DINNER GIVING WITH LIMITED EQUIPMENT
=THE SERVICE PROBLEM=
People who live all the year in the country are not troubled with formal
dinner giving, because (excepting on great estates) formality and the
country do not go together.
For the one or two formal dinners which the average city dweller feels
obliged to give every season, nothing is easier than to hire
professionals; it is also economical, since nothing is wasted in
experiment. A cook equal to the Gildings' chef can be had to come in and
cook your dinner at about the price of two charwomen; skilled butlers or
waitresses are to be had in all cities of any size at comparatively
reasonable fees.
The real problem is in giving the innumerable casual and informal dinners
for which professionals are not only expensive, but inappropriate. The
problem of limited equipment would not present great difficulty if the
tendency of the age were toward a slower pace, but the opposite is the
case; no one wants to be kept waiting a second at table, and the world of
fashion is growing more impatient and critical instead of less.
The service of a dinner can however be much simplified and shortened by
choosing dishes that do not require accessories.
=DISHES THAT HAVE ACCOMPANYING CONDIMENTS=
Nothing so delays the service of a dinner as dishes that must immediately
be followed by necessary accessories. If there is no one to help the
butler or waitress, no dish must be included on the menu--unless you are
only one or two at table, or unless your guests are neither critical nor
"modern"--that is not complete in itself.
For instance, fish has nearly always an accompanying dish. Broiled fish,
or fish meunière, has ice-cold cucumbers sliced as thin as Saratoga chips,
with a very highly seasoned French dressing, or a mixture of cucumbers and
tomatoes. Boiled fish always has mousseline, Hollandaise, mushroom or egg
sauce, and round scooped boiled potatoes sprinkled with parsley. Fried
fish must always be accompanied by tartar sauce and pieces of lemon, and a
boiled fish even if covered with sauce when served, is usually followed by
additional sauce.
Many meats have condiments. Roast beef is never served at a dinner
party--it is a family dish and generally has Yorkshire pudding or roast
potatoes on the platter with the roast itself, and is followed by pickles
or spiced fruit.
Turkey likewise, with its chestnut stuffing and accompanying cranberry
sauce, is not a "company" dish, though excellent for an informal dinner.
Saddle of mutton is a typical company dish--all mutton has currant jelly.
Lamb has mint sauce--or mint jelly.
Partridge or guinea hen must have two sauce boats--presented on one
tray--browned bread-crumbs in one, and cream sauce in the other.
Apple sauce goes with barnyard duck.
The best accompaniment to wild duck is the precisely timed 18 minutes in a
quick oven! And celery salad, which goes with all game, need not be
especially hurried.
Salad is always the accompaniment of "tame game," aspics, cold meat dishes
of all sorts, and is itself "accompanied by" crackers and cheese or cheese
soufflé or cheese straws.
=SPECIAL MENUS OF UNACCOMPANIED DISHES=
One person can wait on eight people if dishes are chosen which need no
supplements. The fewer the dishes to be passed, the fewer the hands needed
to pass them. And yet many housekeepers thoughtlessly order dishes within
the list above, and then wonder why the dinner is so hopelessly slow, when
their waitress is usually so good!
The following suggestions are merely offered in illustration; each
housekeeper can easily devise further for herself. It is not necessary to
pass anything whatever with melon or grapefruit, or a macédoine of fruit,
or a canapé. Oysters, on the other hand, have to be followed by tabasco
and buttered brown bread. Soup needs nothing with it (if you do not choose
split pea which needs croutons, or petite marmite which needs grated
cheese). Fish dishes which are "made" with sauce in the dish, such as sole
au vin blanc, lobster Newburg, crab ravigote, fish mousse, especially if
in a ring filled with plenty of sauce, do not need anything more. Tartar
sauce for fried fish can be put in baskets made of hollowed-out lemon
rind--a basket for each person--and used as a garnishing around the dish.
Filet mignon, or fillet of beef, both of them surrounded by little clumps
of vegetables share with chicken casserole in being the life-savers of the
hostess who has one waitress in her dining-room. Another dish, but more
appropriate to lunch than to dinner, is of French chops banked against
mashed potatoes, or purée of chestnuts, and surrounded by string beans or
peas. None of these dishes requires any following dish whatever, not even
a vegetable.
Fried chicken with corn fritters on the platter is almost as good as the
two beef dishes, since the one green vegetable which should go with it,
can be served leisurely, because fried chicken is not quickly eaten. And a
ring of aspic with salad in the center does not require accompanying
crackers as immediately as plain lettuce.
Steak and broiled chicken are fairly practical since neither needs gravy,
condiment, or sauce--especially if you have a divided vegetable dish so
that two vegetables can be passed at the same time.
If a hostess chooses not necessarily the above dishes but others which
approximately take their places, she need have no fear of a slow dinner,
if her one butler or waitress is at all competent.
=THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE PLAIN COOK=
In giving informal or little dinners, you need never worry because you
cannot set the dishes of a "professional" dinner-party cook before your
friends or even strangers; so long as the food that you are offering is
good of its kind.
It is by no means necessary that your cook should be able to make the
"clear" soup that is one of the tests of the perfect cook (and practically
never produced by any other); nor is it necessary that she be able to
construct comestible mosaics and sculptures. The essential thing is to
prevent her from attempting anything she can't do well. If she can make
certain dishes that are pretty as well as good to taste, so much the
better. But remember, the more pretentious a dish is, the more it
challenges criticism.
If your cook can make neither clear nor cream soup, but can make a
delicious clam chowder, better far to have a clam chowder! On no account
let her attempt clear green turtle, which has about as good a chance to be
perfect as a supreme of boned capon--in other words, none whatsoever! And
the same way throughout dinner. Whichever dishes your own particular Nora
or Selma or Marie can do best, those are the ones you must have for your
dinners. Another thing: it is not important to have variety. Because you
gave the Normans chicken casserole the last time they dined with you is no
reason why you should not give it to them again--if that is the "specialty
of the house" as the French say. A late, and greatly loved, hostess whose
Sunday luncheons at a huge country house just outside of Washington were
for years one of the outstanding features of Washington's smartest
society, had the same lunch exactly, week after week, year after year.
Those who went to her house knew just as well what the dishes would be as
they did where the dining-room was situated. At her few enormous and
formal dinners in town, her cook was allowed to be magnificently
architectural, but if you dined with her alone, the chances were ten to
one that the Sunday chicken and pancakes would appear before you.
=DO NOT EXPERIMENT FOR STRANGERS=
Typical dinner-party dishes are invariably the temptation no less than the
downfall of ambitious ignorance. Never let an inexperienced cook _attempt
a new dish_ for company, no matter how attractive her description of it
may sound. Try it yourself, or when you are having family or most intimate
friends who will understand if it turns out all wrong that it is a "trial"
dish. In fact, it is a very good idea to share the testing of it with some
one who can help you in suggestions, if they are needed for its
improvement. Or supposing you have a cook who is rather poor on all dinner
dishes, but makes delicious bread and cake and waffles and oyster stew and
creamed chicken, or even hash! You can make a specialty of asking people
to "supper." Suppers are necessarily informal, but there is no objection
in that. Formal parties play a very small rôle anyway compared to informal
ones. There are no end of people, and the smartest ones at that, who
entertain only in the most informal possible way. Mrs. Oldname gives at
most two formal dinners a year; her typical dinners and suppers are for
eight.
=PROPER DISHING=
The "dishing" is quite as important as the cooking; a smear or thumb-mark
on the edge of a dish is like a spot on the front of a dress!
Water must not be allowed to collect at the bottom of a dish (that is why
a folded napkin is always put under boiled fish and sometimes under
asparagus). And dishes must be hot; they cannot be too hot! Meat juice
that has started to crust is nauseating. Far better have food too hot to
eat and let people take their time eating it than that others should
suffer the disgust of cold victuals! Sending in cold food is one of the
worst faults (next to not knowing how to cook) that a cook can have.
=PROFESSIONAL OR HOME DINING ROOM SERVICE=
Just as it is better to hire a professional dinner-party cook than to run
the risk of attempting a formal dinner with your own Nora or Selma unless
you are very sure she is adequate, in the same way it is better to have a
professional waitress as captain over your own, or a professional butler
over your own inexperienced one, than to have your meal served in spasms
and long pauses. But if your waitress, assisted by the chambermaid,
perfectly waits on six, you will find that they can very nicely manage
ten, even with accompanied dishes.
=BLUNDERS IN SERVICE=
If an inexperienced servant blunders, you should pretend, if you can, not
to know it. Never attract anyone's attention to anything by apologizing or
explaining, unless the accident happens to a guest. Under ordinary
circumstances "least said, soonest mended" is the best policy. If a
servant blunders, it makes the situation much worse to take her to task,
the cause being usually that she is nervous or ignorant. Speak, if it is
necessary to direct her, very gently and as kindly as possible; your
object being to restore confidence, not to increase the disorder. Beckon
her to you and tell her as you might tell a child you were teaching: "Give
Mrs. Smith a tablespoon, not a teaspoon." Or, "You have forgotten the fork
on that dish." Never let her feel that you think her stupid, but encourage
her as much as possible and when she does anything especially well, tell
her so.
=THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF PRAISE=
Nearly all people are quick to censure but rather chary of praise.
Admonish of course where you must, but censure only with justice, and
don't forget that whether of high estate or humble, we all of us like
praise--sometimes. When a guest tells you your dinner is the best he has
ever eaten, remember that the cook cooked it, and tell her it was praised.
Or if the dining-room service was silent and quick and perfect, then tell
those who served it how well it was done. If you are entertaining all the
time, you need not commend your household after every dinner you give, but
if any especial willingness, attentiveness, or tact is shown, don't forget
that a little praise is not only merest justice but is beyond the purse of
no one.