How to Prepare and Serve a Meal Part 1

Prepare and Serve a Meal and Interior Decoration.

by Lillian B. Lansdown.

CHAPTER I

BEFORE THE MEAL IS SERVED

Before the meal which is to be served comes from the kitchen by way of the butler's pantry to the dining room, there are many things to be considered. The preparation of the meal (not the process of its cooking, but its _planning_ as a composite whole) and all the various details which precede the actual sitting down at the table of those who expect to enjoy it, must be seen to. The preparation of the meal, its _menu_, will be dealt with later, in connection with the meal itself. For the present we will concentrate on its preparatory aspects.

IN THE BUTLER'S PANTRY

The butler's pantry is the connecting link between kitchen and dining room. It is at the same time an a.r.s.enal and a reserve line, equipped with requisites to meet all emergencies. The perfect butler's pantry should contain everything, from vegetable brushes for cleaning celery to a galvanized refuse can. In between come matches, bread boards, soap, ammonia and was.h.i.+ng soda, a dish drainer, every kind of towel, cheesecloth and holder, strainers (for tea, coffee and punch), ice water, punch and soup pitchers of enamel ware, the tools and seasonings for salad making, cut-gla.s.s brushes, and knives of different sizes.

In the butler's pantry the soiled linen should be kept, if possible in a hamper, if not, in a bag. There should also be a towel rack, an electric or hot-water heater for keeping food hot and--we are speaking of the ideal pantry, of course--a small icebox where table b.u.t.ter, cream and salad dressing may be kept, and plates chilled for serving cold dishes. Adding a linen closet with shelves, a chest of drawers (for tablecloths, napkins, doilies, centerpieces, etc.) and the necessary shelves for china and gla.s.s (hang your cups and save s.p.a.ce!), and we may leave the butler's pantry and enter the dining room.

BEFORE ANYTHING EDIBLE COMES TO THE TABLE

We will not waste time on directions regarding the laying of the tablecloth. Only remember that it must form a true line through the center of the table (your "silence cloth" had best be of table padding, a doubled cotton flannel or asbestos) and not hang below the table less than nine inches. The usual arrangement of the centerpiece in the center of the table (the table itself being immediately under the light, unless the waitress is thereby prevented from moving between the table and sideboard) with its dish of fruit or ferns or flowers (never so high as to cut off view or conversation) can be varied to suit individual taste. But the covers (the plates, gla.s.ses, napkin and silver of each individual) must always be in line, opposite each other on the opposite sides of the table. The plate doilies indicate the covers when a bare table is laid. The service plate which each person receives stays where put unless it is replaced by a hot plate.

NAPKINS, SILVER, CHINA AND GLa.s.s

Napkins (fold flat and square) lie at the left of the forks. The hem of the napkin, turned up, should parallel the forks and the table edge.

When dinner is served without a maid, everything yields to avoiding leaving the table. In that case put on the dessert silver (which otherwise should not be done) with the other dinner silver. Place all silver in its order of use, and remember that three forks are enough.

If more are needed let them appear with the courses which demand them.

The quietest and therefore most desirable way of putting the dessert silver on the table, is to serve it from a napkin, from the right.

Knives should have their cutting edge toward the plate, at its right, and lie half an inch from the table edge. Spoons, bowls facing upward, lie at the right of the knife; forks at the left of the plate. When sh.e.l.l food is served (clams, oysters or mussels) the fork is placed at the right of the plate. The upper right-hand side of the bread and b.u.t.ter plate is the place for the b.u.t.ter spreader.

In general do not arrange your cover too loosely, and see to it that the gla.s.s, china and silver for each cover sets close without the pieces touching. Gla.s.ses are placed just above the knives, a little to the right. Neither cups nor gla.s.ses should ever be filled to the brim.

The bread and b.u.t.ter plate (bread and b.u.t.ter are, as a rule, _not_ served with _formal_ dinners) somewhat to the left, beyond the service plate. Between each two covers, or just in front of each, place your pepper and salt sets. The salt spoon lies across the open saltcellar.

When the table is set for some impromptu meal at which a knife will not be used, the fork takes the place of the knife at the right-hand side, and the teaspoon is laid beside the fork.

DESIRABLE IMPROVEMENTS

No one wants to see the inner economy of the butler's pantry, nor should the perhaps fragrant but cloying odors of the kitchen be wafted into the dining room whenever the swingdoor of the pantry opens or closes. The screen obviates both disadvantages. Another improvement has been the introduction of the serving table in place of the sideboard.

It now conveniently holds all the extras needed for the meal.

CHAPTER II

ENTER THE WAITRESS

The waitress has already been busy, as we have seen, laying the cloth and covers for the meal. Now, however, she must live up more closely to the implied meaning of her name. Either the hostess or the daughter of the family who is acting as waitress, or the waitress herself announces the meal. For informal service, with a member of the family acting as a waitress, the former may quietly leave the table to attend to the bringing on or carrying off of a course, or to supplying water, b.u.t.ter, etc. But the same care and attention to everyone's needs is expected of her as of a regular waitress. Water, b.u.t.ter, rolls, bread, etc., should never have to be asked for. Within reach of hand the waitress should always have a soft napkin to remove any liquid spilled during the meal, at once covering the spot with a fresh doily. She must see to it that there are hot plates for hot dishes, and chilled plates for cold ones.

THE MAID AT THE TABLE

The waitress should serve and remove everything, except beverages and extra silver from the guest's _left_. Fork and spoon should always be easily at hand for the person served, and dishes should _never_ be offered and removed by _reaching across a cover_. Remove gla.s.ses, cups and saucers from the _right_, and serve all beverages from the right. Plates should be placed and removed, one by one. Two plates of food (especially salads or soup) may be brought into the dining room at the same time, but _one should be left on the serving table_.

The host is served last, the hostess first, then the guest of honor (at the hostess' right), then the guest at the right of the host, and so on till all have been served.

Waitresses should _not_ grasp the edge of the plate or put the thumb over the rim in placing or handling. The left hand should always be used for removing plates. Take away with each course whatever is needed for a later one, large dishes of food, soiled china, gla.s.s and silver. Then crumb the table with a small plate and clean, folded napkin.

When serving dishes of food do so with a dinner napkin folded square on the palm of the hand. The serving dish should be held firmly and not too high. If necessary steady with right hand on edge of dish. Close contact with the person served always should be avoided. The serving tray comes into its own for removing or pa.s.sing cream and sugar, pepper and salt, etc. Candies, salted nuts, water and winegla.s.ses stay on the table until the meal is over.

In clearing the table remove gla.s.s and silver first, brush up crumbs which may have fallen on the floor, and carefully shake, fold and put away the table linen.

CHAPTER III

BREAKFAST

Breakfast is the first meal of the American day. It should be daintily and deftly served. Fruit, cereal and some main dish (bacon, fish, eggs) together with toast, hot rolls or m.u.f.fins, coffee, tea or cocoa, are its main essentials. The bare, doilied table is popular for breakfast use.

BREAKFAST FRUIT

Fresh pears, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, mandarins and apples are all served in the same manner--on a plate about six inches across, with a silver fruit knife for quartering and peeling. If a waitress serves, fruit knife and plate are placed first, and then the dish containing the fruit is pa.s.sed.

Berries--raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, as also baked apples, stewed fruits (peaches, prunes and apricots) and all cooked fruits, are offered in little fruit dishes on service plates, together with powdered (or fine granulated) sugar and cream.

Strawberries are sometimes left unhulled, when of "exhibition" size.

They then should be served in apple bowls or plates, with powdered sugar on the side.

In serving grapes, the waitress, after supplying fruit plates, pa.s.ses a compote containing the grapes and offers fruit shears, so that each guest may cut what he or she desire. Cherries are served in the same manner, with the addition of a finger bowl.

When grapefruit is served, it is usually as a half, the core removed and sugar added, on a fruit plate or in a grapefruit bowl, together with an orange spoon.

Oranges may be served from a compote, whole, and may be eaten cut crosswise in halves, with the orange spoon; or peeled and eaten in sections. If oranges are served peeled and sliced on a fruit plate they may be eaten with a fork. Sugar should always be pa.s.sed when they are eaten in this way. Orange juice is the extracted juice served in small gla.s.ses two-thirds full.

Cantaloupe (filled with cracked ice) and honeydew melon (it is smart to accompany the latter with a slice of lemon) are served in halves or quarters, on fruit plates (or special melon dishes) and eaten with a fruit spoon. Sugar, salt and pepper should be offered with these by the waitress. Watermelon is usually cut in wedges or circles. It should always be served very cold, on a large fruit plate, and with fruit knife and fork. If half-melons are served, with the rind, the host cuts egg-shaped pieces from the fruit, and places it on individual plates for pa.s.sing by the waitress.

Bananas may be served "in the skin" at breakfast, or peeled and sliced, with sugar and cream, or sprinkled with sugar and lemon juice.

Shredded pineapple, sprinkled with sugar, or sliced pineapple (slices an inch thick) may be served from a large dish by the waitress.

Fruit at breakfast does not _necessarily_ demand a waitress. In may be served at each cover before the guests and family seat themselves. It does call for a finger bowl, however. Only when berries or sliced fruits are served can the finger bowl be omitted.