Little French dinners

Consomme an Tapioca (Tapioca Soup). — Put some well-flavoured consomme into a large saucepan, let it boil up, then add slowly some French tapioca — the fine sort that is used for soups — allowing not more than one teaspoonful for every guest. Stir constantly, especially at first ; let the tapioca boil gently at the side of the stove for a quarter of an hour, and when it is cooked the soup is ready. Consomme (Clear Stock). — Take three pounds and a half of shin of beef and half a pound of knuckle of veal, take Little French Dinners. 61 the meat off the bones, removing all fat and skin, and cut up the lean part into pieces about one inch and a half square. Put these into a frying pan with one ounce of butter, and fry them over a good fire till they are a dark brown colour. Ten minutes after having put the frying pan on the fire add three small onions, cut up in slices, which must be fried with the meat ; when it is quite ready, empty into the stockpot the contents of the frying-pan, rinsing out the latter two or three times with altogether a quart of boiling water; add also to the stock -pot two more quarts of boiling water, then the bones broken up, and the following vegetables, etc. : — Three onions, six carrots, three small turnips, a piece of celery, a leek, a bay leaf, a little parsley, thyme, and marjoram, in due proportions, a small blade of mace, two or three cloves, peppercorns, and salt. Bring the water to the boil, take off any scum, and then add a pint of cold water at intervals to assist the scum to rise. Let the soup come to the boil and then simmer slowly for about eight hours. If all the scum is carefully removed, and the soup is only allowed to simmer, it will not require to be cleared at all. Strain the soup through a cloth that has been wrung out in cold water, and leave it to get cold. The next day, all the fat (of which there should not be much) can easily be removed. No colouring will be necessary. Cabilland a la Bechamel (Cod with Bechamel sauce). — Melt one ounce and a half of butter in a saucepan, mix with it one ounce of flour, and then add gradually one pint of milk, which has been previously allowed to simmer with an onion and a carrot sliced, a bunch of sweet herbs, two or three cloves, a grate of nutmeg, whole pepper and salt, and afterwards strained. Bring the sauce to the boil, and add two or three tablespoonfuls of cream with pepper and salt to taste ; stir well, then put in about two pounds of cod, previously boiled and divided into flakes, being thoroughly freed from skin and bones. Shake all together very gently until the whole is thoroughly hot, and then turn out into a 62 Little French Dinners. silver entree dish and garnish with three hard-boiled eggs, cut in quarters lengthwise.