Chafing dish and casserole cookery

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This 1908 volume by Charles Herman Senn is a specialized manual dedicated to two closely related methods of tableside and kitchen cookery: chafing dish cookery and casserole cookery. It opens by explaining the equipment needed for chafing dish work, including the lamp, blazer, and hot-water pan, and by outlining which cooking processes, such as boiling, stewing, broiling, and frying, suit this method. The first half of the book is devoted to chafing dish recipes covering oysters, fish, lobster, meats, poultry, cheese dishes, and eggs, all designed for quick preparation at the table. The second half shifts to casserole cookery, explaining the advantages of fireproof earthenware over metal vessels and offering recipes for soups, fish, meats, game, poultry, vegetables, and egg dishes cooked slowly in the casserole itself. Throughout, the book blends French culinary terminology with practical instructions adapted for English-speaking kitchens. Readers will find precise ingredient lists, cooking times, and serving suggestions, along with period advertisements for kitchen equipment. This is a practical, recipe-dense guide reflecting a specific early twentieth-century interest in convenient, elegant, and economical cooking methods suited to both everyday meals and more refined table service.

The book is organized into two main parts, each with its own contents and index. The first part (sections 1 and 2) covers chafing dish cookery, opening with an introduction to equipment and technique before moving into recipes organized loosely by ingredient type: oysters and fish, then meats, poultry, offal, cheese, and eggs. The second part (sections 3 and 4) covers casserole cookery, beginning with an explanation of the casserole's advantages over metal vessels, then moving through soups, fish and seafood, and an extensive range of meat, game, poultry, and vegetable preparations. Section 5 closes the book with egg dishes, omelets, souffles, and sauces, followed by advertisements for kitchen equipment and other Senn cookbooks.