Dinners and Luncheons - Paul Pierce (best novels for beginners .txt) 📗

are placed upon the table as part of the decoration in the American dinner and the service a la Russe, include all kinds of table-sauces and catsups, salted almonds, pickles, olives, caviare, vinaigrettes, small cold entrees, such as bouchees and pate-de-foie-gras, pickled fish and small tongues, and individual escalops; all these are arranged on the table in little dishes. The Removes (Releves) consist of boiled, baked and braised meats, poultry and large game, large veal, ham, game and cold ornamental fish pies and large cold joints, such as boiled tongue and ham, generally served with a garnish of vegetables; the remove at a small dinner may consist of an elaborately dressed cold fish, if the regular fish service has been omitted. The Side-Dishes (Entrees) are the small hot meats garnished, such as cutlets, chops breaded or larded, sweetbreads garnished, fricandeaux, fricassees, ragouts and escalopes, all hot; hot raised pies, patés, and rissoles, combination salads of vegetables, salads with mayonnaise, such as chicken and lobster; in brief, any dish in size less than a joint or a roast. Roman Punch (Sorbet). There are many delicious ices served under the general name of Roman Punch, all having a combination of frozen fruit-sherbet and some fine liqueur, cordial, wine or spirit; served in the midst of the dinner, when the palate needs the sense of refreshment they impart to it; they prepare it for renewed enjoyment, and render it capable of appreciating the intense flavor of the roast and the bouquet of the Burgundy or Champagne that follow these. The Roast (Roti). For family dinners the roast may be a joint of any meat preferred; but for special occasions it should be of venison, larded hare, or some large game bird. If wild duck is served, there should be more than one, because only the breast is carved; when canvas-backs are used, half a breast cut in one piece is helped to each guest. Smaller birds, either roasted or broiled, may be served in this course. All game should be underdone. A garnish of watercress or celery is used with birds, and always currant-jelly and special sauces should come to the table with venison and hare. Salad (Salade). A green salad is the proper accompaniment of the roast; it may be watercress, lettuce, celery, chiccory, escarole, burnet, nasturtium (leaves, fruit and flowers), corn-salad, dandelion, tarragon, fennel, mint, young onions and any of the green sweet herbs; the five first named varieties are the most generally used. Sometimes tomatoes and cucumbers are served here in this, although they more properly belong, the cucumbers with the fish; and the tomatoes with a mayonnaise among the cold entrees. The best dressing for a green salad is of oil, vinegar, salt and pepper; a salad with mayonnaise belongs among the cold entrees, as do the salads of cold cooked vegetables. A little old, rich cheese may be served with the green salad if desired.

Dessert (Dessert). The dessert consists of the small cold sweets, such as eclairs, fancy cakes called petits-fours, confectionery, candied fruits, nuts, individual moulded jellies, ices and creams, glaces and cafe noir. When the dessert is divided in two parts, the dishes called glaces or ices are served first; these include every sweet which can be crystalized, frozen or iced; after them comes the dessert proper, composed of candied and dry fruits, nuts, bonbons and little fancy cakes, or petit-fours, with the cheese and coffee at the last.

In preparing the various dishes for the dinner which can be made ready in advance, either uncooked or for cold service, the oysters or clams on the half-shell are to be kept on the ice until just before the dinner is announced; they are then to be arranged on appropriate plates and set at each cover, the oyster-plate being placed on a large dinner plate, which is to be removed with it when the hot plate is placed for the soup or fish. A bit of lemon is to be put in the center of the oyster plate, six half-shells with oysters being served on each plate (except in California, where one can consume at least a dozen of the small delicious native bivalves). The small oyster-fork is laid either upon the plate or beside it on the table. After the shell-fish are eaten, the guest leaves the fork upon the plate so that it can be removed with it. Plates of brown bread, cut very thin and buttered, are placed upon the table with the shell-fish, and removed with them. If this bread is intended for use with the salad, it should be served in one compartment of a fancy basket or dish; the other divisions containing biscuit, crackers, old cheese, olives and small relishes. The basket containing the bread, etc., should be removed from the table with the salad. All plates are removed from and the various dishes passed at the guest's left hand; the wine is poured at the right. Hot plates are served with all the dishes except foie-gras, caviare, salads, and the cold sweets. Great care should be exercised in preparing the dishes in the kitchen, and in bringing them to the table in a perfectly neat condition. The soup should not fill the tureen so far as to endanger spilling. The dishes for fish should be suited in size and shape to the contents. If the fish is boiled, it should be served unbroken, on a napkin laid in the appropriate platter, and garnished with a few sprigs of fresh parsley or slices of lemon, the sauce being served in a sauce-boat; if sauce is served on the dish with the fish, only enough to cover the center of the dish should be used, and the fish laid on it; the rest is served in a sauce-boat. Entrees should be very neatly arranged with the proper garnishes, with only sauce enough to surround them, but not to reach the edge of the dish. Very little gravy, or none at all, should be on the dish with joints, as it is likely to be spilled in carrying; and the dish should be deep enough to contain all that may flow from the cut meat.

Upon the Serving of Wines.

If only two kinds of wine are served, sherry should accompany the soup and fish courses, and either claret or champagne brought on with the roast, and served throughout the remainder of the dinner.

For the ten course dinner, cut glass goblets filled with water and crushed ice are placed at the right of each plate, about ten or twelve inches from the edge of the table. With these are grouped sauterne, sherry, rhinewine, claret, champagne, burgundy and liqueur glasses. The goblet of water remains in place throughout the dinner, being refilled at intervals.

First Course. With the oysters, a glass of sauterne is the most appropriate accompaniment. This should be served in light green glasses, poured from native bottles, which have been cooled to 52 degrees Fahrenheit, but never iced. When the oyster plates are taken away, the sauterne glasses should also be removed.

Second Course. With the soup, sherry, slightly cooled, should be served from a decanter, and poured into small white stem glasses, flaring slightly at the top. The sherry glasses should be removed after this course.

Third Course. With the hors d'oeuvres, which may consist of cold side dishes, such as canapés, caviar, or anchovies, or of hot dishes, such as timbales, croustades or bouchees; and

Fourth Course. Of fish, rhine wine is served from original bottles cooled to 52 degrees, and poured into long stemmed, light green glasses.

Fifth Course. With the entree, claret is served from a decanter having a handle and poured into pure white glasses, never colored. The temperature of the claret should be from 65 to 75 degrees, at least thirteen degrees warmer than other wines.

Sixth Course. With the roast, champagne is served from native bottles, as cold as possible, but not iced. The usual champagne glasses are saucer-shaped stem glasses, although some prefer a goblet shape, one size larger than a claret glass.

Seventh Course. A sherbet. With this cooling refreshment, regular sherbet glasses (small glass cups with handles) are necessary.

Eighth Course. Game with salad should be accompanied with burgundy, slightly warm, at 65 or 70 degrees, served from native bottles in wicker basket, poured into plain crystal glasses. After the eighth course the table is cleared for the first time of all plates, knives and forks, leaving only the water goblets, champagne and liqueur glasses before the guests. All crumbs are carefully swept away, and dessert spoons and forks laid for the

Ninth Course. With this course champagne is the favorite beverage in every country. After the dessert plates, forks and spoons are removed, a finger-bowl partly filled with water is placed before each guest, on plate having upon it a doily, a fruit knife and a nut pick (if fruits and nuts are to be served). After the fruits, cognac and liqueurs, such as annisette, benedictine, chartreuse or kummel, are served in miniature decanters, without handles, and poured into tiny thimble-shaped glasses, which should match the decanters, either plain or colored, cut or in striking gold effects. Creme de menthe is served on shaved ice in a special bowl-shaped glass, from a highly decorated small decanter either of white or colored glass without a handle.

Sherry, port and madeira are improved by being decantered several hours before using. In winter, the decanters should be dipped in warm water or otherwise warmed.

All possible care should be taken in handling and decanting wines in order not to disturb the deposit which may exist in the bottle. Nearly all wines precipitate a sediment which sometimes resembles sand or white crystals. Its presence is rather a mark of superiority than inferiority in the quality of the wine. This deposit, however, if shaken, destroys the brilliancy of the wine, and impairs its flavor and bouquet.

Lighter wines, such as bordeaux and most Italian wines, should be decanted only an hour before dinner, and brought into the dining room as late as possible before using. Sauterne, rhine wine, burgundy and champagne should be served from the original bottles, which should be stood up on end at least twenty-four hours before serving, to give the sediment time to settle at the bottom. The cork should be very carefully drawn without shaking the bottle, the bottle slowly tilted, and the clear wine gently poured out. A small quantity of wine containing the sediment should be left in the bottle. Putting ice in the wine glass will spoil the flavor of any fine wine.

A few drops of wine should first be poured into the host's glass, before serving the guests. If a toast to the health of any one present be proposed, the guest in whose honor the toast is given, must not drink, but should acknowledge the compliment with a smile and bow of thanks. The etiquette in regard to the German custom of clinking glasses is very well defined. One must hold the wine glass by the stem, being careful not to touch the bowl with the fingers. Convention also requires that one must look the person with whom one clinks glasses in the eye, and not at the wine, as one unfamiliar with this custom is very apt to do.

CHAPTER II. HOW TO SEND THE INVITATION—HOW TO SERVE IN PROPER FORM DINNERS AND LUNCHEONS WITH MENUS AND RECIPES. The Invitation.