Luncheon is pre-eminently the meal at which to make use of potted meats, sardines, pâtés, and the like. There are many of these from which to make a choice. A luncheon is not to be despised that begins with a cup of bouillon, or with a plate of soup left over from last night's dinner, continues with fresh rolls or biscuit or muffins, or toasted crackers, or good cold bread—white or brown—cut in delicate slices, and one of the pâtés put up by certain French and American companies, or a Gotha liver sausage, or a few sardines, accompanied by a cup of tea or cocoa, and concludes with some simple sweet, such as marmalade, jam, or fruit.
But luncheon need not be confined to cold delicacies that must be bought outright. It is the time for using up left-overs, for trying new recipes for side-dishes and entrées, for the housekeeper to learn for herself and to teach her cook the daintiest methods of utilizing those remnants which the uninitiated might stigmatize as "scraps." Great is the variety of styles in which these may be employed. That bit of cold fish from last evening's dinner may be picked to shreds, stirred into a white sauce, and baked in a scallop-shell. Or it may be mixed with half as much mashed potato, moistened with boiling water and a little melted butter, and tossed up into a dish of creamed fish.
The scraps of pastry left from pie-making and the sausage or two that were spared at breakfast may compose a sausage-roll, the cold potato and the fragment of steak may be turned into a hash, and odd slices of cold lamb, mutton, or veal are just the thing for croquettes and fritters. And of the odds and ends of poultry what delicious compounds may be made! Croquettes, scallops, minces, fritters, filling for pâtés, salad enough for one or two if eked out with lettuce, and a dozen other dainty plats. Or a tiny omelet, either baked or sauté, may be prepared; and when one begins to count up the appetizing dishes which may be made of eggs, the list seems without an end. Even when several people are to partake of the meal a variety of little dishes may take the place of a single large one for which new material would have to be purchased. In the cultivation or creation of a talent as a réchauffeuse true economy consists.
In some homes luncheon is a quite elaborate affair, and comprises several courses, including, perhaps, a soup or bouillon, a meat course, a salad, and fruit or sweets. In the majority of establishments owned by people of moderate means, however, the meal is simpler, but need be no less delightful. Many people can eat muffins, griddle-cakes, and other hot breads at noon with less after-discomfort than at any other season, and dishes of this sort are usually acceptable on the luncheon-table. With their help the meal can hardly fail to be appetizing.
A SMALL LUNCHEON
LUNCHEONS are among the most popular forms of entertainment that can be selected, when only a limited number are to be honored. To these affairs men are seldom invited, and there are not wanting those among the sterner sex who do not hesitate to attribute their banishment to desire on the women's part for the opportunity to chat uninterruptedly and unreservedly on those subjects presumed dear to their hearts—dress, babies, and servants. Other men go so far as to hint that gossip, and even scandal, engage the tongues of these much-maligned women, while even the most charitable husbands and brothers cannot refrain from openly expressing their pity for the unfortunate ladies debarred, for even a limited period, from the delights of the society of the lords of creation.