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Serving Large Charlottes

Says an old author--Fielding: "Many exquisite viands might be rejected by the epicure if it was a sufficient cause for his contemning of them as common and vulgar, that something was to be found in the most paltry alleys under the same name. * * Where then lies the difference between the food of the nobleman and the porter, if both are at dinner on the same ox or calf, but in the seasoning, the dressing, the garnishing, and the setting forth?" Charlotte-russe is one of the few royal dishes that have become universally known--by name. But as commonly met with it is a fine thing 'run to seed;" one of the shabby genteel; a very distant relation of the original. The first departure uses a sponge cake with the inside all cut out and the crust filled up with a cream or blanc-mange not so bad; but it falls from that to a lining of slices of any sort of stale cake, of burnt, scraped and trimmed cake, husks and scraps, filled with something sour and nasty.

The individual style of service makes the long and narrow shape of mold-desirable for slices to be cut across, but the lining should always be of lady fingers, their thinness and glazed sugar surface making them the most suitable.

But a large round charlotte may be sliced as well like a cake or cheese and the good workman will like to show in such broad slices the sponge-like texture of the cream filling. A spoonful of thick sweetened cream ice cold should be placed in the plate or saucer first.

A charlotte set on the table whole should be ornamented with small piping patterns of cake icing on the sides and a coat of thin icing on top colored very light brown with a red hot salamander held over it. A chantilly charlotte should have no cake lining on the bottom of the mold, and when turned out should have whipped cream piled high on top and spotted with red or with pieces of colored jelly. A strawberry charlotte in like manner should have strawberries and whipped cream heaped upon it. A border of whipped cream placed around the base, or meringues inverted like cups filled with berries or grapes and set around are other suitable and proper ornaments, and so are the shapes of gelatine paste colored green with spinach juice as recommended for molds of ice cream.