Fifty dinners

The fashion of serving fruit in liqueur-flavoured syrup in little earthenware marmitcs — miniature stockpots in fact — seems to be popular. Kirsch of course is the natural liqueur to associate . with cherries so let us use that to flavour the syrup. Put half a pound of lump sugar into a sugar boiler or earthenware casserole, moisten it with two quarts of water, boil for three minutes, put one pound of Kentish cherries into it, cover the pan, and simmer for five minutes, drain off the liquid from the cherries, putting the latter for the present into a bowl, and sprinkling them with a sherry-glass of Kirsch. Now reduce the liquid by boiling till it slightly coats the spoon, flavour it with a sherry-glass of Kirsch, and pour it into the bowl with the cherries. Keep this hot, and serve in small marmitcs, one for each person. Half these quantities would be enough for four people. Caviare cannot be served too plainly. The best way of all being — in the jar with dry toast, lemon quarters, and Nepaul pepper accompanying. A nice croute can, however, be made in the ^ summer-time in this way : — Stamp out of a slice of bread a quarter of an inch thick the number of rounds that may be required two inches in diameter. Fry these crisply, dry, and cool them. Then spread over each a layer of caviare, mask them with mayonnaise sauce, and serve — cold. MENU VI. {June or July. CroUtes au pot. Merlans k la Portugaise. Poulet g:rill6, au ]us d’estragon. Pommes de terre sautdes la Lyonnaise. Petits pois au beurre. Crfeme aux fraises. “ Woodcock toast.” This is the ordinary clear pot-au-feu of page 185 with pieces of toast and vegetable introduced at the last moment. The preparation of the toast, I. however, demands attention. Cut off the ^ bottom crust of a tinned loaf, with the same thickness of crumb as of crust ; cut this out into squares half the size of a visiting card, or in rounds the size of a florin ; soak them in some stock (from the soup) and put them in a buttered tin into the oven, where they should remain until crisp and dry. Slices of carrot, turnip, onion, and pieces of celery, that have been cooked in the pot-ati-fcu with some pieces of cabbage boiled separately, should be added to the soup before serving, the crusts being put in at the very last moment. Prepare two whitings in fillets without skinning (using the trimmings for a broth for the sauce) and SPATCHCOCK WITH TARRAGON. lay them in a mannade composed of one tablespoonful of salad oil, the same of vinegar or lemon-juice, and a tablespoonful of horseradish shavings, with pepper and salt. After lying in this V. i]j^^poriu^ for an hour or so, lift the fillets, drain "gucsc sauce. dry, and lay them on a buttered dish that will stand the oven ; season them with pepper, salt, and finely minced parsley, and moisten with this sauce : — Put half an ounce of butter into a small stewpan with a dessert-spoonful of chopped shallot, and one clove of garlic peeled but not cut. Fry over a low fire for five minutes, then stir in a pound of ripe tomatoes cut up small, moistening with a gill of chablis or sauterne and two of fish broth.