yard, is not by any means a subject that calls for a very unusual
amount of skill on the part of the carver. Beyond the fact that
care should be taken to cut neatly a succession of long slices from
the breast, each with its nice little edge of untorn skin, there is
really not much for the knife and fork to do. The cutting of slices
from the breast should begin as close to the wing as possible, and
proceed upwards on both sides, to the ridge of the breast bone.
Some people prefer exactly to reverse this process; but it is not
important. The stuffing under the breast is got at precisely as in
the case of duck. The severing of the wings and legs is only on rare
occasions necessary at table, as the breast of the bird usually
yields an ample supply for an average number of guests. But in the
event of the carver being called on to disjoint a leg or wing, he
will only have to draw upon his acquaintance with the anatomy of the
chicken. When, on the following day, the remains of a turkey appear
in the form of a grill or a devil, the cook should have made any
carving of the dish unnecessary.
Goose.--Though the anatomy is similar again to that of the chicken,
the greater size and strength of the bird give greater toughness to
the joints, and call for the exercise of more force of wrist and hand
in their separation. The point of the strong sharp blade must be made
to find its way between the bones, as any attempt to cut through them
will lead to disaster. Supposing the whole of the breast to be gone,
then, and that the leg and wing bones have to be operated on, proceed
upon the principles enunciated in the case of the chicken. Turn the
bird on one side, and, after forcing with the blade of the knife the
projecting angles or elbows of the bones back from the carcase, when
coming to the leg, separate the thigh from its socket, which will be
a less easy task than in the case of the pinion-bone of the wing. The
merrythought, if comparatively a small item for so large a bird as
a goose, must be disengaged. The dissection of the remainder of the
bird, upon its reappearance as a hash or what-not, will generally
devolve upon the cook; but, come in what guise it may, most excellent
picking may be found in every quarter. Stuffing is an element of
roast goose never to be overlooked; it is to be found and reached in
the same way as in the duck. The skin of the apron and elsewhere is,
as usual, on no account to be torn off or left ragged, particularly
as with this bird it is accounted very choice in flavour.
Guinea Fowl.--Guinea fowl, peahen, or peacock, and other such
“strange fowl” as are on rare occasions put before a carver, being in
their anatomy sufficiently similar to the turkey for all practical
purposes, may be passed over here. Boiled or roast, they must be
treated with the same discrimination.
Rabbit.--A rabbit for roasting is somewhat differently trussed to
when it is intended for boiling; in the latter case the head is
placed on the dish to the right of the carver, and in the former
to the left. In both cases, however, the back is the chief point
to operate upon. If roast, separate the back on either side from
the legs and shoulders; then divide the back into two equal parts;
then disengage leg and shoulder one from the other, jointing them
according to the number of portions required. If boiled, a very
similar process may be adopted; the knife’s point has but to be
inserted where a joint appears, and it yields to the slightest
pressure. Very seldom is the rabbit substantial enough to justify its
treatment after the manner of the hare--that is, by taking slices out
of the back, and so on, down to the limbs, without disengaging them;
but where the bulk of the animal is sufficient to allow of this, it
is certainly the more tempting, easy, and appetising method.
Pigeon.--Beyond bringing into play the strength and neatness which
are demanded whenever actual bone has to be severed, there is little
to be done with knife and fork. If the bird be divided cleanly into
two equal parts by a sharp strong cut right through everything, as
it were, from beak to tail, each portion must be further manipulated
by those before whom it is placed; the carver has no further concern
with it. But should it be necessary to divide a pigeon into 3
portions, then 2 legs and 2 wings will make 2 out of the 3--if, in
cutting them off, the carver is careful to leave enough meat on the
breast to allow of that being presented as the third.
_Game._--Woodcock.--When a woodcock is under the knife and fork, the
carver will be very careful to examine the toast, to see that all the
trail is upon it, or rather that the liver, which is the essential
element of the trail, is not still left within the body. To do this
he may with a slight touch of the knife, when he has secured the
breast with the fork, force back the legs, and so, by disengaging
the back, turn the bird as it were inside out; the liver will then
fall upon the toast, and should be spread upon it evenly, with the
addition of a little pat of butter, pepper, and salt, and a squeeze
of lemon. As to cutting up the woodcock, the task is very simple. The
bird may be divided into 2 or 3--the breast for one, and each leg
and wing for the second and third portions; but, as the back is very
small, and yet very choice, it had better be reserved for the special
friend, seeing that there is not enough of it to divide; the thighs,
however, are accounted almost equal _bonnes bouches_.
Snipe.--Perhaps the next amongst the “trail birds” to rank with
the woodcock, who is the king of them all, is the snipe. He will
generally, upon his modicum of toast, form not too large a portion
for one good appetite; but he may be made to do for two less robust,
by splitting him exactly in twain upon the usual plan. This is a bird
that brooks no delay in the helping. He should be eaten hissing hot.
Plover.--The plover calls for no special directions. Larger than the
snipe, but smaller than the woodcock, he may be treated according to
the appetites--halved, trebled, or presented upon one plate whole,
with the toast as a matter of course. If for plover or snipe we read
“quail,” what has been said above will be all that is necessary. The
ortolan also might be included. The hints anent the disposal of the
liver, &c., on the toast, under the woodcock, may be taken to apply,
more or less, to all similar arrangements. The carver should be
careful to eliminate the little sandbag or crop, which sometimes may
be found in close proximity to the liver; otherwise, if spread upon
the toast, its grit will render the whole entirely uneatable.
Wild fowl.--Like turkey or goose, wild duck (and indeed all wild
fowl, including the teal and widgeon) offers to the carver the most
tempting of breasts, whence to cut away a succession of delicate
slices; but he may not remove these until he has inserted sparingly
a sprinkling of cayenne pepper between the scorings he has made
with his knife, and given an ample squeeze of lemon over them, to
drive the pepper well into the interstices. The breast alone is
held to be the choice portion of the bird, though there is pretty
picking elsewhere, but further dissection of him, when necessary, for
immediate or future purposes, such as hashes, &c., may be carried on
upon the oft-referred-to chicken principles.
Landrail.--The landrail, not often met with at table, may be easily
carved by treating him like a snipe; he is trussed in the same
manner, but of course is trailless.
Hare.--The hare stands pre-eminent amongst game, and is so generally
popular, and yields so much capital eating, that it should be looked
upon as a very special dish for the carver. The head on the left of
the carver and the body lying at right angles to the line of sight,
slices are cut out of the back all along its length from left to
right. Clean, neat, and regular should they be, each with its nice
little edge of brown skin; and when, from both sides of the spine,
all the meat has been cut away, both the legs must be disengaged by a
sharp incision, much after the manner in which the wing of a chicken
is removed. Then the shoulders, by a semicircular cut round the
joint, are displaced, the point of the knife feeling for the junction
at the socket of the bone. Next, in the same way, let the knife
travel to about the centre of the back, the carver feeling with its
point for a favourable nick in the vertebræ through which, with some
little exercise of strength, he may drive the blade, and so divide
the body in two. The stuffing must be served in moderation with each
portion; and, as the remnants of a hare are generally turned to good
account, it is as well, except under extraordinary circumstances, not
to serve any of the bones upon the plates, but to cut as neat-looking
slices as may be from shoulders and legs. Plenty of gravy should also
be helped from the dish by the carver, in addition to that served
separately; otherwise the portions may look unattractively dry when
first placed before the guest. All parts of a hare are so full of
flavour, that, beyond the fact that the back is usually the most
tender, there is little superiority in it. The ears and brain are
amongst the extra little tit-bits affected by the connoisseur.
Partridge.--Roast partridge usually coming, as it does, at the close
of the feast, a very small portion of bird should be served to each
guest; in this case, cut him up precisely as you would a chicken, and
all at once, without removing the fork; and, by thus making him go
as far as possible, you do as much justice to the excellence of the
bird as the vagaries of custom will allow. Of course, the choicest
morsels, the wings, the breast, and the merrythought, that is, should
go to the more delicate appetites; but that is no reason why legs
and back should be comparatively wasted, as they often are, when
accompanied on the plate by more fleshy pieces, or be left neglected
by the carver on the dish. He who knows anything of the flavour of
game will be as well contented with the head and back, or leg of a
young partridge in good condition as with any other part of it, if
it come at the customary tail end of a dinner, and when a mere taste
is all that is expected or desirable. But when the partridge appears
as a very important element at a choice repast, then hand him over
bodily one bird on a hot-water plate to each guest, and so evade all
carving responsibilities; or, short of this, cleave him in twain,
fairly from beak to tail, as a pigeon, and let no more than two
discuss him; or, once again, at the most, cut him into three, as also
directed with the pigeon.
Pheasant.--Treat the pheasant with similar deference; for, if young
and in good condition, though one part may be better than another,
there is no part open to disdain. According to the size of the bird
so may you cut him up, but, as a rule, his breast will yield a
sufficient number of slices to make it advisable to deal with him in
the manner advocated for a turkey; otherwise he has to be dissected
entirely as if he were a chicken, remembering at the same time that,
according to the position he occupies in the menu, so should your
helping be proportioned. If he represent in any way the _pièce de
résistance_, be fairly bountiful, not giving a slice of the breast
alone to one person, but some extra “snack” of picking with it, thus
letting the choice, and the less choice, morsels be duly blended.
On the other hand, if the pheasant come up to table at the usual
conventional time, the slices from the breast will be generally
enough to go round, if the carver allows no slice to reach the
magnitude of anything beyond a taste. He may know if a cock pheasant
(cock pheasants are generally the better) be young or old by a glance
at the spurs--the short and blunt indicating youth, sharp and long
the reverse; and it is well for the carver to note this at starting,
as it will prepare him for the amount of strength he will have to
put forth in separating the joints. Bread sauce and gravy, as with
the partridge, are served separately; but should there be a toast
beneath the bird upon the dish, a piece of the toast must go with
each portion, a search for the stuffing be entered on, and some of it
dispensed.
Grouse.--Beyond putting a very strong emphasis on the value of the
back of the grouse, we need only refer to what has been said of the
partridge to know how to deal with him. He is worthy in every way of
the same high consideration, either as one, two or three portions;
but if cut up into this latter or more quantities, a piece of the
back must go with each, if the carver regard justice as a leading
element of his craft. The habit now of not sending up the bird’s head
is, some think, reprehensible; as, like that of the pheasant and
partridge, the skull if split in two offers a delicate morsel in the
shape of the brain. A piece of the toast, too, usually to be found
beneath the grouse should find its way to everybody’s plate.
Blackcock.--Being of the genus grouse, here will be the place to say
what one has to say about the blackcock; and once more a knowledge
of the chicken’s anatomy will be the key to the whole position. The
tenderness and delicacy of the flesh, however, of game birds make
them less favourable subjects for the young carver to experimentalise
upon. The thigh of this bird is held by the epicure as the portion
which attains the culminating flavour. Therefore, though slices may
be cut from the breast to begin with in the usual fashion, they
may not trench upon this tit-bit, which should be preserved intact
for the special friend or friends, since there are two thighs. To
decapitate this bird, and to send him to table headless, is to
deprive some one of an exquisite _bonne bouche_. When cut in two,
there is very pretty picking about the head; and whilst on the dish
it serves at once to mark this distinguished member of the feathered
community.
Capercailzie.--The capercailzie, though very seldom met with at the
ordinary English dinner table, may not be overlooked here, for,
though a very much larger bird than grouse or blackcock, it is yet
to be ranked amongst the same species. In fact, it is a woodland
grouse, and sometimes attains the size of a goodly turkey; which is
as much as to say, from our point of view, that we should treat him
accordingly.
Ptarmigan.--Ptarmigan, too, though less uncommon and smaller than the
capercailzie, would not need any especial dissection, and has merely
to be cut up according to his size; whilst of course the buttered
toast on which he is served may, or may not, be partaken of; and it
is just as well for the carver to inquire.
In dispensing any rare or unusual bird it is quite essential that
the carver should point out to those at table who are unacquainted
with its precise character what it is, and recommend this or that
particular part to their consideration. Also in the matter of toast,
when it may contain the trail of game, the carver should be very
careful not to give any of it to those who may happen to dislike it.
There are many people who will only eat game when it is quite fresh,
and who would shudder at the thought of consuming the trail.
=Dinners.=--To commence with the manner of eating soup. In olden
days it was customary to “drink” it out of a basin. In these days
no one “drinks” soup--it is “eaten”; whether it be mock turtle or
the clearest Julienne, it is eaten out of a soup plate at dinner,
and with a tablespoon. To use a dessertspoon for this purpose is
not _comme il faut_. There is a reason in this: soup is nothing if
not hot; and, as it is the custom to give but a very small help of
soup--about half a ladleful to each person--it is eaten quicker and
hotter with a large spoon. The reason for small helps of soup is that
the various courses to follow do not render it expedient to commence
with a plateful of soup. At ball suppers, when soup is served in soup
plates, it is also eaten with a tablespoon; but when served in small
cups a spoon is not used, and it is actually drunk, although fashion
does not sanction the expression “I have drunk some soup.”
For fish, the two dinner forks are now superseded by the little
silver fish knife and fork. When oysters are given, however, they
precede the soup, and are eaten with an ordinary dinner fork, and
not with the fish fork. In eating oysters the shell is steadied on
the plate with the fingers of the left hand; the oysters are not
cut, but are eaten whole. Large dinners are ordered mainly with
a view to please the palates of men with epicurean tastes; it is
not expected that ladies should eat of the most highly seasoned
and richest dishes, but should rather select the plainest. This
particularly applies to young ladies and young married ladies; and
there are certain things that young ladies are not supposed to eat of
at dinner, although handed to them in their turn--as, for instance,
marrow patties, foie gras patties, snipe with trail, woodcock with
trail, caviare, bloater cheese. Small helps of fish are always given.
Some entrées are eaten with a knife and fork, others with a fork
only. All entrées that offer any resistance to a fork being passed
through them require the aid of both knife and fork, such as cutlets,
filet de bœuf, sweetbreads, &c.; but when rissoles, patties,
quenelles, boneless curry, vol-au-vents, timbales, minces, &c., are
eaten, the fork is used and the knife is discarded. In the case of
the lighter entrées, the contact of the knife is supposed to militate
against their delicate flavour, and with regard to the pastry of
patties and vol-au-vents, it would be considered bad style were a
knife to be used in addition to the fork.
When game is eaten, it is needless to say that the old licence for
holding a bone delicately between the fingers and thumb has long
since expired. The leg of a chicken, pheasant, duck, or wild duck
is never given to a guest as a help, save on those occasions when
there are more guests present than there are helps from breasts and
wings to offer them. Under these circumstances the carver is reduced
to the necessity of falling back upon the legs; but in this case
only the upper part of the thigh is given, the drumstick being cut
off--thus a guest has little difficulty in separating the meat from
the bone. The wing of a bird, however, is a very usual help given
to a lady. Formerly it was thought a correct thing to sever the
wing at the joint, and then to cut the meat from the bone; but this
required a certain amount of strength in the wrist and dexterity of
action, as, if the bird happened to be not of the youngest, there
was a chance that a nervous or clumsy young lady would lodge one
half of the wing on the tablecloth; so the fair recipients of a wing
in the present day do not run this risk or take this trouble, but
simply cut off from the bone the meat that is easily got at, leaving
those morsels about which there is the slightest difficulty. An
inexperienced carver occasionally gives the gizzard with the wing,
and some inexperienced young ladies make an attempt to eat it; the
gizzard should not be left in the wing by the carver. In the case of
small pigeons, golden plovers, snipe, quails, larks, &c., a whole
bird is given to each help, and the proper way to eat these birds is
to cut the meat from the breast and wings, and to eat each morsel
at the moment of cutting it; the bird should not be turned over and
over on the plate, or cut in half, or otherwise dissected. The legs
of Bordeaux pigeons are not as a rule eaten, and half a bird only is
given, as there is sufficient meat on the wing and breast to satisfy
an ordinary second-course appetite; when the legs of smaller birds
are eaten, such as snipe or golden plover, the meat is cut off as
from breast or wing. Young ladies, as a rule, do not eat these birds,
or any second-course delicacy of this description; a help of chicken
or pheasant, on the contrary, is usually accepted by them.
On the subject of vegetables there is but little to be said; when
large potatoes are served in their skins, a salad plate is offered
at the same time, so this difficulty is thus provided for. When
asparagus first comes into season, it is often given in the second
course instead of in the first, in which case it is eaten as a
separate dish; when it is handed with meat or poultry, it is eaten on
the same plate containing either; and although served on toast, the
toast is not meant to be eaten, and it is merely intended to receive
the superfluous moisture from the asparagus. In eating asparagus,
elderly gentlemen still hold the stalks in their fingers; the younger
generation cut off the points of the asparagus with a knife and fork;
but asparagus tongs render helping an easy matter. Seakale is often
given in the second course when first in season; the toast on which
this is served is also not eaten. When mushrooms are served on toast,
this toast is generally eaten. Seakale is eaten with a knife and
fork. Artichokes are an awkward and untidy vegetable to eat: they are
only given in the second course as a separate vegetable. The outside
leaves are removed with the knife and fork, and the inner leaves,
which surround the heart or head of the artichoke, are conveyed to
the mouth with the fingers, and sucked dry; epicures consider these a
“dainty morsel,” but at a dinner party young ladies would not attempt
to eat them.
Savouries are not eaten by young ladies when they dine out, and
seldom in the home circle. Savouries of the description of macaroni
with cheese, cheese fondus, cheese straws, cheese soufflés,
_choufleur au gratin_, olives, &c.--these things are not supposed to
suit the palates of young ladies. In eating sweets, a dessertspoon is
only used for compotes of fruit or fruit tarts, or those dishes where
juice or syrup prevails to the extent of rendering a dessertspoon
necessary. But whenever it is possible to use a fork in preference
to a spoon, it is always better to do so; and jellies, creams,
blancmanges, ice puddings, &c., are always eaten with a fork.
As a matter of course, young ladies do not eat cheese at dinner
parties. The usual mode of eating cheese is to cut it in small square
pieces, and place it with the knife on a morsel of bread, and then
convey the bread to the mouth with the fingers. When celery is given
with cheese, it is cut into fair-sized mouthfuls, which are put in
the mouth with the fingers, and bites are not taken from a stick of
celery held between the fingers schoolboy fashion. Salad is always
eaten with the joint, off small salad plates, placed on the left side
of the dinner plate; it is eaten with the knife and fork.
To turn from dinner to dessert. Ices are eaten with a small gold
ice spoon. Fruits that require peeling--such as peaches, apricots,
nectarines, &c.--are peeled with a dessert knife and fork, and eaten
with a spoon and fork, as are oranges. Pears and apples are peeled
and eaten with a knife and fork, as is pine or melon; with the latter
a spoon also is required. Strawberries are also eaten with a spoon
and fork when cream is given with them, otherwise they are held by
their stalks and dipped into powdered sugar. Cherries, gooseberries,
grapes, and currants are also eaten with the fingers, and so on down
the gamut of fruit. A slice of dessert cake is broken and eaten as
bread would be, and is not cut with the knife into small pieces. The
finger glasses are used after fruit has been eaten, and the tips of
the fingers are then dipped into the water and dried on the serviette
with as little parade as possible, always bearing in mind that the
serviette is not a chamber towel or the finger glass a washhand
basin, and also that, when the serviette is used for wiping the lips,
it should be done quickly and deftly, attracting as little notice as
possible, as it is not a pretty sight to see a person deliberately
occupied in wiping their mouth or their moustache again and again
during dinner; a lady must be a very untidy eater who requires to
wipe her mouth constantly during dinner.