every mistress has a different way; but the best style, if you have
the room, is to let the saltcellars be on a line with the top of
the large silver forks, and as far from the edge of the table as
the length of the handle of a large silver fork. Then place your
tablespoons on each side of the saltcellar, so that the bowls of
the spoons are clear of the saltcellar; and thus the handles can
be closer together, for compactness in every detail is the very
foundation of good service at table. It is not of any great moment
if the tablespoons are put at cross corners or not; and sometimes to
put them across the corner is a convenience, especially for a lunch
table; but, if they are put across corners, then one spoon should be
turned one way, and the other another way. If they are arranged the
first way, then the water bottles should stand just off the tip of
the inside spoon, a little towards the inside of the table. The salt
ought to be moulded out of a wineglass. If the spoons and salt are
arranged the latter-mentioned way, then the water bottles should be
placed in front of the middle part of the inside tablespoon. Meat and
vegetables and cold sweets are all put on together at luncheon.
Sometimes servants do not wait at all at lunch, but the more general
way is, after the bell or gong has sounded, to come in to remove the
covers, and sometimes to hand round the first plates and vegetables;
but, unless there are young children, the middle course is best--that
the servant should follow the family into the room, remove the
covers, and depart. Every one prefers waiting on himself at luncheon,
as chatty gossip is more usual than at dinner; and besides, the
servants cannot dine at 12.30, unless there is a full establishment,
and the luncheon hour of the family is in 9 families out of 10 the
dinner hour of the servants, and it is our bounden duty to them to
give them peace and rest at their dinner-time.
Unless there is a hot pudding that will spoil, if not served just
when it is wanted, there is no need to ring the bell until lunch is
finished; and a thoughtful woman will order luncheon with a regard to
her servants not having to be rung up.
For lunch, tumblers as well as wineglasses ought to be placed for
each person. It is quite wrong to place tumblers for the late dinner
on the table, but at lunch it is quite right, because there is no
waiting. The wineglasses, either 2 or 3, should be grouped close
together, the tallest a little from the right side of the tip of the
large knife, and the tumbler below the wineglasses.
The wine decanters for lunch ought to be quarts, and, if possible,
placed on each side of the centre crease of the tablecloth, either
behind the top dish or the bottom dish. If this is not possible on
account of the varying rules for arranging the lunch table, then put
them at the corners.
Sometimes for luncheon 2 water bottles are enough, and then cut
cheese, or sifted sugar, or rolled butter, or preserves can be put
at cross corners opposite the water bottles. Ale, either in a jug,
or bottled ale, can be placed on the sideboard; and it is not at
all the wrong thing to place it on the table, for ale jugs can be
very ornamental, and, if it is bottled beer, the cork ought to be
drawn if it is the habit of the family to drink beer; an ornamental
cork should be put in, and the bottle placed in a silver hock-stand,
either on the sideboard or the table. An ale bottle ought to be
washed before drawing it, so should a claret bottle, or any other
bottle that is not to be decanted, champagne included.
In pouring out bottled ale, if you will only rest it on the edge of
the tumbler where the last rib of the neck of the bottle is, and keep
it straight, not tilting it, except in the most gradual way, there
would be a proper supply of drinkable ale in the tumbler, and not all
froth.
Before laying the lunch table the servant ought to prepare the
room, by making up the fire, sweeping up the hearth, and dusting
the mantelpiece and sideboard. This ought to be done before the
parlour-maid or man-servant dresses for lunch. There is a habit
in many families of using the dining room in the morning, but it
does look so unrefined to sit down to meals with newspapers, books,
workboxes, and writing materials scattered about on chairs and side
tables. When luncheon time arrives all such things should be removed,
either to a morning room or the back dining room, and put in their
proper places.
After washing up the breakfast things the servant ought to prepare
for lunch, by setting on a tray everything needed for the table, and
also the knives ought to be cleaned, both for the early and late
dinner. The French way of cleaning knives is excellent. Wipe the
dirty knives clean, not by washing, but with a piece of paper, then
lay the knife on a knifeboard, and take a cork and dip the end of it
in emery powder, and rub it well up and down the blade with this, and
then wipe clean.
Where there are young children whose dinner is at lunch time, the
arrangements must of course be different. These arrangements depend
so entirely on the numbers in the household, and the ages of the
children, that no decided rules can be laid down. But in every
case an early dinner ought always to be laid luncheon fashion, as
otherwise it can never be laid prettily. What can be more bare and
ungraceful than an early dinner laid in most respects as a dinner,
yet with none of the accessories that make either lunch or dinner
pretty. If the children are very young they require waiting on;
but for older school-room children who, with their governess, have
dinner at lunch time, unless there is a sufficient staff of servants,
waiting is not necessary.
Sometimes it is necessary that hot puddings should come up after
lunch has been half finished, and in bringing the pudding, and
removing other things, of course a little rearrangement of the table
is required. Supposing, too, that the meat was to go down to the
kitchen as soon as every one is helped, then the servant should not
leave the place vacant that the meat has occupied, but rearrange the
dishes so that some other fills its place before she leaves the room.
In taking away the things after lunch is finished, there should be a
proper order observed. All silver articles should be kept separate,
and the double basket should be brought in, to remove the knives
and forks properly, putting each by themselves on each side of the
division. After everything is removed, the crumbs ought to be swept
up, the carving chairs pushed close up to the table, all the other
chairs put in their places, and the window opened. A servant ought to
be taught that it is disrespectful to keep a room in a disorderly and
unfinished condition, by taking away in a dawdling and unmethodical
fashion. Before the last trayful is taken down to the pantry, leave
it outside, and return to sweep up the crumbs and finish the room.
It is very good for young people to wait on themselves and their
elders at the early dinner, and this can be done without any undue
disturbing of their hungry young selves. A good way is to let them
take turns day by day to change the plates, and they should be taught
not to put the plates upon each other without removing the knife and
fork on each, and placing them gently, and without soiling their
fingers, in the double basket, which ought to be in the room, as well
as the basket for dirty plates.
A butler’s tray is not necessary for luncheon.
Fresh fruit is a great ornament on the lunch table, or on the
sideboard, and the dessert plates should be placed there in a pile,
or on the dinner waggon, with the silver knives and forks stiffly
placed on each side of the plates, and close together. No finger
glasses or d’oyleys are used at lunch.
_Dinner._--The dining room ought to be the right heat by attending
to the fire at 4 o’clock in the afternoon through the winter, or
by letting it out if the room is over the kitchen. The intelligent
care of the dining-room fire evinced by so many servants in throwing
some black coals on just as dinner is ready, is too delightful. If
the under bar is well raked out at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, or 5
according to the dinner hour, and well but moderately made up with
first a layer of coke, and then coal, the fire will be what it ought
to be when the time comes to lay the cloth. Then before bringing
in the cloth or anything else for the table, stir the fire, sweep
the bars and grate, and dust the mantelpiece, sideboard, and dinner
waggon. This is a rule very much neglected by servants, both before
luncheon and dinner, but it is a most necessary one, for it is
really a dirty trick to throw the tablecloth, sideboard cloth, &c.,
on a sideboard covered with dust, and an undusted mantelpiece and
ornaments on it are unsightly.
The laying of the table for dinner should not be put off, as it so
often is, until the servant has barely time to scramble through
it; this applies also to all the meals, and there should always be
a comfortable margin of time left, so that a servant can wash her
hands, and change her apron and cuffs and collar, or a footman make
a suitable freshening of himself for waiting at table. To prepare
properly in the butler’s pantry is the great secret for a methodical
and well-trained manner of laying a dinner table. Not one tray, but
two or three if necessary must first be prepared, so that every
requisite for the table is brought up before the servant commences
to lay the cloth. Silver, knives, glass, cold plates, water bottles,
cheese, butter, bread, dessert, finger glasses, &c., ought all to be
prepared, and put into the dining room before commencing to lay the
cloth. Either in laying a table or in cleaning a room, a well-bred
servant ought to shut herself up in the room in which she is busy,
surrounded with all her tools.
Before beginning to lay a cloth, a large clean apron ought to be
tied on, whether it be a man or a woman servant, so that the dress
does not soil the cloth. The thicker the under-cloth the better the
white cloth looks. Have your white cloth most exactly in the centre,
so that the side folds are at equal distances from the edge of the
table, and smooth and stroke and pull your cloth well before you
place anything on it. (Wash your hands well before beginning.) Then
to each person put 2 large knives and 2 large silver forks, both to
be an inch from the edge of the table, and the handles close together
and perfectly even. At the top, just to the right of the end of the
outside large knife, put your tallest and largest wineglass, and
then group the others below, but always slanting a little towards
the right, and close together. Unless you place them in this manner,
it would inconvenience the person using them. Place sherry, hock,
claret, and champagne glasses in this way. Of course this is an
extreme of wineglasses, but these are the wines drunk during dinner.
Generally for every-day use sherry and claret are sufficient, or
sherry, hock, and claret, and if there is champagne, hock may not be
needed. Do not put any tumblers on the table for a late dinner, nor
any port-wine glasses. Unless there is a good staff of servants, you
must lay your table for a dish of each course to be placed at the
bottom o£ the table. To attempt to have everything carved at a side
table, unless you can do it properly, is simply vulgar pretension.
The table can be laid prettily with fruit and flowers, and yet have
the soup, then the fish, then the joint placed at the bottom.
If, when there is only one servant to wait at table, the carving is
done by her at a side table, either the first person she helps must
wait for vegetables, sauce, &c., while she is carving for others,
or they must wait for their fish or meat. The sideboard for the
late dinner must be laid fancifully and prettily, and with such a
disposition of the tallest articles, that all the rest are shown
to good effect. No knives should be seen, all should be silver and
glass. Never turn a tumbler or a wineglass upside down in arranging
a sideboard or a table--it is a vulgarity. At an hotel or restaurant
it is reasonable to do so, where tables are really laid for hours,
as it keeps out the dust; and on the washing-stand of a bedroom it
is proper to turn medicine glasses and tumblers upside down for the
same reason, but not in preparing meals in a private house, where the
glasses are going to be immediately used. Neither should any spoon
or fork be turned upside down, only saltspoons, because otherwise
they would not lie on the top of the saltcellars. Arrange on the
sideboard dessert spoons and forks, some large spoons and forks,
sauce ladles, gravy spoon, fish slice--in short, all of silver that
will be required during the different courses. Lay them out in a
tasty manner, not too straggling, never in bundles as you would keep
them in a plate basket. This is only admissible when there is a large
dinner or ball supper, and then you must of course have a reserve in
bundles, in addition to those you lay out ornamentally.
In laying the table do not place a soup ladle, a gravy spoon, and a
fish slice, or fish knife and fork altogether at the bottom of the
table, as so many servants do. Keep the fish knife and the gravy
spoon on the sideboard until they are wanted. It is quite right to
place the carving knife and fork from the beginning at the bottom of
the table, it is then ready, and yet does not make a confusion; in
fact it would make more of a confusion if you were to place it only
when it was wanted; but remember in laying them to let the bottom of
their handles correspond exactly with the bottom of the handles of
the two large knives, and let the ends lie on the knife rests. Put
4 saltcellars, one at each corner, or a small one to each person as
the custom of the family may be. Place the tablespoons on each side
of the saltcellars, so that the handles are in a line; and if you
prefer to place your tablespoons straight, let the saltcellars be
on a line with the ends of the large knives, but if you prefer to
put your tablespoons at cross corners, they ought to be nearer to
the edge of the table. If you place the tablespoons straight, the
water bottles ought to stand off a little from the tip of the inside
tablespoon. If the tablespoons are at cross corners the water bottles
must stand across the middle of the inside tablespoon, and in this
case you may turn the handle of one tablespoon one way, and that of
the other spoon the other way; but when you place them straight, it
is better style to have both handles in a row. You may either place
4 water bottles, or 2 water bottles and 2 pint decanters of dinner
sherry, letting them correspond at cross corners. Pint decanters have
gone very much out of fashion, in these days of handing everything,
but they look pretty and cosy. As a guide how far apart you should
place the knives and forks for each person, put a plate down between;
the edges of a large plate should go over the knives and forks, a
small plate should not. Salt ought to be moulded in a little hillock,
either out of a small china eggcup, or a wineglass that has lost its
stem, and then turned out into the saltcellar. Remember to place
knife rests. The butler’s tray is a very ugly object unless a clean
tray cloth is put over it; but it is a very necessary relief to the
sideboard, as it holds the pudding and cheese plates, knives, and
cheese, which ought all to be arranged there during the laying of the
cloth, and room left for 2 vegetable dishes--if the family is small;
if not, a large side table is needed. The dinner waggon should only
be used for dessert plates, and such dessert dishes as cannot be put
on the table until dinner is over. Wines for dessert ought also to be
placed in the dinner waggon. Each dessert plate ought to be arranged
quite ready for placing, with its d’oyley, finger glass, knife, fork,
and spoon. The finger glass ought not to be even half full of water.
If dessert plates are used without a d’oyley or a finger glass, then
place your dessert knife and fork handles on the plates, and let the
points go over the plate; this prevents their falling or straggling.
The arrangement of the dessert ought always to be the care of the
mistress, unless she has a housekeeper, and even then it requires
her supervision. It is a thing that requires a lady’s taste and
touch. Each day the dishes require wiping, the papers rearranging;
and once a week, at least, the dishes want washing. Nothing is worse
than to see an old dessert from yesterday put on the table without
to-day’s restoration; better go without. Nothing is better than a
pretty and fresh dessert paper. For strawberries or any of the small
summer fruits that stain in the helping, it is better taste to place
them on the bare dish, unless you use the leaves that belong to the
fruit; but do not use too many, and be sure to wash them. Never use
artificial leaves or flowers to decorate dessert; in fact, never
use flowers at all to decorate fruit, it is not true taste. For all
winter and dried fruits dessert papers are best, also for biscuits
and cake. Do not overload any dessert dish, and never put out ginger
either wet or dry, or guava, &c., on a dessert dish, but on a small
glass one, and place this on the dish, with a dessert paper under.
Small crystallised fruits are pretty arranged in ornamental paper
cups especially made for dessert. Fill each with a different kind,
and by leaning them against each other you can make a sort of
pyramid. If only one dish of meat is put on at each course, a water
dessert jug and goblets can be placed at the top of the table. It is
impossible to give more detailed directions as to how the dessert
dishes should be arranged on the table, only taking care there be not
too many dishes. If the door of the dining room is farthest from the
head of the table, let your tallest ornaments be near the head of the
table. If you have occasion to bring in any odd chairs for a dinner
or supper, do not put them on the side of the table opposite the
door. If these two last hints are remembered, you do not spoil the
general effect.
After removing the meat course, and all that belongs to it,
remembering to turn out also the plates, so that the cook can be
going on with her washing-up, return to the room, and shut the door.
If there is a tart, go to the sideboard, and place on a tray 2 clean
knife rests, and a knife and fork--the latter, of course, to be
silver. Place these to the right and left of your master, the handles
an inch from the edge of the table; then put a tablespoon to the
right of where the tart dish will be, _not_ by the side of the knife.
Look round, and remove unsightly articles, such as tumblers that
have been used for beer, and remove also any large knives that have
not been used during the meat course; also put the saltcellars in
their places, and water bottles. These little matters are easily and
quickly done, and give a much more suitable and refined appearance
to the dinner table for the serving of the sweets; for, naturally,
the table gets a little disordered during the meat course from people
using salt, mustard, cayenne, water, &c.
However small the article may be, always bring it to the table on a
tray, or take it off in the same way. Now bring in and place before
your master the tart or pudding and put the other sweets on the side
table. Take in your right hand the sugar basin, and hold a pudding
plate in your left. If your master puts the first helping on the
plate that is before him, then the one you have in your hand does to
replace it, and if there is only one servant waiting, of course this
is the best way, but if two are waiting, then one can always hold a
plate for a helping to be put on it. If two servants are waiting, the
second follows with the sugar and sauce, if the latter be needed.
When every one has had pudding or tart, remove it before handing the
other sweets, or, if it is merely an every-day family dinner, you may
hand the sweets to those that refuse pudding. As you remove a pudding
plate that has been used, replace it with a clean one, with a fork
upon it, with the handle on the plate and the prongs over the edge
to keep it steady. Then hand the other sweets, holding the dishes
with your hand underneath and very firm. If it should be jelly,
blancmange, or cream, a tablespoon is sufficient, but for pastry a
large fork as well as a spoon is needed. In handing entrées or sweets
that require cutting, the first cutting should be done by the servant
at the sideboard before she hands the dish. In dishing sweets, never
decorate them either with flowers or anything else, except their
own cooking belongings. It is very bad taste simply because it is
without any reason. A glass dish set in a silver one is the best,
with a fringed d’oyley between, barely showing, but just enough to
prevent a hard look. If there are not any silver dishes, then hand
the glass dish by itself. Inexperienced servants commit the mistake
of offering sweets to people who have already some of another kind on
their plate. You must wait, and give a clean and separate plate for
each sweet. Not only is it better taste and style, but your own sense
will tell you that one sweet will spoil another, if eaten together.
If there is game, it comes in before the sweets, and without any
vegetables. In the case of a game course following the entrée and
meat course, do not trouble to rearrange the table so exactly as
before the sweet course, but still, a sharp natty servant will always
give some touches before each. The bread-sauce ought to be in one
tureen and the gravy in another, if it is game that requires gravy,
and the breadcrumbs should be handed on a flat dish, as you would cut
toast for soup. To all game hand cayenne pepper but no sauces, as the
game flavour would be destroyed. If the game should be wild duck,
it ought to be dished quite dry, and, as soon as you have placed it
before your master, place by his side a cut lemon, cayenne pepper,
and the sauce, which should be poured over the breast after it has
been cut. In the same way, if, at the meat course the dish should
be a fore-quarter of lamb, you must place by the side some butter,
lemon, and cayenne pepper, and you must have ready in your hand a
small dish on which to receive the shoulder when it is removed. The
lemon, butter, and cayenne should be put in between the shoulder and
the ribs after it is cut and before removing the former.
Another hint for beefsteak puddings, if that dish should happen to
represent the meat course. Have a hot-water jug, with boiling water;
place it by the side on a little china stand. The pudding should be
carved by cutting a round out of the top, and then pour plenty of the
boiling water in; make an incision at the bottom of the pudding, and
rich gravy will rush out; take a tablespoon, and ladle it into the
pudding several times. This by no means impoverishes the pudding, but
improves it, especially if there are kidneys in it.