Catering for two; comfort and economy for small households

BERKELEY

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY Of
CALIFORNIA

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

AGRICULTURE
BEQUEST

OF

ANITA D. S. BLAKE

Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive

in 2006 witii funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cateringfortwocoOOjamericli

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 Knickerbocker |prws

1899

Copyright, 1898

BY

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

AGRICULTURE
GIFT

Zbc ftnicherbocker iprese, laew l^orft

TXl/s

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 I^UNCHEONS . . . 183

BREAKFAST, TEA, AND I^UNCHEON DISHES. 1 92

FANCY DESSERTS 229

MISCEI,I.ANEOUS RECIPES . . . .245
HEI<PFUl< SUGGESTIONS .... 262
INDEX 281

Vll

CATERING FOR TWO.

DINNERS.

I.

Consomm^ 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.

CONSOMM^ 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

2 Catering tor ^wo.

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

Catertng for Zvoo. 3

oyster liquor and a tablespoonful 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 tablespooufuls 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.

4 Caterina tor ^wo.

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.

PICKIvED 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 tor ^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.

CARAMBI. JEIvLY.

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.

6 Catering tor q:wo.

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 ot 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 Catertng tor ^wo»

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
lightl}'^ 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 tor ^wo. 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.

lo Catering for q;wo.

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 C^wo. n

LEMON CAKE.

Dissolve half a teaspoonful 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 ^wo.

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 tor ^wo. 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
tablespoon fuls of tomatoes, one teaspoonful
washed rice, half an onion, grated, and boil

14

Catcrina tor ^vvo» 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 ^nd 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.

i6 Catcrins tor Zwo,

Mix an even tablespoouful 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 tablespoouful 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.

BOIIvBD 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 CRBAM SAUCB.

#

Scrape and wash, but do not soak, a fine
large parsnip. Cover it with boiling water and
cook until tender.

Caterfng tor ^wo. 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 DUMPIvING.

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.

i8 Catering tor XLvoo.

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.

CARAMEI. SAUCE FOR STEAMED
DUMPLING.

Stir to a cream one tablespoonful 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 Zvoo. 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.

datering tor Zvco* 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 BKEF.

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 ofif 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 tor ^wo.

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 grav\'," and is
the life of the meat.

The roast may be served for another dinner by

Catering tor (Two. 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 tor XLvco,

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 Zvoo. 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, Bagle, 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 a:wo.

Smootli 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-t)ut 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.

Escalloped 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 English 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 XLwo,

If the soup is lumpy after the paste is added,
strain before serving.

If more onion flavor is liked, grate in a few
drops.

CI.EAR 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 tor ^wo. 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 IvAMB.

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 tor ^wo.

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 tor ^wo. 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.

BSCAIyLOPBD 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 tor Z\oo,

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.

SAIvAD OF CHICORY OR IvKTTUCK
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 tor ^wo. 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
stiflf. If the cream will not whip readily it may
be used plain with a little sugar and gelatine in
this way :

34 Catering tor XTwo.

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 pur^e.

Fried ham. Cream gravy.

Fried hominy.

Stewed corn or parsnip patties.

Tomatoes stewed in butter.

Bscalloped oysters.

Cold slaw. Crackers. Cheese.

Lemon meringue pie.

Tea or coffee.

Alternative : Mutton pot-roast. Cherry pudding.

PUR^B 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 teaspoon ful of
salt, boil up, and strain.

Serve with minced parsley and squares of
bread toasted brown in the oven.

35

36 CaterinQ for ^wo.

FRIED HAM.

One slice of ham three quarters of an inch
thick.

Cut ofif the rind, put ham into a smoking-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.

Gatering tor Zxco. 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 for ^wo.

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 suJB&ce.

The top should be brown. Serve in the bak-
ing-dish.

COLD SLAW.
Shave the crisp inner leaves of cabbage as

Catering tor ITwo. 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 tablespoonful 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 datcrtng tor tTwo.

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
teaspoonful 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.

Bscalloped 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.

C0NS0MM6.

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

41

42 Catering for Zvoo»

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 tor ^wo. 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 tor ^wo.

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 tablespoonful 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 RICE.

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 ^wo. 45

BSCAIvLOPED 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 SAIvAD.

Dip six freshly opened medium-sized oysters
in cracker-crumbs, and fry a delicate brown in
a spoonful of hot sweet butter.

Ivay 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 ITwo.

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 ^wo. 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.

lyoaf 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 ofif the fat.
48

Catering tor 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 IvAMB.

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

50 Catering for ^wo.

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 teaspoouful 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 tor Zwo, 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 c:wo.

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 awa}-, 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 OMEIyETTE.

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 tCwo, 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 O^wo.

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 ^%% 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' windows to

Catering tor itwo. 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.

Layer-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.

lyima 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 for ^wo. 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 tor Zvoo.

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 tor ^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
PARSIyEY.

Stir together in a small frying-pan one even
dessert-spoonful of flour, one teaspoon ful 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.

IvIMA 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

6o Catering for Zvoo,

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.

JBIvIvY 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 tor ^wo, 6i

tablespoonfuls of cream, whicli have been
whipped with one teaspoonful of confectioner's
sugar.

In warm weather use three tablespoonfuls
less water in the jelly.

X.

Pur^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.

PUR^E 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 tor Zvoo. 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 CatcriiiQ tor Zvoo,

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 in a
batter made of beaten egg, a pinch of salt, a v.
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 Zvoo 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.

66 Catertng tor ^wo

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 tor q;wo 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 j uice 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 tor ^wo,

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 light!}-, 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 JKIvLY.

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 tor ^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-PKA 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

Caterina tor ^wo. 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 for tTwo,

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 tor ^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 tlwo,

press or mash thoroughly, until every lump dis-
appears.

Add one third of a teaspoonful 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. Ivift 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 ^wo, 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.

Ivemon 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

Caterlncj tor ^wo. 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 tor tTwo.

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 tor ^wo. 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 tor ^wo.

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.

SAIvTBD AIvMONDS.

These may be purchased at the confectioner's
but can easily be done at home by any one with
suflBcient 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 tor ^wo. 8i

POT-CHBESE 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 tor ^wo.

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 tablespoonfuls 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 pur^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 tor Zwo,

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 tor ^wo. 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 SAUCK (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 tor Zvoo.

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 tor tTwo.

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 tor Cwo. 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.

RICH 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-

90 Catering tor ^wo.

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 teaspoonful
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 XLvco. 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.

WINK JELLY.
Soak for ten minutes, four rounded teaspoon-

92 Catering tor Zvoo,

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.

HoUandaise 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 tor ^wo.

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.

HOIvIvANDAISB 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 tor g:wo, 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 com.

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.

APPIvE SAIvAD.

Chop fine or slice in very thin slices a juicy
Greening or Baldwin apple.

96 Catering for q;wo.

Add an equal amount of crisp white celery, a
pinch each of salt and mustard and pepper,
and finally two tablespoonfuls 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 Zvoo. 97

Stir thoroughly and set to rise, covered, iu 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.

XVI.

Consommd 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.

CONSOMM^ 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 tor ^wo. 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 stufl&ng 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. I^ift 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

loo Caterina tor ^wo»

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 teaspoonful 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 SIvAW.

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 tablespoonful 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 tor tlwo. loi

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.

Ik

I02 Catering for ^wo.

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 tor ^wo. 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 l^alf 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
stifi" 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-
ftd.

I04 Catering for ^wo.

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
lie 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, PBACH, OR APPLE PIE.
Rhubarb pies need an upper and lower crust,
but peach and apple pies are delicious if made

Catering tor XTwo. 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 PINKAPPI.E.

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

io6 Catering for Ewo.

sunshine for a day. Turn the pieces and let
it stand for another day.

Put away in glass, covered, in a dry place.

frie;d 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 tor Ewo. 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
tablespoonfuls of cream, and salt to taste ;

io8

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 daterin^ for Zvoo.

»Fresli fat pork is very nice for frying veal in
instead of butter. Cut it into bits and use two
tablespoon fuls. 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 tablespoouful 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 tor ITwo. 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.

112 Catering tor XTwo.

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 toe ITwo. 113

an even teaspoon ful 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 suflficient 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.

Banq^uet 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.

"4

Catering for ^wo. 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
ofiF 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

ii6 Catering for Zwo.

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 tor ^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 Bernmda or Spanish onion in wafer-
like slices, and soak in enough cold salted water

ii8 Catering tor ^wo.

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 tablespoonful 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 tor Zvtfo, 119

Serve ice cold.

Strawberries, or ripe peaches (cut up), may be
served with this dish if liked.
Pass almond or vanilla wafers.

VANIIvIvA WAFERS.

One fourth of a cup of butter, one cup of
flour lightly put in, one rounded teaspoon ful of
baking-powder, one fourth of a teaspoonful
of salt, one yolk of egg, one half-cup of moist
sugar, three tablespoon fuls 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

Catering for ^wo. 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 ofiF the froth. Drain ofiF 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 ^wo.

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 do not add any
more water.

Beans should cook continuously in a slow
oven from ten in the morning until six at night :
if cooked fast they will be too dry.

When done, to be just right, the juice should
show itself when the pot is tilted half-way up.
The pork rind should be almost like jelly, and
slightly browned, and every bean should be
whole but soft.

Serve in a deep dish and put the pork on a
platter garnished with any seasonable greens.

SPICBD TOMATO SAUCE (HOT).

Melt a lump of butter the size of a large nut-
meg, and pour in one cupful of tomatoes, either
fresh or canned. Add salt to taste ; a pinch of
cayenne, a slice of onion, a dust of flour, and a
pinch of ground cloves and cinnamon. Stew
gently one hour, stirring often to prevent burn-
ing, and keep the saucepan covered.

Strain through a sieve which will keep back
the seeds, and add a teaspoonful of vinegar
if liked.

This sauce is delicious poured over hashed
meats which are served on toast.

Catering tor ^wo, 123

CORN BREAD.

Half an even cup of Graham flour, half an
even cup of yellow corn-meal sifted, with one
teaspoonful of baking-powder, half a teaspoon-
ful of salt, and one teaspoonful of sugar. Add
half a cup of suet and chop all together. Add
one well-beaten egg, and one full cup of cold
water ; beat the egg in the water.

Pour into a greased pan or pudding-mould,
set in a steamer, and steam one hour ; then bake
in the oven half an hour.

Half a pint of loppered milk may be used in-
stead of the water, in which case half a level
teaspoonful of baking-soda should take the
place of the baking-powder ; this should be
well beaten into the milk.

Sour milk makes a much better corn bread
than water, and may easily be secured by a
little planning beforehand.

INDIAN PUDDING.

Heaf one cup of milk, add two rounded
tablespoon fuls of yellow corn-meal, stir, and
boil for three minutes, take from the fire, add
one teaspoonful of butter, one tablespoonful of
New Orleans molasses, one cup of cold milk,
one well-beaten egg, a half-teaspoonful of
ground ginger, a pinch of cloves and cinnamon,
and a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt.

Bake in a very slow oven two hours.

124 Catering tor XLvoo,

To be right, the pudding should be like a solid
custard floating in whey.

Serve with a sauce of powdered sugar, three
spoonfuls, stirred to a cream with one of
creamed butter.

XX.

Oysters on the half-shell.

Ban quet-crackers.

Roast pork.

♦ Boiled hominy.

Baked apple-sauce.

Bread and butter. Celery.

Grapefruit.

Chocolate pudding with Sea-foam cream.

Tea or coflfee.

Bonbons.

ROAST RIB AND LOIN OF PORK.
(THREE POUNDS.)

Always buy young pork, as it is sweeter and
more tender.

Put meat on a rack in a roasting-pot ; an
agate kettle with a close-fitting cover will
answer.

Dredge the pork liberally with flour, pour
over a scant pint of boiling water, cover, and
cook slowly an hour and a half.

Take up the meat and put it in a dripping-

125

126 Catering tor ^wo.

pan, ribs upward, and lay on it a stuffing made
of one quart of stale bread crumbs steamed
moist in a cup of water, and mixed thoroughly
with a salt-spoon of salt, a half-teaspoonful of
black pepper, and a dessert-spoonful of butter.

Roast one hour in a hot oven, basting occa-
sionally with the gravy in the roasting-pot
(from which all grease has been skimmed.)

Keep the gravy hot. Serve the meat on a
platter garnished with any seasonable green.
Thicken the gravy with one dessert-spoonful of
flour blended with two of cold water, add salt
to taste, a dust of cayenne, boil up, and serve.

The second day the pork may be sliced and
served cold with fried hominy.

A succeeding meal may be prepared in this
way :

Free it from all fat and mince one cupful and
warm up in a sauce made of a dessert-spoonful
of butter, one of browned flour, and half a cup
of boiling water, with salt and pepper. Serve
on stale bread, toasted and dipped in salted
boiling water. Butter the toast slightly after it
is moistened.

BOIIvED HOMINY.
Put one cupful of hominy into three cupfuls
of boiling water ; add half a teaspoonful of salt,
stir until the hominy boils, then set on back of
stove, closely covered, to simmer four or five
hours : stir occasionally. Use the Universal pot.

Catering tor ^wo» 127

or an earthen one set upon a stand, so that the
hominy will not burn.

A double boiler is not so good, as hominy
needs a closer action of the fire than it can get
through water.

BAKBD-APPLE SAUCB.

Peel, quarter, and core four Rhode Island
Greening apples. Put them in an agate or
earthern dish with four tablespoon fuls of granu-
lated sugar and four of boiling water.

Cover closely and bake in a moderate oven
from one half to three quarters of an hour.

If desired hot, dot the apples with small
pieces of butter just before taking from the
oven, leave the cover off, and bake a little longer.
Serve in the baking-dish, with a napkin pinned
around it. If to be served cold, pour carefully,
when cool, into a glass dish, but do not break
the fruit, as the pieces should retain their shape.

CHOCOIvATB JBLLY.

Mix two even teaspoon fuls of cocoa with one
heaping tablespoonful of granulated sugar, and
pour on slowly, stirring constantly, one cupful
of boiling water. Boil one minute, and add
four even teaspoonfuls of corn-starch mixed with
one teaspoonful of cold water, and one table-
spoonful of rich cream and a pinch of salt.
Boil and stir for seven or eight minutes.

128 Catering for ^wo.

Take from the fire and add half a teaspoonful
of extract of vanilla : pour into a shallow dish,
and when cold spread Sea-foam cream on top.

Serve ice cold.

XXI.

Broth.
I/amb (browned in spiced sauce.)

Saratoga potatoes. Onions.

Dinner rolls. Lemon marmalade.

Potato salad.

Cream cheese. Biscuits.

Tapioca cream.

Tea or coffee. Fruit.

IvAMB BROWNED IN SPICED SAUCE.

Get a shank of mutton weighing about a
pound. Trim off the dried outer skin, wipe
carefully with a damp cloth, dredge all parts
plentifully with flour, and dust with black pep-
per.

Lay the meat in an agate kettle, add a tiny
piece of bay leaf, one clove, a pinch of cayenne,
one thin slice of onion, and an inch piece of
cinnamon stick, pour on a full cup of boiling
water, and cook gently two hours, being careful
that it does not bum. The water should all be
cooked away by this time, only a spoonful or

9

129

I30 Catering for q:wo.

two of rich brown gravy remaining, and the
meat should slip easily from the bones.

Transfer the meat (do not use the bones) to
a deep platter.

Season with salt, and pour over a grav}^ made
from the sediment in the baking-pan : a spoon-
ful of wine or lemon juice may be added to
this if desired.

Pour into the pot in which the meat was
cooked, a cupful and a half of boiling water,
add the water which was drained from the
onions, and cook gently ten or fifteen minutes.
Add a little salt and a few sprigs of parsley,
boil up and strain ; this makes the soup, and
there should be about three fourths of a
pint.

Serve a thin slice of lemon with each portion.

SARATOGA CHIPS.

Slice in wafer-like slices, two medium-sized
potatoes and let them soak for half an hour in
a quart of salted water.

Drain and dry with a cloth and fry in boiling-
hot lard until they are a pale brown. Put
in only a few at a time, and lay them when
done on a sheet of brown paper, to absorb the
grease ; serve hot.

Saratoga potatoes may now be found at any
first-class grocer's shop and these need only be
warmed a few minutes in an open dish in the
oven.

i

Catering for XTwo. 131

ONIONS BROWNED IN BUTTER.

Slice two cupfuls of onions, add one fourth of
a teaspoonful of vSalt and one cupful of boiling
water. Cook, covered, until tender, then drain
off the water (reserve this for the soup-pot), add
one even tablespoonful of butter, and stir well
after the butter is melted, and fry until a deli-
cate brown.

Do not stir again but move the spider about
to prevent burning.

Keep onions in cold water while paring, to
prevent the eyes from smarting.

POTATO SAIvAD.

Beat the yolk of an egg with half a level tea-
spoonful of flour, one third of a teaspoonful of
salt, a pinch of sugar, and two pinches of
cayenne pepper.

Add two tablespoonfuls of boiling water and
cook over the teakettle, stirring constantly, two
minutes.

Then remove, add one tablespoonful of cider
vinegar, three tablespoonfuls of cream or milk,
and either a tablespoonful of oil or melted but-
ter with a few drops of onion juice. Beat well,
and to two tablespoonfuls of this sauce add a
half-cupful of mashed and seasoned potatoes.

Beat for several minutes, and heap on a
mound of spinach which has been cooked,

132 Catcving for ^wo,

drained, and seasoned. Pour the remainder of
sauce over all.

This may be eaten hot or cold. Water-
cresses, celery, or cabbage, or any salad greens
may be substituted for the spinach.

RAISED BISCUIT OR DINNER ROIvLS AND
BREAD.

Two heaping cups of flour sifted three times.
Put into an agate two-quart vessel having a fitted
cover one even cupful of lukewarm water, a
heaping teaspoon ful of sweet butter, one even
teaspoonful of salt and one of sugar.

Add to this one fourth of a cake of Fleisch-
mann's compressed yeast, dissolved in one tea-
spoonful of the water.

Mix well and stir in the flour, using a stout
spoon for the purpose and mixing thoroughly.

Cover closely and let rise about five hours.
At the end of this time the dough should be
light and soft and nearly fill the dish. Turn
out on a lightly floured board or pie pan and
knead a few minutes, using not more than a
teaspoonful of flour for the entire kneading.

Put into a saucer another spoonful of flour,
cut the dough into twenty pieces, roll each into
a ball between the palms, dipping them in the
flour in the saucer to prevent sticking.

Put them in a greased pan which is two
inches deep, and do not let the rolls touch at

Catering tor ^wo» 133

any point. Cover closely with a high cover, or
another pan, and let them rise about three hours.

They should by that time have become as one,
with slight depressions showing the dividing
line, and they should also be moist to the touch.
Bake in a hot oven fifteen minutes, wrap in a
hot napkin, and serve.

They may be heated for breakfast by putting
them in the oven in a closely covered dish.

If wanted for six o'clock dinner, begin opera-
tions by nine in the morning.

The temperature for raising should be from
80° to 90°.

Never set sponge on a hot surface ; the found-
ation on which the pans rest should only be
blood-warm ; the heat must come from radia-
tion.

Too much heat from any source will cause
sponge to become thin and pasty, and the
dough will lose all its elasticity.

For bread, put into a three-quart basin two
even cupfuls of lukewarm water, one heaping
tablespoouful of sweet butter, one teaspoonful
of sugar, and one heaping teaspoonful of salt.

Melt half a yeast-cake in a spoonful of the water,
add, and stir until all has been dissolved ; then
stir in five cupfuls of flour, measured before sift-
ing, and sifted three times. Stir very thoroughly,
cover closely with a tin cover, and when the
mass has risen to the top of the basin, turn on
a lightly floured board and knead half an hour,

134 Caterinci tor ^wo.

kneading in one scant half-cupful of flour. The
dough should now be almost as elastic as a
rubber ball.

Put it back in the basin, cover, and let rise to
double its bulk or a little more. Then knead
again a minute, using not more than ateaspoon-
ful of flour.

Cut off four little pieces, roll into balls, set to
rise again, and when they have trebled in size,
set in a steamer for half an hour ; they will
keep several days in the bread-box and may be
used for dumplings in meat stews.

Cut the remainder of the dough into loaves
of any desired size, fill pans one third full, cover,
and raise until they have doubled in bulk, when
bake in a moderate oven.

Small individual loaves arfe best.

Temperature and time for raising are the
same as for biscuit. Kneading should be done
with the "heel of the palm."

TAPIOCA CREAM.

Soak three tablespoon fuls of flake tapioca
over night in half a cup of cold water.

In the morning add one cup of rich milk and
a large pinch of salt and cook half an hour in
a double boiler, stirring frequently.

Beat the yolk of one egg with two tablespoon-
fuls of sugar, thin with a little of the hot milk,
stir well, and add to the tapioca.

Catering tor Ewo. 135

Whisk to a stiff froth the white of the egg,
add this also, cook a minute, flavor with a half-
teaspoonful of vanilla and a dust of nutmeg, and
pour into a dish for the table.

Serve ice cold.

This dessert may be varied by adding to the
top a few spoonfuls of whipped cream and serv-
ing with it a teaspoonful of grape jelly to each
plate.

XXII.

Pur^e of beans.

Porter-house steak.

Potato croquettes.

Boiled beets.

Onions baked in milk.

Bread and butter. Tomato marmalade.

Asparagus salad.

Crackers. Cheese.

Chocolate pudding.

Tea or coflfee. Oranges.

pur]§:e of beans.

Soak over night a half-cupful of dried beans
in a quart of cold water.

In the morning throw away the water, cover
with a pint of fresh cold water, add a slice of
lightly browned salt pork (but not the grease),
a slice of onion, a quarter of a teaspoon ful of
salt, and cook until the beans are mushy.
Strain, add to the liquor a half-teaspoonful of
butter nibbed with the same of flour, boil up,

136

Catering for Cwo. 137

and add enough boiling milk to make the soup
of an agreeable consistency, with salt and pep-
per to taste.

POTATO CROQUETTES.

Mash two cupfuls of boiled potatoes and three
tablespoon fuls of hot milk, in which is melted
a tablespoon ful of butter and a third of a tea-
spoonful of salt.

Whip to a cream with a fork, form into egg-
shaped rolls, dip, when cold, into cracker-dust,
then into beaten egg, and fry in a frying-basket
in deep hot lard.

Try first a small piece of bread to ascertain
the amount of heat. If too hot the croquettes
will bum ; if not hot enough they will soak fat,
which renders them unfit to eat.

If preferred, they may be browned in a spoon-
ful of butter.

BOILED BEETS.

Select three beets of equal size, wash care-
fully so as not to break the skins, and do not
trim the stalks too closely, as they will bleed
and lose their sweetness. Cook in a steamer,
and when tender put into cold water long
enough to enable you to slip the skins off.

Serve hot, sliced, with butter, pepper, and
salt, or heat two tablespoonfuls of cider vine-

I

138 Catering tor tlwo.

gar, add a tablespoonful of butter, with salt and
pepper, and pour this dressing over them.
Serve hot.

While cooking, do not pierce the beets any
oftener than is necessary ; the time for cooking
will be from one to three hours, according to
their age.

ONIONS BAKED IN MII.K.

Peel and slice thin three cupfuls of white on-
ions. Put in a deep earthen dish, dredge with
a tablespoonful of flour and a little pepper, dot
with a lump of butter the size of half an egg,
and pour on a cupful of rich milk.

Bake in a good oven half an hour, sprinkle
on a half-teaspoonful of salt, and serve in the
baking-dish.

TOMATO MARMALADE.

One quart of ripe tomatoes, skinned and
sliced. Put on the stove, with half a cupful of
cider vinegar, one third of a cup of sugar, one
teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoon ful of mixed
ground spices ; cook slowly, and stir often with
a wooden spoon.

When reduced to a little less than one half,
it is done.

Put away in tumblers covered with brandied
paper. Canned tomatoes may be used, but are
not so good.

Catering tor ZTwo. 139

ASPARAGUS SALAD.

Lay one dozen asparagus stalks, boiled in
salted water, on a salad dish, and serve with a
simple French dressing of vinegar, oil, salt,
and pepper.

CHOCOLATE PUDDING.

Heat one and one quarter cups of rich milk
with half a square of chocolate, stirring con-
stantly until the chocolate is dissolved ; then
add two rounded tablespoonfuls of corn-starch
mixed with a quarter of a cup of cold milk. Let
this boil for ten minutes in a saucepan of boil-
ing water ; then add the yolk of an egg beaten
with one tablespoonful of sugar and a pinch of
salt.

Beat well, cook one minute, flavor with half
a teaspoonful of vanilla, turn into a mould, and
serve ice cold with the following sauce :

Froth the white of the egg, and whip it into
half a cup of boiling milk, sweetened with a
tablespoonful of sugar, add a few grains of salt,
and flavor with half a teaspoonful of vanilla
and a dust of nutmeg. Set on ice.

XXIII.

Clam chowder.

Salad of cold meat.

Cream cheese. Crackers.

Blackberry pudding.

Tea or cofifee. Cream nut candies.

CLAM CHOWDER.
(One dozen clams.)

Peel and slice very thinly a cupful of raw po-
tatoes ; add a thinly sliced, medium-sized onion,
and a cupful of boiling water, with a tablespoon-
ful of fried salt pork (without the grease), and
boil gently until the vegetables are tender ;
then add a half-cupful of stewed tomatoes.

When this boils, add the strained clam juice
(there should be about a cupful), and skim,
after boiling up. Now stir in a tablespoonful
of butter, blended with half a teaspoonful of
flour.

Boil a few minutes, and add the clams,
chopped very fine in the chopping-bowl, or
meat-grinder.

140

i

Catering for ^wo. 141

Allow the chowder to come quickly to a boil,
and remove from the fire immediately.

Simmering or long boiling will make clams
tough and indigestible. Pour into a hot tureen,
and set in the oven until wanted.

COLD MEAT SALAD.

Any cold meat of the white kind, such as veal,
lamb, or poultry ; cut a cupful into small pieces
without the fat, add salt and pepper, and mix
with the same amount of celery, cut up, or
watercresses.

Heap upon lettuce leaves ; the large outside
leaves will answer. Pour on a salad dressing
of any preferred kind, and serve ice cold.

The crisp inner parts of white cabbage may
be used if other greens are not obtainable.

The following dressing may be used :

SALAD DRESSING.

Stir the yolk of an egg with two tablespoon-
fuls of either olive-oil or melted butter ; add
one tablespoonful of vinegar in which has been
dissolved a salt-spoonful of salt, a small pinch
of cayenne, and a large pinch of mustard.

BLACKBERRY PUDDING.

Take half a cupful of flour and mix with it
half a teaspoonful of baking-powder and a large

142 Catering for Cwo.

pinch of salt. Sift several times. Cut into this,
with a knife, an even dessert-spoonful of butter
and add one fovurth of a cup of milk. The mix-
ture should be quite soft.

With a spoon spread it on the bottom of a
baking-dish or cake-mold, cover the paste with
a thick layer of blackberries, and steam half an
hour in a steamer, or bake in the oven with a
cover over the dish. Serve with sugar and
cream, or with a creamy hard sauce.

Cherries or huckleberries, apples or peaches,
may be used in the same way.

XXIV.

Clam soup.

Round steak with onions.

Yellow turnips and potatoes mashed together.

' Baked Hubbard squash.

Celery.

Sweet-clover cheese. Crackers.

Steamed pudding with oranges or canned or

stewed fruit.

Tea or coflFee. Chocolate creams.

CI.AM SOUP.

Drain the jtiice from a dozen clams and put it
on the stove to scald. If soft-shell clams are
used, first wash them thoroughly in their own
liquor, with the addition of a half-cup of cold
water, and strain through cheese-cloth. Chop
the clams very fine and add to the juice when it
reaches the boiling-point : boil up quickly once
and immediately remove to a part of the stove
where they will merely keep hot. The longer
clams boil, the tougher and more indigestible

143

144 Catering tor ^wo.

they become. Do not even allow them to sim-
mer after the first quick boil.

In another saucepan put two cupfuls of rich
milk (skimmed milk will never produce the best
results), and when it boils add a tablespoonful
of butter blended with an even teaspoonful of
flour, and a small pinch of cayenne pepper. Boil
a moment and set where it will keep hot, but
not cook.

When ready to serve, pour the clams into the
milk, stir and serve immediately in hot soup
plates with any preferred crackers. *

BEEFSTEAK AND ONIONS (FRIED).

Round steak is usually preferred for this dish.
Cut off a piece measuring about five inches
square. Pound to a jelly with a hammer on a
meat-block or old pie tin.

Slice four medium-sized onions after peeling,
put them into a frying-pan with a cup of boiling
water, and stew until the water is all gone ; do
not stir.

Then add a little salt and pepper, and a heap-
ing tablespoonful of butter, and fry until the
onions are a fine brown.

Fry the steak in a hot frying pan, and do not
salt until it is on the platter. Then add salt and
butter, pile the onions on top and serve immedi-
ately.

i

Catering tor ^wo. 145

POTATOES AND TURNIPS MASHED TO-
GETHER.

Wash, peel, and slice iu inch-thick slices,
enough yellow (Rutabaga) turnips to fill a pint
bowl. Cover with boiling water, and cook
rapidly thirty or forty minutes. When tender,
drain and mash fine ; pass through the potato-
press, or mash fine a pint bowl of hot boiled
potatoes and add to the turnips, season with
a teaspoouful of salt, beat well together and
heap in a dish, smoothing the top over with a
knife-blade.

Make a long deep trench, on top of which
put a lump of butter the size of a small egg.

Set in a hot oven until wanted.

Next day, slice, dredge with flour, and fry in
salt-pork drippings or butter.

BAKED SQUASH.

Cut a slice four inches thick from a fine
Hubbard squash.

Remove the seeds, place on a baking-dish,
cover closely, and bake in a hot oven for an
hour, or until soft.

Then scrape squash from the rind, mash,
season with a spoonful of butter, salt and
pepper to taste, pile on a vegetable-dish,
and keep hot in the oven until wanted ; or
send to the table on a platter, just as it comes

146 Catering for XLvqo,

from the oven, in which case each person will
season his own portion.

STEAMED PUDDING WITH ORANGES.

Sift three times, one even half-cupful of flour,
with one half rounded teaspoon ful of baking-
powder and one third even teaspoonful of salt.

Cut into this one heaping teaspoonful of
ice-cold butter with a knife. Add three heap-
ing tablespoon fuls of cold milk, stir together
lightly and quickly, using a spoon for the pur-
pose, put into a buttered mold or bowl and set
in a steamer for half on hour. When done,
turn into a shallow pudding-dish and serve
with the following sauce : Cook for ten min-
utes one half cupful of boiling water, a few
grains of salt, and two heaping tablespoonfuls
of granulated sugar. Then add a half-teas-
poonful of corn -starch, wet with one spoonful
of cold water, cook and add a teaspoonful of
caramel and a fine orange which has been
peeled and cut into pieces the size of nutmegs.
When this is thoroughly hot, but not boiling,
pour over the pudding.

Pass with this pudding, a hard sauce made
of one tablespoonful of butter stirred to a cream,
the half of a raw egg yolk, and half a cupful of
confectioner's sugar, beaten together until very
light. Flavor with a pinch of grated orange-
rind.

I

I

Catering for Zvoo. 147

If canned cherries or fruit are used instead
of oranges, heat them for a few minutes and
add more sugar to the juice.

Only the egg sauce will be needed with can-
ned or stewed fruit.

AFTBR-DINNBR COFFEE.

Mix two dessert-spoonfuls of coffee ground
moderately fine with a scant teaspoonful of
raw egg and two dessert-spoonfuls of cold
water.

Pour on this two thirds of a cup of boiling
water, stir, cover closely, and let it boil up ;
then remove from the fire immediately.

Let it stand, to settle, a few minutes, and strain
into a hot coffee-pot through a wet cheese-cloth
laid on a wire strainer.

In this way the last drop of coffee will be
perfectly clear.

XXV.

Raw oysters or clams.

Fresh ham. Savory stuffing.

Apple sauce (hot or cold).

Breaded turnips.

Baked sweet potatoes.

Green tomato chili sauce.

French bread. Butter.

Celery or any salad of the chicory family.

Roquefort cheese on brown-bread fingers.

Princess cream, or pineapple with floating

island.

Wafers, or sponge cake.

Tea or coffee. California grapes.

Alternative : Roast duck. Onion stuffing.

Potato balls (baked).

Spiced peaches.

Corn-starch pudding, or chocolate jelly with

custard.

FRESH HAM.
Order a small fresh pig ham. Have one third

148

I

Catering tor tlwo. 149

of it sliced off from the large end for frying
(this maybe left in the butcher's ice-chest until
needed) ; the remaining part should be boned
and trimmed for roasting.

Put a quart of bread-crumbs a little stale in
a bowl, pour over enough boiling water to
make a pliable paste, stir in a tablespoonful of
thyme, a teaspoonful of salt, a half-teaspoonful
of black pepper, one pinch of red pepper, and
a rounded dessert-spoonful of butter. Work
this into a mass, and stuff the ham with it.
Dredge thoroughly with flour, pepper liberally,
and set on a meat-rack in a dripping-pan.

The oven should be quite hot for the first
hour. At the end of this time pour a cup of
boiling water in the pan, and moderate the fire.
Bake three hours slowly.

Salt the meat, and if it is not brown, quicken
the fire with kindlings, and set in the oven for
fifteen minutes longer. Make the gravy by
blending a tablespoonful of flour with two
tablespoon fuls of cold water; pour in a cupful
of boiling water and add to the dripping-pan.
Salt to taste, boil up, skim off the fat and serve
in a gravy-boat.

For succeeding meals serve the ham sliced
cold with hot gravy.

BREADED TURNIPS.
Peel and boil until tender one large white

ISO Catering for ^wo.

turnip. When cold, slice in four slices, bread
with saltine cracker dust, and brown in a half-
teaspoonful of butter in a frying-pan.

BAKED SWEET POTATOES.

Brush clean two or three sweet potatoes of
one size, and bake in a moderate oven, from an
hour to an hour and a half, according to the
size of the potatoes and the heat of the oven.
When done the}- should feel soft and yielding
when pressed with the fingers. Try them occa-
sionally while cooking with a fork.

Any that are left over may be peeled, sliced,
and broiled ; butter and salt them as soon as
they leave the gridiron.

They may also be browned in the oven by
brushing with butter and sprinkling with sugar.

GREEN TOMATO CHILI SAUCE.

One quart of sliced green tomatoes, one pint
of sliced white onions, two chopped green pep-
pers, one heaping tablespoonful of salt ; mix
all together and set away in an earthen dish over-
night.

Next morning drain thoroughly, chop into
peas, pour over one pint of cider vinegar, add
one teaspoonful of mixed ground spice (cinna-
mon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg), one table-
spoonful of brown sugar, and cook slowly for
twenty minutes.

Catering for ^wo. 151

Add a red-pepper pod to the sauce, and let it
remain until peppery enough. Add more salt
if needed. Keep in a cool place in a stone jar,
tightly covered. A few mustard seeds may be
added, also chopped celery and grated horse-
radish if liked.

PRINCESS CREAM.

Soak for half an hour one rounded table-
spoonful of gelatine and a pinch of salt in four
tablespoonfuls of rich milk. Beat the yolk of
one egg with two tablespoonfuls of granulated
sugar and a tiny pinch of salt until creamy,
and add one cupful of boiling milk.

Set this in another saucepan containing boil-
ing water, and boil and stir four minutes.

Now add the gelatine, cook (stirring) for one
minute, take from the fire, and whip in the
white of the egg, which has been beaten to a
stiff froth.

Flavor with three fourths of a teaspoonful of
vanilla, or, ^'f preferred, a little sherry.

Pour into a glass dish, and serve ice cold with
cake or wafers.

Princess cream should be made the day be-
fore it is to be used, in summer, and kept on
ice until wanted.

In cold weather it may be made in the morn-
ing if it is to be used at a late dinner.

Spread the Sea-foam cream over the top,

152 Catering Tor ^wo.

delicately flavored with caramel, wine, or
coffee.
Serve with caramel cream sauce.

PINEAPPLE WITH FLOATING ISLAND.

Peel and remove the eyes from a fine ripe
pineapple. Tear shreds from it with a fork
and throw away the core. Sugar to taste, and
serve ice cold, with floating island in separate
dishes or on the same plates, as preferred.

In the opinion of many cooks, pineapples are
more delicious and also more healthful if
allowed to lie covered in wine, several hours be-
fore serving.

Bananas may be sliced and served with the
floating island instead of pineapple ; sugar to
taste, pour orange juice over them, and serve
ice cold.

The floating island must also be as cold as
possible.

DUCK, ROASTED (THREE POUNDS).
ONION STUFFING.

Rinse the duck quickly in cold water, wipe,
and stuff with a quart of bread-crumbs moistened
with one cup of water, and the following season-
ing : one half a teaspoonful of pepper, two tea-
spoonfuls of thyme, a half- teaspoonful of salt,
one heaping teaspoonful of butter, one table-
spoonful of chopped fat salt pork, and one

Catering for ^wo. 153

small onion finely minced. Sew up with coarse
thread, pepper, salt, and dredge with flour, and
roast two hours (covered) in a moderate oven.

The duck should be placed on a meat-rack,
and a cup of boiling water must be poured in
the pan when it goes in the oven.

Stew the giblets in a cupful of boiling water,
chop, add salt, a teaspoonful of flour, stir in the
water they were cooked in, and add to the
gravy in the roasting-pan .

POTATO BAIvLS (BAKED).

Take mashed potatoes seasoned for the table,
form into egg-shaped rolls, and brown in a hot
oven on a buttered tin.

These make an attractive border for a platter
of meat.

BAKED CORN-STARCH LEMON ME-
RINGUE PUDDING.

Heat one cupful of milk, and when at the boil-
ing point stir in an even tablespoonful of corn-
starch blended with a teaspoonful of best
butter; cook one minute, stirring constantly,
and add the yolk of one egg beaten with two
tablespoon fuls of granulated sugar, the grated
rind of a quarter and the juice of half a lemoo,
and a pinch of salt.

Pour this mixture into an earthen baking-
dish and bake twenty minutes.

L

154 Catering tor ITwo.

Take from the oven, add the white of the egg
whisked to a stiflF froth, to which has been
added, after frothing, three tablespoonfuls of
sugar and a tiny pinch of salt. Brown deli-
cately in the oven and serve cold.

CHOCOLATE JELLY WITH CUSTARD.

Soak, then melt, four heaping teaspoonfuls
of gelatine in two tablespoonfuls of cold water.

Add one cupful of boiling water, two pinches
of salt, and two rounded tablespoonfuls of gran-
ulated sugar.

Melt in a double boiler one square of choco-
late, then add two tablespoonfuls of boiling
water, stir and cook until thick (time, about a
quarter of a minute).

Now add very gradually, stirring constantly,
half a cupful of boiling water, and when per-
fectly smooth, take from the fire ; when cool,
stir in the cooled gelatine, set in a pan of ice-
water, and stir from the bottom and sides until
thick enough to prevent the chocolate from
settling.

Pour into a mould, set on ice, and when
solid, serve with a custard made in the follow-
ing way :

Beat the yolks of two eggs with two table-
spoonfuls of granulated sugar and a pinch of
salt ; add one cupful of boiling milk and cook
in the double boiler five minutes (longer cook-

Catering tor ^wo. 155

ing may curdle the mixture). Add half a tea-
spoonful of vanilla, or a spoonful of brandy or
cordial, or any flavoring preferred. (lycmon,
rose, or almond does not blend well with choco-
late.)

Use the whites of the eggs in the following
for another meal.

BAKED APPLES WITH MERINGUE.

Peel six Greening or Baldwin apples, core,
fill with sugar, cover, and bake in a hot oven.
When nearly done, remove the cover, brown
and pile upon each apple a spoonful of frothed
white of eggs beaten with one cup of sugar.
Return to the oven and brown lightly.

Serve very cold.

XXVI.

Consommd with green peas.

Ham, baked, with or without tomatoes.

Hashed or stewed potatoes. Cream gravy.

Fried cabbage. Fried apples.

Hot biscuits with butter.

Olives.

String-bean salad.

Cream cheese. Biscuits.

Rice pudding, baked,

or

Baked apples, cream and sugar,

or

Sultana pudding.

Chocolate, tea, or coffee. Fruit.

CONSOMM^ WITH GREEN PEAS.

Heat one and one half cupfuls of stock sea-
soned with onions, carrots, and the savory soup
herbs. Add a tablespoon ful of cooked peas,
and two lengths of spaghetti broken into inch
pieces.

Any other diced or small vegetable may be
substituted for the peas.

156

Catering for Zvoo. 157

BAKED SMOKED HAM.

One slice of ham one inch thick.

When found too salt ham may be made very
palatable by soaking for an hour in a cupful of
sweet milk. Cut oflF the rind and put the ham
in an earthen pudding-dish which is just large
enough to hold it without folding. Sprinkle
over it an even teaspoonful of granulated sugar,
a dust of pepper, and a teaspoonful of flour.
Cover closely and bake in a slow oven two
hours ; then add the cupful of milk in which it
was soaked, unless the milk has curdled, in
which case substitute fresh, boil up once, and
serve in the dish it was baked in or on a deep
platter.

Ham baked with tomatoes, either fresh or
canned, is a most appetizing dish, the acid of
the tomato and the salt of the ham blending
most agreeably.

After freshening, sugaring, and dredging with
flour, place on top of the slice of ham a large
tomato, skinned and sliced.

Dredge this also with flour and pepper, and
bake. A spoonful of butter may be added if
the ham is not very fat ; the fatter the ham the
sweeter and more tender it will be. Do not use
the milk in which the ham was freshened, with
tomatoes.

158 Catcrinc} for Zvoo,

HASHED OR STEWED POTATOES.
CREAM GRAVY.

Slice very thin a heaping cupful of cold baked
potatoes ; dredge with a teaspoonful of flour, a
third of a teaspoonful of salt, and a dust of
pepper.

Put a heaping teaspoonful of butter in a sauce-
pan with a half-cupful of milk, and when hot,
add the potatoes, stir once, and cook covered,
about eight minutes, without further stirring ;
the slices should lie lightly in the gravy and be
unbroken.

Water will not take the place of milk, which
must be fresh and rich. If milk is not at hand,
fry the potatoes in a little butter.

FRIED CABBAGE.

Cut into shavings enough cabbage to fill a
quart measure ; sprinkle with an even half-tea-
spoonful of salt, pour on two cups of boiling
water, and cook rapidly until the cabbage be-
comes dry. Then add a tablespoonful of butter,
two of milk, dust with pepper, and fry brown.
Serve hot.

FRIED APPLES.

Slice two large Greening apples with a
teaspoonful of melted butter. Pour over a des-
sertspoonful of water, and two heaping table-

Catering for ^wo, 159

spoonfuls of sugar. Put dots of butter all over
the top (a piece as large as a pea every two
inches apart), cover closely, and fry gently with-
out stirring until the bottom of the apples is
a rich brown.

If cooked too fast they will burn and be bit-
ter ; twenty minutes or half an hour slow cook-
ing will be about right. Cook in an earthen
dish or agate pie plate.

BAKING-POWDER BISCUITS.

One cupful of flour sifted with one teaspoon-
ful of baking-powder and one fourth of a tea-
spoonful of salt. Cut into this one heaping
tablespoonful of butter and add a half-cupful of
milk. Dredge with flour, cut into small pieces,
pat each one into a ball, flatten lightly and lay
them in a greased pan as close together as possi-
ble, and bake at once in a hot oven ; fifteen
minutes will be about the right time. This is
the rule for pot-pies and stew-pies, although
less shortening is required for these.

Pot-pies are made of meat, stew-pies of fruit.
The dough is steamed on top of the meat (or
fruit) instead of being baked as for biscuits.
Time, about ten minutes. This dough is also
called crust or dumplings. For pot-pie it is put
in after the meat is done.

For stew-pies, put the fruit in a kettle with
sugar and a dust of flour with a few spoonfuls

i6o Catering tor ^wo^

of water, lay the crust, made into little walnut-
shaped balls, on top ; cover the pot closely, and
as soon as boiling begins, count the time.

Remember it is the steam which cooks dump-
lings ; if the dough is submerged in the juices
or gravy it will be soggy.

In serving, use plenty of gravy, and make an
extra sauce for the stew-pies.

One half of the rule is enough for two persons.
Suet makes a delicious shortening, using a little
more salt, and ice-water instead of milk.

STRING-BEAN SALAD.

Wash a dozen fresh, crisp string-beans, and
steam in a steamer until tender.

Pull off the strings, salt, and serve them
whole, on a lettuce leaf.

Garnish with a raw tomato sliced.

Use any dressing preferred.

RICE PUDDING (BAKED).

Stir into a pint of rich, fresh milk two heap-
ing tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, a salt-
spoonful of salt, and one tablespoonful of rice.
Flavor with lemon rind, grated from a quarter
of a lemon, and nutmeg.

Bake in an earthen dish in a very slow oven
three hours. Keep the dish covered until the
last twenty minutes.

I

Catering tor ^wo. i6i

Serve very cold.

Add more salt, if needed, before baking.

BAKED APPLES WITH CREAM.

Wipe carefully four Greening apples of equal
size. Baldwins or Spitzenbergs will answer, but
Greenings are best.

Remove the cores from the blossom end,
making a little well in each ; use an apple-corer
or a broad knife rounded at the end of the blade.

Place the apples in a deep earthen pie dish,
and put a heaping tablespoonful of granulated
sugar in each apple with an extra spoonful over
all.

Pour on the bottom of the dish a half-cup of
boiling water, set in a moderate oven, and bake
from an hour to an hour and a half, according
to the size of the apples and the heat of the
oven.

When done, place them carefully in the dish
they are to be served in, and when cold pour
over them the jelly that exuded while baking.
Do not make the mistake of not eating the
skins. If the apples have been cooked slowly
enough, the skins will be deliciously tender
and rich.

Serve with cream and powdered sugar.

SULTANA PUDDING
One cupful of flour, one teaspoon baking-

i62 Catering for XLvoo.

powder, one third of a teaspoon salt, one cupful
Sultana raisins, one half-cupful rich milk, one
tablespoonful sugar, yolk of one egg.

Sift flour, salt, and baking-powder together
several times, and stir in the raisins, which have
been picked over, rinsed, and dried in the oven.

Stir egg and milk together, add sugar, and
then the flour, etc.

Steam for an hour in a buttered mould ; cover
the steamer, but leave the mould open. Serve
with a sauce made of one cupful of confection-
er's sugar, a scant half-cupful of butter, and
brandy to taste. Add the frothed white of the
egg, and beat about ten minutes.

CHOCOLATE.

Put one cupful of rich milk into a saucepan,
add one third of a square of chocolate, and cook,
stirring constantly (using a wooden or silver
spoon), until the chocolate is all dissolved.

Use a double kettle, or a saucepan set in an-
other of boiling water. Chocolate should never
be grated, but put into cold milk in large pieces ;
grating results in loss of oil and flavor. One
and one half squares will make a quart.

Do not use any water.

A spoonful of whipped cream added to each
cup when serving is an elegant addition.

Sweeten to taste.

XXVII.

Corn soup.

Pot-roast (under-round or cross-rib).

Fried potatoes. Stewed tomatoes.

Bread and butter.

Olives. Grape or crab-apple jelly.

Lettuce or cauliflower. HoUandaise sauce.

Cream cheese. Brown-bread fingers.

Huckleberry or squash pie, or banana pudding

meringue.

Tea or coffee. Fruit.

Alternative : Broiled chicken or porter-house

steak (broiled).

Charlotte russe or queen's pudding.

CORN SOUP.

Chop, or grate, a cupful of corn, add a slice
of onion, a dessert-spoonful of butter, and an
even teaspoonful of flour. Boil these in a pint
of milk ten minutes, and then pour it upon an
egg lightly beaten, stirring briskly. Add salt
and pepper to taste, and strain back into the
163

i64 Catering for XLxoo.

saucepan ; boil up once, take from the fire im-
mediately, or the egg will curdle, and serve
with small oyster-crackers.

POT-ROAST.
(Under-round or cross-rib, two pounds.)

Trim the meat free of all dried skin and dried
fat, and brown all sides in a hot spider ; then
put it in an agate-ware pot, pour on one cupful
of boiling water, cover closely, and boil for a
minute ; turn the meat, and boil the other side.
This is necessary, in order to seal up the rich
juices of the meat, which would otherwise drip
out into the gravy, leaving the meat dry and
tasteless. Remove the meat to a platter, put in
the pot a meat-rack tall enough to have its upper
side at least two inches above the surface of the
water, to prevent the meat from coming in con-
tact with the water when it boils.

Dredge the meat all over with flour, dust on
black pepper, place it on the rack, cover the
pot closely, and cook gently, but steadily, three
hours, adding more water occasionally from the
boiling-kettle if it cooks away.

Always try to keep the original amount of
water (one cupful).

Three or four pepper-corns may be added.

At the end of two and a half hours, add a
half-teaspoonful of salt, sprinkling it over the
meat, and a tablespoonful of parsley.

I

Catering tor ^wo. 165

Remove the rack, and stir into the gravy a
dessert-spoonful of flour blended with a few
spoonfuls of cold water, and salt to taste. Re-
cover the pot, and resume the cooking, only
simmering gently for this last half-hour. Serve
the meat on a warm platter, garnished with
parsley or celery, and put the gravy in a sauce-
boat. If fat is desired, fry delicately a piece of
suet, and place beside the meat.

For a second meal, cook two lamb's kidneys
(chopped) in a cupful of water, with one sliced
onion, a tablespoonful of fried, diced, salt pork,
a pinch of cayenne, salt to taste, and flour to
thicken. Add the pot-roast, and boil up.

Pass cold spiced tomato sauce.

FRIED POTATOES.

Heat very hot a tablespoonful of drippings
from salt pork, or the same amount of butter,
being careful not to let them burn. Slice two
medium-sized potatoes (baked or boiled) in
quarter inch slices, and fry a rich brown, un-
covered. If the pan is covered the potatoes
will be flabby instead of crisp.

After dishing, sprinkle with salt and pepper
and serve immediately. If preferred the pota-
toes may be broiled.

Spread each side of the slices with butter, and
broil over a clear hot fire ; season with salt and
pepper and an extra lump of butter before serving.

i66 Catering for Cwo.

CAUUFLOWER, HOLLANDAISE OR
CREAM SAUCE.

Cut a fourth of a medium-sized cauliflower in
four parts, salt, and steam, until tender, in a
steamer, or wrap in a napkin and boil in a quart
of boiling water (salted) twenty minutes.

Serve with Hollandaise sauce, or make a
cream sauce of a tablespoonful of butter blended
with a teaspoonful of flour and cooked with a
half-cup of boiling milk.

Add a pinch of salt and a dust of pepper.

Pour the cream over the cauliflower and lay
a slice of lemon on each piece.

Fine white cabbage may be boiled and served
the same way.

Serve as a separate course with brown bread
cut in finger-lengths.

SQUASH PIE.

Cut in half, scrape out the seeds, and peel one
part of a Hubbard squash.

Steam until tender in a steamer, or boil in
salted water.

Mash fine ; a heaping cupful will make the
pie. Put the rest away for other pies, or to use
as a vegetable ; it will keep several days in a
cold place in cool weather.

Line a pie dish with pie-crust and bake as di-
rected for other pies, while beating the yolk of
an egg with four tablespoonfuls of granulated

Catering tor Cwo. 167

sugar, a half-teaspoon ful of ground ginger, a
half-teaspoon ful of salt, and two thirds of a cup
of hot milk poured on slowly, stirring all the
time. Add a heaping teaspoonful of butter and
a heaping cup of the hot mashed squash, a half-
teaspoonful of flour, and a little grated nutmeg.
Beat all together, and add the white of the egg
beaten to a stiff froth. Beat thoroughly, pour
into the pie pan, sprinkle with a teaspoonful
of sugar, and bake in a quick oven ten or fifteen
minutes.

HUCKLEBERRY PIE.

Use two large, deep saucers, as these will hold
plenty of juice. Put in each one a cupful of
huckleberries which have been looked over and
washed.

Sprinkle with a tablespoonful of sugar, and
the same of water, and cover with a flaky crust
a little smaller than the top of the saucer ; bake
twenty minutes in a hot oven.

Heat, mash, and strain through a coarse cloth
wrung out of cold water, either a cupful of ripe
currants or blackberries, and mix with this juice
nearly a cupful of sugar, into which has been
stirred a teaspoonful of flour. Cook a minute,
and when the pies come from the oven, raise
the crust and pour this juice over the huckle-
berries.

Replace the crust and serve either hot or cold.

i68 Catering toe ^wo.

BANANA PUDDING MBRINGUK.

Beat the yolk of one egg with two tablespoon-
fuls of sugar and a quarter of a teaspoonful of
salt ; add the juice of half a tart orange and a
cupful of milk, and pour this over a cupful of
bread-crumbs (two or three days old) and one
banana sliced and laid in alternate layers in a
deep earthen pudding-dish. Bake twenty min-
utes in a hot oven.

Whisk the white of the egg to a stiff froth,
add two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and after
beating well, add the juice from the remainder
of the orange and a pinch of grated rind ;
spread this upon the pudding and brown in the
oven a few minutes.

BROILED CHICKEN.

Order a plump young chicken split for broil-
ing. Wipe with a towel, and brush all over
inside and out with melted butter or olive oil.
Lay it on a broiler over a slow fire and broil
twenty minutes, turning often to prevent burn-
ing.

Cook the inside first, to seal up the juices.

Lay, now, on a small rack (skin side down) in
a spider which contains a large spoonful of but-
ter and a half-cup of hot water ; cover closely
and simmer twenty minutes to a half-hour, or
bake in the oven for the same length of time.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper, add a little pars-

Catering tor ^wo. 169

ley, and pour over any juice or butter left in
the spider.

If the chicken is not tender, simmer longer,
with the addition of a little water, if it boils
away. Any left over may be re-heated on the
broiler.

PORTER-HOUSE STEAK (BROILED).

A medium-sized porter-house steak one and
a quarter inches in thickness will make three
meals for two moderate eaters, two broils and
a hash.

Lay the steak on the meat-board, and with a
sharp knife trim off the outer edge of the fat,
which is always bitter from long contact with
the air. Do not take oflF more than is necessary,
as steak without a supply of fat is not delicious.
Broil a piece of suet extra if it lacks a suflBi-
cient quantity.

Cut off the long coarse end, and remove the
bone. Divide the remainder into two even
portions, and put away one for another meal.

Broil the piece that is left, using a wire broiler
in which the wires are about a third of an inch
apart.

If a heavy iron broiler is used, it must be
thoroughly heated before the meat goes on it.
Have the fire a glowing, but not a fierce bed of
coals. A fierce fire burns and hardens the
meat before it is cooked through.

I70 Catering for Zwo,

Do not use the broiler door with which most
ranges are supplied, but remove the lid from
the hottest place of the range and set the steak
here to broil.

To keep the vSmoke from entering the house,
open all the draughts, and put a tin cover over
the broiler ; every time the steak is turned
with one hand, the cover is lifted with the
other.

Broiled meats should be seared immediately
to keep in the juices.

Count at first one hundred for each side ;
if the fire is very hot, fifty counts will be
enough to begin on ; then turn every ten
counts, until four hundred have been counted.
A steak an inch thick will most likely be done
by this time, but to be certain open the broiler,
and cut into the meat with a sharp knife ; if
not done enough, broil a few turns longer.

To be properly cooked it should be brown
without, pink inside, and the gravy which runs
from the cut should be red.

Have the platter warmed but not hot, sprinkle
the steak with salt, and add butter the size of
a walnut.

The steak is the last thing to be cooked for
the meal, and everything else should be ready
before beginning to broil it.

Serve immediately.

Here are several ways of treating the coarse
end for little breakfast dishes.

Catering tor XLvoo, 171

Reduced to a pulp by passing it through a
meat-grinder (or chopped in the chopping-
bowl) it may then be made into a round flat
cake and broiled the same as the steak, oi*
fried and served with fried onions.

If broiled, serve with two slices of salt pork
fried a delicate brown, and potatoes sliced and
browned in the grease from the pork.

Put the meat in the centre of a platter and
arrange the potatoes around it with slices of
lemon as a garnish.

Another way is to fry it (the coarse end) in a
small closely covered vessel until it is so tender
that it can be cut without tearing. This will
take from an hour to an hour and a half. Turn
frequently and fry slowly. The edge of fat
surrounding it will furnish enough grease for
frying.

When cold, trim off the fat and throw it
away ; chop the meat fine, dredge with flour,
add salt and pepper, and warm up with a few
spoonfuls of milk or water, and a teaspoonful
of butter.

Place upon toasted bread dipped in boiling,
salted water, and then buttered. Pour over
all hot spiced tomato sauce or sauce espagnole,
and serve with fried potatoes. Ends of lamb
chops may be cooked in the same way. An-
other way is to put the bone into water and
boil until the scraps of meat and gristle drop
away, then remove the bone, add a table-

172 Catering for a;wo.

spoonful of browned salt pork without the
grease, an inch of carrot, a slice of onion, and
the coarse end of the steak.

Cook gently about two hours, keeping the
meat barely covered with water. Then remove
the vegetables, add salt to taste, and when
cold take off the fat. Chop with one third as
much cold potato, dredge with flour, and warm
up with gravy in which the meat was cooked.
This is a delicious hash.

SPICED TOMATO SAUCE TO BE SERVED
WITH COLD MEATS, STEWS OR HASH.

I onion chopped fine, i quart of ripe toma-
toes, I small red-pepper pod or half of an even
teaspoonful of cayenne, i teaspoonful of salt,
2 teaspoonfuls of sugar, i teaspoonful of mixed
ground spices (mace, cloves, allspice, and cin-
namon), I cupful of genuine cider vinegar.

Boil tomatoes and vinegar together two hours.

The tomatoes should be skinned and sliced
if fresh ones are used.

Add onion and other ingredients and cook
another hour.

If a smooth sauce is liked strain through a
sieve. Keep in a cool place, covered.

Catering for ^wo. 173

CHARLOTTE RUSSB.

Place slices of stale cake in a covered dish,
and set in a steamer until they become soft.

When cold, arrange on a dish for the table,
and pour over them Sea-foam cream flavored
with wine.

If preferred, whipped cream sweetened and
flavored may be used instead. Sea-foam must
stand on the ice awhile, but the whipped cream
may be used immediately.

Substitute for whipped cream must also
stand on ice to thicken.

QUEEN'S PUDDING.

Scald one cupful of milk, and soak in it
one fourth of a cupful of bread-crumbs while
beating the yolk of an eggy with two even
tablespoon fuls of granulated sugar, a pinch of
salt, and the grated rind of a quarter of a
lemon.

Stir all together and bake in an earthen pud-
ding-dish about fifteen minutes. Then spread
on top a layer of jam, jelly, marmalade, or any
rich preserves (using half a cupful), and on top
of this the frothed white of the egg, sweetened,
after frothing, with two tablespoonfuls of
granulated sugar, and the juice of a quarter
of a lemon. Return to the oven and brown
(time, about seven minutes).

174 Catering tor Qiwo.

Serve cold, but not ice cold.

This becomes a new pudding with each
change of preserves. The bread-crumbs are
from the bread which is dried in the oven and
then rolled to a powder on the moulding-board.
Measure after rolling, and be exact in measur-
ing.

XXVIII.

Raw oysters.

Roast turkey.

Mashed potatoes. Boiled onious.

Cranberry sauce.

Bread and butter. Celery.

Salted almonds or olives.

lyettuce if desired.

Cream cheese and wafers.

Orange jelly (ice cold).

Plum pudding.

Pineapple jardinidre.

Coffee. Cream candies.

This menu is for Christmas Day.
That for Thanksgiving is the same, substitut-
ing mince pie for plum pudding.

ROAST TURKEY.

Select a fat turkey weighing nine or ten
pounds. After it has been drawn, trimmed,
and singed, rinse quickly in cold water and fill
both cavities with stufl&ng, breaking the neck
and turning it into the upper one.

175

176 Catering for ^wo.

Sew with a large darning-needle threaded with
coarse darning-cotton, tie the legs together close
to the body, and treat the wings the same way.
Rub the outside of the turkey with salt, sprinkle
over pepper and a tablespoonful of thyme,
dredge plentifully with flour, lay on a meat-
rack in a large dripping-pan, pour in two cups of
water, and roast in a moderate oven from three
to six hours, according to age. Lay a pan over
the top to keep in the steam and juices ; this
must be removed the last hour if the turkey is
not brown enough.

When half the time is up, turn the turkey
over.

If thin slices of fat salt pork are laid on top
there will be no need for basting.

The stuffing for a nine-pound turkey will re-
quire three quarts of bread-crumbs a few days
old, and about a pint of boiling water (a little
more if the bread is very dry), two heaping
tablespoon fuls of thyme, a heaping teaspoonful
of salt, a heaping teaspoonful of black pepper,
a heaping tablespoonful of butter, and the same
amount of the turkey-fat, chopped.

Mix all together thoroughly with the hand,
see that all the lumps are dissolved and that
butter, thyme, salt, and pepper are evenly dis-
tributed. The mixture should be quite soft, but
not soft enough to run.

Put the gizzard in the dripping-pan when the
turkey goes in ; it can hardly be cooked too

Caterina for Zvoo. 177

much if kept under water ; turn it frequently
and keep an inch of water in the pan, pour-
ing in from the boiling teakettle as it cooks
away.

Boil the heart and liver in a half-pint of
water thirty minutes, and, when cold, chop in
the chopping-bowl with the gizzard (very
fine).

Blend two tablespoon fuls of flour with enough
cold water to make it like cream, pour this in
the dripping-pan after the turkey is removed,
add the chopped giblets with the water they
were cooked in and an extra cupful of boiling
water, cook a few minutes, skim off most of
the fat, and serve.

Put the turkey on a large platter garnished
with celery.

Keep the turkey-fat, covered, in a cold place,
and use it for frying potatoes.

CRANBERRY SAUCE (STRAINED).

Pick over and wash a pint of cranberries.
Put them on a slow fire in an earthen vessel
with a cup of cold water. Cover and cook
gently two hours.

Then mash and strain through a coarse cloth.
Add a cup of sugar, return to the fire, cook a
few minutes, pour into a dish, and serve cold.

A quart of cranberries will be needed for a
dozen people.

178 Catering tor Xiwo.

CRANBERRY SAUCE (WHOLE).

Pick over and wash two cupfuls of fine cran-
berries. Put them in an earthen dish, pour over
a cup of sugar, add a cupful of boiling water,
cover, and cook gently nearly two hours. Serve
hot or cold.

ORANGE JELLY.

Soak four rounded teaspoonfuls of gelatine in
two tablespoon fuls of water ten minutes.

Add three tablespoonfuls of sugar, a scant
cupful of boiling water, and half a cupful of
tart orange juice. Altogether this should meas-
ure one and a half cupfuls.

If only sweet oranges are obtainable, add a
spoonful of lemon juice to give the required
acidity. Add a few grains of salt and a pinch
of grated orange rind. In hot weather use five
teaspoonfuls of gelatine.

When this dish is used as a dessert, serve
with it whipped cream, or Sea-foam cream.

GENUINE ENGLISH PLUM PUDDING.

One half-pound each of bread-crumbs,^ kidney
suet, brown sugar, Zante currants, table raisins^
assorted candied fruits (lemon and orange peel
and citron weighing half a pound altogether),
sultana raisins (one pound), five eggs, one table-
spoonful of flour, four tablespoonfuls molasses^
* Weigh the bread-crumbs before drying.

Catering for XLxoo, 179

one teaspoonful of salt (rounded), one half-tea-
spoonful each of cinnamon and cloves, and a
quarter of a nutmeg, one teaspoonful of ginger,
one half-cupful of wine or brandy, or cider, if
preferred. Wine or brandy makes a finer
pudding, however.

Sift flour and spices together and chop in the
suet. Add the candied fruit and chop as fine as
peas.

Pick over carefully one by one the currants,
wash in cold water, changing this until no sand
is seen on the bottom of the dish, skimming
the fruit out.

Then pour over them enough boiling water
to barely cover and let them stand to swell.

Soak the table raisins in boiling water for a
few minutes and take out the seeds. Pick over
the sultanas and set them in the oven to get soft.

Now put all the fruit together and add the
bread-crumbs, which must be stale, dried in the
oven, and rolled to powder.

Beat up the eggs, add the sugar, molasses, and
wine, and stir this well with the fruit, chopped
suet, etc.

Butter three tin pails having covers, each
holding a quart, and divide the pudding between
them ; it must have room to expand.

Steam steadily eight hours with water half-
way up the sides.

Set the pails on wire tea-stands or a meat-rack.

Serve with brandy and hard sauces.

i8o Catering for (Two.

WINK SAUCE FOR PIvUM PUDDING.

Cream half a cupful of best butter and one
and a half cupfuls of light brown sugar until
foamy, add two heaping tablespoonfuls of flour,
beat and stir in slowly one and a half cups of
boiling water and an even teaspoonful of salt.

Boil, stirring constantly, ten minutes, then
add half a cupful of wine or brandy and serve
hot in a sauce-boat. Color with a teaspoonful
of caramel.

HARD SAUCK.

Cream half a cupful of butter, add one cupful
of confectioner's sugar, beat fifteen minutes,
and pile into a serving bowl.

Grate nutmeg over the top.

This quantity of sauce will be sufficient for
twelve people.

Plum pudding improves with age. It must
be kept closely covered in the pails in which it
was cooked.

When wanted, cut off slices and heat (covered)
in the oven, or in a steamer. Half a slice,
half an inch thick, is enough for one portion.

Get the fruit and bread-crumbs ready for
mixing the day before and cook the pudding at
least a week before it is to be served. One of
the puddings may be cut in half and frosted
with a deep soft frosting and passed as fruit

Catering tor ^wo. isi

cake. It must be eaten with a fork, however,
as it is too soft and sticky to be held in the
fingers.

MINCE-MBAT FOR ONE I.ARGE PIE.

One gill of mixed candied citron, lemon, and
orange peels, one gill of chopped suet, three
gills of mixed raisins and currants, three gills
chopped apples, raw, one cupful of chopped
cooked beef, two tablespoonfuls molasses, three
tablespoonfuls brown sugar, one heaping tea-
spoonful of mixed spices (nutmeg, allspice,
cloves, cinnamon, and black pepper), one quarter
of a teaspoonful salt, one cupful of cider or
wine and cider mixed.

Cover the raisins with cold water and seed
them. Pick over the currants and wash them,
and cover both raisins and currants with cold
water and cook slowly until the water has
boiled off. Then add the candied fruit and
suet (chopped fine), sugar, molasses, spices, and
cider, and boil an hour, stirring frequently.

Mix apples and meat together, add salt and
the other ingredients, and cook up thoroughly
(about ten minutes). Put away in a jar until
wanted.

The meat should be boiled or stewed until
very tender, and well salted before it gets cold.
Cover with boiling water and cook until the
water is all gone, being careful not to scorch.

i82 Catering for (Two.

Under-round pot-roast will make good mince-
meat, also stewing beef. Chop when cold.

A little brandy may be poured over the pie
just before serving.

Raise the crust and allow a spoonful for each
portion.

PINEAPPLE JARDINi:^RE.

Cut the top from a ripe pineapple and re-
serve it for the cover.

Cut out the inside, rejecting the core, and
scoop out the juice and the part lying next to
the rind, with a spoon, being careful not to
break nor puncture it. Put the rind and the
cover in a cool place. Put the pineapple into a
bowl, add half a cupful of sherry (a few spoon-
fuls of brandy, rum, or champagne may be
substituted for the sherry), and let it stand on
ice until wanted at table, then mix with orange
pulp, seeded and halved Tokay grapes, banana,
or peaches and plums, stoned cherries, or ber-
ries according to season, sugar to taste, fill the
rind, put on the cover, and set the pineapple on
a dish of cracked ice. Serve in flaring cham-
pagne glasses.

One pineapple, two oranges, one banana, and
half a pound of grapes will fill the rind twice
and serve twelve people.

I

MENUS FOR COMPANY
IvUNCHEONS.

Oyster cocktails.

Breaded French chops. White sauce.

Mashed potatoes. Celery.

Tomato mayonnaise.
Cheese. Crackers.

Vanilla ice-cream.
Coffee. Fruit.

II.

Grape fruit.
Beauregarde eggs.

Fried chicken.

Escalloped potatoes.

Stuffed tomatoes.

Lettuce salad.

Cream cheese. Crackers.

Coffee Bavarian cream.

Fruit. Coffee.

183

i84 Catering for ^wo.

III.

Bouillon in cups.

French chops. Green peas.

Fried potatoes.

Croustade of oysters.

Lettuce salad.

Crackers. Cheese.

Vanilla ice-cream. Caramel sauce.

Fruit. Coffee.

IV.

Oysters on half-shell.

Fried smelts. Sauce tartare.

Blanquette of chicken.

Mashed potatoes.

Tomato and celery salad.

Cheese. Crackers.

Pineapple jardiniere.

Coffee.

SUPPI.EMKNTARY DISHES IN

COMPANY LUNCHEONS.

OYSTER COCKTAILS.

Oyster cocktails are served in small cocktail
glasses, with a dressing of catsup, etc.

Catering tor XLxoo. . 185

Order very small oysters, drain, and see that
they are very cold and free from bits of shell.

Put half a dozen in each glass, and pour over
them several spoonfuls of the dressing made as
follows :

One tablespoonful of lemon juice, one table-
spoonful of tomato catsup, half a teaspoonful
of Worcestershire sauce, five drops of Tobasco
sauce, and a little salt.

This quantity will be sufficient for three peo-
ple, but the rule may be doubled or trebled
according to need.

BREADED CHOPS.

The chops should be breaded and delicately
fried, and arranged on a hot platter.

At the moment of serving, pour over a rich
white sauce.

VANILIvA ICE-CREAM.

Put one pint of milk in the double boiler with
a piece of vanilla bean about an inch in length.

Cream together two eggs, half a cup of sugar,
and two rounded tablespoonfuls of flour until
very light, and stir gradually into the milk
when it reaches the boiling point.

Allow this to cook ten minutes, stirring fre-
quently. Add a small pinch of salt, and turn
into a stone dish, beating at intervals while it
cools to prevent it from forming into lumps.

i86 Catering for ^wo.

When cold add one and a half pints of cream
(or rich country milk) and half a cup of sugar.

This mixture may be prepared early in the
day and kept in the ice-box.

If a larger quantity is desired, a quart of
cream may be used, the foundation being the
same.

Care must be taken in measuring the flour,
as too much is sure to taste ; the spoon must be
rounding full instead of heaping — about one
ounce in all.

Be sure and use the vanilla bean for flavoring,
as it is quite impossible to make a good ice-
cream with vanilla extract.

All large grocery houses keep vanilla in this
form, and it would doubtless be easy to have one
or more sent by post to any place where they
were not obtainable.

Before freezing, remove the bit of pod, care-
fully scraping all the little seeds into the
custard.

Prepare the ice by pounding it fine in a coarse,
strong bag, and use rock salt in the proportion
of three pints for a gallon freezer.

Put the can in the centre of the tub with the
beater in place, fasten the lid securely, and
pack ice and salt in alternate layers until the tub
is full.

Turn the crank a few minutes, and as the ice
works down, add more, until it is firmly and
solidly packed.

Catcrfng for XLvoo. 187

If plenty of ice is used, twenty minutes will
serve to freeze the cream.

The crank need not be turned constantly, and
the motion at first should be rather slow.
When the custard begins to harden, turn rap-
idly, as this is the stage when rapid beating
makes the cream smooth and light.

When it is firm enough, take out the paddle,
beat well with a wooden spoon to fill up the
space made by the beater, and scrape well from
the sides.

Cover the tub with a blanket and set away in
a cool place, and let two hours elapse before
serving.

When ready to do so, dip the can in warm (not
hot) water, wipe dry, and invert on a cold dish.

It should come out in firm and perfect shape.

It is possible to have several varieties of cream
in the same mould with only one freezing, and
various combinations may be made to suit the
individual taste.

After the cream is frozen a portion may be
taken out into a cold bowl and a cupful of well-
sweetened strawberry or raspberry juice stirred
into it. Pour this back into the can and it will
soon harden to the proper consistency.

A quarter of a cupful of very strong coflFee
may be used in the same way.

A banana or two may be sliced thin and added
as another variation, or a little shredded pine-
apple.

i88 Catering for ^wo.

Ripe peaches, if cut up and sweetened, may
also be used, but they should not be added until
about half an hour before serving-time, as they
should only be chilled and not frozen.

Candied fruits, particularly apricots and
cherries, are also a pleasant addition, if cut into
very minute pieces and well mixed through the
cream.

GRAPE FRUIT.

Grape fruit should be well chilled, cut in half,
the core removed, and the pulp loosened slightly
around the outside edge ; use a sharp knife and
be careful not to let any of the white part ad-
here, as this is very bitter.

Fill the core cavity with cracked ice and
sugar and serve a half to each person, on a
pretty plate.

These may be on the table when the meal is
announced.

This course is eaten with orange-spoons or
the ordinary teaspoon.

BEAURBGARDE EGGS.

Boil six eggs twenty minutes. Make a pint
of cream sauce. Cut the whites of the eggs in
thin strips, mix with the sauce, and fill baking
shells, one for each person.

Rub the yolks of the eggs through a sieve on
top of each shell, put in the oven for two or three
minutes, and serve.

Catering for Zvoo, 189

OYSTER CROUSTADB.*

Get a round loaf of baker's bread which is
two or three days old, and scoop out all the
crumb, being careful not to break the crust.

Break up the crumbs very fine and dry them
slowly in the oven.

When dry, fry three cupfuls in two tablespoon-
fuls of butter, stirring all the time (about three
minutes).

Put one quart of cream, or rich milk, on the
fire, and when it reaches the boiling point stir
in three tablespoonfuls of flour which have been
mixed with half a cupful of cold milk. Cook
for a few minutes and season with salt and
pepper.

Now put a layer of this sauce in the loaf, then
a layer of oysters salted and peppered, another
layer of sauce, and then one of the fried crumbs.

Repeat this until the croustade is nearly full,
having a thick layer of crumbs on top.

Bake slowly half an hour and serve with a
garnish of parsley.

Three pints of oysters are required for this
dish, but half the quantity of ingredients given
will be sufficient when the croustade is to form
a single course.

CARAMEIv CREAM SAUCE.

Caramel sauce is made by stirring into a cup-

* Miss Parloa.

igo Catering for Zvoo,

ful of cold cream two tablespoon fuls of caramel,
directions for which have been given elsewhere.

Serve in a pretty bowl and pass to each guest.

A pint or more of caramel may be made at a
time and bottled ; it will keep indefinitely.

OYSTERS ON THE HALF-SHEI.I..

Four or five small oysters on the half-shell
are sufficient for each portion.

Arrange on a small plate on a bed of cracked
ice with a quarter of a lemon in the centre.

Pass horse radish and crackers with this
course.

FRIED SMELTS.

The smelts should be breaded some time
before the meal, and fried either in deep fat
or in a little beef dripping, until a delicate
brown.

Serve with a sauce tartare, which is a mayon-
naise with an addition of chopped pickles and
capers.

BIvANQUETTE OF CHICKEN.*

One quart of cooked chicken, cut in delicate
pieces ; one large cupful of white stock, three
tablespoon fuls of butter, a heaping tablespoon-
ful of flour, one teaspoonful of lemon juice,
one cupful of cream or milk, the yolks of four
eggs, salt, pepper.

* Miss Parloa.

I

Catering tor tTwo. 191

Put the butter into the saucepan, and when
hot, add the flour.

Stir until smooth, but do not let it brown.
Add the stock and cook two minutes, then add
the seasoning and cream.

As soon as this boils up add the chicken and
cook ten minutes.

Beat the yolks of the eggs with four table-
spoonfuls of milk ; stir into the blanquette and
cook about half a minute longer.

This may be served in a rice border or with
a garnish of toasted bread.

TOMATO AND CELERY SALAD.*

Select firm, good-sized ripe tomatoes. Cut
a lid from the top and scoop out all the seeds
and soft pulp with a spoon, being very care-
ful not to break the tomato. Mix celery cut
as for salad in small pieces, with mayonnaise
dressing.

Fill the tomatoes with this mixture, put
a teaspoonful of dressing on the top of each
tomato, and serve on crisp lettuce leaves.
* Table Talk.

BREAKFAST, TEA, AND LUNCH-
EON DISHES.

EGGS AU GRATIN FOR LUNCHEON.

Heat one third of a cupful of milk with a
tablespoonful of butter in a broad, shallow bak-
ing-dish. Put into this four muffin-rings and
break an egg into each ring ; sprinkle with
salt and peppet and add a layer of grated
cheese. Brown delicately in a quick oven, or
cook on top of the stove and brown the top
with a hot stove-lid or red- hot shovel.

Eggs require only a few minutes' cooking.

A tiny pinch of mustard and cayenne may be
added to the milk if liked.

SMOKED TONGUE.

Wash, cover with cold water, and soak over-
night a fine beef tongue. Next morning put
it into a two-gallon pot, cover with boiling
water, and cook gently five or six hours.

When cold pull off the skin and slice in thin
slices.

Any scraps that remain may be chopped,

192

Catering for XTwo. 193

mashed to a paste, seasoned with cayenne
pepper, and used for sandwiches.

CRUST FOR OYSTER PATTIES.

Beat one fresh ice-cold egg with four table-
spoonfuls of ice-water until it appears to be a
mass of froth. Set it on the ice while cutting
one cupful of ice-cold butter into two cupfuls
of flour which have been sifted several times
with a salt-spoonful of salt.

When the butter has been cut to the size of
peas beat up again, quickly, the egg mixture,
and with a spoon mix it into the flour. Beat
with the rolling-pin and roll out an eighth of
an inch thick, cut into circles the right size
to fit in patty pans, cut covers, and bake in a
quick oven.

The covers are baked on tins or dripping-
pans.

Do not handle the paste more than is abso-
lutely necessary ; simply pinch it together with
the tips of the fingers, roll out once, and put
in the oven as quickly as possible.

Make the paste in a cool room, and only roll
out a portion at a time, keeping the rest in the
ice-box.

Keep the trimmings separate, pinch them
all together at the last, and roll out once. Take
the last little scraps, form into balls, and roll
each one out by itself for tarts.
13

194 Catering tor ^wo.

This prevents too much working with the
dough and also does away with the necessity
of using too much flour.

If the butter softens before baking, the crust
will not be crisp and flaky.

These patties will keep two weeks in a cool,
dry place, and may be filled at any time and
heated in the oven.

If oyster filling is desired, make a cream
sauce of a tablespoonful of butter, an even
teaspoonful of flour, the juice of a dozen small
oysters, salt and pepper to taste, cook a few
minutes, then add the oysters and a tablespoon-
ful of cream, boil up once, and serve in the hot
shells.

A little lemon and onion juice may be added.

For chicken patties, make the sauce of butter,
flour, and milk, with the yolk of a hard-boiled
egg mashed fine ; add parsley and onion juice,
salt and pepper, and minced chicken. The
tart shells may be filled with jellies, marma-
lades, or preserved or rich stewed fruits.

souffle:s.

(Chicken or Fish.)

Take half a cupful of the white part of boiled
chicken, pound to a paste, moisten with two ta-
blespoonfuls of cream (or milk and butter), add
the beaten yolk of a raw egg, season with pars-
ley, mushrooms, or any preferred herb, salt and

Catering for ^wo. 195

pepper to taste, add the frothed white of the
egg, put quickly and lightly into a buttered
mould, and either set in a hot oven for a few
minutes, or in a saucepan of boiling water.
Cook only long enough to set the egg; too
much cooking will toughen and spoil a souffle,
which must be served and eaten the moment it
comes from the fire. Put on a heated dish, and
pour around it a sauce made from chicken broth,
thickened with a little browned flour mixed with
butter, and flavored either with mushrooms,
onion, lemon juice, or wine.

Boiled fish may be used in the same way with
a seasoning of anchovies, wine, and cayenne.
Canned salmon is a very good basis for a soujQ36,
and the sauce of thin drawn butter may be im-
proved by the addition of capers.

SALMON, WITH HOLLANDAISB SAUCE.

Canned salmon may be used for this dish,
which will be found valuable in an emergency.

Heat a little butter in a frying-pan, and lay
the salmon in it long enough to cook and heat
thoroughly ; then put it on a dish, salt and pep-
per to taste, and serve either with HoUandaise
sauce, or cream sauce, or drawn butter, with
parsley or capers.

BAKED HAMBURG STEAK.
A "meat-cutter" is a most valuable kitchen

196 Catering for ^wo.

utensil, and meat-balls and Hamburg steaks
may be prepared very quickly with it. Remove
all of the fat, tendons, and gristle from half a
pound of round steak, pass this through the cut-
ter, and then grind through a lump of fine kid-
ney suet the size of a hen's egg.

Mix all together, smooth into a square mound,
pepper, and dredge with flour, and bake in a
quick oven, rare or well done, as preferred.

Serve with butter and salt, pouring off the
grease first. This dish is delicious cold. Onion
juice may be added if liked, also sliced lemon
or watercress.

FRIZZLED BEEF.

Make a sauce of a dessert-spoonful of butter
stirred to a cream with one of flour, add a cup-
ful of boiling milk (water will do), stir, and cook
several minutes ; then add half a cupful of dried
beef, torn into inch pieces, and set on the back of
the range fifteen minutes to swell and get hot,
but not cook.

Stir occasionally, and add a little more milk
if it seems too thick or too salt. Pepper lightly,
and serve with bread toasted, dipped in salted
boiling water, and buttered liberally.

The toast should be on a separate dish.

Hot hard-boiled eggs make an excellent gar'
nish.

Catering for ^wo. 197

REMNANTS OF COLD OVBN-ROASTS OR
BROILS.

Take any oven-roast, steak or chops, and fry
slowly two hours, or until tender, with a slice
of fat salt pork ; or stew in just enough water to
cover.

Be careful not to burn, and keep closely cov-
ered. When done, throw away the grease, trim
off fat, gristle, and bones, cut the meat into
mouthfuls, sprinkle with salt, pepper, butter,
and flour, add a little water and beef extract,
or any gravy at hand. Lay on top of the meat
hot mashed potatoes, and brown in the oven.

For a change add a well-beaten egg to the po-
tatoes (two cupfuls), and a little more milk.

Bake in a quick oven.

Boiled meats or pot-roasts will not need to be
cooked before baking ; they are tender enough.

REMNANTS OF COLD POULTRY, VEJAL,
OR LAMB.

Mince the meat into pieces as large as large-
sized peas ; pick out all bone, gristle, fat, and
skin, and mix with the following sauce : Mash
the yolk of a hard-boiled egg with a table-
spoonful of butter, a little salt, and a pinch of
cayenne, and when it becomes a paste add a tea-
spoonful of flour. Pour on two thirds of a cup-
ful of boiling milk, cook a few minutes, add the

igs Catering for ^wo.

white of the egg, chopped fine, and then stir in
the meat. Set on the stove long enough to heat,
but not cook, and serve on thin slices of dipped
and buttered toast.

Another way is to make a dressing of equal
parts of cracker- or bread-crumbs and oysters,
salt, pepper, and butter to taste ; lay this on
meat, and brown in oven.

Another way is to chop the meat fine, bind to-
gether with a thick drawn butter, form into flat
cakes, dip into powdered cracker-crumbs (or
beaten egg and cracker), and fry in a little but-
ter or hot lard (salt to taste).

Still another way is to cut the meat in slices
half an inch thick, trim off the fat, brush with
milk or water (or dip into beaten egg), bread
with powdered cracker-crumbs, and fry just long
enough to brown outside.

Serve on a bed of watercress, and cover each
cutlet with a thick sauce made of a little flour,
cracker-crumbs, butter, boiling water, and
lemon juice, or minced parsley.

Pass currant or grape jelly.

Roast pork may be made into cutlets, in which
case pass crab-apple jelly or stewed apples.
Saltine crackers are nice for breading.

BSPAGNOLB, OR BROWN SAUCE, FOR
STEWS, ETC.

Fry one slice of onion (and a slice each of

Catering for C^wo. 199

carrot and turnip, adding parsley and celery if
liked) in a tablespoonful of chopped salt pork
or butter, until a rich brown.

Then add an even tablespoonful of flour, cook
up, and add salt and a half-cupful of boiling
water in which has been dissolved a quarter of
a spoonful of beef extract.

Cook a few minutes and strain. Rich stock
may be used instead of the extract.

This sauce may be made with the onion alone
if the other vegetables are not at hand, and a
half-teaspoon ful of curry-powder converts it
into a curry sauce.

ONION BUTTER.

For flavoring gravies, stews, and dishes of
cooked-over meats, an onion butter is a great
convenience, as it will keep for weeks in a cold
place. This butter can be used where onion is
objected to, even the most suspicious not being
able to detect its presence.

Slice a large white onion and fry it in two
tablespoonfuls of butter until the onion has
shrivelled and turned brown.

Then strain through a wire strainer into a
little earthen jar with a close cover. Throw
away the onion. A quarter-teaspoonful of this
is enough flavoring for a dish for two or three
persons.

200 Catering tor ITwo.

SWEETBREAD SALAD.

One pair of lamb sweetbreads will make
enough salad for two people when served for
dinner as a separate course, but more will be
required for lighter meals. Pour boiling water
on them, let stand for a few minutes, and then
plunge them in ice-water.

When thoroughly chilled, pour on hot water
to cover, bring to a boil, and cook gently about
eight minutes.

They should be tender by this time.

Cool quickly by plunging again in ice-water,
break into small pieces, removing all gristle
and fat, and mix with cream salad dressing or
mayonnaise. Serve on crisp lettuce leaves.

Veal sweetbreads will take about twenty
minutes to cook, as they are much larger.

POTATO SALAD FOR TEA OR
LUNCHEON.

Chop fine one cupful of cold baked potato
and add the following sauce : Mix together one
teaspoonful of butter, one even teaspoonful of
flour, a pinch of mustard and one of cayenne,
one third of a teaspoonful of salt, and then add
half a cupful of boiling milk and a few drops
of onion juice. Cook until creamy, then add
the chopped potato and stir until the mass is
heated through.

Catering for Zvoo, 201

When cold, serve with hard-boiled eggs and
French dressing.

This may be served with lettuce leaves or
with a simple garnish of capers and parsley.
Chopped meat is sometimes added to this salad,
in the proportion of one third potatoes to two
thirds meat.

SMOTHERED CHICKEN.

The chicken for this dish must be young,
tender, and plump.

Have it split as for broiling.

Wipe dry with a cloth, spread it liberally
with butter all over, dust with flour and pepper,
and lay it, skin side down, on a meat-rack in a
dripping-pan. Pour in a cupful of boiling
water, add a few sprigs of parsley, cover closely,
and bake in a hot oven thirty minutes, or longer
if necessary.

Then turn the chicken skin side up, and
brown uncovered ten or fifteen minutes.

Cut up the giblets, cooked tender in one cup-
ful of water, add a spoonful of flour and a lump
of butter the size of a hen's egg, add the water
from the giblets, stir all in the dripping-pan,
and cook, seasoning with salt, pepper, parsley,
or sweet marjoram. Joint the chicken so
it may be easily carved, but do not separate
it. Serve on a platter with the gravy poured
around.

202 Catering for Ewo.

PICKED-UP CODFISH.

Pour boiling water on half a pound of salt
codfish picked into bits and bones removed.
Pour the water off in a few minutes and cover
with more. This will make the fish fresh
enough when it 'is drained the second time.

Blend a tablespoonful of butter and a dessert-
spoonful of flour together, add half a cup of
milk, and cook a few minutes. Then add the
codfish and a little minced parsley, simmer a
few minutes, and serve on a platter with a hard-
boiled egg cut in slices distributed over the
surface.

Add black pepper and capers if desired.

MAPLE-SUGAR SYRUP.

Break up one pound of genuine maple sugar,
pour over it three cupfuls of boiling water, and
set on back of the range to melt. Then strain
through several thicknesses of cheese-cloth
wrung out of water. Return to the fire and
boil and skim half an hour. There should be
one pint of syrup.

MILK TOAST.

Take dry pieces of bread, heat them in the
oven, then toast a fine even brown. Dip into
boiling salted water, butter, and place in a dish.

Boil a pint of rich milk and stir in it half a

Catering for ^wo. 203

teaspoonful of corn-starch (or flour) mixed with
a heaping teaspoonful of butter; add salt to
taste, and after cooking a few minutes pour
over the toast.

CHEESB ON TOAST.

One half-cupful of old English cheese, grated ;
four tablespoonfuls of milk, one teaspoonful
of butter, one even teaspoonful of flour, one
pinch of salt. Blend flour and butter, add the
milk, boil up, add the cheese, boil up again,
and pour on toasted bread which has been
dipped in salted boiling water and slightly
buttered.

Set in the oven, covered, until wanted, but it
should be served soon after it is ready.

FRESH FISH (FRIED).
(Any preferred kind. One pound.)

After cleaning and scaling, wash in cold
water. Do this quickly and dry gently with a
napkin. Either dredge with flour or dip in
rolled cracker-crumbs (half a cup of crumbs
will be required). Sprinkle on half a teaspoon-
ful of salt and a dust of pepper, and fry a fine
brown in any fat preferred. A tablespoon ful
of butter, or the grease from two slices of fat
salt pork, will be sufl5cient.

Fry rapidly at first, then cook about ten min-
utes for each side on a cooler part of the stove.

204 Catering for Zvoo*

Serve on a platter with lumps of butter dot-
ting the fish. Roes of shad or mackerel are
cooked the same way.

CODFISH BALLS.

Cut into inch pieces one heaping cupful of
salt codfish. Remove the bones and skin and
put into an earthen dish, pour on three cupfuls
of boiling water, and set on the stove to keep
warm, but not boil, for two hours. It should
be freshened enough by this time. Pour off the
water, pick into tiny bits, or chop, add one
heaping cupful of hot mashed potato and the
following drawn butter : Mix one teaspoonful
of flour with one heaping tablespoonful of but-
ter, add three tablespoonful s of boiling water
and a dust of pepper, and cook a few minutes.

Make into eight little flat cakes, dredge with
flour, and fry (next day) a delicate brown, in
salt-pork drippings. Serve on a platter with
the slices of fried salt pork, garnished with
parsley.

A border of hard-boiled eggs (hot) may be
added.

SAUSAGES (FRIED AND BAKED).

Sausages should be well cooked ; in fact pork
in any form should never be served unless it is
thoroughly well done.

Put the sausages in a pan, cover, and fry

Catering tor Cwo. 205

slowly, turning from side to side until every
part has come in contact with the fire. Add a
little boiling water to the gravy, stir, boil up,
and pour over the sausages.

If baked, more time will be required.

Have the oven quite hot. Some cooks prefer
to cut each sausage in half, lengthwise, adding
a little extra seasoning of sage and pepper.

OATMEAL.

One scant cupful of *' pin-head '* oatmeal,
three and a half cupfuls of boiling water, and
one even teaspoonful of salt.

Stir until it begins to boil, and in a little
while stir again ; then cover and cook slowly
two hours.

In cool weather this will keep several days,
and may be warmed up as required.

The "Universal" pot is the best utensil in
which to cook oatmeal and hominy ; it is a
crock set in a bottomless tin frame.

Pin-head oatmeal is far superior to any of the
steam-cooked oats.

INDIAN-MEAL MUSH.

Pour one pint of boiling water on one cupful
of yellow Indian meal and a scant teaspoonful
of salt.

Stir constantly to prevent lumping.

2o6 Catering tot c:wo.

When well mixed, tie closely in a wet cloth
and boil steadily two or three hours, or longer,
in a pot of salted boiling water. Set a tea-stand
in the bottom of the pot to prevent the cloth
from sticking.

Turn into a dish, and when cold, slice, dredge
with flour (or bread-crumbs), and fry in hot salt-
pork drippings or butter.

Serve hot with butter and syrup.

MUFFINS.
(Baki n g-Powder . )

Sift one heaping cupful of flour with one tea-
spoonful of baking-powder and a scant half-
teaspoonful of salt.

Beat one egg, and one cup of milk and water
(half and half), one teaspoon ful of sugar, a heap-
ing tablespoonful of butter, melted ; stir well,
and then add the flour.

Bake in gem pans or muffin-rings twenty
minutes in a hot oven.

POACHED EGGS.

Half fill a frying-pan with boiling water, put
in a little salt and half a dozen muffin-rings.

Break the eggs, one at a time, in a saucer, and
slip one into each muffin-ring.

Boil until the whites assume a milky color.

Serve on buttered toast which has been freed
from crust.

Catering tor Zxoo, 207

A perforated skimmer should be used to take
up the eggs.
They will require about one minute to cook.

SCRAMBLED EGGS.

Allow a teaspoon ful of butter for each egg.

Heat the butter, add the eggs unbeaten, and
stir, cooking slowly a few minutes ; they should
be soft when taken from the fire, and a trifle
juicy. If hard, the dish will be spoiled.

Serve immediately.

HAM OMELETTE.

Beat three eggs until whites and yolks are
blended, — no longer ; eggs for omelettes do not
require much beating.

Add a quarter of a cup of milk in which one
heaping tablespoonful of finely powdered bread
crumbs have soaked thoroughly, and a table-
spoonful of melted butter.

Fry in a sheet-iron frying-pan, heated very
hot, two minutes, drawing the omelette away
from the sides of the pan so that the uncooked
part can reach the fire.

Sprinkle with pepper, and lay over the top
two tablespoon fuls of finely minced ham (either
fried or boiled). Cover the pan until the ham is
hot ; then loosen the omelette with a broad knife-
blade, and roll it up.

Serve at once. '

2o8 Catering tot Q;wo.

Sliced raw tomatoes make an appetizing gar-
nish for this dish. To be right the omelette
must be soft inside ; too hot a fire, or too long
cooking, will make it tough and hard. Bacon,
freed from rind and fried delicately brown,
chopped fine, may be used instead of ham. No
butter will be required, as the omelette should
be fried in the bacon-drippings.

If preferred, omelettes may be baked in a hot
oven ; they should be left in just long enough
to set the eggs.

BACON AND EGGS.

Fry the bacon a delicate brown.

Put the eggs into mufiin -rings in the hot bacon
fat (first removing the bacon), and baste them
constantly with the fat until the white of the
eggs becomes milk-white ; then serve, arranged
around the bacon.

If liked, a gravy may be made of flour, bacon
fat, and milk, and poured over.

Thirty seconds should cook the eggs.

LIVER AND BACON.

Fry a quarter of a pound of bacon, and when
nicely browned, but not crisp, put it on a plat-
ter. Into the hot drippings put two slices of
liver, floured and peppered. Cook about ten
minutes, basting continually with the bacon fat.

Catering for ^wo. 209

Add one teaspoonful of flour to three table-
spoonfuls of fat, and half a cup of boiling milk,
to make a gravy ; cook, and pour over the liver.
A teaspoonful of lemon may be added, and a
few drops of onion-juice if liked ; in that case
make the gravy of water.

Serve with dipped toast or pan-cakes.

I^amb's kidneys may be substituted for the
liver ; split them through the centre, remove
the veins of fat, cover with cold water, boil un-
til scum rises ; skim ; then drain and dredge
with flour, and proceed the same as for liver ;
the water may be used for the gravy.

Lamb's kidneys may be fried in butter, and
breaded, instead of floured, if preferred. They
may also be served without the bacon.

BROILED FISH.

Flour the fish (which has been cleaned,
rinsed, and dried) lightly, and broil on a well-
greased gridiron over a clear but quiet fire,
turning frequently enough to prevent burning.

It should take about half an hour to broil a
fish one inch thick. Fish must be cooked
slowly and thoroughly. Serve with butter,
salt, and pepper to taste. Salt fish must be
freshened by soaking over night in enough
water to fully cover. Wipe dry before cooking.

Lemons, pickles, or parsley may be used as
a garnish.

2IO Catering for ^wo.

HAM ON TOASl.

Make a drawn-butter sauce ; add some cold
ham, finely minced, and as soon as it is warmed
through spread on squares of dipped toast.

The dish may be garnished with poached eggs
or sliced hard-boiled eggs.

After hard-boiled eggs are shelled they may
be kept hot by putting them in a bowl of hot
water until ready to serve.

One tablespoonful of minced ham is a por-
tion. If fried ham is used, and any milk gravy
remains, use that in the sauce. Use only enough
sauce to make the ham stick together in a com-
pact mass.

VEAL IvOAF.

Fry one eighth of a pound of sliced salt pork.
When delicately browned, but before it becomes
crisp, put it, without the grease, into an agate,
or the "Universal" pot, and arrange on top a
pound of veal cut from the thick part of the leg.

Sprinkle some parsley on top, add a gill of
water, cover closely, and simmer three hours.
Set away to get cold, when chop into pieces the
size of peas ; remove the parsley. Add a pinch
each of thyme, cayenne pepper, and black pep-
per, one teaspoonful of onion-juice, one well-
beaten egg, a tablespoonful of melted butter,
and the melted jelly from the meat.

Salt to taste, and pack smoothly in a baking-

Catering for Zvoo, 211

dish ; if there is not enough jelly to make it
moist and rather juicy, add a little water.
Cover the top with bread crumbs, and bake
slowly one hour, covered.

Slice cold, garnish with celery, and pass
pickled peaches ; or garnish with skinned ripe
tomatoes or sliced lemon, and pass celery.

WHEAT AND INDIAN GRIDDLE-CAKES.

One overflowing cup of sour (loppered) milk,
one scant half-level teaspoonful of soda, one well-
beaten egg, one tablespoonful of butter (melted),
two thirds of a teaspoonful of salt, three even
tablespoonfuls of yellow corn meal, one half
cup of flour measured before sifting. Mix half
an hour before baking, and then add the soda
dissolved in one teaspoonful of cold water.

Beat it in thoroughly and bake on a hot
griddle.

In cold weather sour milk may be secured by
setting fresh milk in a temperature of about
75° for a few days. Whip a few minutes before
using to make it light and foamy.

Bread cakes are made in the same way by
substituting bread crumbs for the flour, and
flour for the meal. A pinch of salt will be
sufficient for these.

If too thin add an extra spoonful of flour.

Prepare the bread crumbs in the following
way :

212 Catering tor q:wo.

Cut the crusts from stale bread, put both
(crusts and inside) in the oven to dry ; then roll
to powder. The crusts, being brown, should be
kept by themselves for browning the tops of
dishes : the inside part is for griddle-cakes and
puddings.

These cakes are delicious served for dessert
at luncheon, with sugar and butter, or butter
and maple-syrup.

QUICK BBEF-TBA.

Pass through the meat grinder, or chop very
fine, one pound of round or stewing beef (raw)
freed from fat before grinding. Put into a
bowl, cover with one cupful of cold water, set
in a saucepan of cold water and cook (after
boiling begins) ten minutes, stirring occasion-
ally. Strain through a coarse sieve, and add
salt and pepper to taste. If too strong add a
little more water to the meat and cook up again.
Beef-tea is apt to be too weak as it is generally
made ; therefore be careful not to add too much
water ; a few spoonfuls is enough.

TO BOIIv NEW POTATOES.

New potatoes are at their best when baked,
but they can generally be made light and mealy
if the following rules are observed. Scrape off
the skin, cut in three-quarter-inch slices, soak
in cold water a few minutes and then put them

Catertna tor ^wo. 213

into rapidly boiling (salted) water, cover until
hard boiling begins, then partly uncover.
They must boil continuously and vigorously.
When done, drain, spread a muslin over the
potatoes, replace the cover and shake the pot
up and down several times as violently as pos-
sible : the potatoes will be broken and they
will lie in a drifting, snowy mass.

Set on the stove a minute only, covered with
the muslin ; then put into a heated dish,
sprinkle with salt and pepper and keep hot
covered with muslin until ready to serve.

BAKED HASH.

Hash may be baked in the oven until it is a
fine brown on top. Cooked in this way it
makes a nice dinner dish if garnished.

Serve in baking-dish, or slip it onto a platter,
and border with potatoes sliced, breaded with
bread crumbs, and fried a rich brown in a spoon-
ful of salt-pork drippings.

GRAHAM MUFFINS.

Follow the rule for Raised Steamed Dump-
ling, substituting two cupfuls of Graham flour
for the one cupful of white flour and use
molasses instead of sugar.

Raise and bake in patty-pans instead of
steaming.

214 Catering tor ^wo.

SARDINE SALAD.

Lay the sardines upon brown paper to absorb
the oil. Scrape off the skin and remove the
bones, and squeeze lemon juice over them.

Arrange them upon crisp lettuce leaves and
serve with either French or mayonnaise dress-
ing.

Sliced hard-boiled eggs make a pretty gar-
nish. For sandwiches mix the sardines with
mayonnaise and spread upon thin slices of
bread and butter.

BUCKWHEAT CAKES.

Mix together one cup of buckwheat flour,
half an even teaspoonful of salt, one cupful of
lukewarm water, and one eighth of a yeast-
cake dissolved in three extra tablespoon fuls of
water. Set to rise over night. Just before
breakfast add one teaspoonful of New Orleans
molasses and three tablespoonfuls of hot water
in which has been dissolved one eighth of a
teaspoonful of soda, and beat together well.

One or two spoonfuls of the batter may be
saved from the batch to add to the next
mixing.

This gives a pleasing acidity to the cakes.

Buckwheat may be eaten from October until
April ; it is too heating during the rest of the
year.

CateciuQ toe Zvoo, 215

Properly made, buckwheat cakes are nutri-
tious and have great " staying " qualities; they
are to Americans what oatmeal is to the Scotch.
Grease griddle delicately with olive-oil.

MIIyK BREAD (TWO LOAVES).

Between five and six o'clock in the afternoon
make a sponge in the following way :

Pour one and a half cupfuls of boiling water
on six hops and when just lukewarm, strain,
squeezing the hops dry.

Measure this water and add enough more
water to make an exact cup and a half. Melt
in this hop-water half a cake of yeast and add
three even cupfuls of flour dipped from the bag
and sifted after measuring. Use a three-quart
basin ; cover closely, and set in a warm place
until about nine o'clock, when the sponge
should fill the basin about two thirds full or a
little over. Measure and sift three more cup-
fuls of flour, add one heaping teaspoonful of
salt and a pinch over, and put into a six-quart
vessel (agate or earthenware). Add a heaping
teaspoonful of lard and one tablespoonful of
sugar, and mix. Then pour in the sponge ;
rinse out the basin with one and a half cupfuls
of rich, creamy milk, even measure ; add this
to the flour, and mix. Turn on a lightly floured
board and knead into a soft springy mass, using
an even half-cupful, or less, of flour (according

2i6 Catering for Zwo.

to its compactness) for this purpose. More flour
will make the bread hard.

Put it back into the large basin ; cover closely
and raise all night in a temperature of about
68° or 70°.

By seven in the morning or a little earlier,
it should nearly or quite fill the basin. Turn
out and knead just long enough to form into
loaves. Use not more than a teaspoonful of
flour for this last kneading, as the dough must
be soft and elastic.

Put into pans ; prick all over with a fork and
raise, covered, an hour or two in about 90° of
heat, when the dough should have more than
doubled in size.

For the first ten minutes the oven should be
hot enough to lightly brown the top ; at the
end of this time, moderate the fire a little, or
place the bread in a cooler part of the oven,
and continue to bake for thirty-five minutes
longer. Use new milk when possible, other-
wise scald and cool. In hot weather use it
cold ; in cold weather, lukewarm.

In cold weather set the dough on a feather
cushion while it is rising, and cover with a
woollen blanket at night.

This bread is not at its best the day it is
baked. It will keep a week properly protected
from the air in an earthen crock, and should
be entirely cold before being put away.

Catering for ^wo. 217

Use the square-cornered bread pans, filling
each a little less than half full : when the
dough rises to the top, it is ready for the oven.

Flour varies in degree of compactness from
one time to another, owing to certain con-
ditions, so that a cupful from one bag will
measure when sifted, more than a cupful from
another bag of the same brand when that is
sifted. Only experience and practice can teach
one how to regulate and overcome these vari-
ations. Wheat grown at different seasons
yields a different quality of flour. Its age after
grinding has something to do with its quality ;
also a humid climate.

When bread and cake deteriorate after the
middle of the barrel is passed, the cause will
sometimes be found to be dampness. Drying
the flour in the oven, sifting and cooling it, will
in all probability improve it greatly.

Flour should always be kept in a cool, dry
place : a bag may stand on a shelf, but a barrel
should be set on a raised frame of slats, for it
surely will become damp if allowed to rest upon
the basement floor.

Flour of a very compact nature will require
more wetting in the sponge.

When mixing, if the sponge is stiff and flaky
instead of smooth and moist, add a spoonful or
two of lukewarm water, sprinkling it on and
stirring it in.

2i8 Catering for ^wo.

Too much moisture will make bread tough
and flabby, and it will make cake heavy ; on
the other hand, too much flour will make bread
stiff and cake "floury."

When of an unusually compact quality, try
sifting before measuring, for cake.

Some cake-makers have better success by
greasing only the bottom of the pans, cutting
the cake from the sides after it becomes cold.

Cake should be put into a moderate oven at
first, the heat being increased towards the last.

This allows the batter to expand before the
cake browns.

Pastry flour is preferred by some people for
cake and pastry ; this is made from winter
wheat.

Flour made from spring wheat is considered
best for bread.

Spring- wheat flour generally requires more
moisture than winter-wheat flour.

If by adding extra wetting, by sifting or
heating, flour still yields unsatisfactory results,
mix with one or two cups of pastry flour, which
will give bread of lighter texture.

GLUTEN BREAD.

Six cups entire-wheat flour, three cups of
water, half a yeast-cake, one teaspoon ful of salt,
two tablespoon fuls New Orleans molasses.

Make a sponge between six and seven p. m.

Catering for ^wo. 2ig

of one half the flour, half the water, and the
yeast. At nine o'clock, or thereabouts, add
the remainder of the water and flour, the salt
and molasses, and knead with one half cup
extra of flour, into a smooth, soft mass.

Set to rise until morning, then make into
two loaves, let rise again to double the size,
and bake in a moderate oven about fifty min-
utes.

HOME-MADE YEAST.

Put into a small preserving jar half a cake
of yeast, and add one cupful of lukewarm water
in which potatoes have been boiled (unsalted),
and two even tablespoonfuls of sugar ; let stand
covered in a warm place, (about 90°), to ferment
for three hours.

Half of this yeast is equal to half a yeast-
cake, and in a cold place will keep sweet for
a week.

When any yeast is taken out replace it (three
hours before using) with potato-water and one
spoonful of sugar, and allow it to ferment, as at
first directed.

If at the end of a week none has been taken
out, pour ofi" one half and replace with potato-
water and sugar. Always stir well before
taking any out, and in making bread use a half-
cupful less of water on the hops.

This yeast may be kept alive indefinitely if

220 Catering for CTwo.

the potato-water and sugar are added at the
right time (three hours before using), and the
other directions are observed. After the first
week the yeast should be used directly after
fermenting or the bread may be sour.

It should be renewed at least every seventh
day. It can, however, be made daily if one
requires yeast so often. If potato-water is not
at hand pour a half-cupful of boiling water
upon one tablespoonful of scraped raw potato,
and use this when lukewarm.

POTTED MEATS.

Remove bones, fat, and gristle, from any cold
pot-roast of veal, lamb, or poultry, and pound
to a paste in a mortar (or use chopping-bowl
and potato-masher). Add spice, or any of the
seasoning sauces to taste, or season simply with
salt and cayenne pepper. Put into an earthen
dish and steam in the steamer for two or three
hours. Meanwhile, cover the bones (broken if
poultry) with water, and boil down to a glaze.
Add this to the pounded meat with a teaspoon-
ful of melted butter for each half-cupful of meat.
Pack into small jars, holding enough for one
occasion, and bake in a slow oven half an hour.
When cold, pour over each jar a quarter of an
inch of melted butter, and set away in a cold
place. Boiled ham or tongue will need no salt.
Scraps may be used for potting.

Catering tor ^wo. 221

CLAM FRITTERS.

If the soft-shell clams are used, they must be
washed several times in their own liquor, with
a little water added to free them from sand,
straining the liquor each time.

The rule for the batter is given in Fruit
Fritters, and will require one pint of clams
chopped in the chopping bowl. Leave out the
salt and substitute a little of the clam-juice for
the milk.

CUCUMBERS SERVED WITH CREAM.

Peel, slice very thin, and soak for an hour
in ice-water, one cucumber and one onion.

Drain, arrange in salad-bowl, add salt and
pepper to taste, and pour on sweet cream which
has had a sufficient quantity of cider vinegar
stirred into it to make it agreeably sour. Add
a pinch of salt. Serve with the main part of
the meal. This is a delicious dish, and it is
claimed that the cream makes the cucumbers
digestible.

SPICED FISH (SOMETIMES CALLED
SOUSED OR POTTED FISH).

Whitefish, bass, shad, or mackerel may be
used. Cut the raw fish into pieces suitable in
size to serve as a portion. Put them in layers
with salt, peppercorns, two or three whole

222 Catering tor ^wo.

cloves, and a little cinnamon stick, into an
earthen jar, cover with cider vinegar, and bake
covered in a very slow oven for about eight
hours. Keep in a dry, cool place.

Serve for luncheon or tea. The cloves and
cinnamon can be omitted if desired.

BIRDS.

It is a good plan to vary the monotony of
every-day fare, by having a bird for dinner as
often as once a week — chicken, duck, squab,
pigeon, partridge, grouse, etc., can all be had
at certain times in their season at moderate
cost, if one takes the trouble to study the mar-
ket. All of these birds make delicious fricas-
sees, or they can be roasted in the oven, broiled
or smothered, or be made into pies. The scraps
can be made into croquettes for the next day's
dinner, or potted for sandwiches. The rules
given for preparing and cooking chicken and
duck may be applied to game birds.

A half-cupful of meat minced fine in chop-
ping-bowl, after discarding all bone, gristle,
and fat, will make two croquettes. Add salt
and pepper to taste, and enough gravy (thick-
ened with flour), to mould into egg-shaped
rolls. Sprinkle liberally with powdered bread
crumbs, and brown in a teaspoonful of hot
butter in an uncovered frying-pan. If covered
they will fall to pieces. If no gravy is at hand

Catering tor ^wo. 223

with which to bind the meat together, make
a thick drawn-butter and use that instead.
Serve with a spoonful of bread-sauce made as
follows : Soak one teaspoonful of rolled bread
crumbs in one fourth of a cupful of boiling
water ; add this to the butter left in the pan,
after removing the croquettes, and boil until
thick enough to spread evenly. Add any
seasoning sauce, onion-, lemon-juice, or beef
extract. Send to table with a sprig of celery
or watercress, on each croquette. Croquettes
may be made the day before they are needed
and kept in the ice-box. Bread them just
before frying.

CHOCOLATE CUSTARD FOR LAYER
CAKE.

Two squares of chocolate, one half-cup of
granulated sugar, one half-cup of rich milk,
one rounded tablespoonful of flour, one half
of an egg, one pinch of salt, one half-tea-
spoonful of vanilla. Stir the flour, salt, sugar,
and chocolate broken into bits, together ; add
the egg and three spoonfuls of the milk ; stir,
and set over hot water, stirring until the choco-
late is melted. Then add slowly the rest of
the milk ; stand the saucepan on the stove and
cook gently for a few minutes, being careful
not to scorch, and stir constantly. It should
be jelly-like but not stiff; take from the fire,

224 Catering tor ^wo.

add vanilla, and when a little cool spread on
the cakes. Frost the top layer, or dust on
powdered sugar.

INDIAN MUFFINS.
Two heaping cupfuls of flour, one heaping
cupful of yellow corn-meal, one half-cupful of
butter (scant), one even cupful of sugar, three
eggs, two cupfuls of milk, three teaspoonfuls of
baking powder, one half level teaspoon ful
of salt. Sift together thoroughly the flour
meal, salt, and powder. Beat the eggs and
sugar, and stir in the milk ; add this to the flour,
etc., and at the last add the butter, melted.
Bake in the deep muflSn-pans in a moderately
hot oven ; serve hot. Warm up by standing
in a steamer on a plate.

SOUSE (PICKLED PIGS' FEET).

The butcher will send the feet parboiled.
Brush and scrape them with scrupulous care,
and boil in enough boiling water to cover for
five or six hours, replenishing from the boiling
teakettle as needed. Pigs' feet must be cooked
very tender, almost jelly-like, but not so long
that they will fall to pieces. When done,
sprinkle all sides with salt (after taking them
from 'the pot) and put them in an earthen jar.
Add cayenne pepper, a few peppercorns,
cloves, cinnamon, a bay leaf, and enough boil-
ing cider vinegar to cover. In a cold place,

Catering tor ^wo, 225

souse will keep a month or longer. Warm up
in the chafing-dish or frying-pan. Serve with
lettuce or watercress sandwiches. Souse makes
a relishable little after-theatre supper.

SAUSAGE MEAT.
Three fourths of a pound of lean, and one
fourth of a pound of fat pork, one level
teaspoonful of salt, one rounded teaspoonful of
finely powdered sage ; add one half-teaspoonful
of black pepper. Chop the pork very fine, or
grind it, distribute the salt, etc., evenly through
the meat and pack in an earthen dish. It will
be ready to use in a day. In cold weather sev-
eral pounds may be made up at one time ; pour
melted (not hot) lard over the top to exclude
the air ; cover closely and keep in a cold, even
temperature. Corn-fed young pork makes the
most delicious sausage. Home-dried sage is
the best and most savory to use.

TOMATO FRITTERS.

Skin and slice cold, ripe tomatoes ; pepper and
salt lightly, and dip each slice into a batter made
of equal parts of milk, melted butter, and flour.
Fry in a frying-pan, turn with a cake-turner so
as not to break, and after browning one side
cook slowly.

Time, about twenty minutes.

If preferred the tomatoes may be breaded and
then fried in hot butter.

226 Catering tor ^wo.

CORN BREAD.

One generous tablespoonful of butter, one
fourth cup of sugar, and two eggs creamed
together ; one and a half cupfuls of milk, two
cupfuls of flour, one cupful of yellow Indian
meal, three teaspoonfuls baking-powder, and an
even half-teaspoonful of salt. Bake in a mod-
erate oven, in a bread pan. Serve hot the first
meal.

SPONGE CAKE.

Four eggs, one cup of granulated sugar, three
quarters of a cup of sifted flour, two pinches of
salt, juice and grated rind of half a lemon.
Whisk the yolks until thick and foaming,
which will take some ten minutes. Add the
sugar and grated lemon-rind and beat (always
beating — never stirring), forten minutes longer .
add the whisked whites, beating them in
lightly ; then sift in the flour and fold together
lightly, then add the lemon -juice, beating as
delicately as possible, and bake immediately,
either in the deep sponge-cake pan, or the deep
muflBn-pans, for about twenty minutes, in a
rather quick oven. To measure the flour for
this cake it must be sifted into the measure, the
salt added, and then sifted eight or nine times
more. No baking-powder is required, for if put
together as directed, it will be light enough.
The whites of eggs for cake should be beaten

datering tor ^wo, 227

only long enough to make a coarse light froth,
and beating should cease the moment that they
are stiff. For meringues, they can be beaten a
little longer ; too much beating toughens them.

SPAGHETTI WITH TOMATO SAUCE.

Spaghetti is the small pipe macaroni. It can
be cooked augratin (that is, baked with cheese),
or served buttered with grated cheese passed, or
with a rich tomato-sauce as follows : Into a
quart of fast-boiling water put a cupful of
spaghetti broken into pieces ; add half a tea-
spoonful of salt, and boil for several minutes,
stirring to keep the pieces separated.

Cover and stand the pot where it will keep
just below the boiling point, for twenty min-
utes ; then bring forward and boil steadily for
about thirty -five minutes.

It must cook just long enough to mash easily.
Too long cooking will destroy its nutritive
qualities. The cover may be left partly off dur-
ing the last half-hour, so that the water may
cook away, thus avoiding the necessity for
draining. Macaroni is sweeter not to be drained.
To make the sauce, put into another saucepan
a slice of onion, a clove, and a sprig of parsley
or celery. Add a heaping tablespoonful of but-
ter and fry delicately ; add a tablespoonful of
flour, and stir until a pale brown ; then add two
cupfuls of cooked and strained tomatoes. Cook

228 Catering tor tlwo.

a few minutes ; remove the onion, clove, and
parsley ; add the spaghetti. Salt, and pepper to
taste, and serve hot. Macaroni may be warmed
up by setting the dish covered in a place where
it will heat but not cook. It may have bouillon
added and make a delicious soup. It may have
milk and a little soda added, making a tomato
bisque.

FANCY DESSERTS.

STRAWBERRY WHIP.

Mash to a pulp one cupful of ripe strawberries,
and sweeten to taste. Add one teaspoonful of
gelatine soaked in a tablespoonful of cold water
and then melted ; also the white of an egg
whisked to a froth. Set on ice, and serve ice
cold in champagne glasses. Pass ladyfingers.

Cherries or raspberries may be served in the
same way.

A teaspoonful of whipped cream to each por-
tion is a great addition.

COFFEE BAVARIAN CREAM.

Soak for half an hour one heaping table-
spoonful of gelatine, in one quarter of a cupful
of milk. Beat until very creamy (in an agate
saucepan) the yolk of one egg, and two heaping
tablespoonfuls of granulated sugar, and pour on
this slowly, stirring continually, two thirds of
a cupful of milk, boiling hot. Set into another
saucepan containing boiling water, and cook
22g

230 Catering tor tTwo.

four minutes, stirring constantly from the bot-
tom and sides.

Then add the soaked gelatine, stir and cook
one minute longer, and add a pinch of salt.

When cold, and before it is set, add half a
cupful of cold, strong coffee. (Java is best.)

As soon as the coffee is well stirred in, whip
in the cream, which is prepared in this way.

Whip to a stiff froth five tablespoonfuls of
cream ; add the white of the egg whisked to a
stiff froth, then add the coffee and pour into
a shallow glass dish. Set in a cold, but not
freezing place for several hours : in summer set
on ice. When thoroughly set, add the Sea-foam
cream, flavored with two teaspoonfuls of coffee.

To be a success the quantities must be meas-
ured very carefully ; it is a delicious dish when
made just right.

Five even teaspoonfuls of gelatine will make
the one heaping tablespoonful required.

Two heaping dessert-spoonfuls of coffee in
two thirds of a cupful of boiling water will
make the coffee.

To get a level teaspoonful of gelatine, press
down with a broad knife-blade.

CARAMEL SEA-FOAM CREAM MOUSSE.

Sea-foam cream is made of whipped cream
and whipped gelatine, and it cannot be a suc-
cess unless both will whip perfectly. The cream

Catering for ^wo. 231

must be stiflf, and the gelatine a solid froth be-
fore they are put together.

Put one cupful of ice-cold cream and two tea-
spoonfuls of caramel into a cold bowl set in an-
other of cracked ice and salt.

Whip until stiff; then add three tablespoon-
fuls of confectioner's sugar, a few drops of ex-
tract of vanilla, and a few grains of salt.

Soak four level teaspoonfuls of gelatine in
twenty teaspoonfuls of cold water ten minutes.

Then melt over the teakettle, and when a
little cool whip until it is a solid froth, which
will take about ten minutes.

Add this to the cream, and whip all together
thoroughly ; turn into a cold mould, and pack
in ice and salt for three hours.

When ready to serve, turn out on a cold dish,
and serve with any seasonable fruit, such as
berries, or oranges cut in slices. Ripe peaches
may be peeled and halved, the stone-cavities
filled with cracked ice, and covered with sugar ;
half a fine peach is a portion. The fruit should
be chilled. Care should be taken to have all
utensils perfectly dry and clean, as gelatine
will not whip to a froth if salt, cream, white of
egg, or any foreign substance touches it before
frothing.

Cream sold in half-pint glass jars is reliable
for whipping.

«32 Catering for ^wo,

SKA-FOAM CREAM FOR PUDDINGS.

Whip to a stifiF froth four tablespoon fuls of
cream ; add two teaspoon fuls of confectioner's
sugar and a few grains of salt.

Soak one level teaspoon ful of gelatine in four
teaspoon fuls of cold water ten minutes ; then
melt over the teakettle or in the oven.

When a little cool, whip with a wire spoon
six or seven minutes ; it should be well frothed
at the end of this time. Add immediately to the
whipped cream, and beat well for a minute or
two ; flavor with vanilla, wine, coffee, or cara-
mel, according to the dish it is to be used
on.

Pour on the cold pudding or cake, and set on
ice for an hour or two.

BOIIyED RICE WITH WHIPPED-EGG
SAUCE.

Wash, but do not soak, a scant half-cupful of
rice (Carolina rice is best). Pour this into two
cupfuls of milk, stirring until it boils ; then add
an even half-teaspoonful of salt, cover closely,
and boil very slowly for half an hour on a cool
part of the stove. Serve hot, either with
whipped-egg sauce, or with butter and sugar,
or cream and sugar, or with tutti-frutti sauce.

Catering tor Zvoo. 233

TUTTI-FRUTTI SAUCE FOR PLAIN
PUDDINGS.

Seed half a cupful of table raisins, pour over
them a cupful of cold water, and set on the
stove to get hot gradually. Simmer half an
hour ; then add a teaspoouful each of candied
citron, orange, and lemon peel, chopped fine ;
also, if desired, a few blanched almonds, also
chopped, and one third of a cupful of sugar ;
simmer until the candied fruit is soft enough
to break when pressed between the fingers.
Thicken with one level teaspoonful of corn-
starch blended with one heaping teaspoonful
of butter. Add brandy or wine.

If the water boils away, add more from the
boiling kettle.

SAUCE FOR STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE.

Beat together one tablespoonful of butter and
two of sugar. Add the yolk of an egg and
beat several minutes ; then whisk in the frothed
white and one third of a cupful of boiling
water.

Cook over the teakettle about two minutes,
and add any part of or the whole of a cup of
cream.

Keep hot, but do not cook.

Heat the cream before adding it to the egg
mixture. Salt to taste and flavor with a table-
spoonful of sherry.

234 Catering tor Cwo.

FRUIT FRITTERS : PEACHES, APPLES,
OR BERRIES.

One half-cupful flour, one third cupful milk,
one half-teaspoonful baking-powder, one egg,
a large pinch of salt, one dessert-spoonful of
melted butter, one pint of sliced fruit or berries
or stoned cherries.

Sift flour, baking-powder and salt together ;
beat the egg ; add the butter and milk, then the
flour, and lastly the fruit, lightly sugared if
desired.

Bake in spoonfuls on a griddle.

Serve hot, either with butter and powdered
sugar or hot sugar syrup, (one cup of sugar
cooked until clear with one third of a cup of
water). Corn fritters may be made of this rule
by adding a pint of grated or chopped corn
to the batter.

MUSKMELONS WITH ICE-CREAM AND
FRUIT.

Put small muskmelons on ice, and just be-
fore serving, cut in halves, remove the seeds,
and serve with a spoonful of ice-cream in each
half.

Ice-cold whipped cream may be used in place
of ice-cream. Flavor and sweeten to taste.

If Sea-foam cream is preferred, set the
melons on ice for an hour or two before and
after putting in the cream.

Catering tor ^wo. 235

If muskmelons are not sweet and delicious,
cut them into cubes (of course rejecting the
rind) and serve slightly salted with sweetened
cream, or cream and powdered sugar. Melons
that would be disappointing by themselves,
are excellent when served with well sugared
fruit.

A single variety of fruit may be used, or a
mixture of berries and cherries, pineapple,
peaches, plums, grapes and orange juice in the
following way : Shred the pineapple, peel and
quarter the peaches, quarter and stone the
plums and seed the grapes.

Mix together, add a little orange juice and
some brandy or Jamaica rum, and when it is ice
cold arrange in small melon-halves, one for
each portion.

Sugar to taste.

LUNCHKON DESSERT. FRENCH TOAST
WITH SUGAR, SYRUP, OR HONEY.

Beat an egg with a gill of milk ; add salt to
taste ; dip slices of bread, or the steamed raised
dumpling in this batter, and fry a delicate
brown in hot butter.

Melt one cupful of sugar with half a cupful
of water, cook a few minutes, flavor with lemon
extract, brandy, or fruit syrup, and serve hot.

236 Catering for tTwo.

FRUIT CAKB.

Sift together one teaspoonful each of nutmeg,
allspice, cloves, salt, two teaspoonfuls cin-
namon, three cups flour, and one heaping tea-
spoonful of baking powder.

Add to this one pound of currants, one pound
of raisins, seeded, and half a pound of citron
sliced fine.

Beat two eggs into one cup of molasses, cream
one cup of butter with one cup of brown sugar ;
add to the molasses ; beat well ; add one cupful
of strong coffee, and then the flour, etc. Bake
two and a half hours in a slow oven, careful not
to let it burn.

In a close tin box, this cake has been kept
for three years.

GOLD AND SILVER CAKE WITH OR
WITHOUT FRUIT.

Use the rule for loaf cake as to quantities,
beating, etc., for each cake excepting the eggs.
The three eggs will do for the two cakes ; the
yolks for the gold cake, and the whites for the
silver cake.

Add two tablespoon fuls of water to the gold
cake and if desired two cupfuls of seeded raisins
■well floured.

Citron is the proper fruit for silver cake.

Slice half a pound in thin slices and add

Catering for Zxoo* 237

about two tablespoon fuls of flour. (No extra
flour will be needed if the citron is not used.)

Flavor with a few drops of almond extract.

Sometimes fruit is found to be more evenly-
distributed if it is put in the pan in alternate
layers with the batter.

Citron cake will keep a month or longer.

POUND CAKE.

Three eighths of a cupful of butter, one cupful
of flour, put lightly into the cup, one slightly
rounded teaspoonful of baking-powder, a large
pinch of salt, one half-cupful of granulated
sugar, two eggs, one teaspoonful of brandy or
other flavoring.

With the hand cream the butter ; add the flour
(sifted three times with salt and powder) and
stir until light, (it should look like whipped
cream at this stage) then add the sugar and
flavoring and stir for several minutes. Add
the eggs (unbeaten) and beat (still with the
hand) for two minutes longer.

Bake in a moderate oven about forty minutes.

MOLASSES CAKE.

Stir together in a mixing-bowl, half a cupful
of Porto Rico molasses, half a cupful of dark-
est brown sugar, one third of a cupful of
softened (not melted) butter, one egg, half a tea-
spoonful of cinnamon, the same of ginger, a

238 Catering tor XTwo.

pinch each of cloves, allspice, mace (or nutmeg)
and salt.

Sift with one and a half cupfuls of flour, one
teaspoonful of cream of tartar ; add two cupfuls
of raisins, which have been stoned and steamed
(on a plate) for an hour in a steamer. Add one
fourth of a cupful of warm water (in which has
been dissolved one half of a level teaspoonful of
soda), then add the flour and raisins. Stir
lightly, but thoroughly, and pour into a shallow
pan lined with greased paper and bake one hour
in a moderate oven.

When a broom straw will come out free from
dough, the cake is done.

GINGER SNAPS.

Stir together until thoroughly mixed, one
cup either of butter or beef drippings, one cup-
ful of molasses, one cupful brown sugar, pressed
down, two heaping teaspoon fuls ground ginger,
and half a level teaspoonful of soda, dissolved
in four heaping tablespoonfuls of cold water.
Add four cups of flour dipped from the bag, and
sifted after measuring. Roll out an eighth of an
inch in thickness and cut with a 2|-inch cutter.
Lift with a broad knife-blade or cake-turner,
and arrange on the inverted bottom of buttered
tins; bake in a moderate hot oven, very careful
not to burn. If butter or the fat from corned beef
is used, a pinch of salt will be required, but with
lard or beef drippings salt to taste.

Catering tor tlwo. 239

Porto Rico molasses makes a dark colored
snap and it is preferred on this account as well
as for its flavor by some cooks.

New Orleans molasses, on the other hand,
has a yellow hue and is more delicate in flavor.
Mash the soda very fine and smooth oflF with a
knife-blade ; then divide exactly in the middle,
lengthwise of the spoon.

Flour the board and rolling-pin and only roll
out about one eighth of the quantity at a time.
Put the trimmings aside and roll out by them-
selves at the last. Use as little flour as possible
in rolling out. This quantity will make one
hundred snaps. Keep in air-tight glass jars in
a dry place.

HOT GINGERBREAD AND WAFERS.

Mix together half a cupful of butter (softened
but not melted) two thirds of a cupful of New
Orleans molasses, three tablespoonfuls of cold
water in which has been dissolved one third of
a level teaspoonful of soda (mashed before
measuring) and one teaspoonful of ground
ginger.

Add one heaping cupful of flour dipped from
the bag and sifted after measuring, with a pinch
of salt.

Stir till smooth and pour one half of the bat-
ter into a very shallow pan ; bake in a hot oven

240 Catering tor ^wo.

and serve hot, breaking into portions instead of
cutting.

Put the remainder of the batter in half tea-
spoonfuls (two inches apart) upon the bottom
of inverted tins lightly buttered, and bake in a
quick oven.

These wafers are crisp when fresh ; if thej^
become soft, set them in a hot oven for a few
minutes and when cold they will be crisp again.

Served hot, with cream for sauce, gingerbread
makes a very nice dessert.

SOFT GINGERBREAD. (HOT OR COLD.)

One cup of molasses, one half-cup butter,
one fourth of a cup of warm water, one level
teaspoonful of soda, two teaspoonfuls of ginger,
one egg, two cups of sifted flour.

Stir the soda into the molasses until it foams,
beat in the egg, add the butter (softened but
not melted) then the water, ginger and flour.

Bake in a shallow tin about thirty minutes
in a moderate oven.

Put the flour lightly in the cup when measur-
ing, as too much flour will spoil the cake.

A pinch of salt may be added. If the taste
of soda is objected to, add half a teaspoonful of
cream of tartar to the flour.

catering tor Ewo. 241

FONDANT, OR FOUNDATION FOR CREAM
CANDIES.

Stir while dissolving on the edge of the stove,
two cupfuls of granulated sugar, one cupful of
water, a few grains of salt, and a big pinch of
cream of tartar ; then boil gently without further
stirring.

Wipe away any crystals that form above the
edge of the syrup while boiling, but do not
touch the syrup or jar it, or it will grain. Use
for the purpose a sharp stick with a piece of
wet muslin upon it.

Boil, not too vigorously, fifteen minutes, then
dip a smooth stick into ice-water, then into the
syrup, and back again into the ice-water. If
the syrup thickly adhering to the stick will be-
come like soft putty when worked between the
thumb and finger, it is ready to turn out. Keep
on testing every minute until this stage is
reached, then turn it out into a deep and rather
flaring earthen bowl, lightly oiled or buttered.

IvCt it coola few minutes, and when the finger-
tip pressed gently, will dent it, stir (before a
crust forms) round and round with a stout
wooden spoon, until it becomes a snow-white
creamy mass.

Put in the flavoring while stirring : a half-

teaspoonful each of rose and vanilla is a good

combination which blends well with nuts,

chocolate, or candied fruit.
16

242 Catering for ^wo.

Kneading improves the fondant.

For sugar-plums, form the fondant around
whole nut meats, dip into granulated sugar and
shake violently in a bowl with a few additional
spoonfuls of sugar : almonds are the nuts gen-
erally used for this candy.

An inch piece of the fondant with an English
walnut meat on each side makes another varia-
tion.

For chocolate cream bar, melt one half-square
of chocolate over the teakettle, and stir in a
lump of fondant the size of an egg. A knife
and fork facilitates this process.

Put a layer of plain fondant on either side, an
inch in thickness and cover all over with a coat
of melted chocolate (one square will be enough)
flavored with a few drops of vanilla.

In a day, this may be cut into squares.

For nut bar, mix nuts with the fondant, press
into a square, and in a day cut into small cubes.
Candied fruit, candied orange peel, crystallized
ginger, etc., may also be covered with fondant
for sugar-plums.

If properly made, fondant will keep for
months in air-tight glass jars and be improved
in quality.

If the syrup boils a little too long, the fond-
ant will not mass, but on being stirred will
crumble when it reaches the snow-white stage.
When this occurs a few drops of water or wine

Catering tor Cwo. 243

may be sprinkled over the surface and stirred
in (a drop too much will spoil it).

Set the bowl in a basin of boiling water, boil
and stir constantly until smooth. If the stirring
is not kept up the fondant will turn into syrup.
To be right it should be pliable enough to be
moulded into any shape when it is cool enough
to handle.

If the fondant grains from too much boiling
or jarring of the syrup, a few spoonfuls of water
may be added and a new trial made, melting,
boiling and testing as before, or it may be
melted into syrup for the table.

If the fondant after being creamed seems soft
and gummy and does not retain its shape it
has not been boiled quite long enough.

This condition is worse than the other.

To remedy it knead in confectioner's sugar,
until it will take no more : the candies will be
eatable, but that is all.

Vanilla and sherry make a fine flavor.

The novice in candy-making, would do well
to try only a quarter of the quantities given, at
first.

Begin testing after the sugar has been cook-
ing ten minutes, for small quantities.

A dry atmosphere is desirable while boiling
syrup for candies, and it is well to choose a
fine bright day for the work.

Sarah E. Craig, in 20th Century Cookery^ says :

244 Catering for ^wo.

"I would suggest the sugar thermometer to
those having trouble in testing their syrups for
candy-making.

** One can be bought for |i.75, and will save
the amateur a world of trouble. In making fond-
ant the thermometer will register about 2388,
and the syrup is then ready to turn out."

A very satisfactory cream can be easily made
with confectioner's sugar, but it is not nearly
so good as that just described.

Beat the white of an egg with a tablespoonful
of water or cream, and stir in confectioner's
sugar until enough has been added to form a
pliable dough. Flavor while mixing.

Fruit juice or fruit syrups may be used in-
stead of water or cream.

If preferred, the egg may be omitted.

MISCELLANEOUS RECIPES.

HOW TO MAKE COFFEE.

There are various ways of making coflfee, and
where one fails, others may be tried with suc-
cess.

Some kinds of coffee are best when made by
the French method, which consists in pouring
boiling water on the finely ground coffee placed
upon a set of strainers in a cylinder, and allow-
ing it to percolate slowly through.

Another way is to mix the coffee with egg
and cold water, and bring it to a boil ; then
settle, strain, and serve.

Yet another is to mix coffee and egg, add a
little cold water, and then boiling water ; bring
to a boil ; stand to settle ; strain, and serve.

In all cases the pot should be tight as possi-
ble, to prevent the escape of the aroma, and the
coffee should be served soon after being made.

An earthen pipkin makes a good coffee-pot :
place a doubled cheese-cloth under the lid, and
tuck it in closely. The cheese-cloth is to be
used as a strainer, and it must be thoroughly
washed and boiled every time it is used, and

245

246 Catering for (Two.

renewed often, as otherwise the flavor of the
coffee would be spoiled.

Buy only the best grades of coffee, and when
possible have it ground at home. A third each
of Java, Mocha, and Maracaibo makes a favor-
ite blend. Another is two thirds Java and one
third Mocha.

To make one quart of coffee take one heap-
ing cupful of coffee, one third of a raw egg, half
a cupful of cold water, and one quart of boiling.

To make one cupful of coffee take two heap-
ing dessert-spoonfuls of coffee, two spoonfuls of
cold water, one teaspoonful of raw egg, and one
cupful of boiling water.

Too much egg will weaken the coffee.

MINCE-MEAT.

Five pounds of cooked beef. After the meat
is chopped, measure it in a bowl, and to each
bowl of meat add two bowls of chopped apples
and one of chopped raisins ; mix these together,
and set aside.

Chop a pound of suet fine, add one heaping
tablespoouful of salt, the same each of cinnamon
and allspice, two tablepoonfuls of clove, two
nutmegs, and not quite a tablespoonful of
mace. Add also one pound of sugar, a scant
pint of molasses, and one quart of cider ; put
these ingredients in a kettle, and let them come
to a boil ; this melts the sugar and suet and
mixes the spices.

Catering tor ^wo. 247

Take from the fire, and when cool add to the
meat, apples and raisins, and stir in, finally,
half a pint of whiskey. The sugar, salt, and
spices may be varied to suit the individual
taste.

CANDIED ORANGE PEEL.

Soak the orange peel in a brine strong enough
to float a potato, for several days ; then steep in
cold water until it is so tender that it can be
broken easily under slight pressure. The water
should be changed six or eight times in order
to make the flavor of the peel more delicate.
Drain for several hours ; then cut it into inch
squares ; measure, and put it on the back part
of the stove, with an equal amount of granu-
lated sugar. When thoroughly dissolved, spread
upon platters, and keep in the open oven or in
the sunshine until candied, which will be in a
few days. Pack away in covered glass jars.

Lemon peel may be prepared in the same
•way.

CANNED PEACHES.

Allow one pint of water and one cupful of
sugar for every quart of peaches. Boil sugar
and water for ten minutes ; then add the peaches
(peeled, but not stoned), a few at a time, and
boil until a broom-straw will pierce them easily ;
be sure to have them cooked enough.

Put the peaches in jars (two thirds full), boil,

248 Catering for ^wo.

and skim the syrup, and pour it over the peaches
until the jars overflow.

Seal at once.

Use new rubbers each season, as old ones are
apt to be unelastic. If there is not enough
syrup for the last jar, make more of sugar and
water ; canned fruit is always improved bv
plenty of syrup. Keep canned goods in a cool,
dry place, the darker the better.

PRESERVED PEACHES.

Select sound, ripe peaches of a fine, rich
variety ; peel, halve, and stone them.

Weigh, and make a syrup of an equal amount
of granulated sugar.

To every three pounds of sugar add one cup-
ful of water ; melt, and boil ten minutes ; then
drop in the peaches and cook them until a
broom-straw will pierce them easily.

Skim carefully.

Put the fruit in jars, boil and skim the syrup
a few minutes longer, fill the jars to overflowing
with the syrup, and seal.

A few stones may be boiled with the syrup,
and two or three put in each jar to flavor.

This is the old-fashioned peach preserve of our
grandmothers.

When serving, a teaspoonful of fine brandy
may be added to the juice for each portion.

Peaches may be easily peeled by pouring

Catering tor ^wo. 249

boiling water on them and allowing them to
stand about a minute ; a longer time would
soften them too much. Scald only a half a
dozen at a time.

Keep peeled fruit covered with a wet cloth to
prevent discoloration.

When peeling with a knife, a good plan is to
halve and stone them before peeling.

SPICBD PEACHES.

Seven pounds of peaches, three and a half
pounds of sugar, one scant pint of cider vine-
gar, half an ounce of stick cinnamon, half an
ounce of whole cloves, half a teaspoonful of
whole allspice, and one quarter of a nutmeg
broken into bits.

Make a syrup by boiling the sugar and vine-
gar together about ten minutes. Put in enough
peeled peaches to cover the bottom of the kettle
and cook gently and steadily until a broom-
straw will pierce them easily. Skim the peaches
out carefully ; put them on a platter and cook
the remainder of the fruit in the same way.

When all are done, drain off the juice, put it
in the kettle, boil up, and skim off the froth.

Put the peaches in a stone jar, pour the hot
syrup over them, tie the spices in a bag and lay
it on top ; cover closely, and at the end of a week
pour off the juice, boil up, and pour it hot over
the peaches.

250 Catering tor XLvoo,

If the vinegar is too sharp, a few spoonfuls
of water maybe added. If preferred a few of
the cloves may be stuck in the peaches before
boiling.

Some cooks prefer to leave the skins on
peaches put up this way, considering them
richer. Use late fruit and select only the best
and largest.

The bag for spices should be of very coarse
muslin and must be large enough to cover the
top.

Keep in a cool, dry place where the tempera-
ture is even.

QUINCES.

Wash, peel, and cut into slices an inch thick ;
remove the cores and cook until very tender in
water. Skim out the fruit and set aside.

Add sugar to the water ; boil and skim ; re-
turn the quinces to this syrup ; boil up and
seal at once in glass jars.

Pour water on the seeds and skins, boil and
strain and add sugar ; this makes a very good
jelly.

Follow the rule for crab-apple jelly.

For quince preserves use a pound of sugar to
one of fruit.

PRESERVED PINEAPPLE.
Make a syrup of one pint of sugar and half a

Catering tor ^wo. 251

cupful of water ; boil until clear, and add a pint
of pineapple which has been peeled, sliced, and
cored.

Cook fifteen minutes.

Put in glass jars, and when cold tie the jars
up in thick brown paper to exclude the light.

CANNED CHERRIES.

One quart of fine large cherries, three heaping
tablespoonfuls granulated sugar and four table-
spoonfuls of water.

Boil water and sugar until clear ; add the
cherries which have been stemmed, washed,
and drained, and cook them, covered, ten min-
utes. Seal in pint jars.

More sugar will make a richer preserve.

Prepared in this way cherries are very nice
for steamed puddings, but they may also be
used as a sauce by adding more sugar at the
table.

In canning always fill the jars brimming full ;
let them stand a minute to settle; then add
more juice and seal, hot.

PIvUMS. (DAMSON OR LARGE BLUE
VARIETY). STEWED OR FOR CANNING.

Wipe the plums with a soft cloth : use the
firmest for preserving, the others for stewing.
Measure, and allow nearly an equal amount

252 Catering tor ^wo.

of granulated sugat and the same of water.
Cook sugar and water ten minutes after it boils
clear.

Add the fruit and cook several minutes or
until a broom straw will pierce easily. A heap-
ing pint of plums will take a scant pint of
sugar, and an even pint of water. Seal hot in
air-tight glass jars.

Plum juice diluted to taste with water and
cracked ice makes a delicious and refreshing
drink.

GRAPE PRESERVES.

Use Catawba grapes and pulp them.

Measure the skins and allow as much sugar
as there are skins, and the same amount of
water.

Put half of the sugar in the oven to get hot,
and put the other half in a kettle with the
water ; boil until clear and add the skins, a few
at a time, so that the syrup may not stop
boiling.

Keep the pot covered, and do not stir, as
stirring will cause the skins to lose their plump-
ness and become tough.

Shaking the pot occasionally will prevent
burning. It will take a quart of skins about
half an hour to cook.

Cook the pulps about ten minutes to loosen
the seeds, and when cool enough, strain closely
through a piece of cheese-cloth. Put back

Catering tor Zvco. 253

over the fire, boil and skim ; then add to the
skins, stir, add the hot sugar, boil a minute or
two, and put away in glasses the same as jelly.
In cooking syrup or anything that needs
skimming let the vessel boil only on one side ;
the froth will then be thrown to the opposite
side and may be easily removed.

PRESERVED CITRON.

Cut citron in halves ; turn the cut side down
and slice with a broad, strong knife in slices a
little more than an inch wide.

Peel, seed, and cut into inch-size pieces.

Soak over night in cold water (a quart of
water to every quart of fruit, with a lump of
alum the size of a large pea dissolved in each
quart of water). Next morning rinse the citron
in salted water (a teaspoonful of salt to a quart
of water), and cook forty minutes in fresh warm
water, (a quart of water to one of citron).

Meanwhile, make a syrup of six pounds of
sugar and a pint of water in which two ounces
of scraped and sliced ginger root has been boiled.

The ginger may be soaked first for half an
hour or so in cold water to make it scrape
more easily. Slice, and pour on it three cups
of cold water, bring slowly to a boil and use
two cups (one pint) for the syrup, throwing
away the remainder.

Boil the syrup about ten minutes, tie half an

254 Catering tor tlwo.

ounce of cinnamon stick, one teaspoon ful of
whole cloves, and half a teaspoonful of whole
allspice in a piece of net or cheese-cloth and
cook this in the syrup. Add the citron after
draining and cook slowly half an hour.

Skim out and put in a stone jar.

Add to the syrup two thinly sliced lemons
which have been cooked fifteen minutes in half
a cupful of cold water (use water and all) and
boil and skim for half an hour ; then pour
over the citron.

The spices and ginger root may be added also
if preferred.

Keep in a cold place. When cold add one fine
orange thinly sliced.

The following is the exact proportion of
ingredients :

Six pounds of cut-up citron, six pounds of
granulated sugar, one pint of water, alum size
of a pea for each quart of citron, two ounces
ginger root, two lemons, half a cupful of water,
one half an ounce of stick cinnamon, one tea-
spoonful whole cloves, one half-teaspoonful all-
spice, one orange.

CRAB-APPIvE JELI.Y.

Cover the apples with cold water and cook
slowly until they are as soft as mush, then drain
through a cloth laid over a sieve ; do not press
the fruit in the least.

Catering for q:wo. 255

Put the juice on the fire and cook a few
minutes ; then add an equal amount of sugar ;
boil and skim and put away in tumblers.

As apples yield a different quality of juice at
different seasons, it is better to make up only a
quart at first, and this will serve as a guide for
the rest of the jelly, how long to boil, and how
much water and sugar will be needed.

GRAPE JELLY.

Use Concord grapes ; stem them, and keep
them at the boiling-point in an agate saucepan
(uncovered) on the back of the stove for four
hours (stirring occasionally), to evaporate and
get soft.

Mash with a wooden potato-masher, and stir
with a wooden spoon.

Boil gently for another hour, or until the
seeds drop out, careful not to let them burn.
Stir often.

When cool enough, strain, a cupful at a time,
through a piece of new canton-flannel wrung
out of cold water. Measure the juice with ex-
actness, and put an equal amount of granulated
sugar on pans or platters in the oven, to get
very hot, but not to melt, stirring occasionally.

While the sugar is heating, cook the juice
in a clean agate saucepan, uncovered, half an
hour.

Do not stir, but skim at the end of each fif-

256 Catering for ^wo,

teen minutes. Now add the hot sugar, and stir
with a wooden spoon until it is all dissolved ;
then boil gently five minutes without stirring ;
skim ; boil again for five minutes; skim again,
and it is ready to put in glasses.

Put a silver teaspoon in each glass, and fill
to the top ; remove the spoon at once, as metal
of any kind will discolor the jelly.

Put the jelly away, uncovered, for a day in a
dry place, or in the sunshine ; then cover with
rounds of writing-paper dipped in brandy or al-
cohol, and tie over this rounds of paper.

Allow no water to touch the grapes ; do not
wash them, and see that all utensils are per-
fectly dry and clean.

If the foregoing directions are followed ex-
actly, the jelly will be clear and rich in color,
and of a perfect consistency. Keep in a dry,
cool closet.

CURRANT JEI/LY.

Put the currants, unstemmed and unwashed,
in an agate kettle. Heat, and mash with a
wooden pestle, or spoon, and cook gently for
fifteen minutes after boiling begins.

When cool enough not to bum the hand,
strain, a cupful at a time, through a piece of stout
cloth wrung very dry from hot water ; press out
every bit of juice.

Measure, and put an equal amount of granu-

Catering tor Zvoo» 257

lated sugar in the oven to get very hot. Boil
the juice for fifteen minutes slowly ; skim ;
then stir in the hot sugar ; boil ten or twelve
minutes, and put into tumblers. One quart of
currants will make two tumblers of jelly. Let
no water touch the fruit during the process.

SYRUP FROM BERRIES.

Put very ripe perfect berries in an earthen-
ware pot ; mash, and let them stand over night
in a warm room. Next daj- heat, but do not
boil ; strain through a cloth ; measure ; add an
equal amount of granulated sugar ; set on the
stove, and stir until the sugar is dissolved, but
do not cook ; then seal hot in small, air-tight
glass jars.

This syrup maybe used for flavoring jellies
or punches, or for making sherbets.

UNFERMENTED GRAPE-JUICE.

Ten cupfuls Concord grapes, six cupfuls
water, two cupfuls sugar. Mash the grapes,
and cook in three cupfuls of the water ; strain ;
add to the skins and seeds three more cupfuls
of water ; cook again ; strain ; add to the
strained juice the two cupfuls of sugar, and
boil five minutes.

Skim, and bottle, hot, in air-tight jars.

In serving, add sugar and a little lemon-juice
(or thin slices of lemon) ; fill glasses half full

258 Catering for Zwo,

of cracked ice ; pour in the grape juice, and a
simple but delicious drink is the result.

LEMONADE.

Ten tablespoon fuls lemon-juice ; ten heaping
tablespoonfuls granulated sugar ; one orange,
sliced very thin ; two even quarts of ice-water.

IvEMON EXTRACT.

Cut the yellow rind from six fine large lemons,
as thinly as possible, and cover with three fourths
of a pint of best alcohol. Put in a wide-mouthed
bottle and cork tightly. It will be ready for
use in a few days.

EXTRACT OF VANILLA.

Break one vanilla-bean into inch pieces ;
cover with cold water and let it stand in a
tightly corked bottle four days.

Then add half a pint of the best alcohol : it
will be ready for use in a week.

Turn this off into another bottle, and add to
the vanilla-bean a little more than half a cupful
of alcohol : this will be ready by the time the
first extract is all used.

The bottles should have glass stoppers.

Vanilla-beans are long, thin pods which sell
for twenty cents each and can only be found at
the large stores dealing in fine groceries. It is

Catering tor ^wo. 259

a great advantage to make one's extract, as
most of that which is sold is not made from
vanilla-beans at all.

GREEN TOMATO PICKLE.

Four quarts of green tomatoes sliced in nearly
inch-thick slices.

One quart of white onions, and six green
peppers sliced thinly.

Put them with salt in layers in an earthen
vessel to stand over night. Use a rounded half-
cupful of fine table salt.

In the morning drain for an hour ; then pour
over them three scant pints of genuine cider
vinegar ; add half a cupful of granulated sugar,
a tablespoonful of whole cloves, half an ounce
of stick cinnamon and a few allspice tied in a
bag.

Cook gently for half an hour after boiling
begins, keeping the cover partly off. Just be-
fore removing from the fire add an ounce of
mustard seed ; stir lightly, so as not to break
the pieces, with a wooden spoon, and put away
in an earthen jar for a month in a cool place.
At the end of this time put it again on the stove
and boil up with a half-cupful of sugar (more or
less according to taste), and seal hot in jars.

Remove the bag of spices before sealing, and
add a red pepper pod if not peppery enough.
Before filling a jar, place in it a spoon long

26o Catering for XLwo,

enough to extend above the edge of it. This
•will prevent breaking if the jar is a perfect
one.

PICKIvBD STRING-BEANS AND
CUCUMBERS.

Put one quart of young fresh string-beans
into a brine which will float an egg.

At the end of three days take them out and
put into the brine two dozen very small white
onions. Wash the beans in ice-water and pour
over them one pint of boiling cider vinegar in
which is dissolved a lump of alum the size of a
large pea.

In three days drain ; steam the beans for
twelve minutes in a steamer ; then put them
into a stone jar ; add the onions, one small red
pepper pod, one ounce of mixed whole spices
tied in a bag, and pour over one pint of cider
vinegar, boiling hot. Place a weight on the
pickles to keep them submerged.

Throw away the brine and alum vinegar.

Keep pickles always in a cool place.

Small cucumbers called gherkins are pickled
in the same way except that steaming is not
necessary. Omit the onions and add to the
last vinegar a tablespoonful of sugar.

The bag of spices may be removed when the
pickles are flavored sufficiently.

Catering tor ^wo» 261

TARRAGON VINBGAR FOR SALADS.

Put a bunch of tarragon leaves in one quart
of fine cider vinegar in an earthen vessel set
within another containing cold water. Set on
the fire and let the vinegar boil up.

When cool, bottle and cork.

Only a small quantity of the tarragon should
be used, as its flavor is very pronounced.

BAKED RHUBARB.

Put three cupfuls of skinned and cut-up rhu-
barb (or pie-plant) into an earthen dish ; add
one cupful of sugar ; dredge with a teaspoonful
of flour and bake (covered) about half an hour.

To be eaten with meats, or put into tart shells
for dessert. Have covers for the tart shells.

HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS.

Salt toughens meat if added before it is done.

Wash lettuce carefully so as not to bruise, cut-
ting each leaf from the stalk, and put it, drip-
ping, into a closely covered pot. Set in a cool
place. Ivcttuce thus prepared will keep for
several days and be crisp and fresh.

Celery should be treated in the same way.

Each day look it over, rinse in fresh cold
water and return to the pot.

Do not soak in water to freshen, but when
slightly wilted, wash and put in an earthen pot
instead.

Turnips, cabbage, and parsley are always im-
proved by this treatment, but it is not necessary
to pull the cabbage apart.

Greens, (spinach and sprouts) should be
soaked for several hours in cold water.

Set asparagus bunches in a few inches of cold
water to keep them fresh ; the water should not
come more than half way up the stalks. When
ready to cook, wash in several waters to get out
the sand.

262

Catering tor ^wo. 263

Confectioner's sugar may be found at almost
all shops where groceries are found, but when
not procurable, powdered sugar will answer al-
most as well if it is rolled very fine on the
moulding-board.

Make Coffee Bavarian Cream frequently, at
least twice in a month. It is something one
rarely tires of. When used as a dinner dessert,
oranges served after it will be found very ac-
ceptable.

Candied fruits for pies or puddings may be
softened by steaming in a steamer ; set the fruit
on a dish.

When wishing to keep a steak or chops over
night in hot weather, if there is danger of spoil-
ing, broil or fry over a hot fire just enough to
sear the outside, and to heat through but not to
cook. Set on ice.

If not cooked too much they will be as nice
when broiled next morning as if they had not
had the preliminary broil.

When cheese becomes too hard for the table,
grate it and put away in bottles ; it is useful for
macaroni, soups, or sandwiches.

Empty all canned things, as soon as they are
opened, into an earthen bowl, and if not used
for a day or two, scald them. In this way
tomatoes may be kept a week in a cool place.

264 Catering tor ^wo.

Before putting crackers on the table set them
in a hot oven a few minutes to crisp them.

Before toasting bread, dry it a little in the
oven : it should be heated through before toast-
ing. Serve dipped and buttered toast (on a
separate dish) with fried salt pork or ham, at
breakfast.

A little curry powder added to soups or stews
gives a new dish.

When a quick fire is needed and the range
burns slowly, rake out as thoroughly as possi-
ble ; add a bundle of kindling-wood, and open
the draughts. One bundle of wood is usually
enough to bake a pan of biscuits or muffins. If
the fire is to be used for broiling, burn the wood
to a red bed of coals.

When broiling, if the fire is too hot, sprinkle
over it a thin layer of fine ashes, or a handful
of salt, or lay a folded sheet of newspaper on
the coals ; put on the lid, and when the paper
has burned out, its ashes will smother the fire
enough.

On the other hand, if the fire should not be
hot enough, add a few scraps of fat meat.

Grape preserves may be put between layer-
cake just before serving. For a small family,
cut one layer crosswise (not to split) and double
one half over the other. Served with cream,
this makes a delicious dessert.

Catering for tlwo. 265

To brown flour for soups and gravies, put a
few spoonfuls evenly on the bottom of a baking-
pan and stir until it has become a fine amber-
brown over a moderate fire. Bottle and keep
for use.

Some different varieties of cheese are — Stilton,
Camembert, Roquefort, New Roquefort, Brie,
Gorgonzola, Club-House, Edam, Sweet Clover,
Meadow Brook, Philadelphia Cream, Neufcha-
tel, Parmesan, Old English, Limburger, Che-
shire, Gruyere, and Pineapple.

An agreeable blend of tea is made of half a
pound of the finest Oolong mixed with an
ounce, or even less, of uncolored Japan tea. It
(Japan) is of a pale greenish hue, and is not to
be mistaken for the green tea of China.

Until one has become acquainted with the
different grades and qualities of grocer's wares,
it is much safer to buy only from houses whose
judgment in such things can be depended on.

Dry egg-shells, break into bits, and put them
away in a preserving jar to use in clearing coffee ;
two tablespoon fuls will clear one pint of coffee.

When dried chipped beef is in danger of be-
coming musty, take it from the box, spread on
a platter and dry it in a hot oven ; it may then
be put away and will keep for months. When
immersed in cream sauce, beef treated in this

266 Catering tor G^wo.

way will swell to its natural size and be as nice
as at first.

Dried or smoked beef is considered by some
physicians to be unsafe for food until cooked.

The chopping-bowl must be scraped and
scoured after each using, and well scalded,
otherwise it will become unhygienic. Turn
upside-down when not in use.

Butter should be kept covered in a stone jar
in a cool place ; some housekeepers put it into
a brine, and this certainly keeps it sweet, and
sometimes improves the quality. The brine
should be strong enough to bear up a potato.

Put a potato in the jar ; add water, and then
stir in salt until the potato floats.

Get only the best and sweetest butter, and
never use an inferior grade for cooking.
Rancid butter is unhealthful.

As soon as possible after it comes from the
butcher's hands, remove meat from the paper,
put it on an earthen dish and set in a cool place.

Spread out in a thin layer berries of every
sort, and keep them in a cool, dry, and dark
place. If they seem soft and not likely to keep,
stew them in a sugar syrup.

Agate-ware pots with close-fitting covers
make excellent cake-boxes.

Catering tor Zvifo, 267

Lettuce may be pulled apart, rinsed, and put
directly on the ice in very hot weather, and be
all the better for this treatment.

If meat is put on the ice, place between
the- ice and plate a thickness of flannel ; this
will keep the ice from melting too fast.

Cover the meat with a plate.

The refrigerator should be washed out thor-
oughly once a week with water in which a tea-
spoonful of sal-soda has been dissolved.

By keeping dishes containing food closely
covered as much as possible, the refrigerator
may be kept free from odors.

Baked onions are almost as delicious as those
roasted in the ashes, or before the logs in the
open fireplace.

Do not peel them, but set them in a hot oven
to bake until tender. Take off" the skins care-
fully and serve with butter, salt, and pepper.

" China eggs " are a pretty garnish to a dish
of hashed meat or picked-up fish ; boil them
just hard enough to make them shell easily,
and serve whole and hot.

Let cake cool a little before taking it from
the pans.

When testing cake to see if it is baked
enough, use a slender broom-straw, thrusting
it gently into the edge first, and then into the

268 Catering tor Zvoo,

middle ; if put into the middle part suddenly,
or too soon, the cake may fall.

Before scraps of bread have a chance to be-
come musty, dry them thoroughly in the oven ;
put away in a covered jar, and when enough
has accumulated, roll to powder on the mould-
ing board, and put into jars or tin boxes for
breading, etc.

Scraps of Neufchatel or cream cheese may
be made to serve again by mixing them with
butter and cream, or milk, and spreading them
on banquet crackers. Make into sandwiches
and serve with salad.

FLAVORINGS.

Vanilla, almond, rose, coflfee, caramel, ma-
raschino, chopped almonds, grated cocoanut,
pounded macaroons, fruit juices, rum, pis-
tachio, orange, lemon, kirsch, sherry, brandy,
madeira, curacoa, chocolate, orange -flower
water, cordials, and liqueurs form most of the
flavorings in general use.

Mrs. Sherwood gives the following rules for
the service of wine at a dinner party :

White wine with the fish, sherry with the
soup, and claret and champagne with the
roast; champagne is either " dry " or sweet,
and must not be decanted, but must be kept in
ice-pails and opened when needed.

Catering for ^wo. 269

Madeira and port wines accompany the game ;
these are decanted, and should not be cold, but
of the temperature of the room.

A delicious claret-punch for luncheons or
suppers is made from claret, vichy, lemons,
sugar, and cracked ice, in proportions to suit
the taste.

Sherbets and sorbets are served in glasses
after the game.

Roman-punch is a lemon sherbet to which
Jamaica rum has been added in the proportion
of one cupful of rum to one quart of sherbet.

For a lemon sherbet, boil together for twenty
minutes, one pint of sugar, and one scant quart
of water, and when cool, add a cupful of lemon-
juice and the grated rind of two lemons ; mix
together and freeze until firm.

Strawberry and orange sherbets are made in
the same way, adding a little lemon-juice. A
mixture of fruit juices makes delicious sherbets
or sorbets ; the latter are sherbets only half
frozen .

A portion of the dinner-roll dough may have
stoned dates worked into it ; this is called date
bread and is delicious for luncheon. Put the
dates in close together, and let it raise the same
as any bread dough. To be eaten cold.

Potatoes should be thinly pared, as the best
part lies next the skin.

The sweetness of fruit also lies next the skin.

270 Catering tor ^wo.

Never throw away milk or cream because it
has soured : allow it to become loppered, or
thick, and use it for corn-bread or griddle-
cakes. When thick and ice cold, it may be
whipped with the egg-beater and it makes then
a refreshing drink in hot weather. Whip it
about five minutes. Sour milk and molasses
both contain lactic acid, an element found in
gastric juice. Lactic acid is a digestive fer-
ment.

Soured (unsweetened) condensed milk may
have two parts or a little more of water added
to it, when it may be used in cooking the same
as other sour milk.

Eggs must be cold and very fresh to whip
well.

When the white of an egg after being frothed
begins to separate, a few drops of lemon-juice
added will remedy the trouble.

Always use earthen -ware for whisking eggs
in.

Nasturtiums make a pretty as well as an appe-
tizing garnish for meats and salads ; to be at
their best they must be freshly picked. The
stems as well as the blossoms are edible.

Florists now sell them in pots so that they
are easily obtainable for use on the table.

In serving fresh peaches peel, stone, and

J

Catering for ZTwo. 271

halve. Do not slice, but serve in halves, with
a lump of ice in each, with sugar to taste.

After peeling, cover with a wet cloth ; set on
ice until well chilled, and add ice and sugar at
serving-time.

In canning fruits, turn the filled jars upside-
down for a week, examining them each morn-
ing.

If any juice exudes, the jar is not air-tight,
and the contents are likely to spoil : such must
be cooked over again, or be used very soon.

To blanch is to scald with boiling water so
that skins of fruits, nuts, or sweetbreads, etc.,
may be removed with greater ease.

A nice filling for sandwiches may be made
by mincing or pounding meat very fine, mixing
it to a paste with cream or melted butter, and
seasoning to taste.

THINGS TO KBBP ON HAND.

Canned tomatoes, corn, milk, sardines, sal-
mon, potted ham, salt pork, flour, soda, baking-
powder, salt, sugar, eggs, macaroni, butter,
cheese, molasses, spices, vinegar, crackers, tea,
coflFee, cocoa, chocolate, smoked-beef, lemons,
pepper, mustard, Indian-meal, hominy, corn-
starch, oat-meal, potatoes, apples, cabbage or
celery, onions, olives, capers, extract of beef,
salt codfish, rice, tapioca, lima-beans, fruit cake,

272 Catering; for ^wo.

maple-sugar, and honey : also soap, starch,
blueing, borax, and sapolio.

Serve souffles in separate courses ; omelettes
also. Small sandwiches, or bread and cheese,
may be passed with them.

A fish souffle will take the place of a fish
course.

The sweet Spanish peppers should be eaten
with salt the same as radishes.

A continual change in the bill of fare is de-
sirable : one tires of the same dessert if seen too
often, no matter how delicious it is, unless pos-
sibly ice-cream may be an exception.

If part of a dish be left over, wait a day or
two before serving it again, and let weeks
elapse before preparing it again. In this way
the table will always present a pleasant sur-
prise.

Three tablespoonfuls of rice may be substi-
tuted for tapioca in the ' ' tapioca meringue
pudding."

Soak the rice over night in cold water, and
add milk, eggs, etc., in the morning.

The little salt bags (ten-cent size) make roomy
mittens for sweeping ; they will also be found
of service about the stove, especially when re-
moving dishes from hot ovens, as they protect
both wrists and hands which a holder often fails
to do.

Catering tor ^wo. 273

Straitiing-cloths, dish-cloths, etc., should be
thoroughly cleaned by boiling in washing soda
or pearline ; one teaspoonful to a quart of cold
water.

In hot weather this should be done daily.

Rubber gloves protect the hands from veget-
able and fruit stains ; they are especially
needed in making grape jelly.

Get them several sizes too large or the hand
will not have room for free action.

Grease will melt them.

When a dish seems rather tasteless a dash of
salt will often improve it. This also applies to
pudding and other sweet dishes.

Jellies give zest to meats and vegetables, as do
pickles also.

Olives, celery, and salted nuts are passed
between the courses to prepare the palate for
the dishes which are to follow.

In cooking vegetables, those of one size
should be selected, if possible, otherwise the
larger ones should be cut into pieces to equal
the smaller.

Onions may be cut nearly through, leaving
just enough uncut to hold the pieces together.
In this way all will be cooked at the same
time.

The earthen pipkin is a valuable cooking

18

274 Catering toe XLvoo.

utensil, as it may be easily kept sweet and
clean, and things cook evenly and keep hot
in it.

A " cupful " in all cases is half a pint.

Any preserved citron which is left over at
'springtime may be drained from the syrup,
dried a little in the oven and packed away in
glass to be used in cakes and puddings at any
time : thus prepared it will keep for years.

Pork tenderloins may be cut in three-quarter-
inch slices (across instead of lengthwise) breaded
•with cracker crumbs and fried the same as
directed for veal cutlets ; serve with lemon
marmalade, or apple jelly and pickled tomatoes,
or they may be broiled.

Left-over stewed potatoes may be mashed
fine with a fork, minced parsley added, formed
into cakes, dipped into cracker crumbs and
fried delicately in a little butter ; they are
delicious prepared in this way.

Ivcft-over mashed potatoes are excellent
breaded with cracker crumbs, fried in butter
and used as a border around hashed meats ; lay
a sprig of parsley or watercress on each cake.

Keep a bottle of linseed-oil and lime-water
(mixed in equal parts) in readiness to use for
burns or scalds. Shake well, spread upon old
table-linen, and bind on the injured place.

Catering tor XTwo. 275

TO DRAW POULTRY.

Make an incision in the breast end of the
turkey, take out the crop, loosen the windpipe
and the other long stringy tube, cutting them
out as low down as possible, which will make
the drawing of the lower entrails easier.

Cut a slit across the lower end of the fowl
between leg and tail large enough to admit the
hand. Slip in the hand straight, pressing the
back of the hand close to the side of the body
and between body and entrails ; push up as far
as possible ; now curve the fingers, catch the en-
trails at the upper end, and draw out the entire
mass, slowly, so as not to break the gall, which
is a little green sac lying against the liver,
and which if crushed will give a bitter taste to
everything it touches.

Take out the liver and heart ; cut oflf any
green portion on the liver where the gall has
rested ; wash quickly and put away.

Cut the gizzard open ; tear out the lining;
wash and scrape it thoroughly and put it away.

Cut out all pieces of nice fat found among the
entrails, and after washing lay it over the turkey
to keep it moist when roasting.

Cut out the oil-sac on the tail.

Always buy fat poultry : there is no economy
in thin, scrawny meat of any kind, especially
poultry.

276 Catering tot (Two.

COOKING UTENSILS.

Wire spoon, cooking spoons, knives and
forks, can-opener, apple-corer, iron dish-cloth,
flour-sifter, sugar-scoops, quart, pint, half-pint
and gill measures, one iron spider, two small
sheet-iron frying-pans, one large sheet-iron
frying-pan, half a dozen saucepans of assorted
sizes, earthenware pudding-dishes, bread and
cake tins, one large pot over which a steamer
will fit, two dripping-pans for roasting, one
to fit over the other, wire broiler, graters,
coflFee-grinder, close-fitting covers for all pots,
pans, etc., chopping-bowl and -knife, potato-
masher, wooden pestle, flour-dredge, moulding-
board, rolling-pin, teakettle, canisters for tea,
coffee, and spices. Universal pot, pipkins —
several sizes, bread pot, small knife for paring
vegetables, whetstone, muffin rings, gem or
muffin pans, pie plates, biscuit tins, meat-racks,
tea-stands, coffee-strainer, sieves, meat-grinder,
long clinch-nails for skewers, skimmer, cake-
turner, wooden spoons, colanders, saw bread-
knife, yellow earthen bowls, meat-block, two
funnels ; one small for bottles, a large one for
jugs.

TO LAY THE DINNER-TABLE.

The table should first be covered with a cloth
of thick cotton flannel which comes for this

Catering tor XTwo. 277

purpose, securely fastened on by pinning the
corners together underneath.

Over this spread the damask cloth.

A circular mirror or a piece of embroidered
linen may fill the centre of the table for the
flowers to stand on. At the right of each place
put a dessert-spoon, teaspoon, a knife for the
salad course, a larger knife for the meat course,
soup-spoon and oyster-fork, if oysters are served.

At the left, place two forks : if a fish course
forms part of the meal add also a small fish-
knife and -fork.

As each knife and fork is used it is removed
with the plate, and the confusion and extra
work of bringing in fresh knives and forks is
avoided.

As the meal progresses, the table is gradually
cleared, until, when the time for dessert arrives,
nothing is left but the glasses, flowers, and the
spoons for dessert. The space between the
knives and forks should be wide enough for
the dinner-plate, before which stands the salt-
cellar, pepper-box, butter-plate, and glasses for
water, Apollinaris, and wine.

Use tumblers for the ice-water, small tall
glasses for Apollinaris, and appropriate glasses
for the wine.

The napkin may hold the dinner-roll, or piece
of bread, or the roll may be laid upon the but-
ter-plate, which may also contain a pat of but-

278 Catering tor ^wo.

ter. All these arrangements make the serving
of a dinner easier.

The bread, butter, and water should be put
upon the table just before the meal is an-
nounced. The first course should be upon the
table on sitting down, and the meat and vege-
tables in hot covered dishes be within easy reach
on a side table. The salad may also be on the side
table to replace the meat course as soon as it is
removed.

Before serving the dessert, brush off all
crumbs, then bring on coffee and fruit and the
finger-bowls on the plates intended for fruit or
bon-bons.

Olives, celery, salted nuts, pickles, or jellies
should be on the table from the beginning of
the meal : the first three are eaten between the
courses ; the pickles and jellies with the meat.

When there is no maid to wait at table, the
side table is indispensable to the housewife who
would save herself unnecessary steps, and have
the dinner pass off without confusion.

The most convenient side tables are those in
the form of an open closet, having a set of
shelves, with large castors which render them
easy to push about.

A table of this sort should contain all the ex-
tra knives, forks, and spoons, and other things
needed for the meal, and, when possible, the
food for the succeeding courses.

Catering tor ^wo. 279

The lamp or gas-stove for hot water may also
find a place here, and the dishes as they are re-
moved from the dinner-table.

Griddle-cakes may be served from the side
table, baked on the gas or oil stove ; if the table
is too high to permit of turning the cakes easily,
put the stove on a waiter and set this on a chair.

Use a soapstone griddle, or wash thoroughly
an old iron griddle, rub it with salt, and do not
grease ; the butter in the batter will be suflfi-
cient to keep cakes from sticking.

Ivct the table-linen be as fine and good as the
purse will allow, and whenever possible have a
few flowers on the table as a centrepiece.

A growing plant is in good taste, and the pot
may be covered with green cr^pe paper.

If the napery is not very fine, have it ironed
very wet, with a heavy, hot iron until perfectly
dry.

Water starch (that is extremely thin starch)
may be used for the cloth but not for the nap-
kins : thus treated, table linen will have a rich
gloss and look well even if the quality is not
the best and finest.

Colored cloths are out of place on the dinner
table.

Colored napkins are used when the fruit comes
on.

Doilies of drawn work at each place save the
cloth, and serve to make the table attractive.

28o Catering for ^wo.

With linen perfectly laundered and spotless,
glass sparkling, and the silver shining, a table
may be elegant no matter how inexpensive the
furnishings.

However informal the breakfast and luncheon,
it is always well to make the dinner a meal of
some ceremony.

Even if the viands are of the simplest, and
the table appointments the plainest, a dinner
served with regularity yields enjoyment and
comfort to those partaking of it, and will be
found to be less trouble than if served hap-
hazard.

The style of putting all the dishes on the table
at once is steadily growing out of favor in most
families ; it is found to be more conducive to the
healthful enjoyment of food to serve but a few
things at a time, making separate courses of the
dishes whenever practicable. This plan tempts
the appetite when too bountiful a supply of food
would discourage it.

If only a very simple meal is desired (of
two courses) add an extra vegetable, or increase
the quantity of those mentioned, and select a
somewhat rich dessert.

INDEX.

SOUPS.

Asparagus, cream of
Beans, pur^e of .
Beef-tea

Bouillon (or consomm
Celery soup
Chicken broth
Clam soup .
Corn soup .
Julienne consomm^
Lamb broth, spiced

with lemon
Macaroni soup .
Mutton broth
Ox-tail soup
Oyster stew .
Peas, consommd with

purde of green
Potato pur^e
Rice, consomm6 with
Soup with egg .
Soup-stock (clear)
Split-pea soup
Tomato, bisque .

cream puree
Vegetable soup .

^)

green

io8
136
212

41

76

7

143

163

98

130
48
56
14
87
120
156
62

35

I
27
28
70
20

83
114

281

28a ITnDej.

FISH,

Clam, chowder 140

fritters 221

Codfish, balls 204

picked-up 202

Fresh fish, boiled with HoUandaise sauce . 93

broiled 209

fried 203

spiced 221

stuffed and baked 98

Oyster, cocktails 184

croustade 189

patties 194

pie 2

Oysters, escalloped 38

fried 106

on the half-shell 190

Salmop with HoUandaise sauce . . 195

Smelts, fried 190

Souffle 195

MEATS.

Beef, a la mode 94

corned ....... 23

frizzled 196

roast, porter-house 21

roast, sirloin 8

soup-meat 42

steak, Hamburg 195

steak, porter-house 169

steak pudding 115

steak, round 6

steak with onions 144

stew (cold roast) 23

stew with sweet potatoes . . .13

tongue 192

various ways of using the coarse ends . 171

ftiDcj.

283

Birds ....
Chicken, blanquetteof
broiled

browned in butter .
croquettes (of birds)
fricassee .
fried
patties
roast

smothered
souffle
Duck, roast
Hash ....

baked

Lamb, browned in spiced sauce
chops, breaded (French)

broiled ....
cutlets and stew from roast
roast

stuffed .
stew
Iviver and bacon
Meat pie, baked .
Mutton, boiled, caper sauce
Pork.

bacon and eggs
ham, baked (smoked)

fried, cream gravy (smoked)
omelette
on toast
roast, savory stuffing (fresh)
pork and beans

chops, fried, cream gravy
roast rib and loin
tenderloin, fried and boiled
sausage, fried and baked
meat ....
souse (pickled pigs' feet)

222

190
168

57
222

44

57

194

43
201
194
152

23
213
129

185
77
50
29

49

30

208

67, 72
15

208
157

36
207
210
148
121

84
125
84, 274
204
225
224

284

•ffnDej.

Pot-roast, mutton

• • • 39

stew with lamb kidneys .

. 165

top-sirloin

.71

under-round or cross-rib

. 164

Potted meats

. 220

Remnants, of cold oven roasts or broils, 126, 197

poultry, veal, or lamb

■ 197

Turkey, roast

• 175

Veal, cutlets

. 109

loaf

. 210

pot-pie (raised crust)

63

roast (stuffed) .

88

VEGETABlwES

Asparagus on toast
Beans, butter

lima

string
Beets ....
Cabbage, fried

hot slaw .
Cape May omelette .
Cauliflower, fritters .

with Hollandaise sauce
Corn, on the cob

fritters

stewed
Cucumbers .

with cream
Greens (beet-tops, dandelions, and spinach
Hominy, boiled .

fried
Macaroni with cheese
Onions, baked in milk

boiled

browned in butter .

roasted in the oven

91

lOI

59

lOI

137
158
100

52

64
166

66
234

36

loi

221

) III

126

36

9

138

90

131
267

•ffnDei.

285

Parsnip, buttered

. 45

patties ....

. 37

with cream sauce .

.' 16

Peas, green (stewed) .

. 52

Potatoes, baked .

• 79

balls (baked) .

• 153

boiled (new) .

. 212

with cream sauce

. 51

breaded ....

. 213

broiled ....

. 165

browned in milk

. no

in the oven . . . .

. 117

cakes

99, 274

croquettes

. 137

escalloped

• • 31

fried ....

. 165

French ....

• 95

hashed, or stewed, with crearc

I gravy . 158

with parsley

• 59

lyonnaise

9

mashed ....

• 73

Saratoga chips

. 130

sweet, baked or broiled .

. 150

browned in the oven .

85, 150

Rice, boiled

. . 16

croquettes

. . 89

fried ....

. 44

Spaghetti with tomato sauce

. 227

Spinach with egg sauce

. Ill

Squash, baked .

. 145

mashed ....

. 90

Succotash ....

• 95

Tomatoes, baked

. . 65

escalloped

. 45

fritters ....

. 225

on toast ....

. 74

stewed ....

. 11,7

in butter

. 37

286 UnDej,

Turnips and potatoes mashed together 24, 145

breaded 149

browned in butter 86

with cream sauce 31

SALADS.

Salad, apple 95

asparagus 139

cabbage 53

celery 24

chicken 102

chicory, with French dressing . . 32

cold meat 141

cold slaw ...... 38

egg, with greens 112

lettuce, with French dressing . . 60

onion 117

oyster 45

potato, with greens . . . .131

for tea or luncheon .... 200

sardine 214

string-bean 160

sweetbread 200

tomato 9, 112

and celery 191

DESSERTS.

Apples, baked, with cream . . . 161

with meringue 155

Cake.

cake, chocolate 113

cream 113

fruit 236

gold and silver 236

lemon . . . . . . 10, 11

loaf 53

Cake — f Con tin ued)

molasses ....

pound

sponge

whipped-cream .

chocolate custard for layer cake

frosting for cakes and puddings

gingersnaps ....

hot ginger bread and wafers ,

soft gingerbread

vanilla wafers ...

Charlotte russe ....
Custard, boiled ....
Dumplings, steamed, caramel sauce
Floating island ....
French toast ....
Fruit dumplings, baked

fritters

Gelatine jelly, caramel

caramel sea-foam mouss^

chocolate, with custard .

coffee, Bavarian cream .

orange, with whipped cream .

pineapple, with whipped cream

princess, with sea-foam cream

strawberry
whip

wine
Ice-cream .

Muskmelon with ice-cream
Pie, apple .

cherry

huckleberry

lemon meringue

mince

peach

rhubarb .

squash

and fruit

237

237

226

10

223

I, 232

238

239
240
119
173
154
17
118

235
81

234

5

230

154

229

178

60

151

68

229

91

185

234

104

105

167

39

181

104

104

166

2S8

•ffnOej,

Pineapple, jardiniere .
with floating island
Pudding, banana meringue
blackberry

cherry ....
chocolate

jelly, with sea-foam cream
corn-starch, with candied fruit

lemon meringue (baked)
cottage
farina
Indian

lemon meringue
orange tapioca, with whipped
plum
prune
queen's .
rice, baked

boiled, whipped-egg sauce

meringue
roly-poly, with whipped-egg
steamed, with oranges .
suet
sultana
tapioca, baked

cream .

meringue
Strawberry shortcake

SAUCES.

MKAT AND VEGETABI<E SAUCES.

Cream gravy, for bacon, etc.

for fresh pork
Onion butter
Sauce, bread

caper

•curry

flliDcj. 289

Sauce — ( Con tin ued)

drawu butter (or white) . . . 16, 90
Espagnole (or brown), for stews, etc. . 198

Hollandaise 94

mint 51

parsley 51

tartare 190

wine . . . . . . -51

PUDDING SAUCES.

Caramel (burnt sugar) . . . .18

Maple-sugar syrup 202

Sauce, caramel 18

caramel cream 189

custard 47

egg, whipped 4

hard 82, 180

liquid 107, 180

strawberry-shortcake .... 233

tutti-frutti 233

wine 180

Sea-foam cream 232

Substitute for whipped cream ... 34

Sugar syrup 234

Whipped cream 33

SAI^AD DRESSINGS.

French dressing . . . . 24, 32
Mayonnaise . . . .46, 103, 141
Tarragon vinegar 261

TABI^E-SAUCES.

Apples, fried 158

Apple-sauce, baked 127

hot 85

390

•ffiiDej.

Cranberry-sauce, strained .

177

whole ....

178

Peaches, stewed and baked

12

Prunes, stewed .

12

Rhubarb, baked

. 261

stewed ....

88

Strawberries, raspberries, and

blackber

ries, stewed

•

II

PICKI^KS AND REWSHBS.

Chili sauce

150

Marmplade, lemon

79

tomato ....

1^8

Pickled, cabbage

4

cucumbers

260

green tomatoes

259

string-beans

260

Spiced tomato sauce, cold

172

hot

122

JEI.I.IES.

Jelly, crab-apple . . . . . 254

currant . 256

grape . .... . .255

quince 250

PRESERVES.

Canned, cherries 251

peaches 247

plums 251

strawberries, raspberries, and blackber-
ries II

Preserved, citron . . . . . 253

grapes 252

orange-peel (candied) .... 247

IFnDej.

2QI

Preserved, peaches

248

spiced

249

pineapple

250

candied

105

quinces ....

250

Syrup from berries

257

BREAD

Biscuits (baking-powder) .

159

or dinner rolls (yeast) .

J32

Bread (yeast)

date (yeast)

269

gluten (yeast) .

218

milk (yeast) .

215

Cornbread ....

123

, 226

Muffins (baking-powder) .

206

Graham ....

213

Indian meal

224

yeast (prune pudding batter)

97

MISCBLIvANBOUS.

Bread-crumbs for breading and pudd

ings .

212

Cheese, on toast

203

some varieties

.

265

Chocolate ....

.

162

Coffee ....

147

, 245

Cooking utensils

276

Crust, for oyster-patties
for pot-pies and stew-pies

193

.

159

Eggs, au gratin .

.

beauregarde .

.

t88

poached

206

scrambled ....

207

Flavorings ....

.

268

Fondant, or foundation, for cream ca

indies

241

Frosting for cakes and puddings

.

II

232

•ffnDej.

Grape-fruit .
Griddle-cakCvS, bread

buckwheat

wheat and Indian
Helpful suggestions
Home-made yeast
Indian-meal mush
Lemonade .
Lemon extract .
Milk toast .
Mince-meat
Oatmeal
Oranges
Pie-crust (flaky)
Pot-cheese with watercresses
Punch

Salted almonds
Sandwiches

cheese

sardine
Sherbets and sorbets .
Stuffing, bread and butter

onion
Sugar-plums, chocolate

nut candies
Tea ....
Things to keep on hand
To draw poultry
To lay the dinner-table
Un fermented grape-juice
Vanilla extract .

-bar,

. i88

. 211
. 214

211
. 262
. 219
. 205
. 258
. 258

202

181, 246

. 205

. 103

. 81

. 269

. 80

. 271

32, 268

. 214

. 269

49, 126
. 152
and
. 242
. 26
. 271

. 275

. 276

• 257

. 258

BOOKS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD

household Economics. A Course of Lectures in the
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