surface, are gratinée, or browned and caught by the
heat of the dish in which they are cooked. For this
purpose you require a fireproof china dish of nice
appearance as it must come to the table; the white
Limoges fireproof china is about the nicest, but
there are also very pretty royal blue, and rich dark
green dishes now to be had, that are well worth
looking at. (Of course if preferred a silver dish
may be used, but in this case be very particular to
stand this on a folded sheet of kitchen paper, in a
baking tin with boiling water about one-third the
height of the inner silver dish, all round it, or else
the latter will infallibly be burned, if not altogether
spoiled. This hint may be well observed by cooks
anxious to reheat any little plat without turning it
out of its dish, but never forget the doubled sheet of
paper as this absorbs the moisture and prevents the
bottom of the silver dish from catching, as it
infallibly would do, even if its sides were protected
by the outside water). Having chosen your dish, in
shape and size according to what you intend to use
it for, strew the bottom with a fairly generous layer
of freshly made sifted white breadcrumbs, finely
minced parsley, mushrooms, shallot, young spring
onions or chives (according to what you have), and
either grated fat bacon or tiny morsels of clarified
dripping or butter, according to the gratin you are
making; these ingredients should properly be well
mixed first, and then spread at the bottom of the
dish; season with pepper and salt, then lay in
your meat, and cover it with another layer of bread-
crumbs, etc., putting on this some more tiny bits of