A Winter Dinner.
Oysters on the half-shell.
Amber soup.
Salmon; sauce Hollandaise.
Sweet-breads and pease.
Lamb-chops; tomato-sauce.
Fillet of beef, with mushrooms.
Roast quails; Saratoga potatoes.
Salad: lettuce.
Cheese; celery; wafers.
Charlotte-russe, with French bottled strawberries around it.
Chocolate Fruit Ice-cream.
Fruit.
Coffee.
The same bill of fare in French is as follows:
Menu.
Huîtres.
Consommé de bœuf clair.
Saumon; sauce Hollandaise.
Ris de veau aux petits pois.
Côtelettes d’agneau à la purée de tomate.
Filet de bœuf aux champignons.
Cailles grillées aux pommes de terre.
Salade.
Fromage; céleri.
Charlotte-russe aux fraises.
Plum-pudding glacé.
Fruits.
Café.
This is a bill of fare seen very often at dinner parties. It is not difficult to prepare, as there are only five of the courses which are necessarily prepared at dinner-time. The oyster course is very simple, and may be placed on the table before the guests enter the dining-room. This soup may be made the day before, and only reheated at the time of serving. The Saratoga potatoes may be made in the morning; and if the charlotte-russe is not purchased at a restaurant, it may be made the day before. So, after the quails are broiled or roasted, the cook has nothing more to do but to make the salad, which is an affair of three minutes, and the coffee, for which she has a long time, the coffee having been ground and in readiness in the coffee-pot two or three hours before dinner. The four last courses before the coffee are easily purchased outside. The cheese might be a Neufchatel or a Roquefort. The charlotte and the ice-cream can come from the confectioner’s. The fruit is on the table during the dinner as one of the decorations.
Dinner Bill of Fare.
Roman punch.
Giblet soup.
Little vols-au-vent of oysters.
Smelts; tomato-sauce.
Scolloped chickens (en coquille); Bechamel sauce.
Saddle of venison; potatoes à la neige.
Breasts of quails in cutlets, with French pease.
Salad of lettuce.
Cheese omelet.
Pine-apple Bavarian cream.
Vanilla ice-cream, and ginger preserve; little cakes.
Fruits.
Coffee.
Menu.
Punch à la Romaine.
Bouchées d’huîtres.
Les éperlans frits; sauce tomate.
Coquilles de volaille à la Bechamel.
Selle de venaison à la purée de pommes de terre.
Filets de cailles aux petits pois.
Salade de laitue.
Omelette au fromage.
Le Bavaroix.
Glace à la crème de vanille.
Dessert.
Café.
Dinner Bill of Fare (Spring).
Macaroni, clear soup, with grated cheese.
Salmon; lobster-sauce; cucumbers.
Chicken croquettes; tomato-sauce.
Sweet-breads in cases, or in silver scallop-shells; sauce Bechamel.
Fillet of beef, with mushrooms.
Roman punch.
Snipe; potatoes à la Parisienne.
Mayonnaise of chicken.
Asparagus, with cream dressing.
Ramequins.
Champagne jelly en macédoine, with whipped cream.
Neapolitan ice-cream; little cakes.
Fruits.
Menu.
Potage au macaroni clair.
Saumon aux concombres; sauce homard.
Croquettes de volaille; sauce tomate.
Ris de veau en papillotes, à la Bechamel.
Filet de bœuf aux champignons.
Punch à la Romaine.
Bécasses; pommes de terre à la Parisienne.
Mayonnaise de volaille.
Asperges à la crème.
Ramequins.
Macédoine de fruits.
Glace de crème à la Napolitaine.
Dessert.
Dinner Bill of Fare (Winter).
Oysters served in block of ice.
Julienne soup (can purchase it canned).
Soft-shell crabs.
Sweet-breads; tomato-sauce.
Braised pigeons, with spinach.
Fillet of beef; sauce Hollandaise.
Roman punch, in lemon-skins.
Fillets of ducks, larded; poivrade-sauce; salad of vegetables.
French canned string-beans (haricots verts) sautéd with butter, served on
toast.
Macaroni, with cheese.
Maraschino Bavarian cream.
Chocolate-pudding, iced.
Fruits.
Coffee.
Menu.
Huîtres.
Potage à la julienne.
Écrevisses frites.
Ris de veau; sauce tomate.
Pigeons à l’écarlate.
Filet de bœuf; sauce Hollandaise.
Sorbet.
Filets de canards; sauce poivrade; salade de légumes.
Haricots verts sautés au beurre.
Macaroni au Parmesan.
Le Bavaroix au maraschino.
Pouding de chocolat glacé.
Fruits.
Café.
Dinner Bill of Fare (Winter).
Mock-turtle soup (can be purchased canned).
Boiled white-fish, garnished with potatoes au naturel and olives; sauce
Hollandaise.
Fried oysters; cold slaw.
Casserole of sweet-breads; cream-sauce, decorated around the base with
green pease.
Roast wild turkey, chestnut stuffing; Saratoga potatoes.
Fried cream.
Spinach on toast, garnished with hard-boiled eggs.
Salad; lettuce, with small, thin diamonds of fried ham.
Cheese; wafers; celery.
Little cocoa-nut puddings in paper cases.
Ice-cream and cakes.
Fruit.
Coffee.
Menu.
Potage à la tête de veau en tortue, or potage fausse tortue.
White-fish; sauce Hollandaise.
Huîtres frites.
Casserole de ris de veau aux petits pois.
Dinde sauvage rôtie.
Beignets de bouillie, or crème frite.
Épinards aux œufs.
Salade.
Soufflé.
Glace de crème au chocolat.
Fruits.
Café.
Dinner Bill of Fare (Winter).
Oysters on half shell.
Amber soup.
Fish croquettes (pear-shape), garnished with parsley.
Rice casserole, filled with blanquette of chicken.
Roast beef (ribs rolled), with a circle of mashed potatoes à la neige and
water-cresses.
Canvas-back ducks; celery.
Roman punch.
Reed-birds cooked in sweet-potatoes.
Poached eggs on anchovy toast.
Salad.
Coffee; Bavarian cream.
Nesselrode pudding.
Fruits.
Café.
Menu.
Huîtres.
Consommé de bœuf clair.
Croquettes de poisson.
Blanquette de volaille.
Bœuf rôti à la purée de pommes de terre.
Canards; céleri.
Punch à la Romaine.
Œufs pochés aux croûtes d’anchois.
Salade.
Bavaroix au café.
Pouding à la Nesselrode.
Fruits.
Café.
Dinner Bill of Fare (Summer).
Clear amber soup.
Fried cuts of fish, with tomato-sauce.
Sweet-breads and cauliflowers (cream dressing over both).
Croquettes of chicken (in form of cutlets), with pease.
Roast lamb; caper-sauce; spinach.
Green corn served in husks.[L]
Sliced tomatoes, with Mayonnaise dressing.
Cheese; wafers; cucumbers.
Maraschino Bavarian cream, and fresh strawberries.
Ice-cream.
Fruits.
Menu.
Consommé de bœuf clair.
White-fish à l’Orlay.
Ris de veau aux choux-fleurs.
Croquettes de volaille aux petits pois.
Agneau rôti aux épinards.
Mayonnaise de tomate.
Fromage; concombres.
Bavaroix au maraschino.
Glace de crème au chocolat.
Dessert.
A Simple Dinner for Four Persons (Menu).
Soup, with fried bread (aux croûtons).
Chicken, with rice (see page 177).
Macaroni, with tomato-sauce (see page 210).
Lettuce, with Mayonnaise dressing.
Corn-starch pudding (page 275), with a circle of peach marmalade around.
Necessary—a soup-bone, a soup-bunch, with plenty of parsley, a large chicken, half a pound of macaroni, a half-pint can of tomatoes, three-fourths of a tea-cupful of rice.
Make the Mayonnaise dressing with three eggs in the morning. Use the whites of the eggs for the corn-starch pudding, which make at the same time, and put away in a mold to harden. Also put aside the rice to soak in cold water.
Five hours before dinner, put on the soup-bone, with the neck of the chicken also, as every little adds. An hour before dinner, cut up the soup-bunch, saving part of it for the tomato-sauce, as one or two sprigs of the parsley and a small onion. Put the remaining vegetables (frying the onion) into the soup, leaving only a sprig of parsley for the chicken. Cut up the pieces of chicken, which fry or sauté brown in some hot drippings; put them then into a stew-pan. Add to the drippings (about a table-spoonful) a tea-spoonful of flour, and, when rubbed smooth, a pint of hot water, a ladleful of the soup taken from the soup-kettle, and a sprig of parsley chopped fine. Add this now to the fried pieces of chicken in the stew-pan; let them simmer until about five minutes before dinner.
For the soup, cut some bread into rather large dice, say three-quarters of an inch square; fry, or rather sauté, them in a little butter, turning all sides of the bread to allow it to become brown. Place the dice in the open oven, or at the back of the range, to become perfectly dry before the dinner-hour. Half an hour before dinner, put the macaroni to boil in another ladleful of stock mixed with some salted boiling water. Now make the tomato-sauce: make it as in receipt, and place it at the side of the fire or in the bain-marie until the macaroni is done. Put on the rice to boil for about fifteen minutes in a little salted boiling water.
Just before serving the dinner is the busiest time. Strain the macaroni, and mix it with the sauce; put it into the oven for a few minutes to soak. Strain the soup, remove all the grease, and season it with pepper and salt. Put the bread dice, or croûtons, into the soup-tureen, pour over the soup, and send it to table. Take out the pieces of chicken, which arrange neatly on a warm platter; strain the stock in which it was boiled, remove all the fat, add the rice to it, season with pepper and salt, and let it simmer on the fire until it is time to be served, and then pour it over the chickens, and send them into the dining-room. The lettuce is next washed and dressed; afterward the pudding is turned from the mold, and decorated with the circle of peach marmalade.
| Amber or clear soup | Consommé de bœuf clair. |
| Soup, with bread | Potage aux croûtons. |
| Soup, with vegetables | Consommé aux légumes. |
| Macaroni soup | Consommé au macaroni. |
| Noodle soup | Consommé aux nouilles. |
| Vermicelli soup | Consommé aux vermicelles. |
| Spring soup | Potage printanier. |
| Julienne soup | Potage à la julienne. |
| Asparagus soup | Potage d’asperge. |
| Ox-tail soup | Potage aux queues de bœuf. |
| Chicken purée | Potage à la purée de volaille. |
| Chicken soup | Consommé de volaille. |
| Mock-turtle soup | Potage à la fausse tortue. |
| Oyster soup | Potage aux huîtres. |
| Bean soup | Potage à la purée d’haricots. |
| Onion soup | Soupe à l’ognon. |
| Vegetable purée | Purée de légumes. |
| Tomato soup | Potage aux tomates. |
| Potato soup | Potage à la purée de pommes de terre. |
| Sorrel soup | Soupe à l’oseille. |
| Oysters in shells | Huîtres en coquille. |
| Oysters fried | Huîtres frites. |
| Oyster fritters | Beignets d’huîtres. |
| Oyster patties | Petits vol-au-vent d’huîtres, ou bouchées d’huîtres. |
| White sauce (made with stock) | Sauce à la Bechamel. |
| Pickle-sauce | Sauce aux cornichons. |
| Egg-sauce | Sauce aux œufs. |
| Caper-sauce | Sauce aux câpres. |
| Anchovy-sauce | Sauce aux anchois. |
| Shrimp-sauce | Sauce aux crevettes. |
| Lobster-sauce | Sauce homard. |
| Oyster-sauce | Sauce aux huîtres. |
| Parsley-sauce | Sauce au persil. |
| Cauliflower-sauce | Sauce au chou-fleur. |
| Madeira-wine sauce | Sauce au vin de Madère. |
| Currant-jelly sauce | Sauce aux groseilles. |
| Tomato-sauce | Sauce tomate. |
| Mushroom-sauce | Sauce aux champignons. |
| Sweet-breads, with macaroni | Ris de veau à la Milanaise. |
| Sweet-breads, with tomato-sauce | Ris de veau à la sauce tomate. |
| Sweet-breads, with pease | Ris de veau aux petits pois. |
| Sweet-breads, larded | Ris de veau piqué. |
| Sweet-bread fritters | Beignets de ris de veau. |
| Sweet-bread croquettes | Croquettes de ris de veau. |
| Potatoes, with white-sauce | Pommes de terre à la sauce blanche. |
| Lyonnaise potatoes | Pommes de terre à la Lyonnaise. |
| Potatoes in cases | Pommes de terre farcies. |
| Fried potatoes | Pommes de terre frites. |
| Parsnip fritters | Beignets de panais. |
| Asparagus | Asperges. |
| Cauliflowers, with cream dressing | Choux-fleurs à la crème. |
| Spinach | Épinards. |
| String-beans | Haricots verts. |
| Mashed potatoes | Purée de pommes de terre. |
| Pease, with butter | Petits pois au beurre. |
| Stuffed tomatoes | Tomates farcies. |
| Chickens in shells | Coquilles de volaille. |
| Lobster in shells | Coquilles de homard. |
| Fish in shells | Coquilles de poisson. |
| Mushrooms in shells | Coquilles de champignons. |
| Macaroni, with cheese | Macaroni au fromage. |
| Macaroni, with tomato-sauce | Macaroni, sauce tomate. |
| Stuffed eggs | Œufs farcis. |
| Poached eggs | Œufs pochés. |
| Poached eggs, on anchovy toast | Œufs pochés aux croûtes d’anchois. |
| Omelet, with fine herbs | Omelette aux fines herbes. |
| Omelet, with mushrooms | Omelette aux champignons. |
| Omelet, with ham | Omelette au jambon. |
| Omelet, with rum | Omelette au rhum. |
| Omelet, with preserves | Omelette aux confitures. |
| Omelet soufflée, with preserves | Omelette soufflée aux confitures. |
| Chicken Mayonnaise | Mayonnaise de volaille. |
| Cauliflower Mayonnaise | Mayonnaise de choux-fleurs. |
| Tomato Mayonnaise | Mayonnaise de tomates. |
| Salad of vegetables | Salade de légumes. |
| Lettuce salad | Salade de laitue. |
| Peach fritters | Beignets de pêches. |
| Cream fritters | Beignets de bouillie, or Crème frite. |
| Oyster fritters | Beignets d’huîtres. |
| Patties of chickens | Bouchées au poulet. |
| Almost any kind of meat patties are called | Bouchées à la reine. |
| Strawberry patties | Bouchées aux fraises. |
| Patties, with lemon paste | Bouchées au citron. |
| Little tarts of preserves | Tartelettes aux confitures. |
| Little tarts of apples | Tartelettes aux pommes. |