For a little home dinner.

Punee do tomates.

Mulet au gratin.

"Beef-steak Pie" a la supreme.

Roties a la becasse.

Omelette soufflee.

Fromage, hors d'oeuvres.

Dessert.

1. - Scrap meat as usual for two, six or eight good sized tomatoes. Make your stock from the soup meat, and as it is simmering, prepare the tomatoes as follows : - Choose an enamel-lined sauce-pan of a fair size, throw into it the tomatoes cut into quarters, a tea-spoonful of dried basil, an onion shredded, a tea-spoonful of salt, two cloves of garlic, and a table-spoonful of butter: cook the pieces of tomato until they are quite soft, stirring them about lest they catch at the bottom of the sauce-pan : as soon as they seem ready, turn them out upon a sieve, pick out the garlic, and commence working the tomatoes through the sieve and save the pulp in a bowl. When dinner time is at hand, you must amalgamate the pulp and stock in the prescribed way: - Melt an ounce of butter at the bottom of a sauce-pan, work a dessert-spoonful of flour into it till it looks smooth, then add a little stock, a little puree, and so on by degrees till you have exhausted your supply, let the soup come to the boil to thicken properly, and then serve it with croutons of fried bread.

Tomato Soup.

2. - Choose a good sized mullet, and a dozen prawns.

Clean the former carefully, and boil the prawns : when the latter have been boiled, shell and clean them, wash them well, dry them, and pound them thoroughly in a mortar with a little butter, and the crumb of a roll soaked in milk: pass this through the sieve, and season it with one anchovy, wiped free from oil, and chopped fine, a little curly parsley also minced, a little chopped marjoram, and a cold boiled onion shredded: give this a dust of pepper, and a little salt, and work it together thoroughly with a couple of raw eggs. Now lay your mullet on a flat dish, wipe it dry, and fill it with the prawn stuffing, sew up the fish securely. Butter a pie-dish, place the mullet therein, pour a breakfast cupful of broth round it, spread a little butter upon the top of it, and bake for about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour in a quick oven. A pat of maitre d'hotel butter should be placed on the top of the mullet before serving, and a spoonful or two of hock, or any light wine like chablis, poured round it during the baking, will be found an improvement. Baste the fish now and then during the cooking.

3. - Here is a really good recipe for a savoury pie. Buy a nice undercut of a sirloin of beef, and some coarser meat for gravy. Slice the undercut into thin slices crosswise, not lengthwise; place the slices on a flat dish and upon each slice lay a thin one of boiled bacon; give the whole a dusting of spiced pepper. Roll them up (each separately) and give them an external dusting of spiced pepper. Take a pie-dish, rub it well with a shallot, batter it, and place a layer of the rolled slices over the bottom of it, now pour gently round the layer a cupful of strong gravy made from the coarser meat previously mentioned ; repeat the process adding another layer of rolled beef slices, and more gravy, till the dish is packed; garnish the surface with pieces of hard boiled egg, and cover the whole with a good light crust, bake in the usual way and serve. Oysters, minced anchovies, chopped olives, and mushrooms may, of course, be mingled with the layers; and a glass of Madeira may enrich the gravy if you desire perfection. Let me here point out that Ramasamy's ordinary pie is a cruel burlesque of that dish. He first cooks the meat independently, then covers it with crust, and finally bakes it. The glory of a pie consists in the whole composition being baked together : attention is, of course, necessary to keep the oven at the proper temperature, and to avoid hurrying matters, or, of course, the crust will take colour too soon, and your pie be burnt. For savoury pie crust, see Chapter XXVI (Pastry-Making, Et Cetera).

Baked mullet.

An excellent Beefsteak Pie.

4. - For this excellent entremets savoureux, see page 226.

Be careful in having the toasts served as hot as possible.

5. - A little omelette soufflee will complete our dinner nicely. Beat up the yolks of six eggs with a table-spoonful of white sugar, flavour the mixture with lemon, vanilla, or ratafia essence : whisk the whites to a stiff froth independently; then blend the two thoroughly. Put this into a small circular souffle tin, and bake it in a very quick oven, send it to table the moment it is ready, dusted over with finely sifted sugar. A little preserve may accompany the omelette soufflee, and a few drops of any liqueur will be found an agreeable addition. The great thing is, to serve immediately : you cannot therefore bake the souffle in a distant kitchen : the baking should be conducted as close to the dining-room door, as possible, and the dish should be brought in the nick of time. A proper souffle tin is, of course, absolutely necessary for this dish.

Woodcock toasts.

Omelet souffle.

Pain de fromage.

This is of mould of "cheese cream." Make half a pint of rich custard, season it with salt instead of sugar, and a little Nepal pepper; whip it well, stir in three ounces of grated Parmesan or Gruyere, and half an ounce of dissolved gelatine. Set the mixture in a plain mould on ice, and, while setting, stir in a coffee-cupful of whipped cream. Turn out the mould, garnish with sprigs of parsley, and serve cold.

Following the same principle very excellent pains, or cremes can be made with purees of delicate meats, fish, and vegetables. Creme de homard, creme de crevettes, creme d'artichauts, pain de gibier, etc. If required to be served hot, the contents of the mould must be steamed like a pudding, the cream being stirred into the custard in the first instance. It is essential that the purees be thoroughly pounded, and passed through the sieve. Cold savoury creams are specially nice at luncheon. These dishes are sometimes called mousse de homard mousse de crevettes, etc.