Prepare a d'Uxelles mixture thus: Into a delicately clean pan put ½lb. of well washed and minced fresh mushrooms with an ounce of butter, salt and pepper, a teaspoon-ful of freshly minced parsley, and the same of minced chives, or one very finely chopped shalot. Let it cook at the side of the stove for about ten minutes, then add to it half a wineglassful of sherry, half a pint of good espagnole sauce, and rather better than ¼oz. of leaf gelatine; let this just boil up, then set it aside to cool. Prepare a good savoury jelly by dissolving ½oz. of best leaf gelatine in half a pint of well clarified consomme*, and, when this is setting, line some cutlet moulds with it; then put in a layer of the d'Uxelles mixture, which should be just on the point of setting, and on this place a nice piece of pate de foie gras; cover it well over with more d'Uxelles, and lastly glaze with a little savoury jelly, and put these aside to set. Turn the rest of your savoury jelly into a border mould to the depth of ¾in. or lin., and, when this is set, turn it out and mount the d'Uxelles cutlets (neatly trimmed) on this, and fill up the centre with a delicate walnut and celery mayonnaise, This dish may be garnished in various ways, as with a truffle and new potato salad, a Royale or a Montglas garnish tossed in cream chaufroix, etc., with plovers' eggs, whole truffles cooked in champagne, crayfish or prawns, Ac, as you please.

Needless to say, this does not imply that all these ingredients should be used in the same dish, but simply as variations. It can never be too strongly impressed on the British cook that too many flavours and an extravagant use of expensive material are simply vulgarity and utterly destructive of culinary perfection.

The appearance of chaufroix dishes is, of course, a capital feature in their preparation, and must accordingly be carefully studied; at the same time, all over colouring and over decoration must be scrupulously avoided. Set dishes, involving waxen cupids and uneatable combinations of all kinds, are utterly out of keeping for first-class private cookery, and are tours de force that should be strictly reserved for culinary exhibitions and such like. Moreover, it is well to be able to decide whether a dish is a sweet or a savoury at the first glance if possible. I admit it is not easy when a Neapolitan ice is just as likely to be savoury as sweet, and such a curious combination as an "iced devil" is possible. Of course, one has Dante's authority for considering a frozen region part of the Inferno; still, in matters culinary, it sounds a contradiction in terms. One garnish may be mentioned which often adds to the appearance and condition of a chaufroix, and this is the ice border. This is easy enough to prepare by any one possessing an ice cave, as it is simply a question of filling a border mould with plain water and setting it in the charged cave till frozen.

Another excellent adjunct for chaufroix is the ice tray, but this requires a special double mould, though otherwise it presents no difficulty, and is well worth its cost in a kitchen where chaufroix and ices are much studied.