Sugar for Compotes
INGREDI- ENTS.-1 lb. of sugar, 1½ pint of water.
Boil the sugar and water together for 1/4 hour, and the syrup will be ready for use.
This syrup is only intended for immediate use, more sugar must be used if it is required to keep. TIME. hour.
Supper. So long as late dances and receptions continue in fashion, this meal can never become a thing of the past, although the ordinary late dinner of the upper and upper middle class, and the more unpretentious "high tea," now so often served in small households, renders a guest or family supper a rarely-seen repast. دو However, there are still many who, dining late six days of the week, sup on the seventh, and some few others who are oldfashioned enough to do so every day; so, for them we give a few menus for both guest and family suppers, these needing no comment save that they should be prettily and nicely served; the dishes being, generally, all upon the table at once. As at every other meal, flowers or plants should find place for their decoration, and where there is not much money or time to be spared for luxuries, the cost of a hardy fern, which can be bought for a few pence, and will last for months as a centre ornament, need not be grudged. In the arrangement of a ball supper there is great scope for taste. Colours should be prettily contrasted, all cold meats decorated and garnished with aspic jelly, fresh parsley, glazings, ornamental skewers, &c., sweet dishes as varied as possible in colour and form; while plenty of green, given by palms or ferns, will give a softening tone to the whole.
Flowers are not absolutely needed at a SUPPER. ball supper, as nearly all the dishes, and specially those of fruit, give colour.
SUPPER.
Winter.
Soup.
Lobster Salad.
Oyster Patties.
Boned Turkey.
Pheasants.
Game Pie.
Chicken Salad. Plain Salad.
Ham. Pressed Beef.
Caviare Sandwiches.
It is rarely now we see a home-made supper at a ball, but we must urge a plea for these. It is so easy to order a supper to be brought in and cleared away, and many urge that it costs no more than having the dishes prepared at home, while they are made to look far more ornamental than they could be by an ordinary cook.
Still, if we are content to have all our prettiest dishes made for us, there will cease to be ambition in cookery; and another and stronger argument in favour of home-made suppers may be found in the fact that it is rarely the case that they are not better in quality (especially the savoury dishes and salads) than those we buy ready made, although the latter are made to look MENUS FOR GUEST SUPPERS FOR TEN more tempting and pretty.
Soup, at ball suppers, or served during the evening at a dance, should be white or clear, the rest of the viands may be cold ones, and in the case of a buffet supper, the poultry and game should be ready carved. For these, there are no more popular dishes than salads or mayonnaise of different kinds, such as chicken or salmon, and small fancy sweets are generally found more convenient than large ones, such as tipsy cake or trifle, although there is almost invariably one of the latter made as ornamental as possible, and placed in a prominent position.
Sandwiches, some plain, some more fanciful, in the way of foie gras, lobster, minced chicken and ham, &c., should always be found at a buffet supper, some people not caring te take anything more substantial.
MENUS FOR BALL SUPPERS.
Summer.
Salmon Mayonnaise.
Lobster Patties.
Chicken. Tongue.
Pigeon Pie.
Lamb.
Salads of Two Kinds.
Galantine of Veal.
Foie Gras Sandwiches.
Cucumber Sandwiches.
Trifle.
Creams, Jellies.
Fancy Pastry.
Various Fruits.
Compotes of Fruit.
Tipsy Cake. Trifle.
Jellies. Blancmange.
Small Fancy Sweets.
PERSONS.
Summer.
Cold Salmon. Cucumber.
Tartare Sauce.
Veal Pie.
Chickens. Ham.
Salad.
Fruit Tart. Cream.
Compote of Fruit.
Jelly.
Cheese Biscuits.
Winter.
Scalloped Oysters.
Game Pie.
Hashed Turkey.
Cold Beef.
Salad.
Tipsy Cake.
Vanilla Cream.
Stewed Fruit.
Cheese Soufflé.
FAMILY SUPPERS.
Summer.
Sunday. Cold lamb, mint sauce, cucumber.-Gooseberry-fool or other stewed fruit. -Cheese, biscuits, &c.
Monday. Rissoles of cold meat and potatoes, ham, salad.-Plain blancmange, any fresh fruit. -Cheese, biscuits, &c.