1909. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
601 
The Company Tea. 
Company invited to tea, and the old, 
old question “What' shall I have?” and 
“\\ hat can I • do to make it different 
from the ordinary' run of country 
teas?” Now, our neighborhood is a 
very social, albeit rather old-fashioned 
one, and there has been a round of teas 
this last Winter which were practicallv 
our only social diversion outside the 
church affairs. So I sat down and 
cogitated concerning some I had at¬ 
tended that season. First there was 
dear old Auntie A., who piled her board 
till it fairly groaned with thick slices 
of beef, hot mashed potato,, baked 
beans, cheese, three kinds. of pickles 
and the same of cake, besides jelly 
and preserves! Then there was Mrs. 
L. Now Mrs. L. had lived all her 
girlhood days in the city, before be¬ 
coming a farmer's wife, and she 
prided herself on doing things just 
right. ' Her menu consisted of dainty 
sliced ham and chicken, salads,’ wonder¬ 
ful cakes and bonbons and ice cream. 
That sounds delicious, doesn’t it? and 
it was delicious, but alas! it was bit¬ 
terly cold, with the temperature • hov¬ 
ering around zero, and several of us 
had driven three or four miles to be 
present. And so this feast of good 
things which would have left nothing 
to be desired on a hot Summer’s night, 
seemed to extinguish the last feeble 
bit of heat left in our chilled bodies by 
our long drive. Fortunately, however, 
our hostess served delicious hot tea, 
and I quite disgraced myself by tak¬ 
ing three cups. Mrs. M. added to a 
substantial meat course, mince and 
pumpkin pie, doughnuts, fruit cake and 
nut cake! 
Now farmers want and need three 
substantial meals a day, and when in¬ 
vited out to tea, anything in the nature 
of "light refreshments,” meets with 
scant favor. And yet can we not serve 
a substantial tea for company which 
shall have variety enough, without 
overloading our guests’ stomachs, espe¬ 
cially with sweets, and without so 
tiring ourselves out with the multitu¬ 
dinous preparations that we cannot act 
the part of the calm, gracious hostess, 
without whom, no meal is complete? 
First with regard to the menu. If Mrs. 
A. had served a salad instead of her 
baked.beans, and had been content with 
( ne, or at the most, two kinds of cake, 
instead of three, her supper would have 
been nicer and far more digestible. 
Baked beans and pork should not be 
served with meat and potato, and more 
than two kinds of cake are bad. even 
for the strongest stomach. If Mrs. L. 
had provided hot oyster stew instead 
of her cold meats, or' even creamed or 
scalloped potatoes with them, the cost 
would have been no greater and her 
guests would have been far more com¬ 
fortable physically. With regard to 
Mrs M., ber menu was one which we 
may be most thankful, is fast passing 
away, even with country hostesses. We 
can all remember the day, not so far 
distant either, when four or five kinds 
of cake, with cookies, pies and fried- 
cakes, was quite the correct thing for 
company. In fact I can remember a 
wedding supper I attended only six 
years ago where they served eight 
kinds of cake! We shall have com¬ 
pany oftener and enjoy them more 
when we realize more fully that “com¬ 
pany” means other people just like our¬ 
selves, and with stomachs not a whit 
more like that of an ostrich than our 
own. Deep down in our hearts, though, 
is the feeling, “Oh, if I don’t have 
lots to eat, they will think we are 
stingy or that I am too lazy to get up 
a good meal.” If this thought has 
come to you, tired and busy farmer’s 
wife, drive it out at once, nor let it 
keep you from the great pleasure of 
entertaining a few congenial friends 
Occasionally by the barrier of "too 
much work.” 
W itb this long digression I will re¬ 
turn to my opening remarks: “Com¬ 
pany coming, and what should I 
have?” My turn to entertain had come. 
Our means did not allow, nor did I 
desire, an elaborate menu, but I did 
aim to have a sort of “balanced ra¬ 
don’ (and now you will all know my 
husband is a dairyman!), and I did 
desire tp serve it in a somewhat dif¬ 
ferent fashion from my predecessors. 
One thing T do possess, pretty china 
and nice table linen, so T set my table 
for the 12 guests as invitingly as- possi¬ 
ble, with a centerpiece consisting of a 
low glass fruit dish containing polished 
red and green apples, oranges and bana¬ 
nas, as it was in January. On the table, 
besides the necessary china and silver, 
. placed white and brown bread, sour 
pickles and jelly. Just before seating 
my guests I brought in the fried 
chicken and creamed potatoes, piping 
hot I noted a few rather blank faces, 
and knew they were mentally asking 
“where’s the cake and the cheese and 
the inevitable sauce?” I said nothing, 
but served the viands on the table. 
When salad, which in our neighbor¬ 
hood had just begun to be appreciated 
and attempted, had been served here¬ 
tofore at our teas, it always appeared 
on the table with all the other food, 
in a salad bowl, which was passed 
around. At this time of the year, too, 
it was generally a plain cabbage salad. 
But I was after variety, so made mine 
of one-third cabbage, one-third celery 
and one-third boiled eggs, which made a 
delicious combination with a cream 
dressing, and just a suspicion of onion. 
Then I went down cellar and picked 
out the biggest and reddest Baldwins 
1 could find, hollowed them out and 
filled with the salad mixture. This idea 
of apple cups for salad is not at all a 
new nor original one, but it was a new 
one to my guests, when the first course 
was removed, and the big apples, each 
on a pretty plate, were placed before 
them, several surreptitiously looked 
about for a fruit knife! One bright 
woman who had read about them, 
boldlv announced. “I’m going to see 
what’s in mine,” lifted the cover—and 
the ice was broken and everybody re¬ 
lieved. With the salad I served cheese 
and saltines. This course, too, was re¬ 
moved, after which came two varieties 
of canned fruit, which I have found 
cost no more than one, and give a pref¬ 
erence, and one very nice white layer 
cake with chocolate and nut filling. In 
deference to the time-honored country 
custom, I served tea and coffee at the 
beginning of the meal. With the aid 
of my 10 -year-old daughter, to remove 
the soiled dishes, 1 found this method 
of serving a supper no more work 
than the old-fashioned way, save in the 
matter of china, which can be tended 
to at one’s leisure, after the guests have 
gone, and it certainly has two marked 
advantages. In the first" place, the ta¬ 
ble is not so overloaded that one has 
to watch warily lest he dip his sleeve 
into his preserve dish or overturn his 
tea in an endeavor to take something 
being passed, and there is a pleasant 
curiosity as to what is being held in 
reserve. But best of all, there is more 
leisure for social conversation, and the 
hostess can take her time to make the 
changes necessary. The ladies all voted 
my tea a great success and declared 
they should try it. And dear old Dea¬ 
con A., a most rigid adherent to the 
old-fashioned ways of doing things, 
said, “Them was the best Baldwin ap¬ 
ples I ever et!” leila barnes. 
Clove Cake.—Cream half a cup of 
butter with two cups of dark brown 
sugar; add the beaten yolks of four 
eggs and then half a pound of seeded 
and chopped raisins or figs; add half 
a cup of milk. Sift with two cups 
of flour, two teaspoonfuls of baking 
powder, a teaspoonful each of cinna¬ 
mon, cloves and nutmeg. Stir this 
into the cake and beat to a smooth 
batter. Then fold in the whites of the 
eggs. Bake in a loaf in rather a 
quick oven. 
Velvet Sponge Cake.—This gives a 
cake of velvet texture, never dry and 
hard. A two-quart bowl and one for 
mixing are the only dishes needed. 
Separate five eggs, put the whites into 
the smaller bowl, add a pinch of salt 
to the whites and beat them until stiff, 
then add. a third at a time, half of a 
cup of fine granulated sugar, beating- 
all together until the grains disappear 
and you have a meringue. Spend the 
same amount of time in mixing the 
rest of sugar in the yolks. Then blend 
the two, at the same time whipping in 
the finely-grated rind of half a lemon 
or orange and a large tablespoonful 
of water. Orange juice may be used 
instead of water, but only a little of 
the lemon (about two-thirds water to 
one of juice), as the acid makes the 
cake heavy. The result should now 
be a creamy puff ball with every grain 
of sugar well blended; to beat this af¬ 
ter adding flour will mean toughness. 
Measure two-thirds of a cup of sifted 
flour, sift again with a teaspoonful 
of baking powder, then fold it grad¬ 
ually into the cake a third at a time. 
Just before putting it in the oven 
sprinkle granulated sugar over the 
top; this gives the desired “crackiy” 
crust. Bake twenty minutes in a quick 
oven, with the cake well protected. 
The granulated sugar must be fine. 
Ten minutes with a good beater is all 
the time required to make this cake. 
Be sure to turn it out of the pan to 
cool. Do not think of using coarse 
granulated sugar; it is only when the 
grains are fine that proper results are 
sure. 
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St Louis and New York, U. S. A. 
