delicate brown, but do not use the grease which tried out in the frying. Place upon the pork one pound of raw round steak (freed from fat), and upon the steak a lump of butter the size of an egg ; dust on black pepper, cover the bowl, and set in a pot with boiling water reaching half-way up the sides of the bowl. Put a wire tea-stand, or meat-rack, in the bottom of the pot for the bowl to rest on, cover closely, and boil three hours, replenishing the the water as it cooks away from the boiling teakettle. At the end of two and a quarter hours pour off half of the gravy, salt the meat with one third of a teaspoonful of salt, and lay over it a crust made in the following way : Put one fourth of a cup of finely chopped suet into the chopping-bowl, add half a cup of flour in which has been sifted one half of a rounded n6 Catering tor teaspoonful of baking-powder and half of an even teaspoonful of salt ; chop flour and suet together, and mix in with a spoon three table- spoonfuls of ice-water. If more wetting is needed, sprinkle in a few more drops of water ; it should be of the consistency of biscuit-dough. See that the suet is ice cold, and do not handle the dough more than is absolutely necessary, but get it over the fire as soon as possible. The bowl should be left uncovered, so that the steam may reach the crust, and the pot must be covered closely. When done, pour out on a deep platter, meat- side down, and over all pour the gravy. This is made by cooking two lamb kidneys (chopped fine), with one slice of onion and a pinch of cayenne pepper, in a cup of cold water for thirty minutes. Cook gently, and take off the scum carefully as it rises, or the gravy will be strong and disagreeable. The little veins and fat in the centre of the kidneys should be re- moved, and they should be washed in cold water before being chopped. Thicken the gravy with a tablespoonful of flour which has been mixed smooth with the gravy from the meat. If too thick add a little boiling water. This dish may be prepared on the previous day, and will be fully as delicious as when first cooked. Catering for a wo. 117 Warm over by setting the bowl containing it in a steamer over boiling water. BROWNED POTATOES. Wash and peel two medium-sized potatoes, split them, dust with salt, dredge lightly with flour, lay upon a baking-tin, closely covered, and bake in a hot oven. When soft, turn them, put a small lump of butter on each piece, dust with pepper, and brown a little longer, uncovered. To be right they should have a crisp brown coat and be mealy inside. The mealiness depends on the quality of the potatoes and the heat of the oven. A slow oven is not good. STEWED TOMATOES. Add to two cupfuls of tomatoes a scant half- teaspoonful of salt and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper, and stew gently for half an hour, stir- ring occasionally to prevent burning. Add a pinch of sugar and a teaspoonful of butter, and cook for ten minutes longer with the saucepan covered. Use agate or earthenware, as the acid of to- matoes corrodes tin. ONION SALAD. Slice a Bermuda or Spanish onion in wafer- like slices, and soak in enough cold salted water us Catering for (Two. to cover, several hours. Drain, rinse in cold fresh water, and serve with a simple dressing of vinegar, pepper (black and cayenne) and salt, with oil in any desired proportion. This is a most healthful salad, and it may be eaten with cold sliced potatoes and lettuce. The silver-skinned, or white, onion, may be used if the others are out of market. FLOATING ISLAND. Mix half even teaspoonful of flour with one of cold milk, add two thirds of a cup of boiling milk, and place the vessel containing it in a saucepan of boiling water to cook, stirring oc- casionally, while whipping the white of an egg to a stiff froth. Then beat to a cream the yolk of the egg with a heaping tablespoon ful of granulated sugar and a pinch of salt. Pour the boiling milk upon the yolk and sugar, beat well and return to the saucepan, stirring continually while cooking two minutes. Remove from fire and add half a teaspoonful of lemon extract (or other flavoring). Add to the frothed white one teaspoonful of lemon juice, a few grains of salt, and a tea- spoonful of confectioner's sugar. Whisk together and lay on top of the hot custard. Cover closely, and, when cold, pour into a glass dish for the table. Catering for wo. 119 Serve ice cold. Strawberries, or ripe peaches (cut up), may be served with this dish if liked. Pass almond or vanilla wafers. VANIUvA WAFERS. One fourth of a cup of butter, one cup of flour lightly put in, one rounded teaspoonful of baking-powder, one fourth of a teaspoonful of salt, one yolk of egg, one half-cup of moist sugar, three tablespoonfuls of cold water, one scant teaspoonful of flavoring. Sift flour, baking-powder, and salt four times, and rub in the butter. Beat the yolk and sugar to a cream, add fla- voring, and, by the spoonful, the water. Then add this to the flour, stirring it in with the hand till the mass is light and smooth. Keep the fingers spread apart while beating. Put this mixture in half-teaspoon fuls on the inverted bottoms of well-buttered pans, at inter- vals of two inches. Spread a little by a circular motion of the spoon tip, and bake in a quick, but not fierce, oven a few minutes. XIX. Oyster soup. Pork and beans. Spiced tomato sauce (hot). Hot corn bread. Cider. Salted almonds. Celery. Cream cheese. Crackers. Preserved ginger. Indian pudding. Tea or coffee. Nut candies. Apples. OYSTER STEW. (Twenty-five freshened oysters.) See the oysters opened and if possible get those which have been " freshened," as they are preferable to the salt ones. Put a pint of rich sweet milk on the fire to scald, and in an- other saucepan the strained oyster liquor : skim the latter well as it boils. Add to it a lump of butter the size of an egg, blended with a half- teaspoonful of flour (not more), and when this 120 Catering for Gwo. 121 is cooked, add the oysters and set the saucepan where the contents will keep at the boiling- point for a minute or two. Then add the scalding milk and serve at once. Add salt and pepper to taste, with a few drops of onion juice. Do not allow the stew even to boil up or simmer after the milk goes in, or it will be sure to curdle. Serve with oyster-crackers or small squares of toasted bread. PORK AND BEANS. Pick over and wash one pint of pea-beans and soak over night in a pint of cold water. In the morning add two more cups of water and cook for ten minutes. At the expiration of this time stir in a half-teaspoonful of baking-soda and skim off the froth. Drain off all the water and put the beans in a pot with a fitted cover : a pipkin or agate-ware vessel will do if a regular bean-pot is not at hand. Mix a pint of fresh boiling water with half a teaspoonful of salt, a pinch of cayenne, and an even tablespoonful of either sugar or molasses. Pour this over the beans, set in a moderate oven, and bake slowly for three hours, covered : at the end of this time add half a pound of washed salt pork (score the rind every half inch), and press it down so that the top comes even with the top of the beans, and dust with black pepper. 122 Catering for If the water has cooked away, add a little from boiling teakettle, just enough to cover. Bake another hour, uncovered, then cover closely and cook until night, but d