The hors d’ceuvres are divided into two classes, hot and cold ones. To the cold ones belong, c.g., those radishes of which the aspect is the best part, for, as a French author says, their ‘ verdeur ne convient pas fi tous les estomacs.’ The radishes are mostly accompanied with heaps of butter w'orked into fanciful shapes ; fillets of anchovies, with chervil and chopped eggs ; sardines ; marinaded tunny cut in thin slices, and garnished with green herbs ; olives in salt water (picholines) ; marinaded or pickled fruit and vegetables, or only green gherkins. Some eat melon, others fresh green or violet-red figs (which, however, are mostly reckoned to belong to the dessert). As oysters are apt to spoil the table linen, and make the hands of the diners salty, they are not given by some enter- tainers ; others give oysters, but change the table linen after them, which is very laborious ; others, again, serve them in a side room, where the guests take them standing before they go to the actual dinner- table. All these artifices //OiV.V D'CEri’RES, REMOVES, ENTREES 641 destroy the unity of the dinner. Hence it is advisable to omit oysters from a formal dinner. The hot hors cVoeuvres are distinguished hy never having any sauce. Grillades of small charcuterie, truffled petty- toes, cotelettes de presale, grilled sheep’s kidneys, are examples of ordinary hot hors d’cEuvres ; another kind are little pates, such as were formerly sold, and distributed in the streets of Paris in the same manner as muffins and crumpets are in London, but really hot, and served from portable ovens. Many persons give these little pates as the only kind of hors d’oeuvre. When the soup is removed, its place is taken either by fish, or in absence of that, or after it, by a large dish, or by several such dishes called the relevds or removes. First of all releves is beef. That which comes from the bouillon, hence called houilli, is not served now at dinner ; it is replaced by larded fillet, or roast beef with potatoes. Other releves are fish, e.g., carp, tui'bot, or any other sweet or salt water fish ; calf’s foot, or a chicken bedded upon (an otto- man of) rice, with only a little gravy, or rough salt, or tarragon. The distinction between certain releves and entrees is often arbitrary, so that at some tables one may have offered to one under the appellation of the former what other equally distinguished tables offer under the title of the latter. Further, some dishes are given in one place as releves which elsewhere figure as roasts, such as truffled turkey [vide sugna, p. 490). The dishes preceding this course are considered prepara- tory, and the actual dinner is supposed to begin only with the dishes called entries. These, then, are the first essential part of a dinner ; for there may be dinners without hors d’ceuvres, without soup, and even, or rather, of course, if there be no soup, without releves, but there cannot be a dinner without an entr6e. The recorded recipes for entrees are very numerous. A gastronomer of the name o*f Viard, 41 642 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY aided by one Fouret, has catalogued more than 900, and twice that number might be obtained by a careful scrutiny of culinary literature.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

The hors d’ceuvres are divided into two classes, hot and cold ones. To the cold ones belong, c.g., those radishes of which the aspect is the best part, for, as a French author says, their 'verdeur ne convient pas à tous les estomacs.' The radishes are mostly accompanied with heaps of butter worked into fanciful shapes ; fillets of anchovies, with chervil and chopped eggs ; sardines ; marinaded tunny cut in thin slices, and garnished with green herbs ; olives in salt water (picholines) ; marinaded or pickled fruit and vegetables, or only green gherkins. Some eat melon, others fresh green or violet-red figs (which, however, are mostly reckoned to belong to the dessert). As oysters are apt to spoil the table linen, and make the hands of the diners salty, they are not given by some entertainers ; others give oysters, but change the table linen after them, which is very laborious ; others, again, serve them in a side room, where the guests take them standing before they go to the actual dinner- table. All these artifices //OiV.V D'CEri’RES, REMOVES, ENTREES destroy the unity of the dinner. Hence it is advisable to omit oysters from a formal dinner. The hot hors d'oeuvres are distinguished by never having any sauce. Grillades of small charcuterie, truffled pettytoes, cotelettes de pré-salé, grilled sheep's kidneys, are examples of ordinary hot hors d’cEuvres ; another kind are little pates, such as were formerly sold, and distributed in the streets of Paris in the same manner as muffins and crumpets are in London, but really hot, and served from portable ovens. Many persons give these little pates as the only kind of hors d’oeuvre. When the soup is removed, its place is taken either by fish, or in absence of that, or after it, by a large dish, or by several such dishes called the relevds or removes. First of all releves is beef. That which comes from the bouillon, hence called houilli, is not served now at dinner ; it is replaced by larded fillet, or roast beef with potatoes. Other releves are fish, e.g., carp, tui'bot, or any other sweet or salt water fish ; calf's foot, or a chicken bedded upon an ottoman of rice, with only a little gravy, or rough salt, or tarragon. The distinction between certain releves and entrees is often arbitrary, so that at some tables one may have offered to one under the appellation of the former what other equally distinguished tables offer under the title of the latter. Further, some dishes are given in one place as releves which elsewhere figure as roasts, such as truffled turkey (vide supra, p. 490). The dishes preceding this course are considered preparatory, and the actual dinner is supposed to begin only with the dishes called entries. These, then, are the first essential part of a dinner ; for there may be dinners without hors d’ceuvres, without soup, and even, or rather, of course, if there be no soup, without releves, but there cannot be a dinner without an entrée. The recorded recipes for entrees are very numerous. A gastronomer of the name o*f Viard, aided by one Fouret, has catalogued more than 900, and twice that number might be obtained by a careful scrutiny of culinary literature.

The spirit of cookery