Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing-Dish Dainties Part 23

Prepare the dough as above, roll to about three-eighths an inch in thickness, and cut into rounds. Spread one half of these with softened b.u.t.ter, and press the others, unb.u.t.tered, upon them; bake fifteen or eighteen minutes.

=Pulled Bread.=

(_To serve with simple salads and cheese._)

Remove the crust from a fresh loaf of French bread. Gash the loaf at the ends and pull apart into halves; then cut the halves and pull apart into quarters. Repeat until the pieces are about the thickness of breadsticks. Put on a rack in a dripping-pan, and dry out the moisture in a slow oven; then brown delicately. Keep in a dry place (a tin box is suitable) and reheat in the oven before serving.

=How to Give Rolls and Bread a Glossy, Brown Crust.=

A short time before removing from the oven, brush over the top of each loaf or roll with beaten yolk of egg, diluted with a little milk, or with a little sugar dissolved in milk, or with thin starch.

=Chou Paste.=

Put a saucepan with half a cup of b.u.t.ter and one cup of boiling water over the fire. When the mixture boils, beat into it one cup of flour.

When the dough cleaves from the sides of the saucepan, turn into a bowl and beat in, one at a time, three large or four small eggs.

=To Boil Salted Meats: Ham, Tongue, Etc.=

Cover the meat with cold water and bring the water slowly to the boiling-point; let boil five minutes, then _slightly_ bubble until the meat is tender.

=To Boil Chicken, Lamb and Other Fresh Meat.=

Cover the meat with boiling water, let boil rapidly five minutes, then keep the water just below the boiling-point, or just "quivering" at one side of the saucepan, until the meat is tender. When the meat is about half cooked, add a teaspoonful of salt for each quart of water.

=Potted Meat and Fish for Sandwiches.=

INGREDIENTS.

1 pound of tender cooked meat or fish (2 cups).

2 ounces of fat cooked meat (1/4 a cup).

2 ounces of b.u.t.ter (1/4 a cup).

Mace and anchovy essence, if desired.

Pepper and salt.

_Method._--Chop the meat or fish very fine, then pa.s.s through a puree sieve; cream the b.u.t.ter and with a wooden spoon work it into the meat or fish; add seasonings to taste, press the mixture solidly into small jars or cups, and pour melted b.u.t.ter to the depth of one-fourth an inch over the top of the meat. Set aside in a cool place.

=Kinds of Meat and Fish for Potting.=

Ham, fat and lean; either chicken, veal or tongue, with bacon; chicken and ham, mixed, fat ham; chicken and tongue, mixed, with bacon; veal and ham, mixed, with fat ham; roast beef and corned beef, mixed, with fat of either, or bacon; finnan-haddie and bacon; salmon, cod, haddock, bluefish, etc., with bacon, or with double the amount of b.u.t.ter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bowl of Fruit-Punch Ready for Serving.]

BEVERAGES SERVED WITH SANDWICHES.

Towards eve there was tea (A luxury due to Matilda) and ice, Fruit and coffee.

--_Meredith's "Lucile."_

Come, touch to your lips this melting sweetness, Sip of this nectar,--this Java fine,-- Whose tawny drops hold more completeness Than lurks in the depths of ruby wine.

--_J. M. L._

=Filtered Coffee.=

INGREDIENTS.

1/2 a cup of coffee, ground very fine.

3 cups of boiling water.

About 6 blocks of sugar.

About 3 tablespoonfuls of cream.

About 6 tablespoonfuls of hot milk.

_Method._--Put the coffee into the filter of a well-scalded coffee-pot.

Pour the boiling water over the coffee. Serve as soon as the infusion has dripped through the filter. For black coffee use double the quant.i.ty of coffee.

=Boiled Coffee.=

INGREDIENTS.

1 cup of ground coffee.

White and sh.e.l.l of 1 egg.

1 cup of cold water.

6 cups of boiling water.

1 tablespoonful of ground coffee.

_Method._--Beat the white and crushed sh.e.l.l of the egg and half the cup of cold water together; mix with the coffee, pour over the boiling water, stir thoroughly, and boil from three to five minutes with the nozzle tightly closed; pour half a cup of cold water down the spout; stir in one tablespoonful of coffee and let stand on the range, without boiling, ten minutes.

=Five-o'clock Tea.=

INGREDIENTS.

Tea.

Candied ox-heart cherries.

Slices of lemon.

Boiling water.