Hors Doeuvre

HORS D'OEUVRE. Hors d'oeuvre in cookery is the name given to small appetising morsels of food generally served cold, such as caviare, creamed meat or fish masked with aspic, etc. These dishes are served at the beginning of a meal and may be either handed round or placed ready in front of the diner.

Many different kinds of food are used for making hors d'oeuvre dishes, e.g., meat, fish, vegetable or fruit. While some are "made up" dishes, other foods are served in a raw state, e.g., oysters. As far as possible, where "made-up" hors d'oeuvre are given, these should be prepared as complete portions so that they need no carving or cutting. Diminutive rolls, thin strips of pastry, toast or special small savoury biscuits are frequently used as canapes (foundations) for hors d'oeuvre mixtures. Sieved yolk of a hard boiled egg, truffles, diced vegetables, aspic jelly, mustard and cress, parsley, etc., are among the many decorations used for these dishes.

Where vegetable salads are used as hors d'oeuvre a mayon naise sauce mixed with aspic jelly is often employed as a coating. Stuffed hard-boiled eggs, jellied moulds of vegetables, fish, meat, etc., are other forms of hors d'oeuvre, also dainty sandwiches with a well-flavoured savoury paste.

Smoked and cured fish are popular forms of hors d'oeuvre,

e.g., smoked salmon, anchovies. Strips of smoked salmon are occa sionally spread with a savoury mixture and rolled. Anchovies may be boned and coiled round olives, etc. Prawns may be served au naturel by sticking them into a whole lemon. Crab and lobster meat form the basis of many creams, while bivalves, such as oysters or mussels, may be served with vinegar or lemon, a relish sauce, etc., and handed with brown bread and butter.

Hors d'oeuvre varie is a mixed dish of different kinds of foods, e.g., sardines, anchovies, olives, some form of galantine, slices of tomato, beetroot, etc.