Tray Food

I got a request for something from the Tray Food essay, which is food that can be easily served to invalids or those confined to bed.

The number of those who, for one cause or another must perforce dwell apart, eating the bread of exile, is no inconsiderable one, and in the interests of the invalids - temporary or permanent - of the disabled, of the baby's mother, of the rest-cure cases, of those in quarantine after or before infection, of those recovering from surgical operations, it may be useful to consider how meals, of vital importance to their comfort and restoration to health, may be made more acceptable than they usually are.

The focus of this chapter is making the tray a little more interesting, from selecting an attractive tray, putting a bunch of violets or primroses on the tray, and making the food a little more appealing.

For the mid-day meal serve as the principal "plat" a nicely cut and fried bread canape some six inches by four inches and one inch thick, and on this spread a thick layer of well-made puree of chestnut with a couple of stoned and heated black plums at each corner. On this lay several delicately-cut slices of pheasant or turkey roasted or braised, and a little good gravy poured very hot over it."

There are three recipes in this section, Cocoa Nibs, Quaker Oat Pyramids and a dish called Cutchi, a savory custard made in ramekins to be served with thin, very crisply toasted brown bread slices.

Milk 1/2 pint, 3 whole eggs, 2 oz freshly grated parmesan cheese, a little mixed mustard, nepaul pepper, and salt to taste. Beat well, and steam 1/2 hour, the water boiling when you put the little cases into the stewpan, but not after.

I'm trying to think if I've ever had a savory custard, and I don't think I have. My family loves egg custards and lecheflans, but those are both squarely in the dessert category. There was a Chinese bakery in DC (sadly closed now) that did really fantastic egg custard tarts. I miss them so much.

For Men Only, and Bachelors Entertaining

I'm not actually sure what the "theme" of For Men Only is supposed to be - there's some discussion about a husband settling a commotion in the kitchen with efficiency and "a square jaw and a twinkling eye." These may be meals that men may especially like, but it's not really stated.nnBut the recipes are recommended for September, so now is the moment! We have Clear Tomato Soup, Perdrix aux Choux, Syston Iced Pudding, and Camembert in Aspic.

I will, I think, pass over the Camembert in Aspic (the recipe, it should be noted, can be adapted to cream cheese, and if you don't have any ice on hand you can still make the recipe, but in hot weather the aspic takes longer to set.) and the Perdrix aux Choux involves what looks like a very standard process - braising partridges with cabbage, vinegar, onion, bacon, and a little bit of sugar. The Clear Tomato Soup looks fun - slice a pound of fresh tomatoes and put it into "ordinary clear soup" (whichever broth you like, I suppose), simmering it, straining it, and serving it with croutons and whipped cream. I think this dish would probably depend entirely on how good your stock was, although I have had a variant on this theme made only from heirloom tomatoes and bread (completely vegetarian - no meat stock at all) with a tiny quail egg floating in the center, and I almost cried because of how good it tasted.

Ah, but the Syston Iced Pudding!

Cut a sponge cake, the size of the mould to be used for pudding, in slices - a brick shape about 8 inches by 4 inches is good. Soak the cake with brandy and sherry. Prepare some stiffly whipped cream, sweetened and flavoured with brandy, and lay it in the mould alternately wiht dried glace and brandied cherries between each layer of cake. Fill the mould full, cover in with buttered paper, and freeze 3 hours. Make a puree of apricots, with jam or bottled fruit, add brandy or sherry, or a little curacoa flavouring, put in the ice box to become very cold, and pour round the pudding.

Please also to provide comfortable chairs for your guests, so they can sleep off some of the booze during the afternoon!

For the bachelor, the author advises to hold to the "dictum of an eminent Victorian housekeeper - 'Give your friends what you have yourselves; only have enough of it, and make it a little nicer.'" Recipes for Stychy Polonaise (a hearty vegetable soup), Cod and Oysters au Gratin, Boiled Mutton (a dish, she notes, "reminiscent of the seaside boarding-house table" but this recipe was apparently popular with King Edward VII), Savory Puddings (made from chicken, sausage, veal, or game like plover or "black game"(?), grouse or partridge, with thin slices of steak and about a million other ingredients), and, finally, a Caramel of Oranges and Cream for dessert.

Make a salad of thick slices of orange, carefully excluding pips, pitch, and skin, and lay in a glass dish or pretty bowl. Make a thin syrup with the escaped juice and white sugar, adding a little extra juice if required, and pour on this. Take 1/4 lb. loaf sugar, and stir in enamelled or copper pan with 1/2 tumbler or water over the fire till melted, and then let it boil into a not too dark caramel, taking some 10 minutes. Pour this out to get cold and stiffen; crush it coarsely when hard and crisp, and shake it all over the fruit. Cover all with some well-whipped cream - 1/4 pint will suffice - and on to this sprinkle a few almonds, browned and roughly chopped.

Interestingly, she also proposes that, in place of expensive salted almonds, you put out "a packet of the American cereal Puffed Wheat" crisped in the oven and put out on small mother-of-pearl shells. Fancy!