Fifty dinners

follows : — Put two tablespoonfuls of apricot jam into a stewpan with a sherry-glass of rum, and one of water, boil up and reduce till about the consistency of treacle ; build up the cake in layers of slices in the centre of a glass compote dish, liberally spreading glaze over each layer, and pouring the remainder of it over, the top of the layers, arrange round this overlapping one another a pound or so of stewed dried figs, for the preparation of which please follow the process given for stewed prunes. Menu viii., substituting old cognac for cherry brandy, or rum if not objected to. No nicer savoury can be presented than fresh caviare, in its jar, with plain biscuits or thin dry toast, slices of lemon, and Nepaul pepper accompanying. Fine chilli vinegar may be preferred by some. This delicacy can be got at its best at the Russian Emporium in Queen’s Road, Bayswater. 6. Fresh caviare. MENU XI. {Nove7nber or December.) Potage "pepperpot.” Poisson St. Pierre aux hultres. Crfipes de volaille. Canard sauvage sauce k la minute. Compotes de pruneaux. Crodtes k la Wyvern. Take a pound of veal stock meat, one pound of wellbroken veal bones, and sixpennyworth of giblets. Cut up the meat into two-inch squares, scald and cut up the giblets. Butter a gallon stewpan with an ounce of butter ; slice finely two ounces of onions and lay them on the butter with three ounces of raw lean of bacon minced, and the meat and giblets over them ; fry, and proceed as explained for thick giblet soup in Menu x., moistening with water instead of broth, and adding the bones, after browning them in the oven, with the vegetables when boiling point has been reached. When the broth has been strained, set to get cold, and skimmed, the next step is to put a crab — one about six inches across will be large enough — to boil in the stock. The crab must be uncooked, and the fishmonger should be asked to kill it, and remove the lungs, &c., before sending it in. Break up all the legs, but leave the body and claws intact. Cover with the stock, and put in a bouquet composed of a sprig of basil, one SI of marjoram, and one of thyme, bring to the boil, and simmer for half an hour. Strain off the soup, clarify it, and garnish it with some of the best meat of the crab-claws torn with a fork into shreds. With this soup a tablespoonful of marsala should be added, as in the case of clear turtle, and lemons cut into quarters should be handed round. 2. John Dory with oysters. Choose a dory of about a pound and a half in weight. Fillet it. Put the head, bones, and trimmings, with three ounces of onion, a bunch of parsley, saltspoonful of mignonette pepper, and a teaspoonful of spiced salt, into a stewpan ; cover with water or milk and water, boil and simmer for half an hour, straining into a clean saucepan. Arrange the fillets in a shallow pan — a sauté-pan with an upright rim will do. Cover them with the broth, boiling hot, and then simmer for twelve or fourteen minutes. Take out the fillets, put them upon a hot dish, and cover them up. Save the broth.