The chafing-dish supper

There is no need to suggest menus for luncheons. The luncheon at which the chafing-dish appears is usually a home meal for home people, and such vegetables, bread, etc., are selected as accompany most suitably the made dish or rechauffe prepared by the house-mother. The bill of fare at such times shapes itself, and the only condition to be emphasized is that the provision should be am- The Chafing-dish Menu 105 pie. The children, no less than their elders, find a new zest in the food they see cooked in the chafing-dish, and the appetites of these small ones usually demand large supplies. There is no doubt that the cookery really is better, especially when a rechauffe is in question, than when it is performed in the kitchen. So prominent a part do brains play in warming over food acceptably that a woman who has a cook of only ordinary capacities must either superintend such work in the kitchen, or do it herself on the table, if she wishes to have it at its best. Much of the excellence of chafing-dish cookery consists, too, in the fact that the food thus prepared is served and eaten smoking hot. Should any devotee to chafing-dish cookery desire to widen the field of her usefulness and introduce the chafing-dish luncheon as a social function, she can 106 The Chafing-dish Supper model her menus on those suggested for a supper or go further and by the aid of two chafing-dishes prepare first a fish entree, then a meat course,, accompanied by potatoes in some form, and follow this with a vegetable or cheese entree. After preparing all these in chafing - dishes, she and her guests may feel entitled to a salad and a sweet that were compounded by the hands of an ordinary every-day chef. " The time when I think a chafing-dish should be useful," said a woman who had begun studying its possibilities. " is when one comes in hungry after the theatre and there is nothing to eat in the house." She went on to explain. " It's very well to use it for Sunday teas and summer noons and midnight suppers when you know they are coming. But it seems almost impossible to come in at an unearthly hour of a winter evening The Chafing-dish Menu 107 and get up a little spread when you have provided nothing to get it up with." The warmest admirers of the chafingdish do not claim for it miraculous powers, and when the cupboard is absolutely bare the alcohol may blaze in vain. But it is seldom that the pantry is utterly denuded. In almost every house there are kept constantly in store such provisions as eggs, butter, flour, cheese, potatoes, bread, crackers, and there are few houses where there is not also a small supply at least of bacon, or sardines, or potted meats, or fish, or canned goods of some sort, and curry-powder, pickles, catsups, and the like, with whose aid may be evolved a delicious impromptu supper. Moreover, in the house where the chafing-dish is a recognized power, it is easy by a little forethought to have constantly on hand a few pint or half-pint cans of consomme, or a small jar of beef extract, 108 The Chafing-dish Supper