Let them turn inventors themselves, and my blessing go with them ! I have purposely said little or nothing on the subject of appropriate drinks to accom- pany Chaffinda's efforts, because that is, to a certain extent, a personal matter. At the same time it may be useful to know that it is very easy to mature cheap claret. The trick is French, and fairly reliable. It happens sometimes that the ordinary dinner claret of commerce leaves something to be desired in the way of flavour and palatability. It may be sour, acrid, harsh, biting, vinegary, and half a dozen other things, all unpleasant. Add to a glass of such ordinary wine a tea- spoonful of very hot water. The effect is usually magical. The wine seems ten years older. It becomes softer, mellower, suaver, and really almost drinkable. Le petit vin bleu du fays becomes almost a cru. Some people drink coffee after dinner, and eke after lunch, if they have time — and lunch. Others use it as a barometer. You can do both, if you know how. It is very simple. The coffee must be very hot. Drop a lump of sugar into the cup, and before stirring it SWEETS AND ODDMENTS 189 observe how the bubbles rise. If they rush towards the middle of the cup and meet, then it is going to be fine weather. If they re- main close to the edge of the cup it will rain or snow. If they separate but wander about vaguely, then the weather will be changeable. This barometer is not infallible, but it has been known to be accurate. Try it. Caf6 frequenters on the boulevards spend hours in checking the prognostications of their coffee by the weather reports in the papers." I should like to give a few final hints on Chafing-Dish party-giving, the result of my own experience, which has been both bitter and sweet. Imprimis : " Don't ask too many people," as H. J. Byron said on his deathbed, when his coachman told him that one of his horses was ailing and he thought he had better give him a ball. " You should al- ways be two," quoth the Abb6 Morellet, " to eat a truffled turkey. It is my invariable practice. I am going to dine off one to-day. We shall be two — the turkey and myself." A fellow feeding makes us wondrous kind, and I do not for a moment suggest that Chafing-Dish meals should always be soli, far 190 THE CHAFING DISH from it ; a duet is delightful, a trio tactful, and a quartet quieting. I cannot advise going beyond that number. Chaffinda is always present, of course, but she does not count as company, she is merely the hand- maiden, the geisha, the tutelary genius hovering over the meal. I have already enjoined the absolute necessity of rehearsal; leave nothing to chance. If you want to make your little efFect, see that it is properly stage-managed : your properties ready, your limes in working order, and your band parts ready and com- plete. "In the green salad days of my youth, when I rarely spoke aught but the truth," I tried more than once to dazzle my guests with unrehearsed effects, but in every case the result was dire failure. All that sort of thing is magnificent, but it is not cookery. Again, do not attempt too elaborate a bill of fare. Be pre-Raphaelite in your attention to detail rather than Academic in your mass of lavish decoration. Of two evils choose the prettier, and prefer a discreet little meal of soup, meat, vegetable and savoury, to an SWEETS AND ODDMENTS 191 elaborate programme which defeats its own ends, and clogs the appetite.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Let them turn inventors themselves, and my blessing go with them ! I have purposely said little or nothing on the subject of appropriate drinks to accompany Chaffinda's efforts, because that is, to a certain extent, a personal matter. At the same time it may be useful to know that it is very easy to mature cheap claret. The trick is French, and fairly reliable. It happens sometimes that the ordinary dinner claret of commerce leaves something to be desired in the way of flavour and palatability. It may be sour, acrid, harsh, biting, vinegary, and half a dozen other things, all unpleasant. Add to a glass of such ordinary wine a teaspoonful of very hot water. The effect is usually magical. The wine seems ten years older. It becomes softer, mellower, suaver, and really almost drinkable. Le petit vin bleu du fays becomes almost a cru. Some people drink coffee after dinner, and eke after lunch, if they have time — and lunch. Others use it as a barometer. You can do both, if you know how. It is very simple. The coffee must be very hot. Drop a lump of sugar into the cup, and before stirring it observe how the bubbles rise. If they rush towards the middle of the cup and meet, then it is going to be fine weather. If they remain close to the edge of the cup it will rain or snow. If they separate but wander about vaguely, then the weather will be changeable. This barometer is not infallible, but it has been known to be accurate. Try it. Café frequenters on the boulevards spend hours in checking the prognostications of their coffee by the weather reports in the papers." I should like to give a few final hints on Chafing-Dish party-giving, the result of my own experience, which has been both bitter and sweet. Imprimis : " Don't ask too many people," as H. J. Byron said on his deathbed, when his coachman told him that one of his horses was ailing and he thought he had better give him a ball. " You should always be two," quoth the Abb6 Morellet, " to eat a truffled turkey. It is my invariable practice. I am going to dine off one to-day. We shall be two — the turkey and myself." A fellow feeding makes us wondrous kind, and I do not for a moment suggest that Chafing-Dish meals should always be soli, far from it ; a duet is delightful, a trio tactful, and a quartet quieting. I cannot advise going beyond that number. Chaffinda is always present, of course, but she does not count as company, she is merely the handmaiden, the geisha, the tutelary genius hovering over the meal. I have already enjoined the absolute necessity of rehearsal; leave nothing to chance. If you want to make your little efFect, see that it is properly stage-managed : your properties ready, your limes in working order, and your band parts ready and complete. "In the green salad days of my youth, when I rarely spoke aught but the truth," I tried more than once to dazzle my guests with unrehearsed effects, but in every case the result was dire failure. All that sort of thing is magnificent, but it is not cookery. Again, do not attempt too elaborate a bill of fare. Be pre-Raphaelite in your attention to detail rather than Academic in your mass of lavish decoration. Of two evils choose the prettier, and prefer a discreet little meal of soup, meat, vegetable and savoury, to an elaborate programme which defeats its own ends, and clogs the appetite.

The cult of the chafing dish