Breakfasts, luncheons, and ball suppers

IX CHAPTER XV. FARCE STUFFINGS, PICKLE, AND PASTRIES . CHAPTER XVI. FISH AU GRATINS CHAPTER XVII. MEATS, MEAT PIES AND PUDDINGS CHAPTER XVIII. POULTRY AND GAME CHAPTER XIX. SALADS AND VEGETABLES . . . . CHAPTER XX. CAKES, ICES, PUDDINGS, ETC. . PAGE 91 94 104 118 13c 13s BREAKFASTS, LUNCHEONS, AND BALL SUPPERS. BREAKFASTS. CHAPTER I. BREAKFASTS FOR LARGE PARTIES. This chapter requires consideration. The Author feels sure the sympathetic reader will agree with him that it is a somewhat difficult business to write Bills of Fare which will please twenty different people. If they were all young and healthy, with good appetites and good digestions, nothing would be easier, and the task would be greatly simplified ; but when the fastidious, and that horrible word digestion, have to be taken into consideration, it alters the case altogether. He thinks the reader will agree with him that, as a rule, in England, breakfast is not sufficiently con- sidered ; that a good breakfast is the exception and not the rule, and that one sees either an emharras de richesses in the shape of pounds of mutton chops, beefsteaks, kidneys, and the everlasting (although excellent, if the ' eggs are fresh and the bacon good) eggs and bacon ; or, on the other hand, barely sufficient of the over-night’s repast, hashed or bedevilled, to satisfy half the party, the rest looking ravenously on, like hungry dogs at a bone, or starving panthers at the Zoo ; whilst in a few — very few — one sees what the ladies, gentlemen of B 2 2 BREAKFASTS, LUNCHEONS, AND BALL SUPPERS. sedentary occupations or moderate digestions, sportsmen, and men of active habits like, or rather what likes them. The Author thinks that in a country house, which contains, probably, a sprinkling of good and bad appetites and digestions, breakfasts should consist of a variety to suit all tastes, viz. : fish, poultry, or game, if in season ; sausages, and one meat of some sort, such as mutton cutlets, or fillets of beef ; omelets, and eggs served in various ways ; bread of both kinds, white and brown, arid fancy bread of as many kinds as can be conveniently served ; two or three kinds of jam, orange marmalade, and fruits when in season ; and on the side table, cold meats, such as ham, tongue, cold game, or game pie, galantines, and in winter a round of spiced beef of Mr. Degue, of Derby. The Author hopes that his ideas of breakfasts for large parties may not be considered too exalted or too extravagant ; they need not be so, if the mistress or the chef (in cases where the chef has the entire control) only possesses the rare, although, if comfort is to be ob- tained, the very necessary gift of “common sense.” He cannot understand why England should be so behind- hand in the requirements necessary to the comfort of this meal. In Scotland it is quite a different thing ; good breakfasts are the rule, not the exception. Only travel to Scotland, and arrive at Perth Station ; in the refresh- ment room you see it at once : excellent fish, excellent meats, excellent jams, and bread and rolls of all sorts ; and so it is in nearly all houses and in many hotels.