A quart of lemonade requires 6 lemons if they
are ripe and juicy, or 8 if not juicy.
Begin by rubbing the outside of two lemons with
knobs of white sugar to imbibe the zest, squeeze the
juice out of all the lemons, after carefully picking out
the pips, and strain through a silk sieve, mix the
sugar, the lemon juice, and rather less than a quart
of boiling water✪ Lemonade. Add sugar syrup to taste. A little
syrup of gum is an agreeable addition.
46o ENUS.
CHAPTER XXXII.
MEATUS.
These menus are taken from actual dinners, at
which either the company or the cookery — generally
both — were excellent. The order of the dishes differs
according to whether the house was English or foreign.
It should be explained that there are many dishes
among these menus for which no recipes are given ;
in some cases because the dishes are too complicated
to be attempted in any house where there is not a
French chef, whilst in other dishes the names are
freaks of fancy on the part of the hosts.
An entree dish contains rations for six or eight
persons, therefore double or quadruple entrees, accord-
ing to the number of the guests, must be ordered.
Plainly dressed vegetables of three or four kinds
are handed round in English houses with the principal
joint : these are not given in the menus. Salad is
handed round with ham or with the ' roast ; ' cheese
and oatcake or biscuits after the ' entremets ; ' as the
preliminary to dessert a cream and a water ice are
provided when the dinner is on the scale of most of
these menus.
At very elaborate dinners punch a la Romaine is
MENUS. 461
handed round between the serving the releves and
the roast ; it is intended to stimulate the flagging
appetite.
The menus are arranged according to the months
of the year, and the general accordance of fruits, vege-
tables, game, &c., with the seasons. French cooks
ignore the seasons, and compose dinners only to be
obtained by using tinned (or canned) provisions. A
more correct taste would select the fruits of the earth
in due season, and only strive to obtain first-rate
quality, not rarity purchased above its value, or meats
deteriorated by the process of preserving.
As many oi the menus are written in French, and
as dishes, like dresses, are considered to have more
distinction when made in Paris, it may be not without
use to explain some of these names which are given
to their dishes by French cooks.
Some of these names are taken from those towns
or provinces of France which produce the ingredients
of the dish, or give them the greatest prominence.
Crecy grows the best carrots. Brittany has a
monopoly of turnips. The southern cities of France
are famed for truffles, and for dishes seasoned with
truffles. Garlic has a flavour popular in Provence as
well as in Spain, and may therefore be suspected in
dishes ' a la Proven^ale.'
More than one sauce bears the name of a Marshal
of France — Uxelles, Villeroi, Soubise — under Louis
XIV. The second wife of that monarch gives her
name to a cutlet, ' a la Maintenon ; ' and the favourite
of Louis XV., Madame de Pompadour, was served
with ' bouchees,' now called after her.
462 MENUS.
Sometimes, as In ' sauce Robert,' it is the real con-
triver of a flavour — the cook Robert, praised by Rabe-
lais, who gives the name ; sometimes a gastronome, like
Bechamel, desires that posterity shall remember him.
Page 182 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1882. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
A quart of lemonade requires 6 lemons if they are ripe and juicy, or 8 if not juicy.
Begin by rubbing the outside of two lemons with knobs of white sugar to imbibe the zest, squeeze the juice out of all the lemons, after carefully picking out the pips, and strain through a silk sieve, mix the sugar, the lemon juice, and rather less than a quart of boiling water. Add sugar syrup to taste. A little syrup of gum is an agreeable addition.
460 MENUS.
CHAPTER XXXII.
MEATUS.
These menus are taken from actual dinners, at which either the company or the cookery — generally both — were excellent. The order of the dishes differs according to whether the house was English or foreign.
It should be explained that there are many dishes among these menus for which no recipes are given ; in some cases because the dishes are too complicated to be attempted in any house where there is not a French chef, whilst in other dishes the names are freaks of fancy on the part of the hosts.
An entree dish contains rations for six or eight persons, therefore double or quadruple entrees, according to the number of the guests, must be ordered.
Plainly dressed vegetables of three or four kinds are handed round in English houses with the principal joint : these are not given in the menus. Salad is handed round with ham or with the ' roast ; ' cheese and oatcake or biscuits after the ' entremets ; ' as the preliminary to dessert a cream and a water ice are provided when the dinner is on the scale of most of these menus.
At very elaborate dinners punch a la Romaine is
handed round between the serving the releves and the roast ; it is intended to stimulate the flagging appetite.
The menus are arranged according to the months of the year, and the general accordance of fruits, vegetables, game, &c., with the seasons. French cooks ignore the seasons, and compose dinners only to be obtained by using tinned (or canned) provisions. A more correct taste would select the fruits of the earth in due season, and only strive to obtain first-rate quality, not rarity purchased above its value, or meats deteriorated by the process of preserving.
As many oi the menus are written in French, and as dishes, like dresses, are considered to have more distinction when made in Paris, it may be not without use to explain some of these names which are given to their dishes by French cooks.
Some of these names are taken from those towns or provinces of France which produce the ingredients of the dish, or give them the greatest prominence.
Crecy grows the best carrots. Brittany has a monopoly of turnips. The southern cities of France are famed for truffles, and for dishes seasoned with truffles. Garlic has a flavour popular in Provence as well as in Spain, and may therefore be suspected in dishes ' a la Proven^ale.'
More than one sauce bears the name of a Marshal of France — Uxelles, Villeroi, Soubise — under Louis XIV. The second wife of that monarch gives her name to a cutlet, ' a la Maintenon ; ' and the favourite of Louis XV., Madame de Pompadour, was served with ' bouchees,' now called after her.
Sometimes, as In ' sauce Robert,' it is the real contriver of a flavour — the cook Robert, praised by Rabelais, who gives the name ; sometimes a gastronome, like Bechamel, desires that posterity shall remember him.
Records on this page
Lemonade