The cult of the chafing dish

A very refined and intelligent cannibal once had the politeness to ask the future ornament of his stock-pot, " With what sauce would you like to be eaten ? " " But I don't want to be eaten at all," was the reply. "That is entirely beside the question," said the cannibal. This rather suggests the famous Green Sauce which La Coste offered to Sir Thomas Dundas, at the Duke of York's table, with the whispered advice, " With this sauce you would enjoy eating your grandfather." Do what we will, we cannot get away from Sauce. It is a necessary if unobtrusive concomitant of the plainest meats. But it can be mitigated, assuaged ; and from a loathly disguise it can be transformed into a dulcet accompaniment. "Les animaux se repaissent ; I'homme mange : I'homme d'esprit seul sait manger," said Brillat-Savarin, who achieved much of his literary success by gross flattery of the palates of his friends. Charles de Monselet, the author of " La Cuisiniere Po^tique," and a very earnest advocate of simplicity, as against rioting in the stewpans, wrote : " The man who pays no attention to the food he consumes can only be likened to a pig in whose trough the trotters of his own son, a pair of braces, and a box of dominoes are equally welcome." At the same time the affectation of simplicity is often grossly overdone. When Lord Byron first met Tom Moore at Samuel Rogers' rooms in St. James's Place, the noble lord affected a lack of appetite for anything except potatoes and vinegar, biscuits and soda water ; but he made a very hearty meal at his club afterwards. Again, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was certainly not affected, but probably absent-minded, when he felt hungry would dash into the first baker's shop, buy a loaf, and rush out again, breaking off pieces as he walked, and eating them there and then, his scanty meal being eked out by common raisins, a small stock of which he kept in his waistcoat pocket. By way of contrast, it is related of George Frederick Handel, the great composer, a man of voracious appetite and exaggerated capacity, that he ordered dinner for three at a tavern, and, being hungry, asked, "Is de dinner ready?" The waiter replied that he was waiting for the company to come. " I am de gompany," said Handel, " bring up de tinner prestissimo." This anecdote, probably unveracious, is often attributed to Papa Haydn — which is ridiculous. Joints and whole birds, save very small ones, are of course out of the question with a Chafing Dish, but steaks, cutlets, disjointed birds, and a thousand varieties of treating flesh and fowl, raw and cooked, are well within its range. Rump Steak. Beef steak, or rump steak, Is very palatable cooked in the following manner. Give a one-pound steak a thorough beating. Mallets are made for this express purpose, but if such an implement be not available, I have used the head of a poker, wrapped in cloth, with great effect. This drubbing makes the meat tender. Put the steak into the dish with two tablespoons of butter and three slices of lemoD Cook it slowly for twelve minutes. Then pour over it a cupful of bouillon and a wine-glass of claret. Simmer it for ten minutes more with an added teaspoon of Worcester sauce, salt and pepper. Before serving the steak, which ought to be thoroughly tender, squeeze a lemon over it. Onions are, I venture to think, a great improvement, and two of them, cut in rings, may well be added, after the first twelve minutes' cooking.