As we have said, the party is a mixed one, and therefore we must manage our supper on the principle of meat for strong men, as well as milk for babes.
Judging by my own experience, there are few occasions on which I have felt more decidedly hungry than after a Christmas party. Really, to see some good-tempered persons hard at work amusing children, after 94perhaps having had a hurried early dinner, is quite enough to arouse pity. They have indeed earned their supper.
There are, perhaps, few opportunities for exercising taste better than a cold supper, where every dish is placed on the table at once. It would, however, be impossible to enter into the detail of the arrangements of the table without knowing with tolerable accuracy the resources of the establishment. For instance, where there are plenty of silver dishes, as well as cut-glass ones, to arrange a table handsomely would be far easier than where there are neither.
I would, however, give a few general directions. Have some flowers—real ones, if possible—and also mix plenty of green leaves with them. Try and alternate the dishes in colour. For instance, do not place a white mould of blancmange next to a dish of custard or a mayonnaise salad. Again, do not overcrowd the table.
We will go through a variety of dishes suitable for supper, explaining, where necessary, how they should be made, and also giving hints as to how they may be improved in appearance.
First, a very good dish is a cold roast turkey, glazed9. What a difference, however, in appearance between one that has been glazed and one that has not! Did you ever notice a plank11 of mahogany just fresh planed, 95and contrast it with the well-polished flap of a Spanish mahogany dining-room table? Now there is almost as much difference between cold tongue, or turkey, or fowl12, or pheasant unglazed and glazed, as there is between a mahogany plank unpolished and polished.
I will not enter here into an elaborate description of the proper method of making glaze10, beyond describing it as good rich stock, boiled down till it has the appearance of strong liquid glue. In making glaze, great care should be taken so as not to allow it to remain too long on the fire. As soon as the stock begins to turn colour, remove the stock-pot from the fire, and quickly slacken the heat, otherwise the contents will get burnt, and much of the flavour destroyed, especially if the glaze be intended for the purpose of making either soup or gravy13. The simplest method of obtaining glaze is to buy it ready-made—it is sold in skins—only take care to get it at a thoroughly14 respectable shop.
Now, to glaze a turkey is so very similar to varnishing15 one, that perhaps the easiest method of describing the operation is to say:—Melt some of the glaze in a little basin, and add, if you like, a very little water to it. Then take a fairly stiff brush and paint the turkey all over, drumsticks and all, making the breast particularly shiny. You will now see how very much the turkey has improved in appearance. It has, in fact, a 96rich mahogany look. If you are glazing16, say, a couple of fowls17, the principle is just the same. You will see the difference directly. By doing one first, and then comparing the two, you will understand the meaning of the simile18 I have given in reference to the mahogany.
Next, take some nice fresh bright-green double parsley, and fit some into all the hollow places you may observe about the turkey, of course trying as much as possible to make each side look alike. Place the turkey on a good-sized clean dish, and garnish19 it with some more parsley and cut lemon. I will try and describe, as some may not know how, the best method of cutting lemon for garnish. Cut a lemon in half the ordinary way, and then with a sharp knife cut off a thin slice, which is of course a complete circle, the centre being white, and the circumference21 a thin rim22 of yellow peel. Cut this in half again, thereby23 leaving you two semicircles. Next cut the semicircular rim—only the rim, or peel, or circumference, whichever you like to call it—through with a knife, and pull the two quarters of circles open with your fingers, till they stand exactly opposite each other. The hard white part of the lemon in the middle is quite sufficient to keep them together, if no violence is used. When I say pull them open, I mean only so far as, were another piece exactly like it placed over it crossways, they would again form a round slice of lemon.
97Now, a lemon cut up in this way makes a very pretty garnish for various dishes, besides cold game and poultry—as, for instance, a boiled fish, such as a turbot, on which has been sprinkled some lobster24-coral, surrounded with lemon cut in this manner, alternately with a little parsley and a few little crayfish, looks far different to what it would plain.
Just so with our turkey. There is one more thing to set it off, and that is, if possible, get a fine, small, white camellia, just tinged25 here and there with pink. Now, as camellias are not easily obtainable, and even if there be a few in the greenhouse, they would probably be coveted26 on such occasions as that we are speaking about for the purpose of adorning27 far more beautiful creatures than turkeys, your best plan will be to make a camellia.
How, you will ask, can this be done? Very simply. Cut it out of a turnip28 with a penknife. It really is not nearly so difficult as you would imagine. Take a sharp knife and a little scoop29, and try and see how near you can get to making it resemble a flower. Then stick a little piece of wood into it, and tie on two or three bay-leaves. Take the feather-end of a quill30 pen, and dip it into the cochineal bottle, and just tint31 the edges only.
I have no doubt but that these directions will be followed by several young ladies with a taste for 98drawing. I should feel much obliged if they would write and tell if their first attempt was successful.
If you want to see these cut flowers in perfection, take a walk down Covent-Garden Market, where, if you choose to pay for it, you can receive lessons in artificial vegetable-flower making.
Next stick our flower, whether real or artificial, in the turkey; the shape of the bird and a little taste will tell you about where.
A tongue can be glazed in an exactly similar manner, a curly paper frill tied round the root, and a flower placed on it.
So, too, a ham can be glazed. But there is one method of ornamenting32 a ham which deserves notice.
We will suppose the ham ready glazed. Have you ever seen one, the top round the rim ornamented34 with a white substance which looks like beautiful white fresh butter, or even sugar?
Now, it is very easy to ornament33 a glazed ham with this composition, and one advantage is, you can put words on the ham, such as “A Merry Christmas,” or, on the occasion of a child’s birthday, the name of the hero of the feast.
The way to do it is as follows:—Get some nice white clarified lard, and melt it in a cup in the oven, and add a little salad oil to it, so as to make it thinner when it is cold.
99Next roll up a sheet of fairly stiff note-paper like a cone35, and hold this cone near the point in the right hand. Pour a little of the hot lard into the cone, and so regulate the pressure on the paper with the right-hand thumb and finger as to allow the melted lard to drop out or run out in a very thin stream at the point. This lard will settle directly it comes out, and turn quite white on getting perfectly36 cold. I would advise you to practise designs on a black shining tea-tray, as it will scrape off with a spoon and do again. With a little practice and a natural gift for such things—for a clumsy-fisted Mary Ann would make an awful mess of it—it is wonderful what beautiful designs can be formed this way, such as a harp20 or a rose.
In making a spiral border round the edge of the ham, it sometimes looks a little prettier to have a small pink spot in the centre of each circle. This is done by simply colouring the melted lard with a few drops of cochineal. But I would warn you against having too much pink in ornamenting. Just a touch, as in the case of the turnip-flower, is all very well, but it must be but a touch. We wish some persons would bear this in mind in using rouge37.
Another exceedingly useful supper-dish is well-cut beef sandwiches. If these are cut thin, with just a little butter, mustard, and salt, you will always find 100them eaten. But a word about appearances. Have them piled up on a snow-white dinner-napkin, folded, if possible, at the bottom of a silver dish, and well garnished38 with small pieces of bright double parsley.
I need scarcely mention that every particle of crust must be cut off. Just contrast such a dish with what you get, say, at a railway-station refreshment-room the ham—they never have beef—coming out bodily with the first bite, and having a mouldy taste, which makes you regret that you didn’t try either the butterscotch or the Banbury cakes, which generally form the only alternatives.
Space will not here allow of my going through all the dishes advisable to have at a nice little supper, so I will confine myself to a few general directions.
Recollect39 you want to please children, without making them ill. Now, for the purpose I would always recommend a good large corn-flour pudding, made in a mould, and coloured a nice bright pink with cochineal. This can be made nice and sweet, and may be flavoured with a few drops of essence of almonds, or a little essence of vanilla40. The dish is very simple and wholesome41, and yet looks very pretty. You will very likely hear a little child say, “I will have some of that pink thing, please;” and, luckily, that pink thing is the least unwholesome thing on 101the whole table. It is the jams and pastries42 that do the harm.
With regard to jellies, I would add, try and get it bright. This requires patience and a jelly-bag. Also, as it will keep with ease, make it at least two days before you want it, so as not to drive yourself to have a lot to do on the day of the supper. In making jelly, whether orange or lemon, gelatine is the simplest, easiest, and cheapest method. Do not grudge43 the sherry, and also put a few coriander-seeds into the jelly when it is boiling. You will find this greatly improves the flavour.
But we must not forget the grown-up people, and under the circumstances they enjoy a good lobster salade mayonnaise. I have given directions before how to prepare this king of cold sauces. As, however, you are making a mayonnaise salad, it is almost as easy to make two as one. Have a lobster salad and a smoked-salmon44 salad. This smoked salmon must be cut into very thin slices, and simply placed round or mixed up in the salad just as it is—raw. If you possibly can, have these two mayonnaises placed in silver dishes, and get a few little crayfish or a few good prawns45 to add to the usual garnish of capers46, anchovies47, olives, cut hard-boiled eggs, &c., which I described in a preceding chapter.
In making mayonnaise sauce you will use two, or 102perhaps three, raw yolks of eggs. Now what are you going to do with the whites? Why not whip them up into a stiff froth, and use that for ornamental48 purposes? For instance, suppose you have that nice simple dish, stewed49 pippins, on the table. Take a dessert-spoonful of foam50 shaped like an egg, and place it on the top of each pippin. Have also in readiness a few of those tiny, pretty little sweets called hundreds and thousands, and sprinkle a few lightly on the white egg-froth. Contrast this dish with the pippins as they were before. The change is marvellous, and yet costs almost nothing. Yet many persons would think, casting their eyes over the table, “Ah! that dish came from the pastrycook’s.”
One or even two piled-up dishes of almonds and raisins51, being, if there are not too many almonds, dark dishes, form a favourable52 contrast with the light ones. A supper-table, to look really nice, must not have too many white dishes.
If you have a large centre-dish of trifle, with whipped cream on the top, a few hundreds and thousands sprinkled over it set it off. Now good whipped cream is rather beyond the powers of an ordinary cook, so if you happen to live near a really good pastrycook’s, you will find it a good plan to have a man come round just before supper and supply the whipped cream, but make the rest of the trifle at home.
103It is an exceedingly expensive dish to order, and, owing to wine, brandy, and liqueurs being requisite53 in its composition, one of the very last dishes desirable to order. Even pastrycooks will often spoil the ship for the sake of a ha’p’orth of tar8, in respect of wine. To wit, mock-turtle soup. Order a glass of sherry at a pastrycook’s with your mock-turtle, and throw half of it into the soup, and see what a difference it makes. In fact, as a rule, if you give a cook wine for cooking purposes, they drink the wine themselves, and manage the cooking without.
As a few last words of advice, in ornamenting your table, as well as in amusing the children, don’t forget the crackers54.
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1
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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legerdemain
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| n.戏法，诈术 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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glaze
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| v.因疲倦、疲劳等指眼睛变得呆滞，毫无表情 | |
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plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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fowl
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| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
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gravy
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| n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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varnishing
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| 在（某物）上涂清漆( varnish的现在分词 ) | |
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glazing
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| n.玻璃装配业；玻璃窗；上釉；上光v.装玻璃( glaze的现在分词 )；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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garnish
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| n.装饰，添饰，配菜 | |
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harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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circumference
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| n.圆周，周长，圆周线 | |
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rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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lobster
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| n.龙虾，龙虾肉 | |
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tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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adorning
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| 修饰，装饰物 | |
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turnip
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| n.萝卜，芜菁 | |
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scoop
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| n.铲子，舀取，独家新闻；v.汲取，舀取，抢先登出 | |
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quill
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| n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶 | |
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tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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ornamenting
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| v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的现在分词 ) | |
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ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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cone
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| n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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rouge
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| n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红 | |
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garnished
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| v.给（上餐桌的食物）加装饰( garnish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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vanilla
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| n.香子兰，香草 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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pastries
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| n.面粉制的糕点 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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45
prawns
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| n.对虾，明虾( prawn的名词复数 ) | |
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46
capers
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| n.开玩笑( caper的名词复数 )；刺山柑v.跳跃，雀跃( caper的第三人称单数 ) | |
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anchovies
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| n. 鯷鱼，凤尾鱼 | |
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48
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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49
stewed
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| adj.焦虑不安的，烂醉的v.炖( stew的过去式和过去分词 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
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50
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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51
raisins
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| n.葡萄干( raisin的名词复数 ) | |
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52
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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53
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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54
crackers
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| adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘 | |
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