My chapter on wedding breakfasts must not consist in simply saying, Don’t have one; though I must in the name of common sense enter my protest against the vulgarity—for it is nothing else—of giving one out of proportion to the means of the giver. Where money is no object, of course the simplest plan is to go to some first-rate confectioner’s, and let them supply the breakfast at so much a head. Where, however, economy is a necessity, much can be done with a little good management to avoid waste. I will give an instance of a wedding breakfast that took place during the last six months, and the cost. For it often happens that during the last week before the wedding there is so much to be done at home in the trousseau line that any elaborate cooking in the house is almost impossible. The following bill of fare is one supplied for over sixty persons, at 14s. a head, in February last:— Potages.
Printanier.
Purée d’Artichauts à la Palestine.
Entrées Chaudes.
Chartreuse de Homard à la Cardinal.
234Petites Timbales à la Grande Duchesse.
Quenelle de Volaille à la Sefton.
C?telettes de Tortue.
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Saumon à la Mayonnaise.
Dindon aux Truffes.
Gelatine de Veau à la Jardiniere.
Langues de B?uf.
Patés de Faisans à la Fran?aise.
Jambon, braisé.    Poulets r?tis.
Faisans r?tis.
Anguilles en Gelée à l’Aspic.
Petits Patés aux Huitres.
Paté de Foie-gras en Aspic.
Mayonnaise de Filets de Soles.
Salades de Homard.
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Gateaux de Fruit à la Richelieu.
Fauchonette à la Prince de Galles.
Macédoine d’Abricots.
Gelées de Citron.    Gelées de Marasquin.
Crêmes d’Ananas.
Petits Choux à la Madère.
Chartreuse d’Orange a la Tangier.
Gelée à la Dauphine.
Meringue à la Suisse.
Petites Patisseries à la Bonne-bouche.
Meringues à Crême à la Cura?oa.
Fruit, &c. &c.
Glacés.
Boudins à la Princesse Alice Maude.
235Now a breakfast like this, including as it does two soups and four hot entrées, cannot as a rule be done in a private house. This of course does not include wine; and when the breakfast is ordered from a pastrycook’s, I would always recommend the wine to be supplied from the home cellar. A first-class cold breakfast from a good pastrycook’s, with soup and ices, will cost about 12s. 6d. a head; and unless the weather be really very hot, soup is always desirable. Without soup and ices, a saving of about 1s. a head can be made.
There are many persons, however, who cannot afford even so much as 10s. a head for a breakfast from the pastrycook’s. When, therefore, the breakfast is made at home, it had better be all cold except the soup; and the great secret of success will be found to be in the old adage—“Never put off till the morrow what can be done to-day.” Have plenty of flowers, and if summer-time, have plenty of ice. Were I to go through a set of dishes, I should simply be repeating what I have already said under the heading of “How to Give a Nice Little Supper.” Fruit, flowers, and ice make the greatest and best show possible for the money. Then, too, a few dishes can be bought which are not easily made at home. Some of those Italian shops where they sell ices have excellent meringues very cheap.
236Perhaps the greatest sacrifice of all to that monster, Custom, is the wedding-cake. I suppose there never will be a case of a couple sufficiently strong-minded to forego themselves this luxury, on the ground of “what would people say?” Unless the cake required be very large, it is by no means a difficult thing to make at home, and it can be sent to be baked at the baker’s, who will probably know it only requires a moderate heat, and that the oven should be kept at an even temperature all through the baking-process.
Take first of all some candied peel, orange, lemon, and citron, ?lb. of each, and cut them into small, thin shreds; 1?lb. of flour; 1?lb. of butter; 1lb. of dried cherries, which should be cut up, but not too fine; 1?lb. of currants, which must be thoroughly washed, picked, and afterwards dried; 8oz. of almonds, well pounded; eight eggs; the rind of four oranges rubbed on to sugar; ?oz. of spices, consisting of ground cinnamon, nutmegs, and cloves in equal proportions; about a tea-spoonful of salt, and half a pint of good brandy. The butter should be well worked with a wooden spoon in a large, strong basin, till it has a sort of creamy appearance. The flour, eggs, and sugar should be added slowly, ............