FoodNetArchive

Buckeye cookery

1892

Page 239

Presented as published in 1892. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
soup from the side of a spoon without noise, or tipping the plate. The mouth should not go to the food, but food to the mouth. Eat without noise and with the lips closed. Friends will not care to see how you masticate your food, unless they are of a very investigating turn of mind: Bread should be broken, not cut, and should be eaten by morsels, and not broken into soup or gravy. It is in bad taste to mix food on the plate. Fish must be eaten with the fork. Macaroni is cut and cheese crumbled on the plate, and eaten with a fork. Pastry should be broken and eaten with a fork, never cut with a knife. Gameand chicken are cut, but never eaten with the bones held in the fingers. Oranges are peeled without breaking the inner skin, being held meantime on a fork. Pears are pared while held by the stem. Cherry-stones, or other substances which are to be removed from the mouth, are passed to the napkin held to the lips, and then returned to the plate. Salt must be left on the side of the plate, and never on the table-cloth. Cut. with the knife, but never put it in the mouth; the fork must convey the food, and may be held in either hand as convenient. (Of course, when the old-fashioned two-tined fork is used, it would be absurd to practice this rule.) Food that can not be held with a fork should be eaten with a spoon. | Never help yourself to butter or any other food with your own knife or fork. Never pick your teeth at table, or make any sound with the mouth in eating. Bread eaten with meat should not be buttered. Bread and butter is a dish for dessert. Eat slowly for both health and manners. Do not lean your arms on the table, or sit too far back, or lounge. Pay as little attention as possible to accidents. When asked “ what do you prefer ?’’ name some part at once. When done, lay your knife and fork side by side on the plate, with handles to the right. When you rise from your chair leave it where it stands. Of course, loud talking or boisterous conduct is entirely out of placa at table. where each should appear at his best, practicing all he can of tha amenities of life, and observing all he knows of the forms of good society. BREAKFAST PARTIES. Breakfast parties are becoming fashionable in cities, because less formal and expensive than dinners, and quite as agreeable to guests. The courses, which are usually fewer in number, are served precisely as described for din, - TNE qh 4 = Bagi sy SHEN ee Peel Ththe 3: eee pki 4 - é " = “ ¥ y < 896 BREAKFAST PARTIES—TABLE OUTFIT. * hers. Oatmeal porridge is a favorite and healthful first course, and oranges, melons, and all fruits are delicious breakfast dishes. The variety of omelets | is also a great resource, and hundreds of other delicacies and substantials are described elsewhere. But in breakfast—and the same is true of din- -hers—it is better to have a few, a very few, dishes delicately and carefully cooked, than to attempt more and have them less perfect. In fact the trouble often lies in attempting too many, and the consequent hurry in the kitchen. At breakfast, the coffee is set before the nuistress, with cups in their saucers in front of it, in one or two rows. The meat with plates is set before the master. For an ordinary table one caster in the center is sufficient. Fruit is served first; then oatmeal or cracked wheat, next meat and vegetables, fol- lowed by hot cakes and coffee.. Meats are covered, and cakes are brought in between two plates. Butter is put on in small pats with lumps of ice about it. Honey or maple syrup, for cakes or hot biscuits, is served in saucers. A breakfast-table may be spread attractively with a white cloth, and a scarlet and white napkin under each plate, with white table-mats with a scarlet border.