If hot dishes are indispensable, something should be selected like chicken or sweetbread pâtés, or lobster in some form, which will not be injured by warming over. Croquettes too, if properly prepared, are delicious, but they must be soft and creamy inside, not hard like sausage balls.
For the home supper the preparations are much simpler. This late repast may consist merely of a plate of crackers, or of light biscuit, or of bread-and-butter, with perhaps a tin of potted meat, or a few sardines, or a piece of cheese, or a box of guava jelly, or a little fruit. Iced water, or milk and Apollinaris, or Seltzer are the best beverages to serve, or, for those who like it, a bottle of ale or beer.
In the hope of aiding housekeepers who desire to prepare something a little different from the stereotyped suppers so common at evening entertainments, and which usually consist of oysters, chicken or lobster salad, sandwiches, ice-cream, and coffee, there are appended a few recipes for dishes perhaps less commonly known than those just mentioned.
Lobster Salmi.—Two cups boiled lobster (cut, not chopped, into small pieces), three eggs (the yolks only), two tablespoonfuls butter, half a pint of cream, one wine-glassful sherry, one tablespoonful brandy, Cayenne pepper and salt to taste, one teaspoonful lemon juice. Put the lobster over the fire in a double boiler with the butter, wine, brandy, pepper, and salt; let it become smoking hot. It will not injure it to stand covered at the back of the stove for some time. Just before it is to be served bring the water in the outer vessel to the boiling-point, and stir into the scalding hot lobster the beaten yolks of the eggs and the cream. Let this stand one minute longer on the fire, remove, add the lemon juice, and serve at once in small silver or china shells or in nappies.
French Fish Salad.—Select some firm white-fish (halibut is excellent for this purpose), and boil. When perfectly cold cut it into neat slices; on each slice lay a sardine, and arrange the fish upon and among crisp lettuce leaves. Prepare a mayonnaise dressing, and into a half-pint of it stir three sardines rubbed smooth with the back of a fork. Pass the sauce in a pitcher containing a spoon or small ladle, that each guest may help himself.
Lobster Mayonnaise Sandwiches.—Into half a cupful of finely minced lobster stir two tablespoonfuls of mayonnaise dressing. Season to taste with Cayenne pepper and salt, with a little lemon juice if it seems to be needed. Select bread a day old for this purpose, butter it light on the loaf, and cut very thin. Spread a slice with the mixture, and lay another buttered slice upon it, face downward. Cut into small neat squares or triangles. The crust is sometimes trimmed off.
Chicken mayonnaise sandwiches may be made in the same way, rejecting all bits of skin or gristle, and omitting the lemon juice. Ham, tongue, and shrimp mayonnaise sandwiches are also good prepared in similar fashion.
Veal Galantine.—Select a breast of veal about eighteen inches long by twelve wide, and remove from it all bits of bone or gristle. Spread the inside of it with a layer of sausage meat, or of salt or corned pork finely chopped, and highly seasoned with minced onion, parsley, and sweet-herbs. Upon this lay a few thin slices of cold boiled ham and tongue and several strips of raw veal. Spread these with more of the force-meat, taking care not to bring it too near the edges, as it would then squeeze out when the galantine is rolled. Sprinkle chopped herbs and onion over the inside, and roll up the piece of veal, the force-meat inside. Bind and skewer into shape, sew it up in a stout cloth, and place it in a pot containing a hock of pork or a knuckle of veal well cracked, a bouquet of herbs, a sliced onion, a sliced carrot, and two or three stalks of celery. Cover all with cold water, and let the pot, after coming gradually to a boil, simmer at the back of the stove for at least four hours. Remove the pot from the fire, and let the galantine become cold in the liquor; then take it out, tighten the bandage about it, and place under a heavy weight for several hours; uncover, and surround with aspic jelly. To make this, clear the liquor in which the galantine was cooked by bringing it to a boil with the white and crushed shell of a freshly broken egg, straining it, as soon as the scum rises to the top, through a piece of thick cotton cloth. Season a quart of the clear liquid thus left with a wineglass of sherry, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, pepper and salt to taste. While boiling hot dissolve in it an ounce of gelatine which has been previously soaked in cold water for an hour. Pour a little of the jelly into a brick-shaped mould large enough to hold the galantine, first wetting the mould with cold water, and when the jelly forms lay the galantine on this. Pour the remaining jelly over it, and let it stand in a cold place until firm. Turn all out of the mould, and serve garnished with lettuce leaves.