If hot dishes are indispensable, something should be selected like chicken or sweetbread pâtés, or lobster in some form, which will not be injured by warming over. Croquettes too, if properly prepared, are delicious, but they must be soft and creamy inside, not hard like sausage balls.
For the home supper the preparations are much simpler. This late repast may consist merely of a plate of crackers, or of light biscuit, or of bread-and-butter, with perhaps a tin of potted meat, or a few sardines, or a piece of cheese, or a box of guava jelly, or a little fruit. Iced water, or milk and Apollinaris, or Seltzer are the best beverages to serve, or, for those who like it, a bottle of ale or beer.
In the hope of aiding housekeepers who desire to prepare something a little different from the stereotyped suppers so common at evening entertainments, and which usually consist of oysters, chicken or lobster salad, sandwiches, ice-cream, and coffee, there are appended a few recipes for dishes perhaps less commonly known than those just mentioned.
_Lobster Salmi._—Two cups boiled lobster (_cut_, not chopped, into small pieces), three eggs (the yolks only), two tablespoonfuls butter, half a pint of cream, one wine-glassful sherry, one tablespoonful brandy, Cayenne pepper and salt to taste, one teaspoonful lemon juice. Put the lobster over the fire in a double boiler with the butter, wine, brandy, pepper, and salt; let it become smoking hot. It will not injure it to stand covered at the back of the stove for some time. Just before it is to be served bring the water in the outer vessel to the boiling-point, and stir into the scalding hot lobster the beaten yolks of the eggs and the cream. Let this stand one minute longer on the fire, remove, add the lemon juice, and serve at once in small silver or china shells or in nappies.
_French Fish Salad._—Select some firm white-fish (halibut is excellent for this purpose), and boil. When perfectly cold cut it into neat slices; on each slice lay a sardine, and arrange the fish upon and among crisp lettuce leaves. Prepare a mayonnaise dressing, and into a half-pint of it stir three sardines rubbed smooth with the back of a fork. Pass the sauce in a pitcher containing a spoon or small ladle, that each guest may help himself.