Part 31 (1/2)
Every dinner should begin with soup, to be followed by fish, and include some kind of game. To this order there is no repeal, since ”soup is to the dinner,” says De la Regnier, ”what the portico is to the building or the overture is to an opera.” From this there is never any deviation.
A standard bill of fare for a well-regulated dinner is as follows:
Oysters on the Half-sh.e.l.l. Mock Turtle Soup.
Salmon with Lobster Sauce. Cuc.u.mbers. Chicken Croquettes.
Tomato Sauce. Roast Lamb with Spinach.
Canvas-back Duck. Celery. String Beans served on Toast.
Lettuce Salad. Cheese Omelet.
Pineapple Bavarian Cream. Charlotte Russe.
Ices. Fruits. Coffee.
Each course may be served on dishes different from the other courses; also fancy dishes, unlike any of the rest, may be used to pa.s.s relishes, such as olives, and add greatly to the beauty of the table service. Suitable sets for fish and game, decorated in accordance, are greatly to be admired.
Menu holders are frequently very pretty, and upon the menu card itself much taste and expense are sometimes lavished. Still it is not considered good taste to have them at every plate, for the reason that it savors too much of hotel style. The guests are expected to allow their gla.s.ses to be filled at every course. If it is something for which they do not care, they may content themselves with a few morsels of bread and a sip or two of water until the next course is served.
The host should always have a menu at his plate, that he may see if the dinner is moving properly in its appointed course.
Favors.
Very pretty favors besides flowers are frequently laid at the ladies'
plates to serve as souvenirs of the occasion. The location card or name card may be very beautifully painted. Other articles, such as decorated Easter eggs of plush, velvet, or satin handkerchief holders, fans, painted satin bags, etc., are all in good taste. Each of them, if possible, is made to open and disclose some choice confection. They may be ordered in quant.i.ty from some house dealing in such articles, or many of them can be prettily and inexpensively devised at home by any one having sufficient time and taste. Baskets of flowers, with bows of broad satin ribbon tied on one side the handle, are also suitable for both ladies and gentlemen.
Gentlemen's favors are usually useful, such as scarf pins, sleeve b.u.t.tons, small purses, etc.
Wines, and How to Serve Them.
Fortunately, since more than once the first lady in our land, for the time being, has proven to us by example that the stateliest of dinners may be wineless, it is far from necessary that wine should be served.
Still, if wines are to be used, they should be brought on correctly, each wine having its proper place in the varied courses of a dinner, as each note has its fit position in a chord of music.
By long-established custom certain wines have come to be taken with certain dishes. ”Sherry and Sauterne,” as given by a very good authority, ”go with soup and fish; Hock and Claret with roast meats; Punch with turtle; Champagne with sweet breads or cutlets; Port with venison; Port or Burgundy with other game; sparkling wines between the meats and the confectionery; Madeira with sweets; Port with cheese; Sherry and Claret, Port, Tokay and Madeira with dessert.”
Red wines should never be iced, even in summer; Claret and Burgundy should always be slightly warmed (left in a warm room is sufficient).
Claret-cup and Champagne are iced (some epicures object to this). Cool the wines in the bottles. To put clear ice in the gla.s.ses is simply to weaken the quality and flavor of the wine, and, as a matter of fact, to serve wine and water.
The gla.s.ses for the various wines are usually grouped at the right of the plate, and as different styles and sizes are used for different wines, it is well for the novice to be accustomed to these in order to avoid the awkwardness of putting forward the wrong gla.s.s. High and narrow, also very broad and shallow gla.s.ses, are used for Champagne; large, goblet-shaped gla.s.ses for Burgundy and a ruby-red gla.s.s for Claret; ordinary winegla.s.ses for Sherry and Madeira; green Bohemian gla.s.ses for Hock; and large, bell-shaped gla.s.ses for Port.
Port, Sherry and Madeira are decanted. Hock and Champagne appear in their native bottles. Claret and Burgundy are handed around in a claret jug. In handing a bottle fresh from the ice-chest the waiter wraps a napkin around it to absorb the moisture.
Coffee and liquors should be handed around when the dessert has been about a quarter of an hour on the table. After this the ladies usually retire, a custom that has happily fallen into disrepute, the coffee being served without the liquors, and ladies and gentlemen partaking of it together. Roman punch is served in all manner of dainty conceits as to gla.s.s, imitations of flowers, etc.
Never allow servants to overfill the winegla.s.ses. Ladies never empty their gla.s.ses, and usually take but one kind of wine. This is especially true of young ladies, who, very often, do not taste their one gla.s.s.
Gracefully Declined.
If wine is not desired from principle, merely touching the brim of the gla.s.s with the finger-tip is all the refusal a well-trained servant needs. A still better plan is to permit one gla.s.s to be filled and allow it to stand untasted at your plate. In responding to a health, it is ungracious not to, at least, lift the gla.s.s and let its contents touch the lips.