Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties Part 25

1/2 an ounce of ginger extract.

1/4 a teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda for each gla.s.s.

_Method._--Boil the sugar, water and tartaric acid five minutes. When nearly cold beat into the syrup the whites of the eggs, beaten until foamy, and the flavoring extract. Store in a fruit jar, closely covered.

To use, put three tablespoonfuls into a gla.s.s half full of cold water, stir in one-fourth a teaspoonful of soda, and drink while effervescing.

A pint of any kind of fruit juice may displace the water, when a teaspoonful of lemon juice should be added to the contents of each gla.s.s before stirring in the soda.

=Spanish Chocolate.=

(_To serve 60._)

INGREDIENTS.

6 quarts of milk.

3 blades of mace.

1 five-inch stick of cinnamon.

12 cloves.

20 pounded almonds.

1 pound of chocolate.

3 cups of sugar.

2 quarts of boiling water.

Yolks of three eggs.

_Method._--Scald the milk with the spices and nuts. Break up the chocolate and melt over hot water; add the sugar, mix thoroughly, then gradually stir in the boiling water; let cook two or three minutes after all the water has been added, then turn into the hot milk; let stand over hot water until ready to serve, then add the beaten yolks of eggs, diluted with half a cup of water, milk or cream, and strain through a cheese-cloth. Keep hot over hot water.

=Claret Cup.=

INGREDIENTS.

2 quarts of claret.

1 cup of sugar.

1 cup of water.

5 lemons cut in slices.

1 dozen whole cloves.

2 qts. of charged Apollinaris or soda water.

1/4 a cup of brandy, sherry or maraschino.

Ice.

Boil the sugar and water about six minutes; let cool, then add the lemon slices, with seeds removed, and the cloves; let stand some hours in a cold place. When ready to serve, add the claret, water and liqueur, all chilled on ice. Put a piece of ice in the pitcher and pour over it the mixture. The beverage should not be sweet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Copper Chafing-Dish with Earthen Ca.s.serole.]

PART III.

CHAFING-DISH DAINTIES.

_Gentlemen, prepare not to be gone; We have a trifling foolish banquet._ --ROMEO AND JULIET.

_Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast._ --COMEDY OF ERRORS, iii. I.

_A little quail, or some such light thing, when I come home at night._

--CHARLES d.i.c.kENS.

_Now and then your men of wit Will condescend to take a bit._ --SWIFT.

INTRODUCTION.

=Chafing-dishes Past and Present.=

Well, he was an ingenious man that first found out eating and drinking.--_Swift._

How fire was discovered, when it was first applied to the needs of human beings, the origin and early use of cooking and heating utensils,--all are concealed from us in the mists that surround the life of prehistoric man. But at the dawn of history, even before the beginning of our era, crude appliances for cooking were in use; and, without doubt, one of the earliest of these was an utensil corresponding in some particulars, at least, to the chafing-dish of to-day.

The chafing-dish is a portable utensil used upon the table, either for cooking food or for keeping food hot after it has been cooked by other means. In ancient times, the fuel of the chafing-dish was either live coals or olive oil; to-day we use either electricity, gas, alcohol or colonial spirits.

The first chafing-dishes of which historic mention is made consisted of a pan heated over a pot of burning oil, the pan resting upon a frame which held the pot of oil. It was with such an utensil, perhaps, that the Israelitish women cooked the locusts of Egypt and Palestine, for these were eaten as a common food by the people of the biblical lands and age.

Mommsen, in his history of Rome, while speaking of the extravagance of the times, as shown in the table furnishings, probably refers to the chafing-dish when he says: "A well-wrought bronze cooking-machine came to cost more than an estate." The idea that this might be the utensil referred to is strengthened by the fact that many chafing-dishes have been found in the ruins of Pompeii. These were made of bronze, and highly ornamented. Evidently, olive oil was the fuel used in these dishes.

Coming down to more modern times, Madame de Stael had a dish of very unique pattern, and, when driven by the command of Napoleon from her beloved Paris, she carried her chafing-dish with her into exile as one of her most cherished household G.o.ds. At the present day among the favored few, who have full purses, are found sets of little silver chafing-dishes about four inches square. These tiny dishes rest upon a doylie-covered plate, and a bird or rarebit may be served in them as a course at dinner, one to each guest. The cooking is not done in these dishes, and they are not furnished with lamps; in them the food, while it is being eaten, is simply kept hot by means of a tiny pan filled with hot water.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chafing-Dish, Filler, Etc.

"With all Appliances and Means to boot."]

In reality, the modern chafing-dish is a species of _bain marie_, or double boiler, with a lamp so arranged that cooking can be done without other appliances. It consists of four parts. The _first_ is the blazer, or the pan in which the cooking is done; this is provided with a long handle. The _second_ is the hot-water pan, which corresponds to the lower part of the double boiler; this should be provided with handles, and is a very inconvenient dish without them. The _third_ is the frame upon which the hot-water pan rests, and in which the spirit-lamp is set.

The _last_, but by no means least, part is the lamp; this is provided with a cotton or an asbestos wick. When the lamp has a cotton wick, the flame is regulated by turning the wick up or down, as in an ordinary lamp. At present this style of lamp is found only in the more expensive grades of dishes,--silver-plated, and costing from $15 upwards. When asbestos is used as the wick, the lamp is filled with this porous stone, which is to be saturated with alcohol immediately before using, and the top is covered with a wire netting. The flame is regulated by means of metal slides, which open and shut over the netting, thus cutting off or letting on the flame, as it is desired.

=Chafing-dish Appointments.=

With all appliances and means to boot.

--HENRY IV., iii. I.

The chafing-dish should always rest upon a tray, as a very slight draught of air, or the expansion of the alcohol when heated, will sometimes cause the flame to flare out and downward, and thus an unprotected tablecloth might be set on fire.

Often a cutlet dish is considered a necessary part of a chafing-dish outfit; but as one of the chief merits of the chafing-dish consists in the possibility of serving a repast the instant it is cooked, there would seem to be a want of propriety in removing the cooked article to a platter and garnishing the dish before serving.

A polished wooden spoon, with long handle and small bowl, is a most convenient utensil to use while cooking the dainty; but the regulation chafing-dish spoon is needed when serving the same. Such a spoon has a broad bowl of silver or aluminum, with rounded end, and a long ebony handle.