Part 28
_Champagne._--Perhaps the choicest brands of Champagne are Pomméry (dry, supposed to mean less sweet), Giesler (sweet), Veuve Cliquot (sweet), and Roederer (sweet). The best of the cheaper Champagnes are Charles Roederer, Heidsick, Montebello, and Krug.
_Claret._--Choicest brands: Châteaux La Rose, Château La Tour, Château Lafitte, or Château Margeaux. Best cheaper brand, St. Julien.
_Sauterne._--Best: Château Yquem, La Tour Blanche. Best cheaper, Haut-Sauterne.
_Burgundy._--Best brands: Clos Vougeot, Chambertin, Chablis, and Red Hermitage.
_Sherry._--Best brand, Amontillado.
_Hock._--Best brands: Steinberg Cabinet and Marcobrunner. Best sparkling wine, Hochheimer.
The American dry wines are most excellent, and might be more patronized by those who know no other wine than that of foreign manufacture. The Missouri Catawba and Concord wines are especially good; so are some of the California wines. The Ohio Catawba is quite noted.
BILL-OF-FARE TABLE.
Bills of fare can be easily made by selecting more or less dishes, and serving them in the order indicated in the table. The dishes are to be garnished as explained in receipts.
1st Course.--Raw oysters, little clams, Roman punch.
2d Course.--Soup (_potages_): any kind of soup or soups.
3d Course.--Hors-d’œuvres (cold): sardines, pickled oysters, cucumbers, radishes, preserved herrings, anchovies, cold slaw. These dishes are considered as appetizers, and are served just after the soup. It is a French custom. Melons are served as a course after soup also.
4th Course.--Fish (_poissons_): any kind of fish or shell-fish.
5th Course.--Hors-d’œuvres (hot). The hot hors-d’œuvres are the light entrées, such as croquettes, all kinds of hot vols-au-vent, or patties (not sweet ones, however), sweet-breads, brains, etc.
6th Course.--Relevés: the relevés or removes, are the substantial dishes. Roast joints, _i. e._, of beef, veal, lamb, mutton, or venison, roast or boiled turkeys or chickens, fillet of beef, braised meats, ham, sometimes game.
7th Course.--Roman punch.
8th Course.--Entrées: cutlets, all kinds of vols-au-vent, or patties (not sweet); sweet-breads, fricassees, scollops, casseroles, poultry or game en coquille, croquettes, salmis, blanquettes; any of the meats, or game made into side-dishes.
9th Course.--Entremêts: dressed vegetables served alone, such as cauliflower, asparagus, artichokes, corn, spinach, boiled celery, string-beans (_haricots verts_), or French pease on toast, etc., macaroni, dressed eggs, fritters.
10th Course.--Rôtis: game of any kind.
11th Course.--Salade: any kind of salad; a plain salad is often served with the game.
12th Course.--Cheese, macaroni dressed with cheese, cheese omelet, cheese-cakes; cheese and salad are often served together.
13th Course.--Entremêts, sweet: any kind of puddings, jellies, sweet fritters, sweet pastries, creams, charlottes, etc.
14th Course.--Glaces: any thing iced; ice-creams, water ices, frozen puddings, biscuits glacés, etc.
15th Course.--Dessert: fruit, nuts and raisins, candied fruits, bonbons, cakes, etc.
16th Course.--Coffee, and little cakes, or biscuits (crackers).
TO PREPARE COMPANY DINNERS.
It is very simple to prepare a dinner served _à la Russe_, as it matters little how many courses there may be. If it were necessary to prepare many dishes, and to have them all hot, and in perfection at the same minute, and then be obliged to serve them nearly all together, the task might be considered rather formidable and confusing. But with one or two assistants, and with time between each course to prepare the succeeding one, after a very little practice it becomes a mere amusement.
The soup, or the stock for the soup, and the dessert, should be made the day before the dinner.
A bill of fare should be written, and pinned up in the kitchen. Every thing should be prepared that is possible in the early part of the day; then, after the fish, chickens, birds, etc., are dressed and larded (if necessary), they should be put aside, near the ice. If sweet-breads are to be served, they should be larded, parboiled, and put away also. The salad (if lettuce) should be sprinkled with water (not placed _in_ water), and put in a cool, dark place in a basket, not to be touched until the last three minutes.
The plates and platters for each course should be counted, examined, and placed on a table by themselves. However, the arrangement of the dishes was explained in the chapter on setting the table.
After this, the kitchen should be put in order, and the tables cleared of all unnecessary things. Then every thing needed for the courses to be cooked should be placed in separate groups at the back of a large table, so that there may be no confusion or loss of any thing at the last minute. If there are sweet-breads, have them egged and bread-crumbed; if pease are to be served with them, place them in a basin at their side, properly seasoned. If there is macaroni with cheese, have the proper quantity desired already broken on a dish, with a plate of grated cheese and a tin cup, with the necessary amount of butter to be melted, side by side. If there is a fillet of beef to be baked and served with a mushroom-sauce, have the fillet in the baking-pan already larded, the mushrooms in the basin in which they are to be cooked, at the side; also the piece of lemon and the spoonful of flour ready. The stock will be in the kettle at the back of the stove. By-the-way, in giving a fine dinner, there should always be an extra stock-pot, separate from the soup, at the back of the stove, as it is excellent for boiling the sweet-breads or the macaroni, and making the sauces, etc.
If a simple salad of lettuce is to be served, have the oil, vinegar, pepper and salt, and the spoonful of finely chopped onion, in a group all ready. If a _Mayonnaise_ dressing is to be served, that should be made in the morning.
Look at the clock in the kitchen, and calculate the time it will take each dish to cook, and put it to the fire, so that it will be finished “to a turn” just at the proper minute.
During dinner, one person should attend to placing out of the way all the dishes brought from the dining-room, and, if necessary, should wash any spoons, platters, etc., which may be needed a second time. She should know beforehand, however, just what she is to wash, as every one must know exactly her own business, so that no questions need be asked at the last moment. The cook can attend to nothing but the cooking, at the risk of neglecting this most important part.
As the course just before the salad is sent into the dining-room, begin to make the salad, having every thing all ready. First, pick over the lettuce-leaves, wash and leave them to drain, while you prepare the dressing. It should _just_ be ready when its turn comes to be sent to table.
If the dinner company is very large, and there are many dishes, the cooking of them may be distributed between two persons, and perhaps the second cook may use the laundry stove; but with a little practice and the one or two assistants, one cook can easily prepare the most elaborate dinner, if it is only properly managed before the time of cooking. She should, of course, never attempt any dish she has not made before. A _bain-marie_ is very convenient for preserving cooked dishes, if there is some delay in serving the dinner.
Of all things, never on any occasion serve a large joint or large article of any kind on a little platter, as nothing looks so awkward. Let the platter always be at least a third larger than the size of its contents.
I give several bills of fare. They are long enough and good enough for any dinner party. Guests do not care for better or more, if these are only properly cooked. They can be easily prepared in one’s own house, and this is always more elegant than to have a list of a hundred dishes from a restaurant.
A WINTER DINNER.
Oysters on the half-shell. Amber soup. Salmon; sauce Hollandaise. Sweet-breads and pease. Lamb-chops; tomato-sauce. Fillet of beef, with mushrooms. Roast quails; Saratoga potatoes. Salad: lettuce. Cheese; celery; wafers. Charlotte-russe, with French bottled strawberries around it. Chocolate Fruit Ice-cream. Fruit. Coffee.
The same bill of fare in French is as follows:
MENU.
Huîtres. Consommé de bœuf clair. Saumon; sauce Hollandaise. Ris de veau aux petits pois. Côtelettes d’agneau à la purée de tomate. Filet de bœuf aux champignons. Cailles grillées aux pommes de terre. Salade. Fromage; céleri. Charlotte-russe aux fraises. Plum-pudding glacé. Fruits. Café.
This is a bill of fare seen very often at dinner parties. It is not difficult to prepare, as there are only five of the courses which are necessarily prepared at dinner-time. The oyster course is very simple, and may be placed on the table before the guests enter the dining-room. This soup may be made the day before, and only reheated at the time of serving. The Saratoga potatoes may be made in the morning; and if the _charlotte-russe_ is not purchased at a restaurant, it may be made the day before. So, after the quails are broiled or roasted, the cook has nothing more to do but to make the salad, which is an affair of three minutes, and the coffee, for which she has a long time, the coffee having been ground and in readiness in the coffee-pot two or three hours before dinner. The four last courses before the coffee are easily purchased outside. The cheese might be a Neufchatel or a Roquefort. The _charlotte_ and the ice-cream can come from the confectioner’s. The fruit is on the table during the dinner as one of the decorations.
DINNER BILL OF FARE.
Roman punch. Giblet soup. Little vols-au-vent of oysters. Smelts; tomato-sauce. Scolloped chickens (_en coquille_); Bechamel sauce. Saddle of venison; potatoes à la neige. Breasts of quails in cutlets, with French pease. Salad of lettuce. Cheese omelet. Pine-apple Bavarian cream. Vanilla ice-cream, and ginger preserve; little cakes. Fruits. Coffee.
MENU.
Punch à la Romaine. Bouchées d’huîtres. Les éperlans frits; sauce tomate. Coquilles de volaille à la Bechamel. Selle de venaison à la purée de pommes de terre. Filets de cailles aux petits pois. Salade de laitue. Omelette au fromage. Le Bavaroix. Glace à la crème de vanille. Dessert. Café.
* * * * *
DINNER BILL OF FARE (_Spring_).
Macaroni, clear soup, with grated cheese. Salmon; lobster-sauce; cucumbers. Chicken croquettes; tomato-sauce. Sweet-breads in cases, or in silver scallop-shells; sauce Bechamel. Fillet of beef, with mushrooms. Roman punch. Snipe; potatoes à la Parisienne. Mayonnaise of chicken. Asparagus, with cream dressing. Ramequins. Champagne jelly en macédoine, with whipped cream. Neapolitan ice-cream; little cakes. Fruits.
MENU.
Potage au macaroni clair. Saumon aux concombres; sauce homard. Croquettes de volaille; sauce tomate. Ris de veau en papillotes, à la Bechamel. Filet de bœuf aux champignons. Punch à la Romaine. Bécasses; pommes de terre à la Parisienne. Mayonnaise de volaille. Asperges à la crème. Ramequins. Macédoine de fruits. Glace de crème à la Napolitaine. Dessert.
* * * * *
DINNER BILL OF FARE (_Winter_).
Oysters served in block of ice. Julienne soup (can purchase it canned). Soft-shell crabs. Sweet-breads; tomato-sauce. Braised pigeons, with spinach. Fillet of beef; sauce Hollandaise. Roman punch, in lemon-skins. Fillets of ducks, larded; poivrade-sauce; salad of vegetables. French canned string-beans (_haricots verts_) sautéd with butter, served on toast. Macaroni, with cheese. Maraschino Bavarian cream. Chocolate-pudding, iced. Fruits. Coffee.
MENU.
Huîtres. Potage à la julienne. Écrevisses frites. Ris de veau; sauce tomate. Pigeons à l’écarlate. Filet de bœuf; sauce Hollandaise. Sorbet. Filets de canards; sauce poivrade; salade de légumes. Haricots verts sautés au beurre. Macaroni au Parmesan. Le Bavaroix au maraschino. Pouding de chocolat glacé. Fruits. Café.
DINNER BILL OF FARE (_Winter_).
Mock-turtle soup (can be purchased canned). Boiled white-fish, garnished with potatoes au naturel and olives; sauce Hollandaise. Fried oysters; cold slaw. Casserole of sweet-breads; cream-sauce, decorated around the base with green pease. Roast wild turkey, chestnut stuffing; Saratoga potatoes. Fried cream. Spinach on toast, garnished with hard-boiled eggs. Salad; lettuce, with small, thin diamonds of fried ham. Cheese; wafers; celery. Little cocoa-nut puddings in paper cases. Ice-cream and cakes. Fruit. Coffee.
MENU.
Potage à la tête de veau en tortue, or potage fausse tortue. White-fish; sauce Hollandaise. Huîtres frites. Casserole de ris de veau aux petits pois. Dinde sauvage rôtie. Beignets de bouillie, or crème frite. Épinards aux œufs. Salade. Soufflé. Glace de crème au chocolat. Fruits. Café.
* * * * *
DINNER BILL OF FARE (_Winter_).
Oysters on half shell. Amber soup. Fish croquettes (pear-shape), garnished with parsley. Rice casserole, filled with blanquette of chicken. Roast beef (ribs rolled), with a circle of mashed potatoes à la neige and water-cresses. Canvas-back ducks; celery. Roman punch. Reed-birds cooked in sweet-potatoes. Poached eggs on anchovy toast. Salad. Coffee; Bavarian cream. Nesselrode pudding. Fruits. Café.
MENU.
Huîtres. Consommé de bœuf clair. Croquettes de poisson. Blanquette de volaille. Bœuf rôti à la purée de pommes de terre. Canards; céleri. Punch à la Romaine. Œufs pochés aux croûtes d’anchois. Salade. Bavaroix au café. Pouding à la Nesselrode. Fruits. Café.
* * * * *
DINNER BILL OF FARE (_Summer_).
Clear amber soup. Fried cuts of fish, with tomato-sauce. Sweet-breads and cauliflowers (cream dressing over both). Croquettes of chicken (in form of cutlets), with pease. Roast lamb; caper-sauce; spinach. Green corn served in husks.[L] Sliced tomatoes, with Mayonnaise dressing. Cheese; wafers; cucumbers. Maraschino Bavarian cream, and fresh strawberries. Ice-cream. Fruits.
MENU.
Consommé de bœuf clair. White-fish à l’Orlay. Ris de veau aux choux-fleurs. Croquettes de volaille aux petits pois. Agneau rôti aux épinards. Mayonnaise de tomate. Fromage; concombres. Bavaroix au maraschino. Glace de crème au chocolat. Dessert.
A SIMPLE DINNER FOR FOUR PERSONS (_Menu_).
Soup, with fried bread (_aux croûtons_). Chicken, with rice (see page 177). Macaroni, with tomato-sauce (see page 210). Lettuce, with Mayonnaise dressing. Corn-starch pudding (page 275), with a circle of peach marmalade around.
Necessary--a soup-bone, a soup-bunch, with plenty of parsley, a large chicken, half a pound of macaroni, a half-pint can of tomatoes, three-fourths of a tea-cupful of rice.
Make the _Mayonnaise_ dressing with three eggs in the morning. Use the whites of the eggs for the corn-starch pudding, which make at the same time, and put away in a mold to harden. Also put aside the rice to soak in cold water.
Five hours before dinner, put on the soup-bone, with the neck of the chicken also, as every little adds. An hour before dinner, cut up the soup-bunch, saving part of it for the tomato-sauce, as one or two sprigs of the parsley and a small onion. Put the remaining vegetables (frying the onion) into the soup, leaving only a sprig of parsley for the chicken. Cut up the pieces of chicken, which fry or _sauté_ brown in some hot drippings; put them then into a stew-pan. Add to the drippings (about a table-spoonful) a tea-spoonful of flour, and, when rubbed smooth, a pint of hot water, a ladleful of the soup taken from the soup-kettle, and a sprig of parsley chopped fine. Add this now to the fried pieces of chicken in the stew-pan; let them simmer until about five minutes before dinner.
For the soup, cut some bread into rather large dice, say three-quarters of an inch square; fry, or rather _sauté_, them in a little butter, turning all sides of the bread to allow it to become brown. Place the dice in the open oven, or at the back of the range, to become perfectly dry before the dinner-hour. Half an hour before dinner, put the macaroni to boil in another ladleful of stock mixed with some salted boiling water. Now make the tomato-sauce: make it as in receipt, and place it at the side of the fire or in the _bain-marie_ until the macaroni is done. Put on the rice to boil for about fifteen minutes in a little salted boiling water.
Just before serving the dinner is the busiest time. Strain the macaroni, and mix it with the sauce; put it into the oven for a few minutes to soak. Strain the soup, remove all the grease, and season it with pepper and salt. Put the bread dice, or _croûtons_, into the soup-tureen, pour over the soup, and send it to table. Take out the pieces of chicken, which arrange neatly on a warm platter; strain the stock in which it was boiled, remove all the fat, add the rice to it, season with pepper and salt, and let it simmer on the fire until it is time to be served, and then pour it over the chickens, and send them into the dining-room. The lettuce is next washed and dressed; afterward the pudding is turned from the mold, and decorated with the circle of peach marmalade.
ENGLISH AND FRENCH GLOSSARY.
SOUPS.
Amber or clear soup Consommé de bœuf clair. Soup, with bread Potage aux croûtons. Soup, with vegetables Consommé aux légumes. Macaroni soup Consommé au macaroni. Noodle soup Consommé aux nouilles. Vermicelli soup Consommé aux vermicelles. Spring soup Potage printanier. Julienne soup Potage à la julienne. Asparagus soup Potage d’asperge. Ox-tail soup Potage aux queues de bœuf. Chicken purée Potage à la purée de volaille. Chicken soup Consommé de volaille. Mock-turtle soup Potage à la fausse tortue. Oyster soup Potage aux huîtres. Bean soup Potage à la purée d’haricots. Onion soup Soupe à l’ognon. Vegetable purée Purée de légumes. Tomato soup Potage aux tomates. Potato soup Potage à la purée de pommes de terre. Sorrel soup Soupe à l’oseille.
FISH.
Salmon, sauce Hollandaise Saumon, sauce Hollandaise. Salmon, with lobster-sauce Saumon, sauce homard. Salmon, with parsley-sauce Saumon, sauce au persil. Salmon, with egg-sauce Saumon, sauce aux œufs. Salmon, with potatoes Saumon aux pommes de terre. Slices of salmon Tranches de saumon. Middle cut of salmon Tronçon de saumon. Salmon cutlets, with pickles Côtelettes de saumon aux cornichons. Salmon, with cucumbers Saumon aux concombres. Sardines, broiled Sardines grillées. Smelts, fried Éperlans frits. Little trout, fried Petites truites frites. Trout, in shells Truite en coquilles. Salmon-trout Truite saumonée. Trout cooked au court bouillon Truite au court bouillon. Codfish, with caper-sauce Morue à la sauce aux câpres. Codfish, with Bechamel sauce Morue à la Bechamel. Codfish, with potatoes Morue aux pommes de terre. Eels au gratin Gratin d’anguilles. Eels en matelote Matelote d’anguilles. Fresh mackerel, with maître-d’hôtel butter Maquereau frais à la maître-d’hôtel.
OYSTERS.
Oysters in shells Huîtres en coquille. Oysters fried Huîtres frites. Oyster fritters Beignets d’huîtres. Oyster patties Petits vol-au-vent d’huîtres, ou bouchées d’huîtres.
SAUCES.
White sauce (made with stock) Sauce à la Bechamel. Pickle-sauce Sauce aux cornichons. Egg-sauce Sauce aux œufs. Caper-sauce Sauce aux câpres. Anchovy-sauce Sauce aux anchois. Shrimp-sauce Sauce aux crevettes. Lobster-sauce Sauce homard. Oyster-sauce Sauce aux huîtres. Parsley-sauce Sauce au persil. Cauliflower-sauce Sauce au chou-fleur. Madeira-wine sauce Sauce au vin de Madère. Currant-jelly sauce Sauce aux groseilles. Tomato-sauce Sauce tomate. Mushroom-sauce Sauce aux champignons.
MEATS.
Roast fillet of beef Filet de bœuf rôti. Fillet of beef, larded Filet de bœuf piqué. Fillet of beef, with mushrooms Filet de bœuf aux champignons. Braised beef Bœuf braisé. Braised beef, with vegetables Bœuf braisé à la jardinière. Beef hash Hâchis de bœuf. Beefsteak, with mushrooms Bifteck aux champignons. Beefsteak pie Pâté de biftecks. À-la-mode beef Bœuf à la mode. Pickled tongue Langue de bœuf à l’écarlate. Mutton tongues Langues de mouton. Saddle of mutton (roast) Selle de mouton rôtie. Shoulder of mutton, stuffed Poitrine de mouton farcie. Mutton stew Ragout de mouton. Mutton cutlets, broiled Côtelettes de mouton grillées. Mutton cutlets, breaded Côtelettes de mouton panées. Mutton cutlets, with pease Côtelettes de mouton aux petits pois. Sheep’s kidneys Rognons de mouton. Lamb cutlets Côtelettes d’agneau. Lamb croquettes Croquettes d’agneau. Veal cutlets, with mushrooms Côtelettes de veau aux champignons. Veal cutlets, with tomato-sauce Côtelettes de veau, sauce tomate. Fricandeau of veal Fricandeau de veau. Liver, broiled Foie de veau grillé. Pork cutlets, with pickles Côtelettes de porc aux cornichons. Cold ham Jambon froid. Blanquette of veal Blanquette de veau.
SWEET-BREADS.
Sweet-breads, with macaroni Ris de veau à la Milanaise. Sweet-breads, with tomato-sauce Ris de veau à la sauce tomate. Sweet-breads, with pease Ris de veau aux petits pois. Sweet-breads, larded Ris de veau piqué. Sweet-bread fritters Beignets de ris de veau. Sweet-bread croquettes Croquettes de ris de veau.
POULTRY AND GAME.