New-York tribune., 1911-12-25
for a Meal
That Will Be Full of
Good Cheer, but Not
Too Reminiscent
of Christmas.
BY Martha McCuIIoch Williams.

q
or an echo of Christmas. Drink the New
Year in-in cups of fruit punch or muled
cider. After that wash down your viands
with either sparkling cider, good coffee' or
tea. not too strong The following menu is
hardly more than suggestive. but it is sub
stantal and not too troublesome:
Blqefsh or Sea Trout I'iand9 Planked p..,.
''''0' Cold slaw
Baron of Beef, Roasted
Baked Squash Celery. Stewed Salsify.
Cold Baked Apples with Rum and sugar
Sbarn French Dressing Biscuit
'"'' , Plum pudding. Brandy Sauce
Nut Candy Stuned Oa'es
Homemade Citron
Add what rellshes YOU lke-salted nuts,
olives. radshes. even caviar or drained
anchovies or canapes redolent of anchoVy
paste These, like the potables, are mat
ters for your own judgment or convenience.
The fish will require plank. OAK oil
course, and proportioned TO the size oi
the biggest paper bag. Get 1t as INN as
possible-half an inch, say. Scour II "ei'
then grease with oil or butter, heat gehtly
and wipe off all surplus grease Whlie sun
warm This before undertaking TO use H.
1t must be heated very hot underneath
the gas fame before the fish goes y" IT,
Sprinkle rock salt thickly over it 10 pre-
vent charrng, dash il of and grease very
thickly: then lay upon II your hsh' oPeheu
fiat. seasoned, and we'll creased all over
the skin side. Season il on top with salt
black and red pepper, few toasted OIedu
crumbs or a little grated cheese, thin
slices of onion and raw peeled tomatoes
Lacking fresh tomatoes, put on niue
tomato catsup. Squeeze lemon juice over
all and dot pentifully with butter. rat
ten well on the plank, then slip plank ana
fish inside a thickly buttered bag ana
cook in a hot oven fifteen TO twenty MN
utes. according to the thickness OF the nsh
cut away the bag top almost entirely ana
set the plank on its trivet underneath lhe
gas flame for two or three minutes. Snde
on TO a hot dish. or set the plank in plat
for A border Of mashed potatoes may De
NM about the fish before it goes into the
bag.
The beet baron-the double sirloin-needs
only 10 be roasted In bag after greasins
q very well all over DO not salt H. Roast
according TO weight-ffteen minutes TO the
mound for rare meat, twenty for well done.
T-nis also can be Drowned under the gas
fame AT the end Of the cooking, unless IL
comes from the bag as brown as you ike
which IL likely 10 be the case. Nake
sliced potatoes az previously directed, also
cold claw. Beets should be boiled quick
1v nutting them on in cold water, peeled
ga soon as done and buttered while still
very hot Season with salt and pepper
o,eo q dash OF either vinegar or lemon
i,,ice Baked squash has been exploited;
stewed satisfy likewise.
Serve the cold baked apples as sort OF
sorbet-a course 10 themselves. Peel ana
bake the apples in a buttered bag. with
teaspoonful of sugar TO each apple. fut
IN the serving dish. and while still very
hot pour over a dessertspoonful OF rum
10 the apple. Let cool ana serve WIN
wafer biscuit, toasted very crisp nut colu'
For the salad, break crisp romaine IN
two-inch bits; make very sharp fleH'"
dressing. putting In little lemon juice
with the vinegar, adding salt ceiery SAT-
onion Juice, Worcestershire sauce, DidcA
and red pepper and a mere suspicion oI
mustard Sour claret may take the pIact
of vinegar and lemon juice; you must ann
AZ a very piquant flavor TO give Tang u
the mild cheese balls and biscuit shape
the balls with butter moulds from cream
cbeese softened with either little oil or
sweet cream. Roll them in finely ground
nuts and stick tiny sprig OF parsley III
each Make very small biscuit to go win
them and bake so they will come to taole
very hot.
Plum pudding should be in hand; heat
II well. either over hot water or IN
side a bag For the sauce, rub smooth hali
4 cupful Of the best butter with two cup
f,,le ~ sugar: pour upon IT, beating hard
all the time, a cupful of fruit juice-peacn'
strawberry. cherry or pineapple-dralnen
from the fruit sweeteued and made very
hot. Cook over hot water, stirring hard Tor
FIVE minutes, adding as you stir the least
6rrz+fue of cornstarch- Take from the nre
and heat in a rumbler or good brandy
Keen hot and closely covered until wanted
II the fruit juice Is very acid the sauce
rrav require half a cupful more sugar
For the nut candy Use either black wal
nuts. scaIy barks or pecans-l give them
IN the order Of preference mixture OF
all three is not 50 bad, but the crisp rich
rees OF fresh black walnut COOLIES appeals
most 10 my taste. Crack the nuts and
nick out the kernels in as big pieces az
nossible. Re careful not 10 let bits OF
shell fall among the meats. Measure them
after picking out: for each heaping cuprul
Of nuts take a level cupful OF soft sugar
and half a cupful of water. Cook sugar
and water together till il ropes from the
sroon. Have the nuts in a round, rather
shallow vessel. well creased. Pour the hot
svrup upon them and stir about until the
candy hardens around the kernels Never
mind II il does take uncouth shapes; the
ching IS TO get the sweet and the nut meats
evenly allied.
Mike your own stuffed dates. Pick out
Tho largest, frmest fruit. wash quickly in
cold water drain and take out the seed.
stick into the cut side either a nut, BIZ
Of crystallized ginger, a little candied peel
or a bit OF citron Roll IN confectioner's
s,,ear and lay in very lightly creased
bag left open at the end in a cool oven
~ harden. Drain strips Of citron from
their syrup. roll in sugar and dr. of the
same way.
The country bred may like to see a New
Years either squash or pumpkin served
AZ a vegetable. Peel, cut up, bake soft
and mash. then season well with salt,
little pepper and a tiny bit OF onion juice.
Make In a cake and lay in a paper bag
mould ~ well buttered bag. Lay thin
strips OF bacon over the cake ana sea- anu
cook in a hot oven ten 10 twelve minutes
Turn out I'm hot dish and serve with the
beef. Pumpkin, in particular. mashed ana
cooked in the gravy OF roast fresh pork
is tempting and toothsome. TO say nothing
OF being somewhat out Of the common. AS
an accompaniment 20 roast sucking pig IL
has no superior. unless II may be yelio"
vans, roasted in the ashes. peeled ana
laid IN the gravy about his plgship hal
an hour before serving.
/ am wondering II a sucking pig could
be bag roasted 1t appears theoretically