Cassell's dictionary of cookery

There is a story told of some great gourmand, who was taken in by a friend in the following manner : — A leg of mutton was placed on the table, and the gourmand was informed that he saw his dinner before him, and, as was his wont, he accordingly ate freely, while his so-called friend scarcely touched a mouthful. What the gourmand's feelings were when a tine splendid haunch of venison followed the mutton can better be imagined than described. He is reported, however, to have said, " It was a cruel thing not to have told me." Whether such a piece of exquisitely bad taste was ever perpetrated or not we don't know, but the story serves to illustrate our point about the menu, as without one recollect, to a lesser extent, the guests are treated like the unfortunate gourmand. Little decorated sheets of paper are now sold for the purpose, and form an additional ornament to the dinner-table. / When all the plates and glasses are cleared oflf the table, it is customary for all the crumbs likewise to be removed; for this, however, avoid using those useless things called crumb-brushes, which are the means too often of sending nearly as many crumbs on to the floor as on to the tray— as when the brush is used quickly the bristles bend and cause the crumbs to fly over the edge. There is a small silver shovel now used for the purpose, which is far better, and when one of these is not at hand, an ordinary table-napkin will answer very well. COFFEE. Before coming to that most important subject, wine, let us have a few words to say about coffee. Cofiee, we all know, grows in tropical climates, and not in France, yet how is it that in that country we almost invariably get a good cheap cup of cofiee, and yet in this country we rarely do 1 On the other hand, it seems equally strange that the French have not the power to make an ordinary cup of tea. Sxich at least is my experience of the greater part of France. I believe the two chief causes of the usual superiority of French coffee over English is that the former always have their cofiee fresh roasted as well as fresh ground ; secondly, that they use a good deal more coffee than we do. The too common custom in England is to buy the cofiee ready ground from a grocer's. This when kept in a tin will make very fair good coffee, but after a time it loses its aroma. ' To get cofiee absolutely fresh roasted is not so easy a matter in this country, but it will always be found an improvement to put the berries for a short time into the oven before grinding them. There is such an infinite variety of machines for making coffee that we cannot possibly enumerate them all. The best method I know of is the ordinary percolator. The cofiee-pot must of course be first made thoroughly hot, and the strainer carefully cleansed from what has been in before. The coffee is then placed in the top receptacle. PRINCIPLES COFFEE WINE. Ixxvii and pressed down, and the boiling water poured on the top. It should then be allowed to trickle slowly through — of course the longer the water is in contact with the coffee the better it wUl be.