The cult of the chafing dish

Flood the Chafing Dish with really good olive oil. Put in a teaspoonful of Paprika and a pinch of salt. Drop in the mushrooms, after having stalked and peeled them, black part uppermost. Cover up, and listen to the appetising sizzling for seven minutes. They should then be done to a turn. Mushrooms used to be dried, powdered. and used as a flavouring in the eighteenth century. Cook-books of that period speak of the condiment as " Cook's SnuflT." The great and justly esteemed Grimod de la Reyniere said that it ought always to be on the dining-table together with pepper and salt. Here is a hint for the modern purveyors of table delicacies. In Sir Henry Layard's Essay on " Renaissance Cookery," he says : " Amongst vegetables, the thistle (Cardo) was esteemed a delicacy, and was generally served with fruit at the end of the dinner. The thorny thistles with well-grown white stalks are the best." The Cardo includes the artichoke, but that the name was usually applied to the common thistle is shown by the quaint remark of Romoli in his "Singolare Dottrina," that "it should not be eaten with milk, which it has the property of curdling, and consequently the process would take place in your stomach, but it should be eaten with pepper, which does not generate wind, and clears the liver ; and such is the reason why donkeys, who eat largely of this, have better stomachs than men." Dr. Thudichum, an eminent authority on dietetics, does not agree with these conclusions, which are nevertheless illuminating, and do not detract from the merits of the nettle as a food-stuff. Welsh Leeks. Boil half a dozen leeks in a pint of water. Drain them well, and cut each leek into twoinch lengths ; squeeze a lemon over them, pepper and salt them well. Set them aside. Make half a dozen croutons of toast and put the leeks on them. Replace them in the Chafing Dish, pouring over each crouton a liberal dose of Sauce Robert. Heat up and serve on a very hot plate. Sauce Robert (Escoffier brand) can be bought ready made at the Stores. French Beans. Boil a pound of shredded beans till tender, and then drain them well. Melt two tablespoons of butter in the Chafing Dish and stir into it a small dessert-spoon of flour. Keep these simmering, and shake them about till they are lightly browned ; add salt and pepper and a cup of milk. Just before serving, add the yolks of two eggs, slightly beaten, and a squeeze of lemon. Stir all up thoroughly and beat up to just below boilingpoint. Broad Beans. Shell and wash in cold water one pint of broad beans. Put them in the Chafing Dish and boil them with a sprinkling of salt ; when nearly soft strain them, and then replace them in the dish with a tumbler of bouillon, a little chopped parsley, and a lump of sugar. Cook them slowly until they are quite tender. Beat up the yolk of an egg and a wine-glass of milk ; add both to the beans with pepper and salt, and beat up thoroughly to just below boiling-point. Italian Broad Beans. Shell a pint of fresh young broad beans and put them aside in a dish of cold water. Fill the Chafing Dish with nearly two pints of water, add a thick slice of cooked ham, a stick of celery, a bunch of parsley, three cloves, twenty peppercorns, and a bay leaf. Boil all this for seven minutes, then remove the ham, vegetables, and spices, and put in the beans. When they are quite tender, take them out, strain them, put them back in the dish ; add a tablespoon of butter, and hot them up again for three or four minutes before serving. Brussels Sprouts.