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Scalloped Dishes, Meat Pies, Entrees, Etc
Meats and fish which have the sauce on the same dish require special care in serving, that they may present a neat rather than a sloppy appearance on the plate. A drop of gravy on the edge of the plate will offend a fastidious taste.
Scalloped Dishes, or anything with a crust of crumbs, should be served with a spoon.
Meat Pies, with a pastry crust, require a broad knife and spoon. Put the portion on the plate neatly, with the crust or browned side up. Poached Eggs, Quails, and other Meats on Toast. A broad knife should be used in helping to these dishes. Take up the toast carefully, and lay it on the plate without displacing the egg or bird.
SALADS.
The most tasteful way of arranging meat-salads or fish-salads is with whole, fresh, lettuce-leaves. Put two or more leaves together on the platter, and in the nest or dish thus made lay a spoonful of the salad, with the Mayonnaise on the top. In serving, slip the spoon or broad knife under the leaves and keep them in place with the fork. Put the salad on the plate carefully, in the same position, not tipped over. Or you may have a border of fresh lettuce-leaves in the salad-dish. With the fork lay one or two leaves on the plate, and then put a spoonful of salad on the leaves. In this way each person has the Mayonnaise on the top; the lettuce is underneath and fresh and crisp, instead of wilted, as it would be if all of it were mixed with the salad. VEGETABLES.
In serving vegetables, take up a neat, rounding spoonful. Lay them on the bottom of the plate, not on the rim or edge. Where there are several kinds, do not let them touch each other on the plate.
Serve, on separate dishes, fritters with a sweet sauce, peas, tomatoes, or any vegetable with much liquid.
Asparagus on Toast is a dish that one often sees served very awkwardly. Use a square or rectangular platter rather than one narrow at the ends. The bread for the toast should be cut long and narrow, rather than square, and should be laid, not lengthwise, but across the platter. Lay the asparagus in the same direction, the tips all at the farther side. Put the knife, which should be broad and long, under the toast, and keep the asparagus in place with the fork. You will find it much easier to serve than when arranged in the usual way.
Macaroni as often prepared is another dish which it is not easy to serve neatly. Always break or cut it into pieces less than two inches long, before cooking, or before it is sent to the table.
In serving sweet corn on the cob, provide finger-bowls, or a small doily to use in holding the ear of corn.
SOUPS.
One ladleful of soup is sufficient for each plate. It is quite an art to take up a ladleful and pour it into the soup-plate without dropping any on the edge of the tureen or plate, and it requires a steady hand to pass the plate without slopping the soup up on the rim. Dip the ladle into the soup, take it up, and when the drop has fallen from the bottom of it, lift it over quickly but empty it slowly.
Croutons and crackers lose their crispness if put into the tureen with the soup, and should therefore be passed separately.
Not a page about cooking. It is about the moment of transfer, when food goes from the dish to the plate in front of other people, and about what makes that look careless.
- Match the tool to the crustA spoon for anything with a crust of crumbs, a broad knife and a spoon for a pastry pie, with the crust or browned side set upwards on the plate. Crumbs collapse and have to be lifted from underneath; pastry has to be cut and then supported. The distinction is still the right one.
- The lettuce leaf as a cupSalads are built in whole leaves laid together to make a nest, with a spoonful of salad in it and the mayonnaise on top, so the whole thing can be slid onto the plate intact. The reasoning given is sound: lettuce dressed in advance wilts, so the leaf stays crisp underneath and the dressing stays where it was put.
- Short macaroni serves betterBreak or cut it to under two inches before cooking, or at least before it goes to the table. Long tubes slide and trail off a spoon; short ones portion. It is a serving decision rather than a cooking one, and it accounts for the shape of a good deal of the pasta sold cut short.
- Asparagus across the platterUse a square or rectangular dish, cut the toast long and narrow, lay it across the platter rather than along it with all the tips to the far side, then bring a broad knife under the toast and hold the spears in place with the fork. The point is that the server lifts along the short axis of the dish.
- One ladle of soup, and let the drop fallDip, lift, wait for the drip to fall from the bottom of the ladle, then carry it over quickly and empty it slowly. Croutons and crackers are passed separately because they lose their crispness in the tureen. Three small pieces of advice, all three still true.
- Vegetables not touchingA neat rounding spoonful, laid on the base of the plate and never on the rim, with different kinds kept apart, and anything wet — peas, tomatoes, fritters with a sauce — sent round in its own dish. Restaurant plating arrived at the same rules much later for the same reason: a plate reads as careless the moment two things run together.
The anxiety on this page is social and it is stated outright: a drop of gravy on the edge of the plate will offend a fastidious taste. Service was done in the room, by the host or hostess or by a servant standing at the table, and every portion was assembled in view of the guests. That is why the instructions concern appearance and steadiness of hand rather than flavour, and why the awkward cases get the most attention — asparagus on toast, macaroni, a poached egg or a quail on a slice of toast that has to arrive with the bird still sitting on it. The skill being taught is the skill of not making a mess in front of people, and it was expected of whoever sat at the head of the table.