CHAPTER 1
The Cocktail Party
Perhaps a cookery book should start in a less frivolous fashion than with a chapter headed 'The Cocktail Party,' and should show in its initial stages a proper seriousness of purpose and general sober-mindedness. But I had an idea that perhaps a light-hearted approach might present a more immediate appeal. One never knows, indeed, what trifle may awaken the enthusiasm necessary to carry one beyond the early arduous tasks connected with cooking into those realms in which cookery is an art and a pleasure. Rosemary Hume and I have noticed that a lesson or a demonstration on cocktail savouries is always popular, conjuring up as it does a vista of successful parties to be held in the future, and imparting a touch of glamour to the basic realities of the kitchen. Well, if the desire to excel in making good bouchées encourages a student to achieve mastery with pastry, all is well. Maybe this chapter should be regarded as the jam with the powder, the carrot before the donkey, but no matter if it serves to lure anyone on in the kitchen. It is only fair to admit that neither R. H. nor I set great store by cocktails or their accompanying savouries, regarding them, as it were, as menaces to the appreciation of good food.
Some cocktails, particularly the more potent of them, may blunt the palate, and preliminary savouries the appetite. The basic idea that a cocktail is intended to stimulate the appetite loses its point when one considers the profusion of food and drink usually presented at a cocktail party. At this point I am reminded of a paragraph that struck me in one of three articles written by Rebecca West for the New Yorker early in 1953. The articles were called 'The Annals of Treason' and dealt with the case of William Martin Marshall, the radio telegraphist, who became involved with a Soviet agent in London and was tried for espionage. His parents felt that the whole trouble had started in Russia, where they thought he had followed a life to which he was not accustomed, and Rebecca West goes on:
There were continual parties. Cocktail parties. The sharp sound of the words, flung out after a preparatory pause, recalled that there was an age not so long ago when a cocktail was considered an immoral drink, as different from sherry as concubinage is from marriage, and a cocktail party meant an assembly of people who had abandoned normal restraints. A change in custom in one group may take a very long time to become known in other groups. There was, indeed, no reason for a household like this, which drank either beer or, more probably, only soft drinks, ever to have learned that cocktails had long since become respectable, and that cocktail parties had for many people moved up to the position, formerly occupied by tea parties, of social functions too stereotyped to be anything but tedious.
Whether one likes such parties or not, it appears that for the moment at any rate they have come to stay and have their uses, and that being so, if you give one at all let it be of the best, a best which is not necessarily achieved by serving too many or too strong drinks.
When in England we first adopted the cocktail party we were inclined to timidity, and the range of savouries offered was conservative as to size and variety. Even yet there is a tendency in this direction. Too many little mouthfuls, canapés, bouchées and suchlike, can be monotonous. I personally like better to have one or two main dishes of undeniable popularity, every bit of which will be eaten, and which will send no one home feeling blown up with starch. For instance, if I were feeling extravagant I should choose perhaps as my pièce de résistance the prawn dish with Alabama sauce, or if economically bent the cream cheese dish; and I should moderate the number of small savouries accordingly. One must of course differentiate between the various occasions for which cocktail savouries are required, and they may fall under the following headings:
(a) Small savouries served with drinks before a dinner party. These should not be too substantial and need not be greatly varied, and such things as nuts, olives, small cheese biscuits, and tiny canapés are adequate. The canapés should be of a size that can comfortably be eaten in one mouthful.
(b) Savouries for the cocktail party lasting perhaps from six to eight o'clock, at which may be offered a certain number of fairly substantial items.
(c) Savouries for the pre-theatre cocktail party, when you know your guests will not be eating seriously until much later, and a few fairly solid savouries will be welcome.
It may well be emphasized at the outset that the success of this type of food depends more on seasoning, flavouring, and pleasing contrast of texture than on elaborate and expensive materials, and that particular consideration should be given to presentation, and ease of serving and eating. Remembering the worst and the best of such parties clarifies my ideas, and I will tell of those features which made or marred them for me. On a less successful occasion I remember thinking it a great mistake to have so large a number of savouries of one type. The labour-saving device resorted to for this party of making one large batch of pastry and ringing the changes on the filling might possibly have been all right if some more refreshing and contrasting items had been offered, but the addition of filled bridge rolls and bread sandwiches to an array of pastry cases did not produce happy results. The sum total was stuffy and starchy. Too many similar textures are also tiresome; creamy fillings in bouchées and creamy spreads for canapés become extremely cloying. So bearing in mind the need for refreshment for the palate, it is well to vary the pastry, bread, or biscuit theme of these savouries, perhaps with celery as in the recipe on page 6, or by offering stuffed grapes or cherries; or by having a large bowl of raw vegetables – les crudités – which are a feature of one popular Paris restaurant in particular, where you may find a few small mushrooms among the young carrots, celery, radishes, spring onions, lettuce, and chicory. A bowl of rough salt should be at hand if this refreshment appears on the cocktail table. If it is chosen as a first course for luncheon on a hot day, it calls for fresh French or home-made rolls with ice-cold curls of butter.
At one of the best cocktail parties I remember, attention was centred on two large dishes, one hot and one cold. There was an adequate supply of these and there were not a great many little savouries, though there were a few: grapes filled with cream cheese, for instance, celery with Stilton cheese and so on; but the main attention had been focused on one or two popular things which proved successful.
The presentation of food at a cocktail party has importance. The larger dishes should look and taste exciting and are generally eaten to the last morsel. The smaller savouries, bouchées, canapés and so forth, may be arranged like a wheel on large platters, and this is at once more convenient and nicer to look at than a number of small plates. Small plates covered perhaps with paper doilies have a way of looking derelict as soon as the party is under way. Cheese sticks, sablés, and biscuits can be aligned on wire trays which emphasize that they are fresh from the oven. Filled bridge rolls and sandwiches also look well on trays. Those items of food speared on small wooden sticks – olives, stuffed cherries, cheese or fish marbles and so on – may be conveniently collected for serving by using firm hearts of red and green cabbage into which the picks are stuck, presenting a porcupine-like aspect. The cabbages should be trimmed at the base and the lower leaves turned out, so that the whole stands firm. Polished apples, grape-fruit, lemons, and small marrows may be used in the same way. It is convenient, too, to have one main table on which the dishes are assembled, and by the way they are presented you may add to the gaiety and interest of the party.
If you should decide on having no main dish, but choose instead a diversity of small things, these are best assembled in a generous way, avoiding too many small dishes. However many odds and ends you may choose to have, bear in mind the importance of contrast both of flavour and texture. Olives, nuts, and potato chips are always popular. The nuts should be freshly prepared and the chips properly heated through and salted. Certain types of savoury suitable for a cocktail party are equally suitable for serving as an after-dinner savoury, and the subject of this final course to a meal will be dealt with later. But the following general points may apply to both types of savoury and so I will give them here.
1. When toast is used as a basis, the bread should be evenly sliced and about three-eighths of an inch thick. It should be toasted to a good brown and the crusts removed. It should be made at the last possible moment and dried off a little to allow the steam to evaporate before buttering.
2. Fried canapés should be cut from evenly sliced rounds of bread about a quarter of an inch thick. They may be fried in shallow fat, in either butter or oil, according to the rules for shallow frying, i.e. the rounds should be turned once only. If they are fried in deep fat, they should be plunged into the smoking fat and turned about with a slice. Care should be taken not to let them become over-brown, or they will be hard and chippy.
3. Where bacon rashers are used they should be streaky and cut very thin; a number three cut on the grocer's bacon slicer is suitable. The rind is then removed with scissors and the rashers trimmed and spread out with the flat of a knife on a board. Half a rasher for each savoury is usually enough.
4. Where anchovy fillets are called for they may well be soaked for some hours in milk, particularly if they have been preserved in brine, or have become hard and dry. If they have been preserved in brine they must be washed before being soaked. Picked shrimps may be treated in similar fashion.
5. Cheese for grating should be dry, and the best all-round cheese is a dry, well-matured cheddar, or a mixture of gruyère and Parmesan. For Welsh rabbit or other toasted cheese dishes cheddar is most suitable.
MAIN DISHES (HOT)
The keeping of these really hot does present a problem to the cook-hostess, for although one may serve them on a large hot fireproof dish, the savouries obviously will not retain heat for long. A chafing-dish is a valuable possession, and a hot-plate will help. Recently there have come on the English market deep dishes holding night-lights and covered with a perforated metal lid; these are less expensive than the two foregoing.
A large hot fireproof dish filled with small mixed fritters is excellent, but it is difficult to keep them small enough to uphold the idea of 'No two bites at a cocktail savoury.' They should be made as small as is conveniently possible and reserved for a party where more substantial items are called for. They may be of vegetables, sprigs of herbs, prawns, mushrooms, onion rings and so forth. They should be well flavoured and seasoned individually, dipped in a light fritter batter, and fried in deep fat. Piquant sauce may be served apart in a bowl into which the fritters are dipped. For this purpose they should be speared on picks. The recipe for a fritto misto of vegetables given on page 236 will serve for this dish, and anyone of the really piquant sauces may be chosen; in particular I think the one called Alabama sauce is very good, as is the alternative given on page 5.
If you want a small dish of one kind of fritter, I would choose mushrooms, for which you take small button mushrooms, season them well with salt and pepper and a dash of lemon juice, dip them into the fritter batter given below, and then fry them in deep fat to a golden brown. These again are served with a piquant sauce. Or your dish may be half these and half watercress puffs, for which you take sprigs of well-dried watercress, dip them in the batter, and fry.
Prawns, pieces of crawfish tail, and lobster may all be treated in the same way.
Small, dry, well-seasoned fishcakes containing a touch of curry-powder or paste are a popular hot dish. Like the fritters these may be served on picks and dipped into a bowl of suitable sauce.
A LIGHT FRITTER BATTER FOR THE VEGETABLE AND HERB FRITTERS
150g/5 oz flour
a level teaspoon salt
yeast about the size of a walnut
about 150ml/¼ pint water
When yeast is not available a substitute may be made of 1–2 tablespoons brown ale, in which event the amount of water may be reduced. The mixture should have the consistency of thick cream. Sift the flour and salt, dissolving the yeast in a little of the slightly warmed water and beating it into the flour with the remaining liquid.
Here is a recipe for the small fishcakes:
PETITES CROQUETTES DE POISSON
cold fish that has been cooked in court bouillon
25g/1 oz butter
1 tablespoon flour
225ml/8 fl oz milk
110g/4 oz breadcrumbs
salt, pepper, nutmeg
a dash of curry-powder
egg and breadcrumbs for coating
Flake the fish, remove all skin and bone. Melt the butter, add the flour, and cook gently for a short time. Pour in boiling milk and whisk until the sauce thickens, add fish and breadcrumbs, season well with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and curry-powder. Spread the mixture on a plate to cool. Make into small croquettes, coat with egg and breadcrumbs, and fry golden brown in hot fat. Drain and serve hot.
MAIN DISHES (COLD)
One of the best of these I met with in Alabama. For this a large dish was filled with crushed ice, a hollow in the centre holding a glass bowl filled with Alabama sauce; all around, stuck in the ice, were picks holding Dublin Bay prawns; the prawns were dipped into the sauce and eaten. This is an admirable dish but by no means economical; however, the prawns may be replaced by the Norwegian frozen prawns, which are excellent, by pieces of crayfish or lobster, or even by dry, very well-seasoned fishcakes, such as those already given.
A recipe for Alabama sauce will be found on page 154; the following is an alternative:
AN ALTERNATIVE SAUCE TO ALABAMA TO SERVE WITH FRITTERS OR SHELL-FISH
Make a good cream dressing or mayonnaise and add to it 1 dessertspoon wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon salad-oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper and made mustard to taste, 1 heaped teaspoon sugar, 2 teaspoons grated horseradish, chopped chives and spring onions, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a dash of tomato ketchup. Beat all together and add finely chopped gherkins, capers, or sweet pickles.
Another good main dish is made with a form of home-made cheese beaten to a light cream, piled lightly on a dish, surrounded by chipped potatoes, radishes, gherkins, olives and so forth, and accompanied by a separate dish of plain hot biscuits, preferably salted. The cheese is either spooned on to the biscuits or scooped up with potato chips. The cheese for this dish may be made in a variety of ways, and here is one simple recipe:
HOME-MADE 'CREAM' CHEESE
cheddar cheese
butter up to an equal quantity with the cheese
hot milk, cream, or yoghourt, or a mixture of all three, may
be used in place of part or all of the butter. Additional bulk
may be given by the incorporation of home-made sour-milk
cheese, as given on page 648 in the milk and cheese chapter.
flavourings added to taste: a dash of anchovy essence
and/or Worcestershire sauce, chopped capers, olives,
gherkins, sweet pickle, chives, crushed garlic
seasonings: salt, paprika, freshly ground pepper
Grate the cheese and pound, or put it through a wire sieve. Beat it well, adding the other ingredients. Taste for seasoning and flavouring. If this cheese is to be used in quantities as a main dish the flavouring should be fairly restrained. If, however, it is wanted for canapés the stronger form of it known as Liptauer may be made. See page 649 of the milk and cheese chapter or the good luncheon cheese given on page 649.
SMALLER SAVOURIES
Cheese enters into many cocktail savouries, ranging from tiny Welsh rabbits to sables and cheese creams for filling savoury éclairs and choux, and recipes for some of these savouries are now given.
