A guide to modern cookery

creams for hors-d’œuvres (Nos. 280 to 299). Before serving these olives, it is well to let them rest awhile in a moderately warm atmosphere. For, since stuffed olives are generally kept in the cool, immersed in oil with which they become thoroughly saturated, it follows that the moment they are put into contact with a slightly higher temperature they will exude that oil. Wherefore, if the above precaution were not observed, by the time the olives reached the table they would, more often than not, be swimming in oil, when they would be neither nice nor appetising. 368—PLAIN LAPWINGS’ AND PLOVERS’ EGGS Though the lapwing and the plover are different in respect of their plumage, they are, nevertheless, birds of similar habits and haunts, and their eggs are remarkably alike. The latter, which are a little larger than pigeons’ eggs, have a light-green shell covered with black spots. When cooked, the albuminous portions acquire a milky colour, and never assume the solidity of the whites of other eggs. When served as a hors-d’œuvre, these eggs are always boiled hard. Put them in a saucepan of cold water, and leave them to cook for eight minutes after the boil is reached. Cool them, shell their pointed ends, and serve them in a nest composed of watercress or curled-leaf parsley. N.B.—Test the freshness of the eggs before boiling them by plunging them in a bowl of cold water. If they float, their freshness is doubtful, and they should be discarded. 369—LAPWINGS’ EGGS IN ASPIC Decorate a border-mould according to taste, and let a thin coating of very clear aspic jelly set on the bottom of the utensil. Besprinkle the articles used in decorating with a few drops of melted jelly, in order to keep them from shifting; then cover them with a few tablespoonfuls of jelly, and let it set. On this coating of jelly arrange the shelled, hard-boiled lapwings’ eggs with their points downwards, so that they may appear upright when the aspic is withdrawn from the mould. Fill up the mould by means of successive layers of melted jelly. When