How to Prepare and Serve a Meal; and Interior Decoration Part 3

Saddle of Mutton. White Potato Croquettes. Carrots and Turnips a la Poulette. Currant Mint Sorbet. Mushrooms au Ca.s.serole. Roast Grouse, Bread Sauce. Watercress Salad. Willard Souffle. Strawberry Ice Cream.

Salted Almonds. Bonbons. Crackers and Cheese. Black Coffee.

2. Oyster c.o.c.ktail. Saltines. Mushroom and Sage Soup. Dinner Braids.

Lobster Chops. Cuc.u.mber Boats. Sauce Tartare. Swedish Timbales with Calf's Brains. Larded Fillet of Beef with Truffles. Brown Mushroom Sauce, Potato Rings. Flageolets. b.u.t.tered Carrots. Asparagus Jelly with Pistachio Bisque. Ice Cream. Cream Sponge b.a.l.l.s. Salted Almonds.

Bonbons. Water Thins. Neufchatel Cheese. Black Coffee. (From "A Book of Good Dinners for My Friend": Fannie Merrit Farmer.)

3. c.o.c.ktails. Caviar Sandwiches. Selected Strawberries. Mock Bouillon.

Olives. Sherry. Rolled Ca.s.sava Cakes. Turbans of Flounder. Dressed Cuc.u.mbers. Rolls. Delmonico Tomatoes. Roasted Incubator Chickens.

Chantilly Asparagus Potatoes. b.u.t.tered Asparagus Tips. Champagne.

Grapefruit and Alligator Pear Salad, Paprika Crackers. Montrose Pudding. Small Cakes. Coffee. Cordials. (From "Table Service," Lucy G.

Allen).

CHAPTER VII

AFTERNOON TEAS

Afternoon teas are of two kinds, formal and informal, and the informal outdoor tea in the open, on the lawn or in the garden, is a variant of the latter variety. Here the tea wagon comes into play, and tea is often tea in name only, since at summer outdoor teas not only iced tea, but iced coffee, iced chocolate or punch are often served.

THE INFORMAL TEA

Do not set a table for the informal tea. The tea service is merely brought to the sun parlor, drawing room or living room in which the tea is to be served, and placed on the table. There the hostess makes and pours the tea, unless she prefers to have it brought in on a tea tray already made for pouring.

The tea service comprises: a teakettle for boiling water with filled alcohol lamp and matches; a tea caddy with teaspoon and (if only a few cups are to be made) a tea ball. A tea creamer, cut sugar, a saucer of sliced lemon, and cups and saucers with spoon on cup saucer, as well as tea napkins complete the service. The water brought in in the teakettle should be hot. If this precaution is observed, the tea will boil very soon after the lamp is lighted. The sandwiches served at an informal afternoon tea should be very simple: lettuce, olive or nut b.u.t.ter, or plain bread and b.u.t.ter, nor should the small cakes also pa.s.sed be elaborate or rich.

THE FORMAL TEA

The formal tea--a tea becomes formal as soon as cards are sent out for it--is a very different affair. As many as four ladies may pour, two during the first, and two during the second hour. Friends of the hostess--they serve all refreshments, though waitresses a.s.sist, removing soiled cups and plates and bringing in fresh ones--preside at either table end, and the table is decorated (flowers and candles). At one end of the luncheon cloth (or the table may be laid with doilies) stands the service tray, with teapot, hot-water pot, creamer, sugar bowl with tongs and cut sugar, and sliced lemons in dish with lemon fork. The tray also contains cup and saucers (each saucer with spoon, handle paralleling cup). The coffee, bouillon or chocolate service is established in the same manner at the other end of the table. If coffee is served, the service tray is equipped with urn, cream and sugar; if chocolate, whipped cream in bowl with ladle; if bouillon, the urn alone.

Each lady who pours must have a large napkin convenient to guard her gown. Arranged along the table should be plates of sandwiches and cakes, bonbon dishes and dishes with salted nuts. But the table must not be crowded. This important rule is responsible for the existence of the frappe table.

The frappe table holds the afternoon tea punch. Since the dining room is apt to be well filled as it is, the frappe table had best be established in some other room. On its luncheon cloth is set the punch or frappe bowl with ladle, and individual ices, frozen creams (not too rich or elaborate) or punch are served in frappe or punch bowls by a friend of the hostess. The small plates on which the frappe gla.s.ses are served should be piled on the table with doilies (_linen always_) between the plates. When served, the gla.s.s is filled with the sherbet or cream, and a sherbet spoon laid at the right-hand side of plate (a tray of sherbet spoons belongs to the frappe table equipment, as well as a filled cake basket, dishes of candy, piles of small plates and small linen napkins). Unless you are entertaining guests to the number of a hundred or more, _never use paper doilies at a formal afternoon tea_!

A pretty custom dictates that young girl friends of the hostess serve the guests. They provide the latter with plate and napkin, ask their choice of beverage, and serve it, together with sandwiches and cakes.

Or the plates and napkins may be handed the guests as they enter by a waitress stationed at the door, before they are served by the young girls.

_A salad should never be offered at a formal afternoon tea_! To do so is to commit a social solecism.

CHAPTER VIII

SUPPERS

Supper, "the evening meal," the last of the day, in modern usage often is actually a dinner, the most elaborate meal; the place of the former dinner being taken by the luncheon. A supper is often a particularly elaborate dinner or banquet, as, for instance, the "cla.s.s supper."

THE LATE SUPPER

The late supper, often given after a theatre party, or a card party, is always an informal affair. Its favorite form is what might be called the "chafing dish supper," where should they wish, the guests may help themselves.

Two chafing dishes or one may grace the table (laid with luncheon cloth or luncheon set, flowers and candles) according to the number of guests. The chafing dish is set before the hostess on a metal tray resting on an asbestos mat. A teakettle of boiling water, an electric toaster (the asbestos mat of the chafing dish laid over the flame may also be used for keeping toast or croutons made in the kitchen warm while on the table), and plates already heated go with the chafing dish. Also, near at hand, should be matches, an extra napkin, a "sampling" fork and spoon, and a bowl of some sort for burned matches and the "sampling silver."

All that is to be cooked, dry or liquid, should already have been measured and be ready for use. All bowls, small dishes and pitchers containing ingredients for any one dish should be grouped on a single tray, at the left of the person attending to the chafing dish.

Chafing-dish rarebits may be of every kind, and every rarebit should have some main dominating flavor, as green or red pepper, onion, tomato, etc. Cheese souffles or sweet souffles are also successful chafing-dish products, as well as cooked fish heated in a piquant sauce.

For chafing-dish purposes there are available: _Meats_: Beef, Venison, Lamb, Cooked Tongue, Bacon and Ham, Chicken, Chicken Livers and Sweetbreads. _Sea Food_: Lobster, Terrapin, Crab Meat, Frogs'

Legs, Oysters, Shrimps, Scallops, Sardines, Salmon and Finnan Haddie.

Eggs, Cheese, Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Peas should also be included with this list.

Sliced and toasted bread or crackers heated usually form the basis of the chafing-dish preparation. Rarebits suppose toast or crackers, but creamed dishes demand toast. The chafing dish also pays homage to the sweet tooth in the shape of fudges (Ginger, Nut Raisin, Peanut b.u.t.ter, Marshmallow, etc.); and hot coffee, wine cup, mineral water, beer, ale and cider are the customary chafing-dish supper drinkables.

CHAPTER IX

OUTSIDE THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT

From the alcoholic beverages of the chafing-dish supper to those of the dinner is a natural transition. At the formal dinner wines often accompany the courses and, as already mentioned, liqueurs and cordials supply the final liquid note after the coffee. The theory of alcoholic beverages at the formal dinner is a simple one. Certain fixed and definite rules obtain and are generally observed. Three wines may be served, though the best social form prefers one or two.

SHERRY OR MADEIRA

Sherry or Madeira may accompany the soup course. They should be poured _after_ the soup has been placed, and served from a decanter. In general wine should always be poured slowly, and gla.s.ses should be filled only two-thirds. The etiquette is for the waitress to pour a little wine into the host's gla.s.s, then filling the gla.s.ses beginning at the host's right. Sherry should always be served cold, at a temperature of 40o Fahrenheit; the Madeira may be served at a temperature of 65o F., or that of the room.

SAUTERNE OR RHINE WINE

Sauterne or Rhine Wine go with the fish course. They are poured, like the Claret, at the end of the preceding course, before the next course comes on. They (like Sparkling Burgundy and Champagne) are served from the bottle, and the bottle should be held in a folded napkin or bottle holder. The mean average temperature of Sauterne should be 50o F. Some prefer it decidedly cold (chilled in the icebox), others only slightly cold. Rhine Wine should always be cold: 40o F.

CLARET

Claret is the wine for the entree and, as a rule, is served from a claret pitcher. Being a light wine, it may be served _with_ the Champagne and _instead_ of it to those who do not prefer the Mumm.

Claret should be poured at the end of the course _immediately_ before the one with which it is served. The room temperature or one of 65o F. is the proper one for Claret.

CHAMPAGNE, BURGUNDY OR PORT