IT may be useful to give a general idea of the quantities required in providing for a party of, say, eighty guests.
Five gallons of tea, allowing five ounces of good tea to each gallon. Six gallons of coffee, half to be served hot with milk, and half to be served iced, allowing eight ounces of coffee to each gallon. Three gallons of claret-cup, allowing for each gallon four bottles of claret and four bottles of soda-water. Twelve quarts of water-ice; six quarts to be of lemon ice and six of strawberry ice. Twelve dishes of sandwiches, of different kinds; these are sure to be popular, and a tolerable supply should be kept in reserve. Four dishes of rolled brown bread and butter, and the same quantity of white. Eight pounds of plum-cake cut up into small thick pieces. Six pounds of freshly made sponge finger biscuits. Two or more bowls of macédoine of fruit. Oatcake cut into long fingers and spread with Devonshire cream is popular, and so are small scones split open and filled with Devonshire cream. A few kinds of sandwiches suitable for garden-parties may be mentioned here.
Salad Sandwiches.—Use watercress picked from the hard stems, mustard and cress, or shred lettuce leaves. Spread the bread with maître d’hôtel butter. For this, add to two ounces of butter the juice of one lemon, a dessert-spoonful of chopped parsley leaf freed from all moisture, a pinch of white pepper, and a pinch of salt.
Cucumber Sandwiches.—Pare the cucumber, and just before the sandwiches are wanted cut it into very thin slices. Place the cucumber between thin pieces of white bread and butter stamped out with a round cutter.
Rolled Sandwiches.—Pound in a mortar two ounces of cooked tongue or ham freed from skin and fat, a quarter of a pound of cooked chicken or turkey, two table-spoonfuls of maître d’hôtel butter, one ounce of plain butter, and six table-spoonfuls of fine white of bread-crumbs. When the mixture is smooth, add a dust of pepper and a small pinch of salt, and pass it through a sieve. Sprinkle a few bread-crumbs lightly on a pastry-board, take a little of the mixture, and pat it out with a knife dipped in hot water. Make it two inches and a half long, and one inch and a half wide. Trim the edges, and raise it carefully from the board with the knife, rolling it over as you raise it. If the mixture is too moist add a few more bread-crumbs, but if it is too dry it will break and not roll. Dish the rolls on a bed or cress.
Green Sandwich Rolls.—Pound the yolk of a hard-boiled egg with a quarter of a pound of butter, six sprigs of watercress, and six sprigs of parsley. Blanch the watercress and parsley by throwing them for five minutes into boiling water. Press them dry in a cloth, but do not squeeze them. Then add a dust of pepper and salt, and six table-spoonfuls of brown bread-crumbs; and when the mixture is smooth roll it as in the former recipe.
Sweet Sandwiches can be made of any jam or marmalade. They are better without butter, and the preserve should be very lightly spread. They should be about four inches long and one inch wide. Chocolate, melted in a little hot milk, and spread between slices of stale sponge cake, makes a popular sandwich.
Macédoine of Fruit.—Put three lumps of sugar and the thinly pared rind of half a lemon into a quarter or a pint of water, and boil it for ten minutes. Then add, if possible, twelve raspberries. If raspberries cannot be had, add the juice of the half lemon. Let it boil up, skim it, and set it on ice till quite cold. Then add a dessert-spoonful of good brandy. Put into a china bowl currants freed from their stalks, raspberries and strawberries picked from their stems, peaches and apricots stoned and cut into quarters, black and white grapes, and a few mulberries. Crack the stones of the peaches and apricots, peel the kernels, and add them to the fruit in the bowl. Set the bowl on ice. Ten minutes before the macédoine is wanted, pour the cold syrup gently over the fruit, and keep the bowl on a dish filled with crushed ice. Help the macédoine with a soup-ladle instead of a spoon.