Shore dinner at home, the ingredients shipped alive and kicking, bedded in kelp still wet from the sea, packed in a refrigerated carton that keeps the sea food chilly forty-eight hours, is a year-round service being introduced by one of New York's leading lobster merchants, the Jordon Sales Corporation, 259 West 14th Street. These lobsters from the cold northern waters of Maine and Nova Scotia are available in 1-pound size, and there are 1 ¼ pounders, selects averaging 1 ½ to 2 pounds, and jumbos, 2 ½ to 4 pounds. Unless you specify size, it's “selects” that arrive for shore-dinner feasting.
Lobster isn't all. You can get any sort of shellfish to complete the meal. Write to Bill Jordan, shore-dinner expert, and say how many guests. He can tell you how much is needed and what should go on the party menu. The rule is, for 24 people, a bushel of steamers, 6 pounds of cooked shrimp or crab meat for salad or cup, and with lobster the main course, around 48 pounds. Buy a dozen loaves of crusty French bread, have 5 pounds of butter, fresh fruit for dessert, gallons of coffee, and that's all you need for a bang-up party. Prices range slightly under the average price at the fish market.
If you live in one of the five boroughs of New York City, your package is truck-delivered without charge. Those out of town pay the express. Also, there's a ＄1.50 charge for the refrigerated box. This is worth having and yours to keep to use again and again on beach parties and hunting trips. Packed into the box is a brick of the new super rice. That, too, is yours, reusable five times. This stuff looks like a bag of sawdust. It is to be dipped in water, soaked 15 minutes, then frozen for 24 hours. It keeps cold for two days in its special carton which is made of four thicknesses of corrugated paper, aluminum foil laminated on as a liner.
Air lines carry the shore kit coast to coast, also abroad. Regular shipments are off to the Hollywood stars; there have been shipments to England, to Italy. If you have a reliable sea-food dealer who can oblige with just what you want when you want it, this service isn't for you. It is planned for those who have a difficult time getting really good shellfish. It's for those who want lobsters from Maine, for those who want to give a shore dinner and not break and bank.
Something new among the cheeses, a rectangular hickory-smoked bar that tastes rather like the expensive smoke-perfumed sturgeon. This is delicately scented, creamy-colored Cheddar, its surface deep amber due to the coating. Slice thinly to use as hors d'oeuvre. Or again, cut in pieces ¼ inch thick and place in a skillet; heat over a low fire and serve with eggs for a new and delightful breakfast dish. To order, write to L. Raphael, Box 45, Station Y, New York, New York. Mailed prepaid, the bar is ＄1.50, around 1 ¼ pounds.
It's never too late to enjoy the summer sausage from the Farm Home Foods kitchen. Slice by savory slice we relish that old-fashioned flavor unknown in the streamlined, mass-production sausage factories. These sausages are made in small batches, using only choice government-inspected meats, carefully ground, artfully seasoned, leisurely smoked; no synthetic smoke flavors to short-cut production. Available everywhere in the United States from Farm Home Foods, Watertown, Wisconsin; ＄2.00 prepaid for a sausage about 1 ½ pounds.
The smoothest Old Fashioned we ever tasted is made with Kettle Cove orange slices that come from the New England kitchen of Eleanor Coolidge. A time-mellowed blend are the slices long-soaked in rye, combined in a rich, heavy syrup of Mrs. Coolidge's devising. This blend smooths out the taste of straight whiskey and at the same time provides the sweetening and flavor of orange in just the right balance. Good for other things, too, besides the Old Fashioned—delicious in fruit cups and salads.
Sailing is a week-end pastime with the Coolidges of Manchester, Massachusetts, and Old Fashioneds the drink they prefer before dinner. But the setup requires space and is a nuisance in a wee galley. To save all the fuss, Mrs. Coolidge tried processing the oranges in advance, first soaking in whiskey, then packing in syrup to carry ready prepared for the drink-making ritual, and smooth was the result. Cruising friends who sampled them asked for a few jars of the slices to take on their trips, and Mrs. Coolidge began making up small lots which a tea house kept stocked so the friends could order as convenient.
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