CHEESE CONFECTIONS.
| You must eat no cheese . . . it breeds melancholy. |
| —B. Jonson. |
Art thou come? Why my cheese, my digestion! |
| —Troilus and Cressida. |
Cheese is probably the most popular article served from the chafing-dish. What possessor of a chafing-dish has not concocted a rarebit—and the best one ever made? Were you ever present when the process of evolving a rarebit was in progress and half the guests were not disappointed in the seasoning? For perfection in this toothsome dish, mustard is demanded by some; by others the use of this biting condiment is considered a lapse in culinary taste. The consensus of opinion, however, is in favor of paprica; and, theoretically, Mattieu Williams considers bicarbonate of soda to be demanded, not for the sake of seasoning, but as an aid to digestion.
As regards the digestibility of cheese, and, consequently, its adaptability to midnight suppers, opinions differ widely. Dr. Hoy, an excellent authority on diet, calls cheese a concentrated meat, a tissue builder,—but not itself a tissue, and so without waste elements,—a condensed, compact food product, and indigestible on account of its very compactness. Still, when the caseine, or curd, is softened and broken up by the addition of liquid and gentle heat, it is rendered more digestible; and cheese so prepared may be for some, if taken with no other nitrogenous food, an acceptable and easily digested article of diet.
Welsh Rarebit.
Ingredients.
- 1 tablespoonful of butter.
- ½ a pound of cheese, cut fine or grated.
- ¼ a teaspoonful of salt.
- A dash of paprica.
- ½ a cup of cream.
- The beaten yolks of 2 eggs.
Method.—Melt the butter, add the cheese and seasonings, and stir until melted; then add the eggs, diluted with the cream, and stir until smooth and slightly thickened. Do not allow the mixture to boil at any time in the cooking; if necessary, cook over hot water. Serve on thin crackers, hot shredded-wheat or granose biscuit, or on bread toasted on but one side, placing the rarebit on the untoasted side.