Soup is generally served alone; however, pickles and crackers are a
pleasant accompaniment for oyster-soup, and many serve grated cheese
with macaroni and vermicelli soups. A pea or bean soup (without bread
_croutons_) at one end of the table, with a neat square piece of boiled
pork on a platter at the other end, is sometimes seen. When a ladleful
of the soup is put in the soup-plate by the hostess, the butler passes
it to the host, who cuts off a thin wafer-slice of the pork, and places
it in the soup. The thin pork can be cut with the spoon. Hot boiled rice
is served with gumbo soup. Well-boiled rice, with each grain distinct,
is served in a dish by the side of the soup-tureen. The hostess first
puts a ladleful of soup into the soup-plate, then a spoonful of the rice
in the centre. This is much better than cooking the rice with the soup.
Sometimes little squares (two inches square) of thin slices of brown
bread (buttered) are served with soup at handsome dinners. It is a
French custom. Cold slaw may be served at the same time with soup, and
eaten with the soup or just after the soup-plates are removed.