So, dear reader, this is another old and interesting, and surprisingly funny, cookery book – and it is long read of what the author wrote, so dip in and out – think stealing a leftover out of the fridge now and then, a snack to return to.

Well it was interesting to me anyway. But if you are about to heat up a Waitrose’s curry for Friday night’s supper, or make yourself a fish finger sandwich (nothing wrong with either of those), you might want to get on with that.

If you are still with me, and in case you need reminding/informing, a chafing dish is basically a metal dish which has a mechanism to keep food warm.

If you are old enough, think predecessor to the hostess trolly – and who isn’t ( if you are old enough) now thinking Alison Steadman in Abigail’s Party – start hearing Demis Roussos everyone.

Anyway, this is well before any of that.

But back to basics.

Modern chafing dishes are for keeping cooked food warm. They are not going to reach a temperature to cook, nor should food be kept at lukewarm temperatures for too long lest bugs start breeding and poison you and your guests.

But the very jolly cookery writer of 1905, Frank Schloesser had other ideas and to be fair, what he describes might be a chafing dish with knobs on.

Just to make things clear, he has a name for his, Chaffinda:

Though, again in the spirit of making sure that any reader doesn’t get the wrong idea, using an asbestos tray over a chafing dish flame to make toast is really not a good idea.

It turns out on close inspection, that even for enthusiast Frank, the chafing dish is not always an alternative to cooking. Quite a lot of the recipes require you to have pre-cooked meat, vegetables and other stuff.

So, think of it this way – as he does. When you are returning from the theatre with your friends, here is a way to have something ‘cooked’, on the table, for a late supper, relying on what you (or someone in your pay) has cooked before and you can heat up into a tasty, light morsel.

It is rare that a cookery book makes me laugh but this one did.

He is a man who thinks eating less is good, some condiments (mayonnaise) are an abomination in the sight of some god or another, and things should be done in precise and small quantities – a walnut of butter, three chives, three drops of tabasco……

He is not a man to think that a recipe unlike the food, plain and simple, needs nothing more – Frank is a man with history and anecdote as garnishes.

I will just leave you with some more tasty morsels…….