Only a short time later, in 1725, the proprietor of Simpson's in the Strand inaugurated a daily guessing contest that drew crowds to his fashionable eating and drinking place. He would set forth a huge portion of cheese and wager champagne and cigars for the house that no one present could correctly estimate the weight, height and girth of it.

As late as 1795, when Boswell was accompanying Dr. Johnson to "The Cheese," records of St. Dunstan's Club, which also met there, showed that the current price of a Buck Rabbit was tuppence, and that this was also the amount of the usual tip.

Ye Original Recipe

1-1/2 ounces butter 1 cup cream 1-1/2 cups grated Cheshire cheese (more pungent, snappier, richer, and more brightly colored than its first cousin, Cheddar)

Heat butter and cream together, then stir in the cheese and let it stew.

You dunk fingers of toast directly into your individual tin, or pour the Stewed Rabbit over toast and brown the top under a blistering salamander.

The salamander is worth modernizing, too, so you can brand your own Rabbits with your monogram or the design of your own Rabbitry. Such a branding iron might be square, like the stew tin, and about the size of a piece of toast

It is notable that there is no beer or ale in this recipe, but not lamentable, since all aboriginal cheese toasts were washed down in tossing seas of ale, beer, porter, stout, and 'arf and 'arf.

This creamy Stewed Buck, on which the literary greats of Johnson's time supped while they smoked their church wardens, received its highest praise from an American newspaper woman who rhapsodized in 1891: "Then came stewed cheese, on the thin shaving of crisp, golden toast in hot silver saucers—so hot that the cheese was the substance of thick cream, the flavor of purple pansies and red raspberries commingled."

This may seem a bit flowery, but in truth many fine cheeses hold a trace of the bouquet of the flowers that have enriched the milk. Alpine blooms and herbs haunt the Gruyere, Parmesan wafts the scent of Parma violets, the Flower Cheese of England is perfumed with the petals of rose, violet, marigold and jasmine.

Oven Rabbit (FROM AN OLD RECIPE)

Chop small 1/2 pound of cooking cheese. Put it, with a piece of butter the size of a walnut, in a little saucepan, and as the butter melts and the cheese gets warm, mash them together,

When softened add 2 yolks of eggs, 1/2 teacupful of ale, a little cayenne pepper and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon one way only, until it is creamy, but do not let it boil, for that would spoil it. Place some slices of buttered toast on a dish, pour the Rarebit upon them, and set inside-the oven about 2 minutes before serving.

Yorkshire Rabbit (originally called Gherkin Buck, from a pioneer recipe)

Put into a saucepan 1/2 pound of cheese, sprinkle with pepper (black, of course) to taste, pour over 1/2 teacup of ale, and convert the whole into a smooth, creamy mass, over the fire, stirring continually, for about 10 minutes.

In 2 more minutes it should be done. (10 minutes altogether is the minimum.) Pour it over slices of hot toast, place a piece of broiled bacon on the top of each and serve as hot as possible.

Golden Buck

A Golden Buck is simply the Basic Welsh Rabbit with beer (No. 1) plus a poached egg on top. The egg, sunny side up, gave it its shining name a couple of centuries ago. Nowadays some chafing dish show-offs try to gild the Golden Buck with dashes of ginger and spice.

Golden Buck II

This is only a Golden Buck with the addition of bacon strips.

The Venerable Yorkshire Buck

Spread 1/2-inch slices of bread with mustard and brown in hot oven. Then moisten each slice with 1/2 glass of ale, lay on top a slice of cheese 1/4-inch thick, and 2 slices of bacon on top of that. Put back in oven, cook till cheese is melted and the bacon crisp, and serve piping hot, with tankards of cold ale.

Bacon is the thing that identifies any Yorkshire Rabbit.

Yale College Welsh Rabbit (MORIARTY'S)

1 jigger of beer 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/4 teaspoon mustard 1-1/2 cups grated or shaved cheese More beer

Pour the jigger of beer into "a low saucepan," dash on the seasonings, add the cheese and stir unremittingly, moistening from time to time with more beer, a pony or two at a time.

When creamy, pour over buttered toast (2 slices for this amount) and serve with still more beer.

There are two schools of postgraduate Rabbit-hunters: Yale, as above, with beer both in the Rabbit and with it; and the other featured in the Stieff Recipe, which prefers leaving it out of the Rabbit, but taps a keg to drink with it.

The ancient age of Moriarty's campus classic is registered by the use of pioneer black pepper in place of white, which is often used today and is thought more sophisticated by some than the red cayenne of Rector's Naughty Nineties Chafing Dish Rabbit, which is precisely the same as our Basic Recipe No. 1.

Border-hopping Bunny, or Frijole Rabbit

1-1/2 tablespoons butter 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped onion 2 tablespoons chopped pepper, green or red, or both 1-1/2 teaspoon chili powder 1 small can kidney beans, drained 1-1/2 tablespoons catsup 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Salt 2 cups grated cheese

Cook onion and pepper lightly in butter with chili powder; add kidney beans and seasonings and stir in the cheese until melted.

Serve this beany Bunny peppery hot on tortillas or crackers, toasted and buttered.

In the whole hutch of kitchen Rabbitry the most popular modern ones are made with tomato, a little or lots. They hop in from everywhere, from Mexico to South Africa, and call for all kinds of quirks, down to mixing in some dried beef, and there is even a skimpy Tomato Rabbit for reducers, made with farmer cheese and skimmed milk.

Although the quaintly named Rum Tum Tiddy was doubtless the great-grandpappy of all Tomato Rabbits, a richer, more buttery and more eggy one has taken its place as the standard today. The following is a typical recipe for this, tried and true, since it has had a successful run through a score of the best modern cookbooks, with only slight personal changes to keep its juice a-flowing blood-red.

Tomato Rabbit

2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 3/4 cup thin cream or evaporated milk 3/4 cup canned tomato pulp, rubbed through a sieve to remove seeds A pinch of soda 3 cups grated cheese Pinches of dry mustard, salt and cayenne 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Blend flour in melted butter, add cream slowly, and when this white sauce is a little thick, stir in tomato sprinkled with soda. Keep stirring steadily while adding cheese and seasonings, and when cooked enough, stir in the eggs to make a creamy texture, smooth as silk. Serve on buttered whole wheat or graham bread for a change.

Instead of soda, some antiquated recipes call for "a tablespoon of bicarbonate of potash."

South African Tomato Rabbit

This is the same as above, except that 1/2 teaspoon of sugar is used in place of the soda and the Rabbit is poured over baked pastry cut into squares and sprinkled with parsley, chopped fine, put in the oven and served immediately.

Rum Tum Tiddy, Rink Tum Ditty, etc. (OLD BOSTON STYLE)

1 tablespoon butter 1 onion, minced 1 teaspoon salt 1 big pinch of pepper 2 cups cooked tomatoes 1 tablespoon sugar 3 cups grated store cheese 1 egg, lightly beaten

Slowly fry onion bright golden in butter, season and add tomatoes with sugar. Heat just under the bubbling point. Don't let it boil, but keep adding cheese and shaking the pan until it melts. Then stir in egg gently and serve very hot

Tomato Soup Rabbit

1 can condensed tomato soup 2 cups grated cheese 1/4 teaspoon English mustard 1 egg, lightly beaten Salt and pepper

Heat soup, stir in cheese until melted, add mustard and egg slowly, season and serve hot.

This is a quickie Rum Tum Tiddy, without any onion, a poor, housebroken version of the original. It can be called a Celery Rabbit if you use a can of celery soup in place of the tomato.

Onion Rum Tum Tiddy

Prepare as in Rum Tum Tiddy, but use only 1-1/2 cups cooked tomatoes and add 1/2 cup of mashed boiled onions.

Sherry Rum Tum Tiddy

1 tablespoon butter 1 small onion, minced 1 small green pepper, minced 1 can tomato soup 3/4 cup milk 3 cups grated cheese 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce Salt and pepper 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 jigger sherry Crackers

Prepare as in Rum Tum Tiddy. Stir in sherry last to retain its flavor. Crumble crackers into a hot tureen until it's about 1/3 full and pour the hot Rum Tum Tiddy over them.

Blushing Bunny

This is a sister-under-the-skin to the old-fashioned Rum Tum Tiddy, except that her complexion is made a little rosier with a lot of paprika in place of plain pepper, and the paprika cooked in from the start, of course.

Blushing Bunny is one of those playful English names for dishes, like Pink Poodle, Scotch Woodcock (given below), Bubble and Squeak (Bubblum Squeakum), and Toad in the Hole.

Scotch Woodcock

Another variant of Rum Tum Tiddy. Make your Rum Tum Tiddy, but before finishing up with the beaten egg, stir in 2 heaping tablespoons of anchovy paste and prepare the buttered toast by laying on slices of hard-cooked eggs.

American Woodchuck

1-1/2 cups tomato puree 2 cups grated cheese 1 egg, lightly beaten Cayenne 1 tablespoon brown sugar Salt and pepper

Heat the tomato and stir in the cheese. When partly melted stir in the egg and, when almost cooked, add seasonings without ever interrupting the stirring. Pour over hot toasted crackers or bread.

No doubt this all-American Tomato Rabbit with brown sugar was named after the native woodchuck, in playful imitation of the Scotch Woodcock above. It's the only Rabbit we know that's sweetened with brown sugar.

Running Rabbit (as served at the Waldorf-Astoria, First Annual Cheeselers Field Day, November 12,1937)

Cut finest old American cheese in very small pieces and melt in saucepan with a little good beer. Season and add Worcestershire sauce. Serve instantly with freshly made toast.

This running cony can be poured over toast like any other Rabbit, or over crushed crackers in a hot tureen, as in Sherry Rum Tum Tiddy, or served like Fondue, in the original cooking bowl or pan, with the spoon kept moving in it in one direction only and the Rabbit following the spoon, like a greyhound following the stuffed rabbit at the dog races.

Mexican Chilaly

1 tablespoon butter 3 tablespoons chopped green pepper 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped onion 1 cup chopped and drained canned tomatoes, without seeds 2-1/2 cups grated cheese 3/4 teaspoon salt Dash of cayenne 1 egg, lightly beaten 2 tablespoons canned tomato juice Water cress

Cook pepper and onion lightly in butter, add tomato pulp and cook 5 minutes before putting over boiling water and stirring steadily as you add cheese and seasonings. Moisten the egg with the tomato juice and stir in until the Rabbit is thick and velvety.

Serve on toast and dress with water cress.

This popular modern Rabbit seems to be a twin to Rum Tum Tiddy in spite of the centuries' difference in age.

Fluffy, Eggy Rabbit

Stir up a Chilaly as above, but use 2 well-beaten eggs to make it more fluffy, and leave out the watercress. Serve it hot over cold slices of hard-cooked eggs crowded flat on hot buttered toast, to make it extra eggy.

Grilled Tomato Rabbit

Slice big, red, juicy tomatoes 1/2-inch thick, season with salt, pepper and plenty of brown sugar. Dot both sides with all the butter that won't slip off.

Heat in moderate oven, and when almost cooked, remove and broil on both sides. Put on hot plates in place of the usual toast and pour the Rabbit over them. (The Rabbit is made according to either Basic Recipe No. 1 or No. 2.)

Slices of crisp bacon on top of the tomato slices and a touch of horseradish help.

Grilled Tomato and Onion Rabbit

Slice 1/4-inch thick an equal number of tomato and onion rings. Season with salt, pepper, brown sugar and dots of butter. Heat in moderate oven, and when almost cooked remove and broil lightly.

On hot plates lay first the onion rings, top with the tomato ones and pour the Rabbit over, as in the plain Grilled Tomato recipe above.

For another onion-flavored Rabbit see Celery and Onion Rabbit.

The Devil's Own (a fresh tomato variant)

2 tablespoons butter 1 large peeled tomato in 4 thick slices 2-1/2 cups grated cheese 1/4 teaspoon English mustard A pinch of cayenne A dash of tabasco sauce 2 tablespoons chili sauce 1/2 cup ale or beer 1 egg, lightly beaten

Saute tomato slices lightly on both sides in 1 tablespoon butter. Keep warm on hot platter while you make the toast and a Basic Rabbit, pepped up by the extra-hot seasonings listed above. Put hot tomato slices on hot toast on hot plates; pour the hot mixture over.

Dried Beef or Chipped Beef Rabbit

1 tablespoon butter 1 cup canned tomato, drained, chopped and de-seeded 1/4 pound dried beef, shredded 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1/4 teaspoon pepper 2 cups grated cheese

Heat tomato in butter, add beef and eggs, stir until mixed well, then sprinkle with pepper, stir in the grated cheese until smooth and creamy. Serve on toast.

No salt is needed on this jerked steer meat that is called both dried beef and chipped beef on this side of the border, tasajo on the other side, and xarque when you get all the way down to Brazil.

Kansas Jack Rabbit

1 cup milk 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 2 cups grated cheese 1 cup cream-style corn Salt and pepper

Make a white sauce of milk, butter and flour and stir in cheese steadily and gradually until melted. Add corn and season to taste. Serve on hot buttered toast.

Kansas has plenty of the makings for this, yet the dish must have been easier to make on Baron Muenchhausen's "Island of Cheese," where the cornstalks produced loaves of bread, ready-made, instead of ears, and were no doubt crossed with long-eared jacks to produce Corn Rabbits quite as miraculous.

After tomatoes, in popularity, come onions and then green peppers or canned pimientos as vegetable ingredients in modern, Americanized Rabbits. And after that, corn, as in the following recipe which appeals to all Latin-Americans from Mexico to Chile because it has everything.

Latin-American Corn Rabbit

2 tablespoons butter 1 green pepper, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 1/2 cup condensed tomato soup 3 cups grated cheese 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1 cup canned corn 1 egg, lightly beaten

Fry pepper and onion 5 minutes in butter; add soup, cover and cook 5 minutes more. Put over boiling water; add cheese with seasonings and stir steadily, slowly adding the corn, and when thoroughly blended and creamy, moisten the egg with a little of the liquid, stir in until thickened and then pour over hot toast or crackers.

Mushroom-Tomato Rabbit

In one pan commence frying in butter 1 cup of sliced fresh mushrooms, and in another make a Rabbit by melting over boiling water 2 cups of grated cheese with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon paprika. Stir steadily and, when partially melted, stir in a can of condensed tomato soup, previously heated. Then add the fried mushrooms slowly, stir until creamy and pour over hot toast or crackers.

Celery and Onion Rabbit

1/2 cup chopped hearts of celery 1 small onion, chopped 1 tablespoon butter 1-1/2 cups grated sharp cheese Salt and pepper

In a separate pan boil celery and onion until tender. Meanwhile, melt cheese with butter and seasonings and stir steadily. When nearly done stir the celery and onion in gradually, until smooth and creamy.

Pour over buttered toast and brown with a salamander or under the grill.

Asparagus Rabbit

Make as above, substituting a cupful of tender sliced asparagus tops for the celery and onion.

Oyster Rabbit

2 dozen oysters and their liquor 1 teaspoon butter 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1 large pinch of salt 1 small pinch of cayenne 3 cups grated cheese

Heat oysters until edges curl and put aside to keep warm while you proceed to stir up a Rabbit. When cheese is melted add the eggs with some of the oyster liquor and keep stirring. When the Rabbit has thickened to a smooth cream, drop in the warm oysters to heat a little more, and serve on hot buttered toast.

Sea-food Rabbits

(crab, lobster, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, abalone, squid, octopi; anything that swims in the sea or crawls on the bottom of the ocean)

Shred, flake or mince a cupful of any freshly cooked or canned sea food and save some of the liquor, if any. Make according to Oyster Rabbit recipe above.

Instead of using only one kind of sea food, try several, mixed according to taste. Spike this succulent Sea Rabbit with horseradish or a dollop of sherry, for a change.

"Bouquet of the Sea" Rabbit

The seafaring Portuguese set the style for this lush bouquet of as many different kinds of cooked fish (tuna, cod, salmon, etc.) as can be sardined together in the whirlpool of melted cheese in the chafing dish. They also accent it with tidbits of sea food as above.

Other Fish Rabbit, Fresh or Dried

Any cooked fresh fish, flaked or shredded, from the alewife to the whale, or cooked dried herring, finnan haddie, mackerel, cod, and so on, can be stirred in to make a basic Rabbit more tasty. Happy combinations are hit upon in mixing leftovers of several kinds by the cupful. So the odd old cookbook direction, "Add a cup of fish," takes on new meaning.

Grilled Sardine Rabbit

Make a Basic Rabbit and pour it over sardines, skinned, boned, halved and grilled, on buttered toast.

Similarly cooked fillets of any small fish will make as succulent a grilled Rabbit.

Roe Rabbits

Slice cooked roe of shad or toothsome eggs of other fish, grill on toast, butter well and pour a Basic Rabbit over. Although shad roe is esteemed the finest, there are many other sapid ones of salmon, herring, flounder, cod, etc.

Plain Sardine Rabbit

Make Basic Rabbit with only 2 cups of cheese, and in place of the egg yolks and beer, stir in a large tin of sardines, skinned, boned and flaked.

Anchovy Rabbit

Make Basic Rabbit, add 1 tablespoon of imported East Indian chutney with the egg yolks and beer at the finish, spread toast thickly with anchovy paste and butter, and pour the Rabbit over.

Smoked sturgeon, whiting, eel, smoked salmon, and the like

Lay cold slices or flakes of any fine smoked fish (and all of them are fine) on hot buttered toast and pour a Basic Rabbit over the fish.

The best combination we ever tasted is made by laying a thin slice of smoked salmon over a thick one of smoked sturgeon.

Smoked Cheddar Rabbit

With or without smoked fish, Rabbit-hunters whose palates crave the savor of a wisp of smoke go for a Basic Rabbit made with smoked Cheddar in place of the usual aged, but unsmoked, Cheddar. We use a two-year-old that Phil Alpert, Mr. Cheese himself, brings down from Canada and has specially smoked in the same savory room where sturgeon is getting the works. So his Cheddar absorbs the de luxe flavor of six-dollar-per-pound sturgeon and is sold for a fraction of that.

And just in case you are fishing around for something extra special, serve this smoky Rabbit on oven-browned Bombay ducks, those crunchy flat toasts of East Indian fish.

Or go Oriental by accompanying this with cups of smoky Lapsang Soochong China tea.

Crumby Rabbit

1 tablespoon butter 2 cups grated cheese 1 cup stale bread crumbs soaked with 1 cup milk 1 egg, lightly beaten Salt Cayenne Toasted crackers

Melt cheese in butter, stir in the soaked crumbs and seasonings. When cooked smooth and creamy, stir in the egg to thicken the mixture and serve on toasted crackers, dry or buttered, for contrast with the bread.

Some Rabbiteers monkey with this, lacing it with half a cup of catsup, making a sort of pink baboon out of what should be a white monkey.

There is a cult for Crumby Rabbits variations on which extend all the way to a deep casserole dish called Baked Rabbit and consisting of alternate layers of stale bread crumbs and grated-cheese crumbs. This illegitimate three-layer Rabbit is moistened with eggs beaten up with milk, and seasoned with salt and paprika.

Crumby Tomato Rabbit

2 teaspoons butter 2 cups grated cheese 1/2 cup soft bread crumbs 1 cup tomato soup Salt and pepper 1 egg, lightly beaten

Melt cheese in butter, moisten bread crumbs with the tomato soup and stir in; season, add egg and keep stirring until velvety. Serve on toasted crackers, as a contrast to the bread crumbs.

Gherkin or Irish Rabbit

2 tablespoons butter 2 cups grated cheese 1/2 cup milk (or beer) A dash of vinegar 1/2 teaspoon mustard Salt and pepper 1/2 cup chopped gherkin pickles

Melt cheese in butter, steadily stir in liquid and seasonings. Keep stirring until smooth, then add the pickles and serve.

This may have been called Irish after the green of the pickle.

Dutch Rabbit

Melt thin slices of any good cooking cheese in a heavy skillet with a little butter, prepared mustard, and a splash of beer.

Have ready some slices of toast soaked in hot beer or ale and pour the Rabbit over them.

The temperance version of this substitutes milk for beer and delicately soaks the toast in hot water instead.

Proof that there is no Anglo-Saxon influence here lies in the use of prepared mustard. The English, who still do a lot of things the hard way, mix their biting dry mustard fresh with water before every meal, while the Germans and French bottle theirs, as we do.

Pumpernickel Rabbit

This German deviation is made exactly the same as the Dutch Rabbit above, but its ingredients are the opposite in color. Black bread (pumpernickel) slices are soaked in heated dark beer (porter or stout) and the yellow cheese melted in the skillet is also stirred up with brunette beer.

Since beer is a kind of liquid bread, it is natural for the two to commingle in Rabbits whether they are blond Dutch or black pumpernickel. And since cheese is only solid milk, and the Cheddar is noted for its beery smell, there is further affinity here. An old English proverb sums it up neatly: "Bread and cheese are the two targets against death."

By the way, the word pumpernickel is said to have been coined when Napoleon tasted his first black bread in Germany. Contemptuously he spat it out with: "This would be good for my horse, Nicole." "Bon pour Nicole" in French.

Gruyere Welsh Rabbit au gratin

Cut crusts from a half-dozen slices of bread. Toast them lightly, lay in a roasting pan and top each with a matching slice of imported Gruyere 3/8-inch thick. Pepper to taste and cover with bread crumbs. Put in oven 10 minutes and rush to the ultimate consumer.

To our American ears anything au gratin suggests "with cheese," so this Rabbit au gratin may sound redundant. To a Frenchman, however, it means a dish covered with bread crumbs.

Swiss Cheese Rabbit

1/2 cup white wine, preferably Neufchatel 1/2 cup grated Gruyere 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 1/2 saltspoon paprika 2 egg yolks

Stir wine and seasonings together with the cheese until it melts, then thicken with the egg yolks, stirring at least 3 more minutes until smooth.

Sherry Rabbit

3 cups grated cheese 1/2 cup cream or evaporated milk 1/2 cup sherry 1/4 teaspoon English mustard 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce A dash of paprika

Heat cheese over hot water, with or without a bit of butter, and when it begins to melt, stir in the cream. Keep stirring until almost all of the cheese is melted, then add sherry. When smooth and creamy, stir in the mustard and Worcestershire sauce, and after pouring over buttered toast dash with paprika for color.

Spanish Sherry Rabbit

3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 1 bouillon cube, mashed 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 1-1/2 cups milk 1-1/2 cups grated cheese 1 jigger sherry

Make a smooth paste of butter, flour, bouillon cube and seasonings, and add milk slowly. When well-heated stir in the cheese gradually. Continue stirring at least 10 minutes, and when well-blended stir in the sherry and serve on hot, buttered toast.

Pink Poodle

2 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon chopped onion 1 tablespoon flour 1 jigger California claret 1 cup cream of tomato soup A pinch of soda 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon paprika A dash of powdered cloves 3 cups grated cheese 1 egg, lightly beaten

Cook onion in butter until light golden, then blend in flour, wine and soup with the soda and all seasonings. Stir in cheese slowly until melted and finish off by thickening with the egg and stirring until smooth and velvety. Serve on crisp, buttered toast with a dry red wine.

Although wine Rabbits, red or white, are as unusual as Swiss ones with Gruyere in place of Cheddar, wine is commonly drunk with anything from a Golden Buck to a Blushing Bunny. But for most of us, a deep draught of beer or ale goes best with an even deeper draught of the mellow scent of a Cheddar golden-yellow.

Savory Eggy Dry Rabbit

1/8 pound butter 2 cups grated Gruyere 4 eggs, well-beaten Salt Pepper Mustard

Melt butter and cheese together with the beaten eggs, stirring steadily with wooden spoon until soft and smooth. Season and pour over dry toast.

This "dry" Rabbit, in which the volume of the eggs makes up for any lacking liquid, is still served as a savory after the sweets to finish a fine meal in some old-fashioned English homes and hostelries.

Cream Cheese Rabbit

This Rabbit, made with a package of cream cheese, is more scrambled hen fruit than Rabbit food, for you simply scramble a half-dozen eggs with butter, milk, salt, pepper and cayenne, and just before the finish work in the cheese until smooth and serve on crackers—water crackers for a change.

Reducing Rarebit (Tomato Rarebit)[A]

YIELD: 2 servings. 235 calories per serving.

1/2 pound farmer cheese 2 eggs 1 level tablespoon powdered milk 1 level teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon gelatin or agar powder 4 egg tomatoes, quartered, or 2 tomatoes, quartered 1 teaspoon caraway seeds 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon parsley flakes 1/2 head lettuce and/or 1 cucumber 1/4 cup wine vinegar Salt and pepper to taste

[Footnote A: (from The Low-Calory Cookbook by Bernard Koten, published by Random House)]

Fill bottom of double boiler with water to 3/4 mark. Sprinkle salt in upper part of double boiler. Boil over medium flame. When upper part is hot, put in cheese, powdered milk, baking powder, gelatin, caraway seeds and pepper and garlic powder to taste. Mix. Break eggs into this mixture, cook over low flame, continually stirring. Add tomatoes when mixture bubbles and continue cooking and stirring until tomatoes have been cooked soft. Remove to lettuce and/or cucumber (sliced thin) which has been slightly marinated in wine vinegar and sprinkle the parsley flakes over the top of the mixture.

Curry Rabbit

1 tablespoon cornstarch 2 cups milk 2-1/2 cups grated cheese 1 tablespoon minced chives 2 green onions, minced 2 shallots, minced 1/4 teaspoon imported curry powder 1 tablespoon chutney sauce

Dissolve cornstarch in a little of the milk and scald the rest over hot water. Thicken with cornstarch mixture and stir in the cheese, chives, onions, shallots, curry and chutney while wooden-spooning steadily until smooth and sizzling enough to pour over buttered toast.

People who can't let well enough alone put cornstarch in Rabbits, just as they add soda to spoil the cooking of vegetables.

Ginger Ale Rabbit

Simply substitute ginger ale for the real thing in the No. 1 Rabbit of all time.

Buttermilk Rabbit

Substitute buttermilk for plain milk in the No. 2 Rabbit. To be consistent, use fresh-cured Buttermilk Cheese, instead of the usual Cheddar of fresh cow's milk. This is milder.

Eggnog Rabbit

2 tablespoons sweet butter 2 cups grated mellow Cheddar 1-1/3 cups eggnog Dashes of spice to taste.

After melting the cheese in butter, stir in the eggnog and keep stirring until smooth and thickened. Season or not, depending on taste and the quality of eggnog employed.

Ever since the innovation of bottled eggnogs fresh from the milkman in holiday season, such supremely creamy and flavorful Rabbits have been multiplying as fast as guinea pigs.

All-American Succotash Rabbit

1 cup milk 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 3 cups grated cheese 1 cup creamed succotash, strained Salt and pepper

Make a white sauce of milk, butter and flour and stir in the cheese steadily and gradually until melted. Add the creamed succotash and season to taste.

Serve on toasted, buttered corn bread.

Danish Rabbit

1 quart warm milk 2 cups grated cheese

Stir together to boiling point and pour over piping-hot toast in heated bowl. This is an esteemed breakfast dish in north Denmark.

As in all Rabbits, more or less cheese may be used, to taste.

Easy English Rabbit

Soak bread slices in hot beer. Melt thin slices of cheese with butter in iron frying pan, stir in a few spoonfuls of beer and a bit of prepared mustard. When smoothly melted, pour over the piping-hot, beer-soaked toast.



Chapter Six

The Fondue

There is a conspiracy among the dictionary makers to take the heart out of the Fondue. Webster makes it seem no better than a collapsed souffle, with his definition:

Fondue. Also, erroneously, fondu. A dish made of melted cheese, butter, eggs, and, often, milk and bread crumbs.

Thorndike-Barnhart further demotes this dish, that for centuries has been one of the world's greatest, to "a combination of melted cheese, eggs and butter" and explains that the name comes from the French fondre, meaning melt. The latest snub is delivered by the up-to-date Cook's Quiz compiled by TV culinary experts:

A baked dish with eggs, cheese, butter, milk and bread crumbs.

A baked dish, indeed! Yet the Fondue has added to the gaiety and inebriety of nations, if not of dictionaries. It has commanded the respect of the culinary great. Savarin, Boulestin, Andre Simon, all have hailed its heavenly consistency, all have been regaled with its creamy, nay velvety, smoothness.

A touch of garlic, a dash of kirsch, fresh ground black pepper, nutmeg, black pearl truffles of Bugey, red cayenne pepper, the luscious gravy of roast turkey—such little matters help to make an authentic dunking Fondue, not a baked Fondue, mind you. Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin a century and a half ago brought the original "receipt" with him and spread it around with characteristic generosity during the two years of his exile in New York after the French Revolution. In his monumental Physiologie du Gout he records an incident that occurred in 1795:

Whilst passing through Boston ... I taught the restaurant-keeper Julien to make a Fondue, or eggs cooked with cheese. This dish, a novelty to the Americans, became so much the rage, that he (Julien) felt himself obliged, by way of thanks, to send me to New York the rump of one of those pretty little roebucks that are brought from Canada in winter, and which was declared exquisite by the chosen committee whom I convoked for the occasion.

As the great French gourmet, Savarin was born on the Swiss border (at Belley, in the fertile Province of Bugey, where Gertrude Stein later had a summer home), he no doubt ate Gruyere three times a day, as is the custom in Switzerland and adjacent parts. He sets down the recipe just as he got it from its Swiss source, the papers of Monsieur Trolliet, in the neighboring Canton of Berne:

Take as many eggs as you wish to use, according to the number of your guests. Then take a lump of good Gruyere cheese, weighing about a third of the eggs, and a nut of butter about half the weight of the cheese. (Since today's eggs in America weigh about 1-1/2 ounces apiece, if you start the Fondue with 8. your lump of good Gruyere would come to 1/4 pound and your butter to 1/8 pound.)

Break and beat the eggs well in a flat pan, then add the butter and the cheese, grated or cut in small pieces.

Place the pan on a good fire and stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is fairly thick and soft; put in a little or no salt, according to the age of the cheese, and a good deal of pepper, for this is one of the special attributes of this ancient dish.

Let it be placed on the table in a hot dish, and if some of the best wines be produced, and the bottle passed quite freely, a marvelous effect will be beheld.

This has long been quoted as the proper way to make the national dish of Switzerland. Savarin tells of hearing oldsters in his district laugh over the Bishop of Belley eating his Fondue with a spoon instead of the traditional fork, in the first decade of the 1700's. He tells, too, of a Fondue party he threw for a couple of his septuagenarian cousins in Paris "about the year 1801."

The party was the result of much friendly taunting of the master: "By Jove, Jean, you have been bragging for such a long time about your Fondues, you have continually made our mouths water. It is high time to put a stop to all this. We will come and breakfast with you some day and see what sort of thing this dish is."

Savarin invited them for ten o'clock next day, started them off with the table laid on a "snow white cloth, and in each one's place two dozen oysters with a bright golden lemon. At each end of the table stood a bottle of sauterne, carefully wiped, excepting the cork, which showed distinctly that it had been in the cellar for a long while.... After the oysters, which were quite fresh, came some broiled kidneys, a terrine of foie gras, a pie with truffles, and finally the Fondue. The different ingredients had all been assembled in a stewpan, which was placed on the table over a chafing dish, heated with spirits of wine.

"Then," Savarin is quoted, "I commenced operations on the field of battle, and my cousins did not lose a single one of my movements. They were loud in the praise of this preparation, and asked me to let them have the receipt, which I promised them...."

This Fondue breakfast party that gave the nineteenth century such a good start was polished off with "fruits in season and sweets, a cup of genuine mocha, ... and finally two sorts of liqueurs, one a spirit for cleansing, and the other an oil for softening."

This primitive Swiss Cheese Fondue is now prepared more elaborately in what is called:

Neufchatel Style

2-1/2 cups grated imported Swiss 1-1/2 tablespoons flour 1 clove of garlic 1 cup dry white wine Crusty French "flute" or hard rolls cut into big mouthfuls, handy for dunking 1 jigger kirsch Salt Pepper Nutmeg

The cheese should be shredded or grated coarsely and mixed well with the flour. Use a chafing dish for cooking and a small heated casserole for serving. Hub the bottom and sides of the blazer well with garlic, pour in the wine and heat to bubbling, just under boiling. Add cheese slowly, half a cup at a time, and stir steadily in one direction only, as in making Welsh Rabbit. Use a silver fork. Season with very little salt, always depending on how salty the cheese is, but use plenty of black pepper, freshly ground, and a touch of nutmeg. Then pour in the kirsch, stir steadily and invite guests to dunk their forked bread in the dish or in a smaller preheated casserole over a low electric or alcohol burner on the dining table. The trick is to keep the bubbling melted cheese in rhythmic motion with the fork, both up and down and around and around.

The dunkers stab the hunks of crusty French bread through the soft part to secure a firm hold in the crust, for if your bread comes off in dunking you pay a forfeit, often a bottle of wine.

The dunking is done as rhythmically as the stirring, guests taking regular turns at twirling the fork to keep the cheese swirling. When this "chafing dish cheese custard," as it has been called in England, is ready for eating, each in turn thrusts in his fork, sops up a mouthful with the bread for a sponge and gives the Fondue a final stir, to keep it always moving in the same direction. All the while the heat beneath the dish keeps it gently bubbling.

Such a Neufchatel party was a favorite of King Edward VII, especially when he was stepping out as the Prince of Wales. He was as fond of Fondue as most of the great gourmets of his day and preferred it to Welsh Rabbit, perhaps because of the wine and kirsch that went into it.

At such a party a little heated wine is added if the Fondue gets too thick. When finally it has cooked down to a crust in the bottom of the dish, this is forked out by the host and divided among the guests as a very special dividend.

Any dry white wine will serve in a pinch, and the Switzerland Cheese Association, in broadcasting this classical recipe, points out that any dry rum, slivovitz, or brandy, including applejack, will be a valid substitute for the kirsch. To us, applejack seems specially suited, when we stop to consider our native taste that has married apple pie to cheese since pioneer times.

In culinary usage fondue means "melting to an edible consistency" and this, of course, doesn't refer to cheese alone, although we use it chiefly for that.

In France Fondue is also the common name for a simple dish of eggs scrambled with grated cheese and butter and served very hot on toasted bread, or filled into fancy paper cases, quickly browned on top and served at once. The reason for this is that all baked Fondues fall as easily and as far as Souffles, although the latter are more noted for this failing. There is a similarity in the soft fluffiness of both, although the Fondues are always more moist. For there is a stiff, stuffed-shirt buildup around any Souffle, suggesting a dressy dinner, while Fondue started as a self-service dunking bowl.

Our modern tendency is to try to make over the original French Fondue on the Welsh Rabbit model—to turn it into a sort of French Rabbit. Although we know that both Gruyere and Emmentaler are what we call Swiss and that it is impossible in America to duplicate the rich Alpine flavor given by the mountain herbs, we are inclined to try all sorts of domestic cheeses and mixtures thereof. But it's best to stick to Savarin's "lump of Gruyere" just as the neighboring French and Italians do. It is interesting to note that this Swiss Alpine cooking has become so international that it is credited to Italy in the following description we reprint from When Madame Cooks, by an Englishman, Eric Weir:

Fondue a l'Italienne

This is one of those egg dishes that makes one feel really grateful to hens. From its name it originated probably in Italy, but it has crossed the Alps. I have often met it in France, but only once in Italy.

First of all, make a very stiff white sauce with butter, flour and milk. The sauce should be stiff enough to allow the wooden spoon to stand upright or almost.

Off the fire, add yolks of eggs and 4 ounces of grated Gruyere cheese. Mix this in well with the white sauce and season with salt, pepper and some grated nutmeg. Beat whites of egg firm. Add the whites to the preparation, stir in, and pour into a pudding basin.

Take a large saucepan and fill half full of water. Bring to a boil, and then place the pudding basin so that the top of the basin is well out of the water. Allow to boil gently for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Renew the boiling water from time to time, as it evaporates, and take care that the water, in boiling, does not bubble over the mixture.

Test with a knife, as for a cake, to see if it is cooked. When the knife comes out clean, take the basin out of the water and turn the Fondue out on a dish. It should be fairly firm and keep the shape of the basin.

Sprinkle with some finely chopped ham and serve hot.

The imported Swiss sometimes is cubed instead of grated, then marinated for four or five hours in dry white wine, before being melted and liquored with the schnapps. This can be pleasantly adopted here in:

All-American Fondue

1 pound imported Swiss cheese, cubed 3/4 cup scuppernong or other American white wine 1-1/2 jiggers applejack

After marinating the Swiss cubes in the wine, simply melt together over hot water, stir until soft and creamy, add the applejack and dunk with fingers of toast or your own to a chorus of "All Bound Round with a Woolen String."

Of course, this can be treated as a mere vinous Welsh Rabbit and poured over toast, to be accompanied by beer. But wine is the thing, for the French Fondue is to dry wine what the Rabbit is to stale ale or fresh beer.

We say French instead of Swiss because the French took over the dish so eagerly, together with the great Gruyere that makes it distinctive. They internationalized it, sent it around the world with bouillabaisse and onion soup, that celestial soupe a l'oignon on which snowy showers of grated Gruyere descend.

To put the Welsh Rabbit in its place they called it Fondue a l'Anglaise, which also points up the twinlike relationship of the world's two favorite dishes of melted cheese. But to differentiate and show they are not identical twins, the No. 1 dish remained Fromage Fondue while the second was baptized Fromage Fondue a la Biere.

Beginning with Savarin the French whisked up more rapturous, rhapsodic writing about Gruyere and its offspring, the Fondue, together with the puffed Souffle, than about any other imported cheese except Parmesan.

Parmesan and Gruyere were praised as the two greatest culinary cheeses. A variant Fondue was made of the Italian cheese.

Parmesan Fondue

3 tablespoons butter 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese 4 eggs, lightly beaten Salt Pepper

Over boiling water melt butter and cheese slowly, stir in the eggs, season to taste and stir steadily in one direction only, until smooth.

Pour over fingers of buttered toast. Or spoon it up, as the ancients did, before there were any forks. It's beaten with a fork but eaten catch-as-catch-can, like chicken-in-the-rough.

Sapsago Swiss Fondue

2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1-1/2 cups milk 2-1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese 2-1/2 tablespoons grated Sapsago 1/2 cup dry white wine Pepper, black and red, freshly ground Fingers of toast

Over boiling water stir the first four ingredients into a smooth, fairly thick cream sauce. Then stir in Swiss cheese until well melted. After that add the Sapsago, finely grated, and wine in small splashes. Stir steadily, in one direction only, until velvety. Season sharply with the contrasting peppers and serve over fingers of toast.

This is also nice when served bubbling in individual, preheated pastry shells, casseroles or ramekins, although this way most of the fun of the dunking party is left out. To make up for it, however, cooked slices of mushrooms are sometimes added.

At the Cheese Cellar in the New York World's Fair Swiss Pavilion, where a continual dunking party was in progress, thousands of amateurs learned such basic things as not to overcook the Fondue lest it become stringy, and the protocol of dunking in turn and keeping the mass in continual motion until the next on the Fondue line dips in his cube of bread. The success of the dish depends on making it quickly, keeping it gently a-bubble and never letting it stand still for a split second.

The Swiss, who consume three or four times as much cheese per capita as we, and almost twice as much as the French, are willing to share Fondue honors with the French Alpine province of Savoy, a natural cheese cellar with almost two dozen distinctive types of its very own, such as Fat cheese, also called Death's Head; La Grande Bornand, a luscious half-dried sheep's milker; Chevrotins, small, dry goat milk cheeses; and Le Vacherin. The latter, made in both Savoy and Switzerland, boasts two interesting variants:

1. Vacherin Fondue or Spiced Fondue: Made about the same as Emmentaler, ripened to sharp age, and then melted, spices added and the cheese re-formed. It is also called Spiced Fondue and sells for about two dollars a pound. Named Fondue from being melted, though it's really recooked,

2. Vacherin a la Main: This is a curiosity in cheeses, resembling a cold, uncooked Fondue. Made of cow's milk, it is round, a foot in diameter and half a foot high. It is salted and aged until the rind is hard and the inside more runny than the ripest Camembert, so it can be eaten with a spoon (like the cooked Fondue) as well as spread on bread. The local name for it is Tome de Montagne.

Here is a good assortment of Fondues:

Vacherin-Fribourg Fondue

2 tablespoons butter 1 clove garlic, crushed 2 cups shredded Vacherin cheese 2 tablespoons hot water

This authentic quickie is started by cooking the garlic in butter until the butter is melted. Then remove garlic and reduce heat. Add the soft cheese and stir with silver fork until smooth and velvety. Add the water in little splashes, stirring constantly in one direction. Dunk! (In this melted Swiss a little water takes the place of a lot of wine.)

La Fondue Comtois

This regional specialty of Franche-Comte is made with white wine. Sauterne, Chablis, Riesling or any Rhenish type will serve splendidly. Also use butter, grated Gruyere, beaten eggs and that touch of garlic.

Chives Fondue

3 cups grated Swiss cheese 3 tablespoons flour 2 tablespoons butter 1 garlic clove, crushed 3 tablespoons finely chopped chives 1 cup dry white wine Salt Freshly ground pepper A pinch of nutmeg 1/4 cup kirsch

Mix cheese and flour. Melt butter in chafing-dish blazer rubbed with garlic. Cook chives in butter 1 minute. Add wine and heat just under boiling. Keep simmering as you add cheese-and-flour mix gradually, stirring always in one direction. Salt according to age and sharpness of cheese; add plenty of freshly ground pepper and the pinch of nutmeg.

When everything is stirred smooth and bubbling, toss in the kirsch without missing a stroke of the fork and get to dunking.

Large, crisp, hot potato chips make a pleasant change for dunking purposes. Or try assorted crackers alternating with the absorbent bread, or hard rolls.

Tomato Fondue

2 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped 1/2 teaspoon dried sweet basil 1 clove garlic 2 tablespoons butter 1/2 cup dry white wine 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese Paprika

Mix basil with chopped tomatoes. Rub chafing dish with garlic, melt butter, add tomatoes and much paprika. Cook 5 to 6 minutes, add wine, stir steadily to boiling point. Then add cheese, half a cup at a time, and keep stirring until everything is smooth.

Serve on hot toast, like Welsh Rabbit.

Here the two most popular melted-cheese dishes tangle, but they're held together with the common ingredient, tomato.

Fondue also appears as a sauce to pour over baked tomatoes. Stale bread crumbs are soaked in tomato juice to make:

Tomato Baked Fondue

1 cup tomato juice 1 cup stale bread crumbs 1 cup grated sharp American cheese 1 tablespoon melted butter Salt 4 eggs, separated and well beaten

Soak crumbs in tomato juice, stir cheese in butter until melted, season with a little or no salt, depending on saltiness of the cheese. Mix in the beaten yolks, fold in the white and bake about 50 minutes in moderate oven.

BAKED FONDUES

Although Savarin's dunking Fondue was first to make a sensation on these shores and is still in highest esteem among epicures, the Fondue America took to its bosom was baked. The original recipe came from the super-caseous province of Savoy under the explicit title, La Fondue au Fromage.

La Fondue au Fromage

Make the usual creamy mixture of butter, flour, milk, yolks of eggs and Gruyere, in thin slices for a change. Use red pepper instead of black, splash in a jigger of kirsch but no white wine. Finally fold in the egg whites and bake in a mold for 45 minutes.

We adapted this to our national taste which had already based the whole business of melted cheese on the Welsh Rabbit with stale ale or milk instead of white wine and Worcestershire, mustard and hot peppers. Today we have come up with this:

100% American Fondue

2 cups scalded milk 2 cups stale bread crumbs 1/2 teaspoon dry English mustard Salt Dash of nutmeg Dash of pepper 2 cups American cheese (Cheddar) 2 egg yolks, well beaten 2 egg whites, beaten stiff

Soak crumbs in milk, season and stir in the cheese until melted. Add the beaten egg yolks and stir until you have a smooth mixture. Let this cool while beating the whites stiff, leaving them slightly moist. Fold the whites into the cool, custardy mix and bake in a buttered dish until firm. (About 50 minutes in a moderate oven.)

This is more of a baked cheese job than a true Fondue, to our way of thinking, and the scalded milk doesn't exactly take the place of the wine or kirsch. It is characteristic of our bland cookery.

OTHER FONDUES PLAIN AND FANCY, BAKED AND NOT

Quickie Catsup Tummy Fondiddy

3/4 pound sharp cheese, diced 1 can condensed tomato soup 1/2 cup catsup 1/2 teaspoon mustard 1 egg, lightly beaten

In double boiler melt cheese in soup. Blend thoroughly by constant stirring. Remove from heat, lightly whip or fold in the catsup and mustard mixed with egg. Serve on Melba toast or rusks.

This might be suggested as a novel midnight snack, with a cup of cocoa, for a change.

Cheese and Rice Fondue

1 cup cooked rice 2 cups milk 4 eggs, separated and well beaten 1/2 cup grated cheese 1/2 teaspoon salt Cayenne, Worcestershire sauce or tabasco sauce, or all three

Heat rice (instead of bread crumbs) in milk, stir in cheese until melted, add egg yolks beaten lemon-yellow, season, fold in stiff egg whites. Serve hot on toast.

Corn and Cheese Fondue

1 cup bread crumbs 1 large can creamed corn 1 small onion, chopped 1/2 green pepper, chopped 2 cups cottage cheese 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup milk 2 eggs, well beaten

Mix all ingredients together and bake in buttered casserole set in pan of hot water. Bake about 1 hour in moderate oven, or until set.

Cheese Fondue

1 cup grated Cheddar 1/2 cup crumbled Roquefort 1 cup pimento cheese 3 tablespoons cream 3 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon Worcestershire

Stir everything together over hot water until smooth and creamy. Then whisk until fluffy, moistening with more cream or mayonnaise if too stiff.

Serve on Melba toast, or assorted thin toasted crackers.

Brick Fondue

1/2 cup butter 2 cups grated Brick cheese 1/2 cup warm milk 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 eggs

Melt butter and cheese together, use wire whisk to whip in the warm milk. Season. Take from fire and beat in the eggs, one at a time. Please note that Fondue protocol calls for each egg to be beaten separately in cases like this.

Serve over hot toast or crackers.

Cheddar Dunk Bowl

3/4 pound sharp Cheddar cheese 3 tablespoons cream 2/3 teaspoon dry mustard 1-1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire

Grate the cheese powdery fine and mash it together with the cream until fluffy. Season and serve in a beautiful bowl for dunking in the original style of Savarin, although this is a static imitation of the real thing.

All kinds of crackers and colorful dips can be used, from celery stalks and potato chips to thin paddles cut from Bombay duck.



Chapter Seven

Souffles, Puffs and Ramekins

There isn't much difference between Cheese Souffles, Puffs and Ramekins. The English Encyclopedia of Practical Cookery, the oldest, biggest and best of such works in English, lumps Cheese Puffs and Ramekins together, giving the same recipes for both, although it treats each extensively under its own name when not made with cheese.

Cheese was the basis of the original French Ramequin, cheese and bread crumbs or puff paste, baked in a mold, (with puff again the principal factor in Souffle, from the French souffler, puff up).

Basic Souffle

3 tablespoons butter or margarine 4 tablespoons flour 1-1/4 cups hot milk, scalded 1 teaspoon salt A dash of cayenne 1/2 cup grated Cheddar cheese, sharp 2 egg yolks, beaten lemon-yellow 2 egg whites, beaten stiff

Melt butter, stir in flour and milk gradually until thick and smooth. Season and add the cheese, continuing the cooking and slow stirring until velvety. Remove from heat and let cool somewhat; then stir in the egg yolks with a light hand and an upward motion. Fold in the stiff whites and when evenly mixed pour into a big, round baking dish. (Some butter it and some don't.) To make sure the top will be even when baked, run a spoon or knife around the surface, about 1 inch from the edge of the dish, before baking slowly in a moderate oven until puffed high and beautifully browned. Serve instantly for fear the Souffle may fall. The baking takes up to an hour and the egg whites shouldn't be beaten so stiff they are hard to fold in and contain no air to expand and puff up the dish.

To perk up the seasonings, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, nutmeg and even garlic are often used to taste, especially in England.

While Cheddar is the preferred cheese, Parmesan runs it a close second. Then comes Swiss. You may use any two or all three of these together. Sometimes Roquefort is added, as in the Ramekin recipes below.

Parmesan Souffle

Make the same as Basic Souffle, with these small modifications in the ingredients:

1 full cup of grated Parmesan 1 extra egg in place of the 1/2 cup of Cheddar cheese A little more butter Black pepper, not cayenne

Swiss Souffle

Make the same as Basic Souffle, with these slight changes:

1-1/4 cups grated Swiss cheese instead of the Cheddar cheese Nutmeg in place of the cayenne

Parmesan-Swiss Souffle

Make the same as Basic Souffle, with these little differences:

1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese, and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan in place of the Cheddar cheese 1/4 teaspoon each of sugar and black pepper for seasoning.

Any of these makes a light, lovely luncheon or a proper climax to a grand dinner.

Cheese-Corn Souffle

Make as Basic Souffle, substituting for the scalded milk 1 cup of sieved and strained juice from cream-style canned corn.

Cheese-Spinach Souffle

Saute 1-1/2 cups of finely chopped, drained spinach in butter with 1 teaspoon finely grated onion, and then whip it until light and fluffy. Mix well into the white sauce of the Basic Souffle before adding the cheese and following the rest of the recipe.

Cheese-Tomato Souffle

Substitute hot tomato juice for the scalded milk.

Cheese-Sea-food Souffle

Add 1-1/2 cups finely chopped or ground lobster, crab, shrimp, other sea food or mixture thereof, with any preferred seasoning added.

Cheese-Mushroom Souffle

1-1/2 cups grated sharp Cheddar 1 cup cream of mushroom soup Paprika, to taste Salt 2 egg yolks, well beaten 2 egg whites, beaten stiff 2 tablespoons chopped, cooked bacon 2 tablespoons sliced, blanched almonds

Heat cheese with soup and paprika, adding the cheese gradually and stirring until smooth. Add salt and thicken the sauce with egg yolks, still stirring steadily, and finally fold in the whites. Sprinkle with bacon and almonds and bake until golden brown and puffed high (about 1 hour).

Cheese-Potato Souffle (Potato Puff)

6 potatoes 2 onions 1 tablespoon butter or margarine 1 cup hot milk 3/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese 1 teaspoon salt A dash of pepper 2 egg yolks, well beaten 2 egg whites, beaten stiff 1/4 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Cook potatoes and onions together until tender and put through a ricer. Mix with all the other ingredients except the egg whites and the Cheddar. Fold in the egg whites, mix thoroughly and pour into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle the 1/4 cup of Cheddar on top and bake in moderate oven about 1/2 hour, until golden-brown and well puffed. Serve instantly.

Variations of this popular Souffle leave out the onion and simplify matters by using 2 cups of mashed potatoes. Sometimes 1 tablespoon of catsup and another of minced parsley is added to the mixture. Or onion juice alone, to take the place of the cooked onions—about a tablespoon, full or scant.

The English, in concocting such a Potato Puff or Souffle, are inclined to make it extra peppery, as they do most of their Cheese Souffles, with not only "a dust of black pepper" but "as much cayenne as may be stood on the face of a sixpence."

Cheese Fritter Souffles

These combine ham with Parmesan cheese and are even more delicately handled in the making than crepes suzette.

PUFFS

Three-in-One Puffs

1 cup grated Swiss 1 cup grated Parmesan 1 cup cream cheese 5 eggs, lightly beaten salt and pepper

Mix the cheeses into one mass moistened with the beaten eggs, splashed on at intervals. When thoroughly incorporated, put in ramekins, tiny tins, cups, or any sort of little mold of any shape. Bake in hot oven about 10 minutes, until richly browned.

Such miniature Souffles serve as liaison officers for this entire section, since they are baked in ramekins, or ramequins, from the French word for the small baking dish that holds only one portion. These may be paper boxes, usually round, earthenware, china, Pyrex, of any attractive shape in which to bake or serve the Puffs.

More commonly, in America at least, Puffs are made without ramekin dishes, as follows:

Fried Puffs

2 egg whites, beaten stiff 1/2 cup grated cheese 1 tablespoon flour Salt Paprika

Into the stiff egg whites fold the cheese, flour and seasonings. When thoroughly mixed pat into shape desired, roll in crumbs and fry.

Roquefort Puffs

1/8 pound genuine French Roquefort 1 egg white, beaten stiff 8 crackers or 2-inch bread rounds

Cream the Roquefort, fold in the egg white, pile on crackers and bake 15 minutes in slow oven.

The constant repetition of "beaten stiff" in these recipes may give the impression that the whites are badly beaten up, but such is not the case. They are simply whipped to peaks and left moist and glistening as a teardrop, with a slight sad droop to them that shows there is still room for the air to expand and puff things up in cooking.

Parmesan Puffs

Make a spread of mayonnaise or other salad dressing with equal parts of imported Parmesan, grated fine. Spread on a score or more of crackers in a roomy pan and broil a couple of minutes till they puff up golden-brown.

Use only the best Parmesan, imported from Italy; or, second best, from Argentina where the rich pampas grass and Italian settlers get together on excellent Parmesan and Romano. Never buy Parmesan already grated; it quickly loses its flavor.

Breakfast Puffs

1 cup flour 1 cup milk 1/4 cup finely grated cheese 1 egg, lightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix all together to a smooth, light batter and fill ramekins or cups half full; then bake in quick oven until they are puffing over the top and golden-brown.

Danish Fondue Puffs

1 stale roll 1/2 cup boiling hot milk Salt Pepper 2 cups freshly grated Cheddar cheese 4 egg yolks, beaten lemon-yellow 4 egg whites, beaten stiff

Soak roll in boiling milk and beat to a paste. Mix with cheese and egg yolks. When smooth and thickened fold in the egg whites and fill ramekins, tins, cups or paper forms and slowly bake until puffed up and golden-brown.

New England Cheese Puffs

1 cup sifted flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon Hungarian paprika 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard 2 egg yolks, beaten lemon-yellow 1/2 cup milk 1 cup freshly grated Cheddar cheese 2 egg whites, beaten stiff but not dry

Sift dry ingredients together, mix yolks with milk and stir in. Add cheese and when thoroughly incorporated fold in the egg whites to make a smooth batter. Drop from a big spoon into hot deep fat and cook until well browned.

Caraway seeds are sometimes added. Poppy seeds are also used, and either of these makes a snappier puff, especially tasty when served with soup.

A few drops of tabasco give this an extra tang.

Cream Cheese Puffs

1/2 pound cream cheese 1 cup milk 4 eggs, lightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Soften cheese by heating over hot water. Remove from heat and add milk, eggs and seasoning. Beat until well blended, then pour into custard cups, ramekins or any other individual baking dishes that are attractive enough to serve the puffs in.

RAMEKINS OR RAMEQUINS

Some Ramekin dishes are made so exquisitely that they may be collected like snuff bottles.

Ramekins are utterly French, both the cooked Puffs and the individual dishes in which they are baked. Essentially a Cheese Puff, this is also au gratin when topped with both cheese and browned bread crumbs. By a sort of poetic cook's license the name is also applied to any kind of cake containing cheese and cooked in the identifying one-portion ramekin. It is used chiefly in the plural, however, together with the name of the chief ingredient, such as "Chicken Ramekins" and:

Cheese Ramekins I

2 eggs 2 tablespoons flour 1/8 pound butter, melted 1/8 pound grated cheese

Mix well and bake in individual molds for 15 minutes.

Cheese Ramekins II

3 tablespoons melted butter 1/2 teaspoon each, salt and pepper 3/4 cup bread crumbs 1/2 cup grated cheese 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1-1/2 cups milk

Mix the first four dry ingredients together, stir eggs into the milk and add. Stir to a smooth batter and bake in buttered ramekins, standing in water, in moderate oven. Serve piping hot, for like Souffles and all associated Puffs, the hot air will puff out of them quickly; then they will sink and be inedible.

TWO ANCIENT ENGLISH RECIPES, STILL GOING STRONG

Cheese Ramekins III

Grate 1/2 pound of any dry, rich cheese. Butter a dozen small paper cases, or little boxes of stiff writing paper like Souffle cases. Put a saucepan containing 1/2 pint of water over the fire, add 2 tablespoons of butter, and when the water boils, stir in 1 heaping tablespoonful of flour. Beat the mixture until it shrinks away from the sides of the saucepan; then stir in the grated cheese. Remove the paste thus made from the fire, and let it partly cool. In the meantime separate the yolks from the whites of three eggs, and beat them until the yolks foam and the whites make a stiff froth. Put the mixture at once into the buttered paper cases, only half-filling them (since they rise very high while being baked) with small slices of cheese, and bake in a moderate oven for about 15 minutes. As soon as the Puffs are done, put the cases on a hot dish covered with a folded napkin, and serve very hot.

The most popular cheese for Ramekins has always been, and still is, Gruyere. But because the early English also adopted Italian Parmesan, that followed as a close second, and remains there today.

Sharp Cheddar makes tangy Ramekins, as will be seen in this second oldster; for though it prescribes Gloucester and Cheshire "'arf-and-'arf," both are essentially Cheddars. Gloucester has been called "a glorified Cheshire" and the latter has long been known as a peculiarly rich and colorful elder brother of Cheddar, described in Kenelme Digby's Closet Open'd as a "quick, fat, rich, well-tasted cheese."

Cheese Ramekins IV

Scrape fine 1/4 pound of Gloucester cheese and 1/4 pound of Cheshire cheese. Beat this scraped cheese in a mortar with the yolks of 4 eggs, 1/4 pound of fresh butter, and the crumbs of a French roll boiled in cream until soft. When all this is well mixed and pounded to a paste, add the beaten whites of 4 eggs. Should the paste seem too stiff, 1 or 2 tablespoons of sherry may be added. Put the paste into paper cases, and bake in a Dutch oven till nicely browned. The Ramekins should be served very hot.

Since both Gloucester cheese and Cheshire cheese are not easily come by even in London today, it would be hard to reproduce this in the States. So the best we can suggest is to use half-and-half of two of our own great Cheddars, say half-Coon and half-Wisconsin Longhorn, or half-Tillamook and half-Herkimer County. For there's no doubt about it, contrasting cheeses tickle the taste buds, and as many as three different kinds put together make Puffs all the more perfect.

Ramequins a la Parisienne

2 cups milk 1 cup cream 1 ounce salt butter 1 tablespoon flour 1/2 cup grated Gruyere Coarsely ground pepper An atom of nutmeg A soupcon of garlic A light touch of powdered sugar 8 eggs, separated

Boil milk and cream together. Melt butter, mix in the flour and stir over heat 5 minutes, adding the milk and cream mixture a little at a time. When thoroughly cooked, remove from heat and stir in cheese, seasonings and the yolks of all 8 eggs, well beaten, and the whites of 2 even better beaten. When well mixed, fold in the remaining egg whites, stiffly beaten, until you have a batter as smooth and thick as cream. Pour this into ramekins of paper, porcelain or earthenware, filling each about 2/3 full to allow for them to puff up as they bake in a very slow oven until golden-brown (or a little less than 20 minutes).

Le Ramequin Morezien

This celebrated specialty of Franche-Comte is described as "a porridge of water, butter, seasoning, chopped garlic and toast; thickened with minced Gruyere and served very hot."

Several French provinces are known for distinctive individual Puffs usually served in the dainty fluted forms they are cooked in. In Jeanne d'Arc's Lorraine, for instance, there are the simply named Les Ramequins, made of flour, Gruyere and eggs.

Swiss-Roquefort Ramekins

1/4 pound Swiss cheese 1/4 pound Roquefort cheese 1/2 pound butter 8 eggs, separated 4 breakfast rolls, crusts removed 1/2 cup cream

The batter is made in the usual way, with the soft insides of the rolls simmered in the cream and stirred in. The egg whites are folded in last, as always, the batter poured into ramekins part full and baked to a golden-brown. Then they are served instantaneously, lest they fall.

Puff Paste Ramekins

Puff or other pastry is rolled out fiat and sprinkled with fine tasty cheese or any cheese mixture, such as Parmesan with Gruyere and/or Swiss Sapsago for a piquant change, but in lesser quantity than the other cheeses used. Parmesan cheese has long been the favorite for these.

Fold paste into 3 layers, roll out again and dust with more cheese. Fold once more and roll this out and cut in small fancy shapes to bake 10 to 15 minutes in a hot oven. Brushing with egg yolk before baking makes these Ramekins shine.

Frying Pan Ramekins

Melt 2 ounces of butter, let it cool a little and then mix with 1/2 pound of cheese. Fold in the whites of 3 eggs, beaten stiff but not dry. Cover frying pan with buttered papers, put slices of bread on this and cover with the cheese mixture. Cook about 5 minutes, take it off and brown it with a salamander.

There are two schools of salamandering among turophiles. One holds that it toughens the cheese and makes it less digestible; the other that it's simply swell. Some of the latter addicts have special cheese-branding irons made with their monograms, to identify their creations, whether they be burned on the skins of Welsh Rabbits or Frying Pan Ramekins. Salamandering with an iron that has a gay, carnivalesque design can make a sort of harlequin Ramekin.

Casserole Ramekin

Here is the Americanization of a French original: In a deep casserole lay alternate slices of white bread and Swiss cheese, with the cheese slices a bit bigger all around. Beat 2 eggs with 2 cups of milk, season with salt and—of all things—nutmeg! Proceed to bake like individual Ramekins.



Chapter Eight

Pizzas, Blintzes, Pastes, Cheese Cakes, etc.

No matter how big or hungry your family, you can always appease them with pizza.

Pizza—The Tomato Pie of Sicily

DOUGH

1 package yeast, dissolved in warm water 2 cups sifted flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons olive oil

Make dough of this. Knead 12 to 20 minutes. Pat into a ball, cover it tight and let stand 3 hours in warm place until twice the size.

TOMATO PASTE

3 tablespoons olive oil 2 large onions, sliced thin 1 can Italian tomato paste 8 to 10 anchovy filets, cut small 1/2 teaspoon oregano Salt Crushed chili pepper 2-1/2 cups water

In the oil fry onion tender but not too brown, stir in tomato paste and keep stirring 3 or 4 minutes. Season, pour water over and simmer slowly 25 to 30 minutes. Add anchovies when sauce is done.

CHEESE

1/2 cup grated Italian, Parmesan, Romano or Pecorino, depending on your pocketbook

Procure a low, wide and handsome tin pizza pan, or reasonable substitute, and grease well before spreading the well-raised dough 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. Poke your finger tips haphazardly into the dough to make marks that will catch the sauce when you pour it on generously. Shake on Parmesan or Parmesan-type cheese and bake in hot oven 1/2 hour, then 1/4 hour more at lower heat until the pizza is golden-brown. Cut in wedges like any other pie and serve.

The proper pans come all tin and a yard wide, down to regular apple-pie size, but twelve-inch pans are the most popular.

Miniature Pizzas

Miniature pizzas are split English muffins rubbed with garlic or onion and brushed with olive oil. Cover with tomato sauce and a slice of Mozzarella cheese, anchovy, oregano and grated Parmesan, and heat 8 minutes.

Italian-Swiss Scallopini

1 pound paper-thin veal cutlets 1/2 cup flour 1/2 cup grated Swiss and Parmesan, mixed 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten with water Butter Salt Paprika

Moisten veal with egg and roll in flour mixed with cheese, quickly brown, lower flame and cook 4 to 5 minutes till tender. Dust with paprika and salt.

Neapolitan Baked Lasagne, or Stuffed Noodles

1 pound lasagne, or other wide noodles 1-1/2 cups cooked thick tomato sauce with meat 1/2 pound Ricotta or cottage cheese 1 pound Mozzarella or American Cheddar 1/4 pound grated Parmesan, Romano or Pecorino Salt Pepper, preferably crushed red pods A shaker filled with grated Parmesan, or reasonable substitute

Cook wide or broad noodles 15 to 20 minutes in rapidly boiling salted water until tender, but not soft, and drain. Pour 1/2 cup of tomato sauce in baking dish or pan, cover with about 1/2 of the noodles, sprinkle with grated Parmesan, a layer of sauce, a layer of Mozzarella and dabs of Ricotta. Continue in this fashion, alternating layers and seasoning each, ending with a final spread of sauce, Parmesan and red pepper. Bake firm in moderate oven, about 15 minutes, and served in wedges like pizza, with canisters of grated Parmesan, crushed red pepper pods and more of the sauce to taste.

Little Hats, Cappelletti

Freshly made and still moist Cappelletti, little hats, contrived out of tasty paste, may be had in any Little Italy macaroni shop. These may be stuffed sensationally in four different flavors with only two cheeses.

Brown slices of chicken and ham separately, in butter. Mince each very fine and divide in half, to make four mixtures in equal amounts. Season these with salt, pepper and nutmeg and a binding of 2 parts egg yolk to I part egg white.

With these meat mixtures you can make four different-flavored fillings:

Ham and Mozzarella Chicken and Mozzarella Ham and Ricotta Chicken and Ricotta

Fill the little hats alternately, so you'll have the same number of each different kind. Pinch edges tight together to keep the stuffings in while boiling fast for 5 minutes in chicken broth (or salted water, if you must).

Since these Cappelletti are only a pleasing form and shape of ravioli, they are served in the same way on hot plates, with plain tomato sauce and Parmesan or reasonable substitute. If we count this final seasoning as an ingredient, this makes three cheeses, so that each of half a dozen taste buds can be getting individual sensations without letting the others know what it's doing.

Dauphiny Ravioli

This French variant of the famous Italian pockets of pastry follows the Cappelletti pattern, with any fresh goat cheese and Gruyere melted with butter and minced parsley and boiled in chicken broth.

Italian Fritters

1/4 cup flour 2 tablespoons sugar 1/4 pound fresh Ricotta 2 eggs, beaten 1/2 cup shredded Mozzarella Rind of 1/2 lemon, grated 3 tablespoons brandy Salt

Stir and mix well together in the order given and let stand 1 hour or more to thicken the batter so it will hold its shape while cooking.

Shape batter like walnuts and hold one at a time in the bowl of a long-handled spoon dipped for 10 seconds in boiling hot oil. Fritter the "walnuts" so, and serve at once with powdered sugar.

To make fascinating cheese croquettes, mix several contrasting cheeses in this batter.

Italian Asparagus and Cheese

This gives great scope for contrasting cheeses in one and the same dish. In a shallow baking pan put a foundation layer of grated Cheddar and a little butter. Cover with a layer of tender parts of asparagus, lightly salted; next a layer of grated Gruyere with a bit of butter, and another of asparagus. From here you can go as far as you like with varied layers of melting cheeses alternating with asparagus, until you come to the top, where you add two more kinds of cheese, a mixture of powdered Parmesan with Sapsago to give the new-mown hay scent.

Garlic on Cheese

For one sandwich prepare 30 or 40 garlic cloves by removing skins and frying out the fierce pungence in smoking olive oil. They skip in the hot pan like Mexican jumping beans. Toast one side of a thickish slice of bread, put this side down on a grilling pan, cover it with a slice of imported Swiss Emmentaler or Gruyere, of about the same size, shape and thickness. Stick the cooked garlic cloves, while still blistering hot, in a close pattern into the cheese and brown for a minute under the grill. Salt lightly and dash with paprika for the color. (Recipe by Bob Brown in Merle Armitage's collection Fit for a King.)

Spaniards call garlic cloves teeth, Englishmen call them toes. It was cheese and garlic together that inspired Shakespeare to Hotspur's declaration in King Henry IV:

I had rather live With cheese and garlic in a windmill, far, Than feed on cates and have him talk to me In any summer-house in Christendom.

Some people can take a mere soupcon of the stuff, while others can down it by the soup spoon, so we feel it necessary in reprinting our recipe to point to the warning of another early English writer: "Garlic is very dangerous to young children, fine women and hot young men."

Blintzes

This snow white member of the crepes suzette sorority is the most popular deb in New York's fancy cheese dishes set. Almost unknown here a decade or two ago, it has joined blinis, kreplach and cheeseburgers as a quick and sustaining lunch for office workers.

2 eggs 1 cup water 1 cup sifted flour Salt Cooking oil 1/2 pound cottage cheese 2 tablespoons butter 2 cups sour cream

Beat 1 egg light and make a batter with the water, flour and salt to taste. Heat a well-greased small frying pan and make little pancakes with 2 tablespoons of batter each. Cook the cakes over low heat and on one side only. Slide each cake off on a white cloth, with the cooked side down. While these are cooling make the blintz-filling by beating together the second egg, cottage cheese and butter. Spread each pancake thickly with the mixture and roll or make into little pockets or envelopes with the end tucked in to hold the filling. Cook in foil till golden-brown and serve at once with sufficient sour cream to smother them.

Vatroushki

Russia seems to have been the cradle of all sorts of blinis and blintzes, and perhaps the first, of them to be made was vatroushki, a variant of the blintzes above. The chief difference is that rounds of puff paste dough are used instead of the hot cakes, 1 teaspoon of sugar is added to the cottage cheese filling, and the sour cream, 1/2 cup, is mixed into this instead of being served with it. Little cups filled with this mix are made by pinching the edges of the dough together. The tops are brushed with egg yolk and baked in a brisk oven.

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

1 cup prepared pancake 4 tablespoons top milk or light cream 1 teaspoon salt 4 eggs, well beaten 1 tablespoon sugar 2 cups cottage cheese, put through ricer

Mix batter and stir in cheese last until smooth.

Cheese Waffles

2 cups prepared waffle flour 3 egg yolks, lightly beaten 1/4 cup melted butter 3/4 cup grated sharp Cheddar 3 egg whites, beaten stiff

Stir up a smooth waffle batter of the first 4 ingredients and fold in egg whites last.

Today you can get imported canned Holland cheese waffles to heat quickly and serve.

Napkin Dumpling

1 pound cottage cheese 1/8 pound butter, softened 3 eggs, beaten 3/4 cup Farina 1/2 teaspoon salt Cinnamon and brown sugar

Mix together all ingredients (except the cinnamon and sugar) to form a ball. Moisten a linen napkin with cold water and tie the ball of dough in it. Simmer 40 to 50 minutes in salted boiling water, remove from napkin, sprinkle well with cinnamon and brown sugar, and serve. This is on the style of Hungarian potato and other succulent dumplings and may be served with goulash or as a meal in itself.

BUTTER AND CHEESE

Where fish is scant And fruit of trees, Supply that want With butter and cheese.

Thomas Tusser in The Last Remedy

Butter and cheese are mixed together in equal parts for cheese butter. Serbia has a cheese called Butter that more or less matches Turkey's Durak, of which butter is an indispensable ingredient, and French Cancoillote is based on sour milk simmered with butter.

The English have a cheese called Margarine, made with the butter substitute. In Westphalia there are no two schools of thought about whether 'tis better to eat butter with cheese or not, for in Westphalia sour-milk cheese, butter is mixed in as part of the process of making. The Arabs press curds and butter together to store in vats, and the Scots have Crowdie or Cruddy Butter.

BUTTERMILK CHEESE

The value of buttermilk is stressed in an extravagant old Hindu proverb: "A man may live without bread, but without buttermilk he dies."

Cheese was made before butter, being the earliest form of dairy manufacturing, so buttermilk cheese came well after plain milk cheese, even after whey cheese. It is very tasty, and a natural with potato salad. The curd is salted after draining and sold in small parchment packages.

German "leather" cheese has buttermilk mixed with the plain. The Danes make their Appetitost with sour buttermilk. Ricotta Romano, for a novelty, is made of sheep buttermilk.

COTTAGE CHEESE

In America cottage cheese is also called pot, Dutch and smearcase. It is the easiest and quickest to make of all cheeses, by simply letting milk sour, or adding buttermilk to curdle it, then stand a while on the back of the kitchen stove, since it is homemade as a rule. It is drained in a bag of cheesecloth and may be eaten the same day, usually salted.

The Pilgrims brought along the following two tried and true recipes from olde England, and both are still in use and good repute:

Cottage Cheese No. 1

Let milk sour until clotted. Pour boiling water over and it will immediately curd. Stir well and pour into a colander. Pour a little cold water on the curd, salt it and break it up attractively for serving.

Cottage Cheese No. 2

A very rich and tasty variety is made of equal parts whole milk and buttermilk heated together to just under the boiling point. Pour into a linen bag and let drain until next day. Then remove, salt to taste and add a bit of butter or cream to make a smooth, creamy consistency, and pat into balls the size of a Seville orange.

CREAM CHEESE

In England there are three distinct manners of making cream cheese:

1. Fresh milk strained and lightly drained. 2. Scalded cream dried and drained dry, like Devonshire. 3. Rennet curd ripened, with thin, edible rind, or none, packaged in small blocks or miniature bricks by dairy companies, as in the U.S. Philadelphia Cream cheese.

American cream cheeses follow the English pattern, being named from then: region or established brands owned by Breakstone, Borden, Kraft, Shefford, etc.

Cream cheese such as the first listed above is easier to make than cottage cheese or any other. Technically, in fact, it is not a cheese but the dried curd of milk and is often called virginal. Fresh milk is simply strained through muslin in a perforated box through which the whey and extra moisture drains away for three or four days, leaving a residue as firm as fresh butter.

In America, where we mix cream cheese with everything, a popular assortment of twelve sold in New York bears these ingredients and names: Chives, Cherry, Garden, Caviar, Lachs, Pimiento, Olive and Pimiento, Pineapple, Relish, Scallion, Strawberry, and Triple Decker of Relish, Pimiento and Cream in layers.

In Italy there is Stracchino Cream, in Sweden Chantilly. Finally, to come to France, la Foncee or Fromage de Pau, a cream also known around the world as Creme d'Isigny, Double Creme, Fromage a la Creme de Gien, Pots de Creme St. Gervais, etc. etc.

The French go even farther by eating thick fresh cream with Chevretons du Beaujolais and Fromage Blanc in the style that adds a la creme to their already glorified names.

The English came along with Snow Cream Cheese that is more of a dessert, similar to Italian Cream Cheese.

We'd like to have a cheese ice cream to contrast with too sweet ones. Attempts at this have been made, both here and in England; Scottish Caledonian cream came closest. We have frozen cheese with fruit, to be sure, but no true cheese ice cream as yet, though some cream cheeses seem especially suitable.

The farmer's daughter hath soft brown hair (Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese) And I met with a ballad I can't say where, That wholly consisted of lines like these, (Butter and eggs and a pound of cheese.)

In this parody by Calverly, "The Farmer's Daughter," the ingredients suggest cheese cake, dating back to 1381 In England. From that year Kettner in his Book of the Table quotes this recipe:

Take cream of almonds or of cow milk and beat them well together; and make small coffins (that is, cases of pastry), and do it (put it) therein; and do (put) thereto sugar and good powders. Or take good fat cheese and eggs and make them of divers colours, green, red or yellow, and bake them or serve them forth.

This primitive "receipt" grew up into Richmond maids of honor that caused Kettner to wax poetic with:

At Richmond we are permitted to touch with our lips a countless number of these maids—light and airy as the "airy, fairy Lilian." What more can the finest poetry achieve in quickening the things of earth into tokens and foretastes of heaven, with glimpses of higher life and ethereal worlds.

CHEESECAKES

Coronation Cheese Cake

The Oxford Dictionary defines cheese cake as a "tartlet filled with sweet curds, etc." This shows that the cheese is the main thing, and the and-so-forth just a matter of taste. We are delighted to record that the Lord Mayor of London picked traditional cheese tarts, the maids of honor mentioned earlier in this section, as the Coronation dessert with which to regale the second Queen Elizabeth at the city luncheon in Guildhall This is most fitting, since these tarts were named after the maids of honor at the court of the first Queen Elizabeth. The original recipe is said to have sold for a thousand pounds. These Richmond maids of honor had the usual cheese cake ingredients: butter and eggs and pounds of cheese, but what made the subtle flavor: nutmeg, brandy, lemon, orange-flower water, or all four?

More than 2,000 years before this land of Coronation cheese cake, the Greeks had a word for it—several in fact: Apician Cheese Cake, Aristoxenean, and Philoxenean among them. Then the Romans took it over and we read from an epistle of the period:

Thirty times in this one year, Charinus, while you have been arranging to make your will, have I sent you cheese cakes dripping with Hyblaean Thyme. (Celestial honey, such as that of Mount Hymettus we still get from Greece.)

Plato mentioned cheese cake, and a town near Thebes was named for it before Christ was born, at a time when cheese cakes were widely known as "dainty food for mortal man."

Today cheese cakes come in a half dozen popular styles, of which the ones flavored with fresh pineapple are the most popular in New York. But buyers delight in every sort, including the one hundred percent American type called cheese pies.

Indeed, there seems to be no dividing line between cheese cakes and cheese pies. While most of them are sweet, some are made piquant with pimientos and olives. We offer a favorite of ours made from popcorn-style pot cheese put through a sieve:

Pineapple Cheese Cake

2-1/2 pounds sieved pot cheese 1-inch piece vanilla bean 1/4 pound sweet butter, melted 1/2 small box graham crackers, crushed fine 4 eggs 2 cups sugar 1 small can crushed pineapple, drained 2 cups milk 1/3 cup flour

In a big bowl mix everything except the graham crackers and pineapple in the order given above. Butter a square Pyrex pan and put in the graham-cracker dust to make a crust. Cover this evenly with the pineapple and pour in the cheese-custard mixture. Bake I hour in a "quiet" oven, as the English used to say for a moderate one, and when done set aside for 12 hours before eating.

Because of the time and labor involved maybe you had better buy your cheese cakes, even though some of the truly fine ones cost a dime a bite, especially the pedigreed Jewish-American ones in Manhattan. Reuben's and Lindy's are two leaders at about five dollars a cake. Some are fruited with cherries or strawberries.

Cheese Custard

4 eggs, slightly beaten 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk A dash of pepper or paprika 3 tablespoons melted butter A few drops of onion juice, if desired 4 tablespoons grated Swiss (imported)

Mix all together, set in molds in pan of hot water, and bake until brown.

Open-faced Cheese Pie

3 eggs 1 cup sugar 2 pounds soft smearcase

Whip everything together and fill two pie crusts. Bake without any upper crust.

The Apple-pie Affinity

Hot apple pie was always accompanied with cheese in New England, even as every slice of apple pie in Wisconsin has cheese for a sidekick, according to law. Pioneer hot pies were baked in brick ovens and flavored with nutmeg, cinnamon and rose geranium. The cheese was Cheddar, but today all sorts of pie and cheese combinations are common, such as banana pie and Gorgonzola, mince with Danish Blue, pumpkin with cream cheese, peach pie with Hable, and even a green dusting of Sapsago over raisin pie.

Apple pie au gratin, thickly grated over with Parmesan, Caciocavallo or Sapsago, is something special when served with black coffee. Cider, too, or applejack, is a natural accompaniment to any dessert of apple with its cheese.

Apple Pie Adorned

Apple pie is adorned with cream and cheese by pressing cream cheese through a ricer and folding in plenty of double cream beaten thick and salted a little. Put the mixture in a pastry tube and decorate top of pie in fanciful fashion.

Apple Pie a la Cheese

Lay a slice of melting cheese on top of apple (or any fruit or berry) pie, and melt under broiler 2 to 3 minutes.

Cheese-crusty Apple Pie

In making an apple pie, roll out the top crust and sprinkle with sharp Cheddar, grated, dot with butter and bake golden-brown.

Flan au Fromage

To make this Franche-Comte tart of crisp paste, simply mix coarsely grated Gruyere with beaten egg, fill the tart cases and bake.

For any cheese pastry or fruit and custard pie crusts, work in tasty shredded sharp Cheddar in the ratio of 1 to 4 parts of flour.

Christmas Cake Sandwiches

A traditional Christmas carol begs for:

A little bit of spice cake A little bit of cheese, A glass of cold water, A penny, if you please.

For a festive handout cut the spice cake or fruit cake in slices and sandwich them with slices of tasty cheese between.

To maintain traditional Christmas cheer for the elders, serve apple pie with cheese and applejack.

Angelic Camembert

1 ripe Camembert, imported 1 cup Anjou dry white wine 1/2 pound sweet butter, softened 2 tablespoons finely grated toast crumbs

Lightly scrape all crusty skin from the Camembert and when its creamy interior stands revealed put it in a small, round covered dish, pour in the wine, cover tightly so no bouquet or aroma can possibly escape, and let stand overnight.

When ready to serve drain off and discard any wine left, dry the cheese and mash with the sweet butter into an angelic paste. Reshape in original Camembert form, dust thickly with the crumbs and there you are.

Such a delicate dessert is a favorite with the ladies, since some of them find a prime Camembert a bit too strong if taken straight.

Although A. W. Fulton's observation in For Men Only is going out of date, it is none the less amusing:

In the course of a somewhat varied career I have only met one woman who appreciated cheese. This quality in her seemed to me so deserving of reward that I did not hesitate to acquire her hand in marriage.

Another writer has said that "only gourmets among women seem to like cheese, except farm women and foreigners." The association between gourmets and farm women is borne out by the following urgent plea from early Italian landowners:

Ai contadini non far sapere Quanta e buono it cacio con le pere. Don't let the peasants know How good are cheese and pears.

Having found out for ourselves, we suggest a golden slice of Taleggio, Stracchino, or pale gold Bel Paese to polish off a good dinner, with a juicy Lombardy pear or its American equivalent, a Bartlett, let us say.

This celestial association of cheese and pears is further accented by the French:

Entre la poire et le fromage Between the pear and the cheese.

This places the cheese after the fruit, as the last course, in accordance with early English usage set down by John Clarke in his Paroemiologia:

After cheese comes nothing.

But in his Epigrams Ben Jonson serves them together.

Digestive cheese, and fruit there sure will be.

That brings us back to cheese and pippins:

I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come.