For Luncheon and Supper Guests

2 Responses to “For Luncheon and Supper Guests”

1. P. Dennis says:

   August 18, 2010 at 1:52 am

   Written in 1923, with ten menus and recipes for Company Luncheons, Sunday Night Suppers, and Automobile Picnics.
   Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
2. Pam Tee says:

   August 18, 2010 at 2:20 am

   The full title for this work is “For Luncheon and Supper Guests: Ten Menus: More than One Hundred Recipes, Suitable for Company Luncheons, Sunday Night Suppers, Afternoon Parties, Automobile Picnics, Evening Spreads, and for Tea Rooms, Lunch Rooms, Coffee Shops, and Motor Inns”.

   I give you this because I reflect it better conveys what this book is about.

   BACKGROUND:::
   
   Now as for the leader, when I first ran across this book my thought was who is Alice Bradley and why should I bring her into my kitchen. I couldn’t find much but what I pieced together was that Alice Bradley was staff at Ms. Farmer’s School of Cookery. As such she wrote books, pamphlets, and articles for magazines such as “The Journal of Home Economics”.

   This particular book was published in 1922 by Whitcomb & Barrows, Boston. My take on it is that Ms. Bradley wrote this for the ‘new modern woman’ who no longer had the staff at home to produce persons huge Victorian, multi-course meals. And, in fact, she writes:

   “Meals of many courses are neither practical nor well loved with the modern hostess. For a company luncheon or supper it is not necessary to serve more than a hot dish, a salad, a biscuit or sandwich, a dessert and a beverage. A first course and a relish may be provided if desired.”

   INSIDE:::
   
   What you find inside Ms. Bradley’s book are the ‘over 100 recipes’ divided into 10 Menus, which you could, of course mix and match. Here are 3 sample Menu’s.

   MENU I
   
   Fruit Cup
   
   Hot Ham Sandwich
   
   Currant or Grape Jelly
   
   Tomato Salad with Cheese Dressing
   
   Cocoa Ice Cream
   
   Fig Marguerites
   
   Tea with Candied Mint Leaves

   MENU II
   
   Grapefruit Baskets with Mints
   
   Open Cheese and Bacon Sandwich
   
   Mixed Sweet Pickles
   
   Crab Meat and Tomato Jelly Salad
   
   Egg Biscuits
   
   Orange Layer Cake
   
   Iced Coffee with Vanilla

   MENU X
   
   Cream of Mushroom Soup
   
   Tuna Fish à la King in Patty Cases
   
   Cabbage and Carrot Salad
   
   Thousand Island French Dressing
   
   Bran Muffins
   
   Maple Charlotte with Maple Pecan Sauce
   
   and Sponge Cake
   
   Coffee with Honey and Whipped Cream

   For the curious, here are two sample recipes.

   LITTLE CHOCOLATE CAKES

   Place in double boiler
   
   2 squares chocolate, broken in tiny pieces
   
   ½ cup milk and
   
   2 egg yolks.

   Cook, stirring constantly until thick and smooth. Remove from fire and add
   
   1 cup sugar and
   
   3 tablespoons butter and
   
   1 ¼ cups bread flour, alternately with
   
   ½ cup milk in which
   
   ½ teaspoon soda is dissolved.

   Beat well and fold in
   
   2 egg whites beaten stiff and
   
   ½ teaspoon vanilla.

   Pour into greased individual tins and bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees F. Take in with Cream frosting in different colors.

   CREAM FROSTING

   Beat
   
   1 egg white until stiff, add
   
   2 teaspoons cream
   
   ½ teaspoon vanilla and, slowly,
   
   ¾ cup confectioners’ sugar, and more if needed to make of right consistency to spread.

   Apportion into several parts, and color with a bit of Color paste, pale yellow, pink, green, or lilac.

   As you can see the directions are sparse. And as yet, I haven’t tested any, though the above will probably be the first I do try out on family tree.

   THOUGHTS:::
   
   Now, considering this book can be gotten free for the Kindle, and at Gutenberg, I don’t see where you can go incorrect with downloading the book and reading these recipes.

   Myself, I’m also reading… and re-reading this book just to see what sorts of foods and beverages were being consumed in the 20’s. The fact that I might find some tasty chocolate treat therein doesn’t motivate me in any way.

   There are some line drawings in this book which won’t, of course, be available to persons reading it on the Kindle. HOWEVER, unlike additional cases, it doesn’t really matter with this particular book that the sketches are missing because the drawings don’t show ‘processes’, but only present a very vague thought of what the final product might look like.

   Pam T~
   
   mom and blogger
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5