After a fast of twelve or thirteen hours, the system requires something
substantial as preparation for the labors of the day; consequently, I
consider the American breakfasts more desirable for an active people
than those of France or England.
In France, the first breakfast consists merely of a cup of coffee and a
roll. A second breakfast, at eleven o’clock, is more substantial, dishes
being served which may be eaten with a fork (_déjeuner à la
fourchette_), as a chop with a potato _soufflé_. No wonder there are
_cafés_ in Paris where American breakfasts are advertised, for it takes
one of our nationality a very short time to become dissatisfied with
this meagre first meal.
In England, breakfast is a very informal meal. After some fatiguing
occasion, if one should desire the luxury of an extra nap, he is not
mercilessly expected at the table simply because it is the
breakfast-hour; for there the breakfast-hour is any time one chances to
be ready for it. Gentlemen and ladies read their papers and letters in
the breakfast-room--a practice which, of course, is more agreeable for
guests than convenient for servants. However, if one can afford it, why
not? This habit requires a little different setting of the table. It is
decorated with flowers or plants, and upon it are placed several kinds
of breads, fruits, melons, potted meats, and freshest of boiled eggs.
But the substantial dishes must be served from the sideboard, where they
are kept in silver chafing-dishes over spirit-lamps. As members of the
family or guests enter, the servant helps them each once, then leaves
the room. If they have further wants, they help themselves or ring a
bell.
The American breakfast is all placed upon the table, unless oatmeal
porridge should be served as a first course. Changes of plates are also
necessary when cakes requiring sirup or when melons or fruits are
served.
Let us now set the American breakfast-table.
The coffee-urn and silver service necessary are placed in a straight
line before the hostess. The one or two kinds of substantials are set
before the host; vegetables or _entrées_ are placed on the sides. Do not
have them askew. It is quite as easy for an attendant to place a dish in
a straight line as in an oblique angle with every other dish on the
table.
I advocate the general use of oatmeal porridge for breakfast. Nothing is
more wholesome, and nothing more relished after a little use. If not
natural, the taste should be acquired. It is invaluable for children,
and of no less benefit for persons of mature years. Nearly all the
little Scotch and Irish children are brought up on it. When Queen
Victoria first visited Scotland, she noticed the particularly ruddy and
healthy appearance of the children, and, after inquiry about their diet
and habits, became at once a great advocate for the use of porridge. She
used it for her own children, and it was at once introduced very
generally into England. Another of its advantages is that serving it as
a first course enables the cook to prepare many dishes, such as steaks,
omelets, etc., just as the family sit down to breakfast; and when the
porridge is eaten, she is ready with the other dishes “smoking hot.”
It would be well if more attention were given to breakfasts than is
usually bestowed. The table might have a fresher look with flowers or a
flowering plant in the centre. The breakfast napery is very pretty now,
with colored borders to suit the color of the room, the table-cloth and
napkins matching.
The beefsteaks should be varied, for instance, one morning with a tomato
sauce, another _à la maître d’hôtel_, or with a brown sauce, or
garnished with water-cresses, green pease, fried potatoes, potato-balls,
etc., instead of being always the same beefsteak, too frequently
overcooked or undercooked, and often floating in butter.
Melons, oranges, compotes, any and all kinds of fruits, should be
served at breakfast. In the season, sliced tomatoes, with a French or
_Mayonnaise_ dressing, is a most refreshing breakfast dish. A great
resource is in the variety of omelets, and with a little practice,
nothing is so easily made. One morning it may be a plain omelet;
another, with macaroni and cheese; another, with fine herbs; another,
with little strips of ham or with oysters. The English receipt on page
148 makes a pleasant change for a veal cutlet. When chickens are no
longer very young, the receipt on page 175 (deviled chicken), with a
Cunard sauce or a white sauce, is another change. The different
arrangements of meat-balls and croquettes, with tomato, cream, apple, or
brown sauces, are delicious when they are freshly and carefully made.
As there are hundreds of delicious breakfast dishes, which only require
a little attention and interest to understand, how unfortunate it must
be for a man to have a wife who has nothing for breakfast but an
alternation of juiceless beefsteak, greasy and ragged mutton-chops, and
swimming hash, with unwholesome hot breads to make up deficiencies!
Breakfast parties are very fashionable, being less expensive than
dinners, and just as satisfactory to guests. They are served generally
about ten o’clock, although any time from ten to twelve o’clock may be
chosen for the purpose. It seems to me that ten o’clock, or even nine
o’clock (it depends upon the persons invited), is the preferable hour.
Guests might prefer to retain their strength by a repast at home if the
breakfast-hour were at twelve o’clock, and then the fine breakfast would
be less appreciated. At breakfast parties, with the exception of the
silver service being on the table all the time for tea and coffee, the
dishes are served in courses precisely as for dinner.
In England, breakfast parties are perhaps more in favor than lunch
parties, especially among the _literati_. Macaulay said, when extolling
the merits of breakfast parties as compared with all other
entertainments, “Dinner parties are mere formalities; but you invite a
man to breakfast because you want to see _him_.”
Three bills of fare are given for breakfast parties, which will show the
order of different courses:
_Winter Breakfast._
1st Course.--Broiled sardines on toast, garnished with slices of
lemon. Tea, coffee, or chocolate.
2d Course.--Larded sweet-breads, garnished with French pease. Cold
French rolls or petits pains. Sauterne.
3d Course.--Small fillets or the tender cuts from
porter-house-steaks, served on little square slices of toast, with
mushrooms.
4th Course.--Fried oysters; breakfast puffs.
5th Course.--Fillets of grouse (each fillet cut in two), on little
thin slices of fried mush, garnished with potatoes à la Parisienne.
6th Course.--Sliced oranges, with sugar.
7th Course.--Waffles, with maple sirup.
_Early Spring Breakfast._
1st Course.--An Havana orange for each person, dressed on a fork
(page 338).
2d Course.--Boiled shad, maître d’hôtel sauce; Saratoga potatoes.
Tea or coffee.
3d Course.--Lamb-chops, tomato sauce. Château Yquem.
4th Course.--Omelet, with green pease, or garnished with parsley
and thin diamonds of ham, or with shrimps, etc., etc.
5th Course.--Fillets of beef, garnished with water-cresses and
little round radishes; muffins.
6th Course.--Rice pancakes, with maple sirup.
_Summer Breakfast._
1st Course.--Melons.
2d Course.--Little fried perch, smelts, or trout, with a sauce
Tartare, the dish garnished with shrimps and olives. Coffee, tea,
or chocolate.
3d Course.--Young chickens, sautéd, with cream-gravy, surrounded
with potatoes à la neige. Claret.
4th Course.--Poached eggs on anchovy-toast.
5th Course.--Little fillets of porter-house-steaks, with tomatoes à
la Mayonnaise.
6th Course.--Peaches, quartered, sweetened, and half-frozen.