Part 45

It is a wholesome symptom in our feverish social system that the beneficent break in the diurnal rush and press furnished by afternoon tea-time is becoming more and more prevalent. In tens of thousands of homes, in city and in country, five o’clock brings together the scattered parts of the home circle in the living-room. Jaunty wicker stands, three and four-storied, for holding plates of fancy biscuits, thin bread and butter, cake and crisp strips of lightly buttered toast spread with anchovy paste, have crept into conservative drawing-rooms; teakettle, teapot and their appurtenances appear duly at the stroke of the hour, and visitors who happen to call at that hour are cordially made welcome to the grateful refreshment. “Tea” is always there, no matter who comes or goes, and it typifies what we need more than all else besides in a land where labor is the rule and relaxation the exception—home joys, home comfort, home _rest_!

Five o’clock tea has come to stay! Whether as a simple refreshment for busy women who long for a life-saving station in the afternoon rush, or as an informal—and inexpensive—fashion of entertaining one’s friends, it seems to be as firm a fixture on this side of the Atlantic as on the other.

One of the chief charms of the afternoon tea is its adaptability. It may be as much or as little of a function as one chooses. I do not refer now to the cup of tea that the hostess pours for herself or the chance friend every afternoon in the week, but to the tea where guests are regularly invited. It may be madame’s At Home day, which extends over a period of a few weeks, or runs through the whole winter, or it may be one of the more formal occasions, to which guests are invited in droves, and social debts thereby paid _en bloc_.

For the simpler function it is easy to lay down rules. Little is required for it. If it is to be a weekly affair for which cards are issued early in the season, it is foolish to plan an elaborate menu, and even worse than foolish, for it is in bad taste. The guest who goes to such a day, “at home,” does not expect a “spread,” and the hostess who offers too much makes life harder for the timid woman of small means who is not quite sure what is the correct thing, but is only positive that it must be expensive.

For the ordinary one-day-every-week-all-winter afternoon tea there are many houses where one has only bread and butter or fancy biscuits and a simple cake. I know one woman who prides herself upon the quality of the doughnuts she serves at her afternoon teas, and they are the only sweets she has beyond a little dish of bonbons. To be sure, there are simple sandwiches or thin bread and butter, but further than this she does not go except for some special occasion.

For such an Afternoon Tea the following menus are offered as suggestions:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. I

Caviar Sandwiches Creamed Chicken Sandwiches Fancy Cakes Tea, or Coffee, or Chocolate

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. II

Chicken and Celery Sandwiches Anchovy Toast Fancy Cakes Tea, or Coffee, or Chocolate

These menus may be modified in many ways. Other varieties of sandwiches may be provided. Both tea and coffee, or tea and chocolate, may be offered. Plain cake may be supplied instead of the fancy cakes, and a good tea biscuit may be given instead of one kind of sandwiches. Little dishes of bonbons may stand by to supplement the feast.

For these, as for the ordinary afternoon tea where there are no invited guests, the preparations are the same. The tea-table is not to be left standing fully equipped to gather dust when it is not in use. The cups and saucers and other tea plenishings are brought in on a tray and placed on the table. This may be a regular tea-table, or it may be the table one finds in every drawing-room where are piled the magazines and books of the day. These may be swept to one side to make space for the tray. The hostess may make the tea and pour it, or it may be brought in ready from the kitchen.

When tea-time extends over the whole afternoon, a tea-ball will prove of value. Then each guest is sure of a fresh hot cup of tea, and while the alcohol lamp holds out to burn the supply will not fail.

If there are a good many guests there may be a maid at hand to pass cups and offer the plates of sandwiches and sweets. But, as a rule, the affair is so informal that hostess and guests wait on themselves.

With the cup and saucer there may be offered a plate, and some hostesses offer doilies as well, but this is not obligatory. The maid is chiefly needed to replenish the hot water, to take away empty cups and the like, and if she is within sound of the bell, it answers as well as though she were at the elbow of the hostess.

When the tea is to be a larger and more formal function, matters are differently arranged. In those cases where a hostess gives perhaps two days, and invites all her dear five hundred friends to be present at one or the other of them, there is not room in the drawing-room for the tea-table nor place for the chatty informality of the simpler afternoon tea. The table is laid in the dining-room, or the library, and a friend is invited to “pour.” If there are two beverages,—as there are, almost invariably,—one friend takes each end of the table, and there may be even a third, presiding over another hot drink, or over the punch bowl. A waitress or two must be at hand to take away the dishes that have been used and bring fresh, and to see that the guests have enough to eat and drink. The hostess has no time to see to anything beyond the salutations of the guests as they come in, and can only suggest to them that they go out to the dining-room and find something to eat.

Once in a while, a hostess will give no more than is contained in the menus already suggested, except that the supplies of all kinds may be increased, and that there may be three kinds of sandwiches, instead of one or two, and a larger choice in the matter of cake. Two hot drinks, at least, must be supplied.

But in so large a function the bill of fare is more likely to be something like the following:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. III

Bouillon Lobster Sandwiches Chicken Truffle Sandwiches Lettuce Sandwiches Salted Almonds Olives Bonbons Cakes Tea Coffee Chocolate, or Claret Punch

When an afternoon tea gets to this stage it may still be called “a tea,” but it has gone far beyond that, and has become a daytime reception. Even if the sun is shining outside there is usually artificial light in the rooms. The lamps are burning with a pleasant subdued light, there are candles with colored shades, the women who are receiving and presiding over the table are in full dress. The table itself is beautiful with china and cut glass and silver. Flowers are about everywhere, and except that the men are in morning dress and the women guests in street costume, it might be an evening party.

There is a reception held in the afternoon that is even more elaborate than this. When a woman wants to make signal some special “occasion,”—to honor a guest, or perhaps because it is the only “crush” she gives in the year,—she often makes it a tea. For this the cards will be out ten days or more in advance and the refreshments provided are more elegant and numerous than those mentioned above. Such a collation might be as follows:

AFTERNOON TEA MENU. IV

Bouillon

Chicken or Lobster Salad Creamed Oysters Nut Sandwiches Sardine Sandwiches Cream Cheese Sandwiches Olives or Pimolas Salted Nuts Bonbons Ices Frappé Cakes Tea Coffee Chocolate Punch

The table is arranged for this as for the third tea mentioned, but there must be waiters in attendance, and they serve nearly everything. In most cases there is nothing done by the young women friends of the hostess who gather in the dining-room except entertain the guests and see that they have enough to eat. Once in a while, these young women may preside at the coffee-urn, or the chocolate, or teapot, but it is not a common occurrence.

The matter has been put into the hands of “the profession.”

It is all very nice, and an excellent way to clear the debit side of one’s social ledger, but the mind turns to the quiet afternoon tea-table with the hot tea under the cozy, the saucer of sliced lemon, the tiny flask of rum or the graceful cream jug, the sugar basin and plate of sandwiches, or bread and butter, with affection one never cherishes for the huge kettledrum.

SOME DAINTIES FOR AFTERNOON TEA

Tea cakes

Sift a quart of flour three times with two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder and one of salt. Chop into this a tablespoonful of butter and one of cottolene or other fat.

(In all preparations requiring shortening, cottolene is preferable to lard.)

Mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon, adding about three cupfuls of milk, or enough to make a soft dough. Turn out upon your board and roll, with swift, light strokes into a sheet half an inch in thickness. Reverse a jelly-cake tin upon the sheet and cut with a sharp knife cakes just the size of the tin. With a spatula, transfer to a floured baking-pan and bake in a quick oven.

Split while hot, butter and cut into triangular pieces, six to each cake. Do not divide them until the triangles are drawn from the plate by those who are to eat them.

Tea scones

Mix as directed in recipe for tea cakes, but cut into rounds with a small biscuit cutter. Bake upon a soapstone griddle, upon both sides, to a delicate brown; split and butter while hot. Line a plate or a tray with a napkin, lay in the scones and fold the corners of the napkin lightly over them.

Oatmeal scones

To three cupfuls of oatmeal add one of white flour, a teaspoonful of salt and two of baking-powder. Heat three cupfuls of milk to scalding, not to boiling, stir in a tablespoonful of sugar with two and a half of butter, and mix with a wooden spoon these ingredients into a soft dough.

_Do not touch it with your hands._

Turn out upon a kneading-board, roll into a sheet less than a quarter of an inch thick, cut into rounds with a large biscuit-cutter, and bake upon a hot soapstone griddle, turning to brown. Butter while hot.

Virginia wafers

Rub two tablespoonfuls of butter into a pint of flour, add enough iced water to make a stiff dough, put up on a floured pastry board, and roll out as thin as writing paper in rounds as large as a saucer. Bake in a floured pan in a quick oven.

They should be rough and “bubbly” on top. Eat cold.

Corn-meal tea cakes

Mix fine white corn-meal with boiling milk; gradually add a little salt, and let it simmer half an hour or more, then drop it from a large spoon upon a soapstone griddle, and bake on both sides to an even brown. Butter and eat _hot_.

Bristol tea cakes

Rub two level tablespoonfuls of butter into four cupfuls of sifted flour; mix it with thin cream to a soft dough to roll out; toss the dough upon a floured board, cut with a biscuit cutter into rounds and bake on a hot griddle, or in the oven; split and butter them; serve on a napkin.

Raisin bread

Make as you would ordinary white bread, with the addition of one-half cupful of raisins to a small loaf. Spread thin, triangular slices of this with butter, and then with a layer of cream cheese.

Hot milk tea cakes

Into three well-whipped eggs beat a cupful of sugar, a large cupful of prepared flour, and a teaspoonful of vanilla. Beat hard; add a gill of scalding hot milk, stir in quickly and turn the mixture into greased pâté-pans. These cakes are best if eaten hot, but are also good cold.

Stuffed rolls

Light rolls, shaped like finger rolls, but larger, may be cut open on one side, the crumb dug out and the cavity filled with minced and seasoned chicken, turkey, ham, or tongue. Close the roll and bind it with narrow ribbon tied with a bow and floating ends. You may tie the ham rolls with one color, the chicken with another.

Peanut crisps

One cupful of roasted and chopped peanuts, one cupful of powdered sugar, one tablespoonful of flour and the whites of two eggs. The mixture is dropped on a buttered paper and baked to a light brown in a moderate oven. A quart of unshelled peanuts will yield the necessary cupful of chopped nuts.

Salted almonds

Shell and blanch the almonds by pouring boiling water over them, letting them stand for ten minutes, then stripping off the skins. Dry the nuts between the folds of a clean dish towel, and put them in a baking-pan with a tablespoonful of melted butter. Turn them over and over in this until all are coated, then set the pan in the oven until the nuts are delicately browned, stirring often, that all may brown evenly. Turn into a colander, strew thickly with fine salt, and shake the colander hard to dislodge superfluous salt and grease. When cold, the nuts will be crisp. Keep in a dry place.

Peanut butter for sandwiches

Shell and skin freshly-roasted peanuts and pound or grind them to a fine powder. Mix to a smooth paste, with half as much butter as you have peanut powder. If the butter is rather fresh, add a little salt.

Cream cheese for sandwiches

Into a broad pan pour the fresh warm milk as soon as possible after it is milked; set at the side of the range and bring slowly to the point where it just begins to simmer. Remove at once and set in the ice-box, where it will cool suddenly, and leave it there for six or eight hours. Now skim and press the clotted cream into small jars or deep saucers. Sprinkle the top of the cream with fine salt, and cover. Keep in a cold place until wanted.

Marguerites

The white of one egg, partly beaten; two tablespoonfuls of sugar, and one-half cupful of chopped walnuts. Stir all together and spread on wafers, or upon long narrow crackers. Bake to a light brown.

Ham and chicken sandwiches

Into a pint of cold boiled or roast chicken, chopped very fine, stir a cupful of minced ham; season with a few minced olives, and moisten with salad oil. Add white pepper to taste, and spread between thin slices of crustless white bread, buttered lightly.

Cheese and olive sandwiches

Mix cream cheese and chopped olives together; spread very thin slices of bread with the mixture; serve on a folded napkin.

Egg and olive sandwiches

Boil six eggs hard, remove the shells and chop the eggs very, very fine. Stone and chop eighteen large olives, and mix these with the minced egg. Moisten all with a little melted butter, season to taste and mix to a moist paste. Spread on thin slices of crustless bread, and press the two halves of the sandwich firmly together.

Lettuce and cream cheese sandwiches

Cut white bread into very thin slices and remove the crusts, then butter lightly. Spread with Philadelphia cream cheese. Dip a leaf of crisp lettuce in a French salad dressing, and lay it upon a slice of the bread, then press another slice upon it. With a sharp pair of scissors trim off the projecting leaf of lettuce. Pile these sandwiches on a plate, cover and keep in the ice-box until wanted.

FRAPPÉ BEVERAGES

A pleasant custom prevalent at many summer afternoon teas is that of passing nearly frozen beverages for the refreshment and delectation of the guests. These glacés or frappés are so easily prepared that the veriest tyro in the ice-making art need not be afraid to attempt them. On a warm day they are a refreshing variety upon the conventional cup of tea, and are so light and innocuous as not to interfere with the enjoyment of the dinner which must come an hour or two later. These ices are served in glasses, and with spoons.

Café frappé

Put two cupfuls of finely-ground coffee into a large French coffee-pot, or biggin, and pour upon it two quarts of boiling water. When this has dripped through the strainer, pour it into a pitcher and turn it back into the strainer. Repeat this process four times, then pour the clear coffee into a bowl, and stir into it two large cupfuls of granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and set aside to cool. When cold, add the unbeaten whites of two eggs, turn into a freezer and grind until frozen, but still rather soft. When turned into a glass it should be of about the consistency of soft snow. This rule of consistency applies to all these frozen beverages.

Tea frappé

Scald a china teapot, put into it six teaspoonfuls of the best mixed tea and pour upon it eight cupfuls of freshly-boiling water. Let this stand for six or eight minutes, strain it into a bowl, and sweeten to taste. When cold, turn into the freezer.

Frosted lemonade

Boil together for fifteen minutes two quarts of water, and four cupfuls of granulated sugar. Remove from the fire and when the syrup is lukewarm, add the juice of a dozen lemons. Set aside until cold, then freeze.

Frozen orangeade

Mix together the juice from six oranges and two lemons. Boil together three cupfuls of water and one cupful of sugar for ten minutes; remove from the fire and add the orange and lemon juice. When cold, add the unbeaten white of one egg, and freeze.

Frozen raspberry juice

Mash two quarts of red raspberries and cover them with three heaping cupfuls of granulated sugar. Let this stand in a warm place for an hour, then press through a cheese-cloth bag or a vegetable press to extract all the juice. To this add the juice of three lemons and of one orange, and two quarts of cold water. Stir well together and freeze. Some persons put a spoonful of whipped cream upon each glass of this ice. The contrast of the white with the pink is very pretty.

Ginger ale frappé

Open three bottles of imported ginger ale and turn the contents into a bowl. Add the juice of four lemons and a half cupful of granulated sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved; turn the mixture into a freezer, and freeze. This ice is very refreshing.

WAFERS

Graham wafers

Sift three cupfuls of graham flour and one cupful of white flour with a heaping teaspoonful of salt and two teaspoonfuls of baking powder. Melt two tablespoonfuls of butter with one of sugar in a pint of scalding milk. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, and pour this in. Stir to a soft dough, turn upon a floured pastry-board, roll out quickly and lightly into a thin sheet, cut into rounds with a biscuit-cutter, and bake in a floured baking pan until brown and crisp. While hot, spread lightly with butter.

Lemon wafers

Cream a cup of butter with two cups of sugar, work in two beaten eggs, a small cup of cold water and the grated rind and the juice of a large lemon. Add flour to make the dough stiff enough to roll out; roll very thin, cut into rounds and bake. Orange wafers may be made in the same way.

Vanilla wafers

Cream a cup of butter with two cups of sugar, add three well-beaten eggs and vanilla to taste. Stir in just enough flour to make a soft dough that can be rolled. Roll very thin, cut into rounds, and bake.

Peanut wafers

Cream together four tablespoonfuls of butter and a half-cup of sugar. When this mixture is soft and creamy add the well-whipped yolks of two eggs, four tablespoonfuls of milk, a cup of roasted and ground peanuts, and enough flour to make a good dough. Roll into a thin sheet, cut into rounds and bake.

STEWED FRUIT, PRESERVES, FRUIT JELLIES, MARMALADES, ETCETERA

STEWED FRUIT

Much of the excellence of stewed fruit depends upon the manner in which it is cooked. As it is served, in nine cases out of ten, it has a medicated “tang” that is far from agreeable—produced by the cooking of the sugar with the fruit. She who is familiar with this form of the sweetmeat alone has no conception of how palatable a dessert it makes if properly prepared. Served with plain or sponge cake it is a convenient dessert for Sunday night’s supper, or for the dainty family luncheon. But the housekeeper who would have her stewed fruit really good must be willing to be a little careful—perhaps fussy—in the preparation thereof. Apples that are a little tough, pears that are rather tasteless when raw, green or hard peaches and sour plums may, with the help of the stewing kettle and the housewife’s ingenuity, be converted into tender, toothsome morsels. Use always an agate-iron or porcelain-lined preserving kettle, as the action of the acid upon tin or iron darkens the fruit.

Nearly all fruits prepared according to recipes given herewith may be kept for months if sealed hot in glass cans, as one would can vegetables or unsweetened fruits. They are more wholesome than the pound-for-pound preserves.

Stewed apples

Peel and core firm apples, dropping them into cold water as you do so, that the color may be preserved. Put them over the fire with enough boiling water to cover them, and let them simmer gently until very tender, but not broken. With a perforated skimmer remove them carefully from the water and arrange them in a deep dish. Strain the liquor and return it to the fire, putting into it a large cupful of granulated sugar for every dozen apples you have cooked. Boil to a syrup, add the juice of one lemon and pour over the apples. Cover closely and set in a cold place until wanted. These apples will keep in the ice-box for several days.

Steamed apples

From a dozen medium-sized apples remove the peeling with a sharp knife, taking care to have the parings as thin as possible. Take out the cores; put the apples, side by side, in a deep pudding-dish, and pour over them enough water almost to cover them. Invert a plate, or pan, over the pudding-dish, set it in the oven and steam the contents until each apple can be easily pierced with a fork. Remove from the oven and lay the apples carefully in a deep dish. Set the pudding-dish containing the liquor from the apples on top of the range, add to it a cupful of granulated sugar, and bring to a boil. Simmer for twenty minutes, then add a dash of grated nutmeg and a pinch, each, of mace and ground cloves. Boil to a syrup and pour over the apples. Eat cold.

Stewed pears

Peel and quarter a dozen large pears and remove the cores, laying the quartered fruit in cold water as you do so. Put them over the fire with a pint of boiling water and stew until tender. Remove the fruit and add to the liquor a cupful of sugar, a stick of cinnamon, one of mace, and a teaspoonful of lemon juice. Boil until thick, strain the syrup and pour it over the pears. Cover closely until they are cold. Seckel pears, peeled and stewed whole according to this recipe, are delicious.

Stewed peaches

Peel and stone three dozen peaches. Put them over the fire with enough boiling water to cover them and put into the water six peach-pits (crushed) and two slices of pineapple cut into dice. Stew slowly, and when the peaches are tender transfer them to a bowl while you boil the liquor hard for five minutes, then strain it and add three cupfuls of granulated sugar. Boil to a thick syrup and pour over the peaches. Cover while cooking.

Stewed plums

Wipe each plum carefully with a soft damp cloth, and prick it with a fork to prevent bursting. Have the water in the preserving kettle a little more than lukewarm and lay the fruit in it. Bring to a gentle boil, cook just long enough for the plums to become tender, but not long enough for the skins to crack. They must be watched carefully. Remove to a deep dish, add a cupful of granulated sugar to every quart of liquor, boil to a syrup and pour over the plums.

Apple sauce