Alice Bradley (1) (1875–1946)

The full title for this work is "For Luncheon and Supper Guests: Ten Menus: More than One Hundred Recipes, Suitable for Company Luncheons, Sunday Night Suppers, Afternoon Parties, Automobile Picnics, Evening Spreads, and for Tea Rooms, Lunch Rooms, Coffee Shops, and Motor Inns".

I give you this because I think it provides a better idea of what this book encompasses than just the short title.

BACKGROUND:::
Now as for the author, when I first ran across this book my thought was who is Alice Bradley and why should I bring her into my kitchen. I couldn't find much but what I pieced together was that Alice Bradley was staff at Ms. Farmer's School of Cookery. As such she wrote books, pamphlets, and articles for magazines such as "The Journal of Home Economics".

This particular book was published in 1922 by Whitcomb & Barrows, Boston. My take on it is that Ms. Bradley wrote this for the 'new modern woman' who no longer had the staff at home to produce those big Victorian, multi-course meals. And, in fact, she writes:

"Meals of many courses are neither practical nor popular with the modern hostess. For a company luncheon or supper it is not necessary to serve more than a hot dish, a salad, a biscuit or sandwich, a dessert and a beverage. A first course and a relish may be provided if desired."

INSIDE:::
What you find inside Ms. Bradley's book are the 'over 100 recipes' divided into 10 Menus, which you could, of course mix and match. Here are 3 sample Menu's.

MENU I
Fruit Cup
Hot Ham Sandwich
Currant or Grape Jelly
Tomato Salad with Cheese Dressing
Cocoa Ice Cream
Fig Marguerites
Tea with Candied Mint Leaves

MENU II
Grapefruit Baskets with Mints
Open Cheese and Bacon Sandwich
Mixed Sweet Pickles
Crab Meat and Tomato Jelly Salad
Egg Biscuits
Orange Layer Cake
Iced Coffee with Vanilla

MENU X
Cream of Mushroom Soup
Tuna Fish à la King in Patty Cases
Cabbage and Carrot Salad
Thousand Island French Dressing
Bran Muffins
Maple Charlotte with Maple Pecan Sauce
and Sponge Cake
Coffee with Honey and Whipped Cream

For the curious, here are two sample recipes.

LITTLE CHOCOLATE CAKES

Put in double boiler
2 squares chocolate, broken in small pieces
½ cup milk and
2 egg yolks.

Cook, stirring constantly until thick and smooth. Remove from fire and add
1 cup sugar and
3 tablespoons butter and
1 ¼ cups bread flour, alternately with
½ cup milk in which
½ teaspoon soda is dissolved.

Beat well and fold in
2 egg whites beaten stiff and
½ teaspoon vanilla.

Pour into greased individual tins and bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees F. Cover with Cream frosting in different colors.

CREAM FROSTING

Beat
1 egg white until stiff, add
2 teaspoons cream
½ teaspoon vanilla and, slowly,
¾ cup confectioners' sugar, and more if needed to make of right consistency to spread.

Divide into several portions, and color with a bit of Color paste, pale yellow, pink, green, or lavender.

As you can see the directions are sparse. And as yet, I haven't tested any, though the above will probably be the first I do try out on family.

THOUGHTS:::
Now, considering this book can be gotten free for the Kindle, and at Gutenberg, I don't see where you can go wrong with downloading the book and reading these recipes.

Myself, I'm also reading... and re-reading this book just to see what sorts of foods and beverages were being consumed in the 20's. The fact that I might find some delicious chocolate treat therein doesn't motivate me in any way.

There are some line drawings in this book which won't, of course, be available to those reading it on the Kindle. HOWEVER, unlike other cases, it doesn't really matter with this particular book that the sketches are missing because the drawings don't show 'processes', but only present a very vague idea of what the final product might look like.

Pam T~
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