FoodNet

What to eat, how to serve it

1891

Page 73 · 1 recipe record on this page

Presented as published in 1891. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
in certain localities, may yet be unfamiliar in others. This is made by cutting a num- ber of slips of paper, writing on each one a prose or poetic quotation, and attaching each strip to a leaf of pale green tissue-paper, cut and crimped into the fashion of a lettuce leaf. Literary SaladDifferent shades of the paper should be selected, so that the tints may blend as they do in a veritable head of lettuce. These leaves are then arranged in a bowl, and at some point in the meal, usually just before the dessert, the bowl is passed, and each guest draws out at random two or three of the leaves. The endeavor then is to guess the authorship of the different quotations, and a prize is usually offered to the one who guesses the greatest number correctly. The prize may be the bowl or dish in which the salad is served. Or, instead of quota- tions, conundrums may be written on the slips, and puzzling out their answers usually affords a great deal of amusement. A bright young hostess, who was always bubbling over with new and charming ideas, hit upon the clever one of having her guests' 277 WHAT TO EAT — ^HOW TO SERVE IT characters told by chirosophy. She obtained a specimen of the handwriting of each of those whom she had invited, and sent the samples to a specialist, who deduced from each an estimate of the characteristics of its writer. The verdicts thus obtained were enclosed each in an envelope bearing the name of the person whose peculiar bias was therein described. The envelopes were then bound with ribbons, tied, and sealed. One was laid at the place of each guest at the table, and after providing a fruitful source of wonder and comment during the early part of the meal, the seals were broken when the fruit was passed. Each read aloud the state- ment contained in her envelope, and it was curious and amusing to observe with what accuracy many idiosyncrasies and singular traits of disposition had been indicated. 278 80MB HINTS ABOUT SUPPER IN these days of theatre and opera parties the matter of late suppers assumes more importance than it possessed in the time when these amusements were less universally popular. Upon the occasions when a young man escorted his " best girl " to the play or the concert, he took her afterwards, as ia nat- ural sequence, to a restaurant, where they partook of some such light refreshment as ice-cream, cake, and coffee, this style of sup- per being varied sometimes by the introduc- tion of oysters in one form or another. But when a company of young people go to the theatre nowadavs, arid return afterwards to the house of their chaperon or of some other member of the party, they are usually hun- gry with the healthy appetite that it is no longer the foolish fashion to conceal. The members of whist clubs, of literary or 279 WHAT TO EAT — HOW TO SEKVE IT dramatic circles, of small dancing classes, of amateur orchestras, and of a variety of other similar social organizations, feel a like desire for food after an evening's busy occupation, while even in the family the sensible custom is gaining ground of eating something not long before retiring — a something which, if not equal in extent and weight to the late supper of our English cousins, is yet more substantial than the caramels and chocolate creams with which school-girls, and often their seniors, solace the hunger that is apt to attack them about bedtime.