For a party of eight

Consomme aux quenelles.

Seer aux concombres. Creme de volaille truffee. Grenadins de boeuf a la Bearnaise. Selle de mouton aux haricots verts. Galantines de eailles, sauce tartare. Epinards a la creme. Pain de fraises. "Pudding" glace aux abricots. Fromage, hors d'oeuvres. Dessert.

1. - Our first step must be the making of a bright, clear, consomme according to the directions given at page 33, to flavour which in this instance we must not forget a little dried basil, (which should go in with the vegetables) and a table-spoonful of Madeira to finish with.

We can make the quenelles of fish, game, chicken, or of tinned lobster if we like. Let us choose prawn quenelles, and proceed as follows : - Pound a dozen and a half well-cleaned prawns with half their bulk of crumb of bread, soaked in stock; work in with the paste two whole raw eggs, and season it with a pinch of salt, a dusting of white, or Nepaul pepper, and a tea-spoonful of anchovy sauce: when thoroughly blended, and of the right consistency, form your tiny olive-shaped quenelles between two tea-spoons, poach them for about five minutes in boiling stock or water, drain them, and add them to the soup at the last moment. Quenelles used as garnish for soups should be lighter and more delicate than ordinary quenelles. Various shapes may be obtained by pressing the mixture into the poaching pan through a paper funnel.

Clear soup with quenelles.

2. - This is a dish of neatly trimmed slices of seer, plainly stewed in a clear broth made from chicken bones and the fish trimmings. Put into the broth with the fish a few slices of carrot, and onion, a table-spoonful of dried sweet herbs, and a glass of chablis : simmer gently, and when done, drain the fish, and strain the gravy. Thicken the latter with butter and flour, and add to it some previously cooked fillets of cucumber about an inch long, and half an inch thick, and the pieces of fish: heat altogether, till the stew steams freely, and serve.

For directions for preparing the cucumber, see page 156.

3. - Here we have a mould of creme or pain de volaille, nicely truffled. Choose a large fowl, or two good sized chickens, and cut off all the white meat you can for the puree. With all the bones, skin, and scraps assisted by two sheep's feet, cleaned and cut up, and the giblets saved before the roasting, make as strong an essence as you can, following the rules for "fowl essence" (page 98). Strain when done, let it get cold, skim it, and then proceed to thicken it; when as thick as a rich mayonnaise sauce, strain it, and set it in the bain-marie.

You must treat your puree thus : - melt two ounces of fat bacon in a sawte-pan, throw in some pepper, salt, and the meat of the fowl; work them together for five minutes over a bright fire, then empty the contents of the pan into a mortar, and pound the meat and bacon to a paste; add half their bulk of crumb of bread soaked in stock, and half a tin of white mushrooms, and when thoroughly incorporated, pass the whole through a hair sieve. Moisten the puree with some of the sauce already described, while pounding it, and when finished, add four whole raw eggs, Now, butter a plain mould, and fill it with your puree, introducing a good allowance of truffles cut into dice, and steam it as you would a pudding in your Warren's pot, or in a stew-pan plunged into a larger vessel full of water. When done, let the mould get cold, and then turn it out.

Seer with cucumbers.

Mould of chicken cream.

While the mould was being steamed, reduce the remainder of the sauce to a white glaze, let it get cool, and pour it gently over the mould (which should be set on ice) until the glaze coats it completely. When set, the pain is ready.

If steamed in a border mould, the centre may be filled with pointes d'asperges, fonds d'artichauts, flageolets or macedoine de legumes moistened with pure iced cream.

4. - Choose a nice fillet of beef, or the tender meat of a piece of the ribs. Trim this into thick heart-shaped fillets of a size large enough for one person each; lard them with fat bacon, and set them to marinade all day, as described in Chapter VIII (Hints About Entrees), page 65. When ready, drain them, and stew them gently in as rich a stock as you can make from the meat and bones you had over after shaping them, assisted by a glass of Marsala: when done, keep them hot in the bain-marie.

For the sauce, proceed as follows: - put into a stew-pan the yolks of seven eggs, one ounce of butter, one pinch of salt, and a little pepper: stir over a low fire till the yolks begin to thicken : take the pan off the fire and stir in one ounce of butter more: again stir over the fire for two minutes and again remove the pan, adding another ounce of butter. Repeat the process again twice, using in all five ounces of butter, stir till the sauce is rich and creamy looking, finally adding a dessert-spoonful of tarragon vinegar, and a table-spoonful of chopped parsley. A little water added with the butter prevents curdling.

Fillets of beef Bear-naise fashion.

Dish the grenadins round a ring of carefully mashed potato, introducing a slice of crisply fried bacon between each of them, and serve the sauce piping hot in a boat. In the hollow formed by the potato ring, you can put some flageolets a la maitre d'hotel, or pet its pois.

5. - Speaks for itself. Pray follow my advice about trimming your French beans, (page 137) and dish them with a pat of butter boiling hot, added at the very last moment. The best way by far to cook the beans provided they are young and tender, is in the jar like peas, (page 135) or in the steamer of a Warren's pot; trim the beans as explained already, and put them into the jar or steamer, with a table-spoonful of butter, a dessert-spoonful of sugar, and a large tea-spoonful of salt. Steam the jar as described for peas : when done, drain the beans, and serve with a pat of butter boiling hot.

Unless French beans are young and tender, it is useless trying to cook them in the jar. A tin of haricots verts should, in this case, be substituted.

6. - Buy eight fat quails, four sheep's tongues, half a pound of lamb's liver, and a couple of pounds of gravy meat. Make gravy at once with the last, stew the tongues, and bone the quails : throw the bones into the gravy, and all scraps you may have of bacon, etc., next trim your cold sheep's tongues, and cut eight nice fillets, the size of a walnut, from the centre of them.

Saddle of mutton with French beans.

Quails boned and rolled, with tartare sauce.

Now, place your boned-birds, breast downwards, on a board, and dust them over with spiced pepper. Proceed to make a forcemeat thus: - Melt a couple of thick slices of fat bacon in a frying-pan; when melted, throw in three table-spoonfuls of the Iamb's liver, with those of the birds too, cut into dice, and one onion shredded finely; cook the liver in this, and when done, empty the contents of your pan, melted bacon and all, into a mortar, throw in the remains of the sheep's tongues which were left after making the fillets, a pinch of salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg, work this to a paste, pass it through the sieve, add some finely minced parsley, a dessert-spoonful of spiced pepper, a little grated lime peel, and a table-spoonful of chopped truffles (saved from entree No. 1); work this again thoroughly, and spread a layer of it over the flattened quails : place one of the tongue fillets in the centre of each quail, and spread another layer of your forcemeat over each.

Now, gather the birds into shape neatly, sewing the skin together securely, and stew the little galantines in the previously made gravy, with a little red currant jelly, a glass of sherry, and half a wine-glass of vinegar: when done, lift them out, drain off the gravy, and reduce it to a glaze (page 219): paint your galantines over with the glaze when cold, arrange them upon a dish which should be set upon ice, and garnish your dish with parsley, and slices of lime. Sauce tartare, also iced, should accompany.

7. - For this dish (see page 146) I recommend you to try little shortbread biscuits in which some finely grated mild cheese has been mixed; the cakes should be heart-shaped, or round, and quite crisply baked like cheese-fingers,

Spinach with cream.

8. - A simple, and refined cold sweet entremets. Dilute a pot of strawberry jam with sufficient water to make enough syrup to fill your mould, strain it, colour it a rosy pink with a drop or two of cochineal, and add a glass of liqueur or brandy; melt an ounce of gelatine, and strain it, when cold, into the syrup, stirring well: - decorate a plain mould with almonds, put it on ice, and pour your strawberry syrup into it by degrees; cover it over, and set it in ice for two hours; turn it out, and serve it with cold custard in glasses, or iced cream. If in season, you can, of course, make the syrup with fresh strawberries ; and when filling the mould, you may add to its attractiveness by setting layers of whole fruit (fresh or preserved) in it in the style of a jelly.

9. - Make a cake case (see Menu No. IV,) with finger biscuits, or slices of sponge cake and let it get firm. Make a rich custard, flavour it with a dash of liqueur, and mix into it half an ounce of dissolved gelatine. Work the mixture in the ice pail until it begins to freeze well, then stir into it a good allowance of chopped crystallized apricots and a coffee-cupful of rich cream well whipped. Mix well in the ice pail, and then fill a mould with the frozen mixture, completely covering it with lumps of ice. It should be left thus for an hour, when it will be ready to turn out and serve. The mould should be just large enough to be covered by the cake case.

Note. - To adapt this menu according to the new regime, serve the saddle after the fish, and instead of galantines of quails, let the birds be roasted with a slice of fat bacon over their breasts, and sent round with bread sauce, fried crumbs, and filbert chips of potato. A plain salade or water-cress should accompany the rot.

Mould of straw-berries.

Iced apricot cream pudding.