"Were they sweet-voiced German girls, like these who cannot warble out the names of our dishes with any more distinctness than an opera singer might give the words? And if so I don't see how you ever let your guests know what you had for them to choose from.^ The bills cannot be printed daily in this coun- try place. We can get blanks {)rinted however, and write the dishes in the proper places." "When I was clerk at the Rushbottom House at Limbertown," says the mana- ger, "we used to have seven different biils-of-fare all printed at once, one for each day of the week so when Monday came around we brought on the Mon- SAN FRANCISCO HOTEL GAZETTE'S 22 day bill and so on through the week — why would not that do here?" "Would not do at all because of the location for one thing, for it will often happen that not a single dish that is on your bill-of-fare can be obtained when wanted ; but it would not do for other reasons, because such a way defeats the object of having a bill and makes the hotel like an almshouse or House of Correction where they have a certam fare for each day; their boiled beef day, their suet puddingy day, their pork and beans day and so on perpetually/' Then the housekeeper spoke up : "At the Water Cure Home at Camp- meetingville in the Great Frying Pan Valley we used toget along very well with having the waiters call off what we had, but then we never had but two kinds; still, that seemed to be enough." "Ah, yes," chimed in the proprietor facetiously, "but this will not be a water cure so much as a sort of hunger cure, and we must have variety, If we don't feed the people well they may be gomg over to the Trulirural House where they can board cheaper." "It is impossible," the cook said, "to set a superior table and distance rival houses or to get the full credit of your more liberal providing without a bill-of- fare. Suppose we have but two kinds of meat, there will be and ought to be about six kinds of vegetables, which are cheap and attractive if properly cooked and which make up a good meal, and it would be tedious to call off so many while very few at table would really have opportunity enough to choose what they wished as they do from a pointed list. There is just one other way; that is, to call the meats only, _ and set out the full array of everything else that is ready in small dishes. Plenty of people like that way best, for they get plent)^ set before them and eat whatever strikes their fancy. The great objection to it is the great waste entailed. The perfection of all plans is to have a new bill-of-fare printed for each meal that comes, break- fast, lunch, dinner, supper, always new. That method leads to the smallest pro- portion of waste and greatest freshness of cooked dishes. The expense of so much printing and the fact of there be- ing so little to change in the breakfast and supper menu leads nearly all hotel keepers to get the bills for these meals printed once for all, the same bill for weeks or months, while they change the dinner bill every day. Rather than do this I would *call off the breakfast and supper and have but few dishes; for dinner, as said before, a written or printed bill-of-fare is indispensable." Breakfast. Baked Pork and Beans. Tea, Coffee and Chocolate, MISCELLANEOUS. White Rolls. Muffins. Corn Bread. Griddle Cakes.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

"Were they sweet-voiced German girls, like these who cannot warble out the names of our dishes with any more distinctness than an opera singer might give the words? And if so I don't see how you ever let your guests know what you had for them to choose from.^ The bills cannot be printed daily in this country place. We can get blanks {)rinted however, and write the dishes in the proper places." "When I was clerk at the Rushbottom House at Limbertown," says the manager, "we used to have seven different bills-of-fare all printed at once, one for each day of the week so when Monday came around we brought on the Mon- day bill and so on through the week — why would not that do here?" "Would not do at all because of the location for one thing, for it will often happen that not a single dish that is on your bill-of-fare can be obtained when wanted ; but it would not do for other reasons, because such a way defeats the object of having a bill and makes the hotel like an almshouse or House of Correction where they have a certam fare for each day; their boiled beef day, their suet pudding day, their pork and beans day and so on perpetually/' Then the housekeeper spoke up : "At the Water Cure Home at Campmeetingville in the Great Frying Pan Valley we used toget along very well with having the waiters call off what we had, but then we never had but two kinds; still, that seemed to be enough." "Ah, yes," chimed in the proprietor facetiously, "but this will not be a water cure so much as a sort of hunger cure, and we must have variety, If we don't feed the people well they may be gomg over to the Tri-rural House where they can board cheaper." "It is impossible," the cook said, "to set a superior table and distance rival houses or to get the full credit of your more liberal providing without a bill-offare. Suppose we have but two kinds of meat, there will be and ought to be about six kinds of vegetables, which are cheap and attractive if properly cooked and which make up a good meal, and it would be tedious to call off so many while very few at table would really have opportunity enough to choose what they wished as they do from a pointed list. There is just one other way; that is, to call the meats only, _ and set out the full array of everything else that is ready in small dishes. Plenty of people like that way best, for they get plenty set before them and eat whatever strikes their fancy. The great objection to it is the great waste entailed. The perfection of all plans is to have a new bill-of-fare printed for each meal that comes, breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, always new. That method leads to the smallest proportion of waste and greatest freshness of cooked dishes. The expense of so much printing and the fact of there being so little to change in the breakfast and supper menu leads nearly all hotel keepers to get the bills for these meals printed once for all, the same bill for weeks or months, while they change the dinner bill every day. Rather than do this I would *call off the breakfast and supper and have but few dishes; for dinner, as said before, a written or printed bill-of-fare is indispensable." Breakfast. Baked Pork and Beans. Tea, Coffee and Chocolate, MISCELLANEOUS. White Rolls. Muffins. Corn Bread. Griddle Cakes.

Cooking for profit