Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Tuesday 20 December 1949, page 4


Your Christinas Table

HERE ARE three little thoughts

for your family Christmas.

Simplicity is the keynote of this Christmas table decoration. A few small branches of holly, red ribbon, a red candle, a snowy cloth, gleam-ing china and cutlery, then you are ready to proudly present your per-fectly cooked meal.

If your tiny tots are not yet at the phim pudding-eating stage, you might give their Christmas dinner sweet a party touch with this novel idea. It consists of plain fruit flavoured jelly topped with a home-made biscuit with tiny-tot's name written on it, in icing. Pour milk or cream over before eating.

A new dress on an old fashioned sweet will get a vote of thanks from the juniors. For instance^ a bread pudding made in the following man-

ner.

STRAWBERRY BREAD

. PUDDING

1 cup soft breadcrumbs or cubes. 2 cups milk (or 1 cup condensed

milk and 1 cup water), scalded. 1 egg and 1 yolk.

5 tablespoons sugar, i teaspoon salt.

_ teaspoon vanilla.

2 tablespoons butter, melted. Strawberry (or other) jam.

Add breadcrumbs to the scalded milk. Beat egg and yolk slightly. Add 3 tablespoons of the sugar and the salt. Mix thoroughly. Add milk and breadcrumbs mixture, vanilla and melted butter. Mix well. Pour into

4 greased individual custard cups. Set in a pan of warm water and bake in a (350deg F). oven 30 to 40 minutes, or until set..

Remove and spread with jam and top with a meringue made with the egg white and remaining sugar. Place again in pan of warm water and bake in (300deg F) oven until deli-cately browned. Serve hot or cold.

Now I give you a suggestion for

"Christmas Salad Dinner."

This inexpensive cold meat dish will stand you in good stead for the holidays. It is appetising and aristo-cratic enough to grace your Christ-mas table if your choice is a cold

meal.

When cooked long and slowly and ' carefully covered with fat, this "pate" will keep for several weeks, in a cool place of course.

Be sure to use a glass or fireproof pottery baking dish in which to cook the pate.

"RABBIT PATE"

Cut the rabbit into 4 large pieces. Remove the fillets carefully from the back and put them aside. Cut away

all the rest of the meat from the

bones and chop this finely, adding

the liver.

Boil all the bones and trimmings with salt, pepper, herb bouquet, and an onion stuck with a few cloves, and just enough water to cover them, until a good stock is produced (about 1 cup). Strain the stock and add 2 tablespoons of this, then the'chop-ped meat, which forms a sort of stuffing. Add about one-third of its weight of sausage meat. Mix these ingredients thoroughly.

Now prepare the baking dish by lining the bottom and sides with strips of fat bacon; over these place a thin lining of sausage meat, but do not add any more seasoning. Now put a layer of the minced rabbit mix-ture, smoothing it carefully and evenly, then the fillets, another layer of rabbit mixture, and a very thin layer of sausage meat. Press down firmly and cover with a top layer of strips of fat bacon. Pour in the rest

of the stock and set the dish in a

moderate oven (275deg-300deg F). Cook slowly, uncovered, for 2 to 3 hours. Some cooks prefer setting the dish in a pan of boiling water in the oven and renewing the water when

necessary.

While the pate is baking,, it must be basted from time to time with its own gravy and larded here and there, right to the bottom of the baking dish. This enables some of the gravy, which later forms a thick

jelly, to run down through the pate , to the bottom layers. Remove the dish from oven when cooked, and take off top strips of bacon. Cool and leave overnight. The next day clean the outside of the dish by scrap-ing carefully with a blunt knife and whte with a damp cloth. Before put-ting pate away to keep for future use, meit some lard or (if procur-able) goose fat, and pour over entire surface. This excludes air. Then cover dish and store in a cool place.

To serve: Remove from dish, scrape away fat, slice, serve with salad.