BREAKFAST
Breakfast is the first meal of the American day. It should be daintily
and deftly served. Fruit, cereal and some main dish (bacon, fish, eggs)
together with toast, hot rolls or muffins, coffee, tea or cocoa, are
its main essentials. The bare, doilied table is popular for breakfast
use.
BREAKFAST FRUIT
Fresh pears, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, mandarins and apples
are all served in the same manner--on a plate about six inches across,
with a silver fruit knife for quartering and peeling. If a waitress
serves, fruit knife and plate are placed first, and then the dish
containing the fruit is passed.
Berries--raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, as also
baked apples, stewed fruits (peaches, prunes and apricots) and all
cooked fruits, are offered in little fruit dishes on service plates,
together with powdered (or fine granulated) sugar and cream.
Strawberries are sometimes left unhulled, when of "exhibition" size.
They then should be served in apple bowls or plates, with powdered
sugar on the side.
In serving grapes, the waitress, after supplying fruit plates, passes a
compote containing the grapes and offers fruit shears, so that each
guest may cut what he or she desire. Cherries are served in the same
manner, with the addition of a finger bowl.
When grapefruit is served, it is usually as a half, the core removed
and sugar added, on a fruit plate or in a grapefruit bowl, together
with an orange spoon.
Oranges may be served from a compote, whole, and may be eaten cut
crosswise in halves, with the orange spoon; or peeled and eaten in
sections. If oranges are served peeled and sliced on a fruit plate they
may be eaten with a fork. Sugar should always be passed when they are
eaten in this way. Orange juice is the extracted juice served in small
glasses two-thirds full.
Cantaloupe (filled with cracked ice) and honeydew melon (it is smart to
accompany the latter with a slice of lemon) are served in halves or
quarters, on fruit plates (or special melon dishes) and eaten with a
fruit spoon. Sugar, salt and pepper should be offered with these by the
waitress. Watermelon is usually cut in wedges or circles. It should
always be served very cold, on a large fruit plate, and with fruit
knife and fork. If half-melons are served, with the rind, the host cuts
egg-shaped pieces from the fruit, and places it on individual plates
for passing by the waitress.
Bananas may be served "in the skin" at breakfast, or peeled and sliced,
with sugar and cream, or sprinkled with sugar and lemon juice.
Shredded pineapple, sprinkled with sugar, or sliced pineapple (slices
an inch thick) may be served from a large dish by the waitress.
Fruit at breakfast does not _necessarily_ demand a waitress. In
may be served at each cover before the guests and family seat
themselves. It does call for a finger bowl, however. Only when berries
or sliced fruits are served can the finger bowl be omitted.
CEREALS
Cereals are a matter of personal taste. Cooked cereals, such as
oatmeal, rolled oats, hominy, corn-meal mush and cracked wheat should
come on the table hot, and be served in bowls with sugar (brown sugar,
if preferred) and cream. Again, the host may serve the cereal from a
large porringer, the waitress bringing him the individual bowls, and
taking them to the guests when filled. Dry cereals are served in the
same way. Puffed grains or flakes gain crispness and flavor when
reheated, _not browned_, before serving.
TOAST
The best breakfast toast is that made at the table over an electric
toaster. Be sure, if you have French toast, hot cakes or waffles
served, that they come from the kitchen _hot_. A perforated silver
cover should cover the plate containing them to prevent their cooling.
_Never use a soup plate or bowl for the purpose!_ The steam cannot
escape and the toast grows soggy. Do not forget syrup when waffles, hot
cakes or French toast are served. Some prefer cinnamon and sugar to
syrup with hot cakes, and they should also be on hand.
BACON
Bacon is the ideal breakfast meat. The rasher of bacon should be served
piping hot on a hot silver platter, in crisp, curling slices.
Incidentally, it should be just as crisp when it appears with a
favorite companion, as "bacon and eggs."
EGGS
Cooked in the shell (medium or soft-boiled) eggs should be served in an
egg cup or egg glass, on a plate, and _under cup or glass_. Each
egg thus served should be accompanied by a silver egg cutter and
(unless there is plenty of silver at the cover) a silver spoon.
A vegetable dish or a small plate will do for the hard-boiled egg.
Poached eggs appear in individual shirred egg dishes, to the left of
each cover, on small plates with service spoon.
Scrambled eggs are served in individual portions, as above; or
distributed by the host from a large platter, and passed by the
waitress.
Omelet should be served on a large platter with hot individual service
plates before the host. The waitress may pass the individual portions
or--it is customary with scrambled eggs--they may be passed from host
to guest around the table.
COFFEE
Coffee is the favorite and logical breakfast drink, though some prefer
tea, cocoa and milk. The breakfast coffee service should be placed
before the hostess. In its most attractive form it comprises a large
silver tray, which holds coffee (or percolator), the hot-water pot,
creamer, sugar bowl with tongs, and cups and saucers. (There may also
be a bowl for the water used to heat the cups.) When tea is the
breakfast beverage the samovar takes the place of the percolator.
The large silver service platter may be dispensed with, if desired, in
favor of a tile to hold the coffee urn, the other components of the
service being grouped about it. There is a charming touch of intimacy
about coffee made at the table with an electric percolator, poured by
the hostess and passed at the table (or by a waitress). When the
hostess pours she should at the same time ask the guest's preferences
(those of members of the family are supposed to be known) as regards
cream and sugar. Cream and sugar always enter the cup _first_! The
true coffee-drinker at once notices a difference in flavor if the
coffee first be poured, and the cream and sugar added.
FOR THE CHILDREN
If the children eat breakfast with the family, a regular child's
service, with attractive little knives and spoons should be provided,
and his whole service, preferably, should be arranged on a tray near
the table's edge. Every child likes to have his own porridge bowl, his
mug and little milk pitcher, and having his own table tools teaches him
to be neat and self-reliant.