IN THE DINING-ROOM.
ONE’S dining-room should be large enough to enable a person to pass
around the table comfortably when the family or guests are all seated.
It should also be light and sunny, and easily heated and ventilated. The
most essential pieces of furniture are a table of generous width,
capable of being enlarged, comfortable chairs, and a sideboard. After
that, if the room be large enough and the purse will admit of the
purchase of a cabinet or two, with glass fronts and sides, so much the
better. In these there can be kept dainty bits of china and glassware.
These cabinets will brighten a dining-room more than anything else you
can put into it, possibly excepting pictures. If there be no room for a
cabinet, a corner cupboard and some hanging shelves will be a great
addition. Pictures that suggest pleasant things are, of course, always
desirable. A few thrifty ferns, flowering plants, or evergreens add a
great deal to the brightness and beauty of any room, but particularly
the dining-room. Have them there if you possibly can.
Setting the Table.
The table should stand in the middle of the room. Cover it with a thick
felt or a double-faced Canton flannel cloth. Over this spread the white
damask cloth, having the centre fold come exactly in the centre of the
table. Pass the hand over the cloth to make it lie smooth. If there be a
centrepiece, carving, or tray cloths, or table mats, have them lie
perfectly straight and smooth on the cloth. At each seat place on the
right the knives, spoons, and glasses; on the left, the forks and
napkins. Have the edge of the knife toward the plate. Lay the forks with
the tines up, and the spoons with the bowls up. Have the spacing between
the seats regular, and the space between the knife and fork about seven
inches. Set the glasses at the points of the knives. If individual
salt-cellars and pepper bottles be used, they are to be placed at the
head of the plates; otherwise, place the cellars and bottles at the
corners of the table. The tablespoons may be placed at the corners of
the table, or near the dishes where they will be required in serving. In
the centre of the table there may be set a dish of flowers or fruit.
These general directions apply to the setting of the table for any meal.
Nearly all housekeepers have their own ideas about the arrangement of
the table, thus securing variety and individuality.
Refinement not Exclusively for the Rich.
The incomes and style of living in this country have such a wide range
that it would be impossible to give here directions for the table
service which would meet the wants of all classes. The woman of limited
means who does her own work could not serve her meals the same as one
who keeps one or more servants. As far as possible she will so arrange
her meals that it shall not be necessary to rise from the table more
than once or twice. Indeed, it is possible to have everything on the
table for breakfast, tea, or luncheon, but at dinner time the meat,
vegetables, and soiled plates should be removed before the dessert is
put on. No woman, no matter how simply she lives, should get into a
slipshod way of serving her meals. The table can be made, and should be,
a means of refinement and pleasure. Do not have it ceremonious, yet
strive for neatness, brightness, and order. No one has a right to mar
the sociability of a meal by bringing a gloomy countenance or
disagreeable subject to the table. When the housekeeper has done all she
can to make the meal suitable and appetizing, each member of the family
should do his or her share to bring life and sunshine into the
conversation.
The directions which follow may, it is hoped, be helpful in some degree
to the young housekeeper, no matter what her manner of living may be. It
is easy to omit all but one or two courses, thus making the table
arrangement and service simple; but the general principles may be
observed just the same.
At the Breakfast Table.
Breakfast being the plainest meal of the day, the arrangement of the
table should always be simple. The cloth should be spotless. At each
person’s seat place a knife, fork, teaspoon or dessert spoon, tumbler,
and napkin, and if fresh fruit is to be served, a finger bowl, if there
be no servant. If you have a waitress, she will place the finger bowls
on as you finish with the fruit. If fresh fruit be served, there must
also be placed at each seat a fruit knife and plate. Have the dish of
fruit in the centre of the table. Have a tray cloth at each end of the
table. Place a little butter plate near the top of each plate. Put four
tablespoons on the table, either in two corners, or beside the dishes
where they will be used in serving. Put the carving knife and fork at
the head of the table, and the cups and saucers, sugar and cream,
coffee-pot, hot-water bowl, and the mush dishes at the other end.
The mistress of the house serves the mush, and when the fruit and this
course have been served, the dishes are removed and the hot plates and
other food brought in; the head of the house serving the hot meats,
etc., while the mistress pours the coffee. It sometimes happens that a
man of business lacks time to serve breakfast, in which case the
mistress of the house attends to that duty. If there be a waitress, she
passes the plates when they are ready; also the bread, butter, and
coffee. The hostess usually puts the sugar and cream in the coffee,
first asking each one if he will have these additions. After all have
been served, it is quite common to dismiss the waitress, ringing for her
if her services be again required. When there is but one servant, the
family help each other after the breakfast has been placed upon the
table. Fresh water is good for most people, and each person should be
served with a tumblerful on taking a seat at the table. If there be hot
cakes or waffles, they should come after the meats, and there should be
a fresh set of warm plates, as well as of knives and forks.
The Dinner Table.
The silver required depends upon the number of courses to be served, but
a few suggestions may help one to decide what is proper for her own
table. The silver for all the courses except the dessert may be put on
the table when it is set, or it may be placed there by the waitress as
needed for each course. Dinner plates are placed on the table or not,
when it is set, as one pleases. The silver needed for an ordinary course
dinner would be a small fork for raw oysters, tablespoon for soup, fork
for fish, knife and fork for meat, and fork for salad; carving knife and
fork at the head of the table, soup ladle at the head of the mistress’s
plate, and, if the dinner be served from the table, spoons for serving.
In the centre of the table set rather a low dish containing flowers or
ferns. On each side of it place some small dishes of pretty design for
olives, salted almonds, confectionery, and such things; or these small
dishes may be set in the corners of the table. If the dinner is to be
served on the table, the small dishes should be put in the corners; but
if it is to be served from the sideboard, such dishes may be placed
wherever they look best and are most convenient. Lay the tablespoons in
pairs; in the corners, of course, if the dinner is to be served on the
table. In the fold of each napkin lay a small square of bread or a small
roll. The fruit and dishes for the dessert may be disposed on the
sideboard. All the dishes for a handsome dinner service may be of one
pattern, or for each course a different kind of china may be used. For
the olives, almonds, etc., it is desirable to have bits of cut glass, or
pretty little china dishes. Such wares are used much more than silver.
The dishes on which fish, meats, and entrées are served may be round,
oval, square, plain white, or richly colored Chinese or Japanese ware.
The plates for the several courses are, of course, carefully to be kept
hot or cold, as each course may require, until serving time.
After-dinner coffee cups, when all are of different patterns, give a
remarkably pretty effect. Indeed, there is so much that is beautiful in
table-ware nowadays that one can have a handsome service with means
either large or limited.
Luncheon and Tea.
Family luncheons and teas are rarely served in courses. Tea, cocoa, or
chocolate is, as a rule, served at these meals, so that the table is set
in practically the same manner as for breakfast; but the plates are
placed for each person, and unless there be meat to carve, the carving
knife and fork are not put on. The bread, butter, cake, preserves, etc.,
are placed on the table when it is set. If hot meats, vegetables, soup,
or cakes be served, the cold plates must be changed for hot ones. When
meats, vegetables, or salads have been served at these meals, the plates
should be changed before the cake and preserves are passed.
For luncheon, such dishes as these are suitable: eggs in any form,
soups, salads, cold meats, with baked or warmed up potatoes, any kind of
broiled meat or fish, any simple made dish, fresh fruit, stewed fruit,
preserves, cake, gingerbread, etc.
Any dish (except soup and fresh fruit) that you serve for luncheons will
be suitable for tea.
Duties of the Waitress.
Although every housekeeper may have some methods peculiarly her own in
the matter of waiting upon the table, still there are some customs that
are almost universal in refined households.
If the water has not already been poured, the waitress pours it as soon
as the guests sit down at the table. If there be raw oysters, they
should be served first. Usually they are arranged on the plates, and
placed at each person’s seat before the guests come in.
When the oyster plates have been removed, the soup tureen and hot soup
plates are placed before the hostess. The waitress lifts the cover off
the tureen, inverting it at once, that no drops of steam shall fall from
it, and carries it from the room. The hostess puts a ladleful of soup
into each plate and hands it to the waitress, who places it before the
guests, going in every case to the right hand side. Some hostesses
always serve the ladies first, while others serve the guests in
rotation.
The meat is set before the host, the vegetables being placed before the
hostess or on the sideboard, as one chooses. The waitress passes each
plate as the host hands it to her. She then passes vegetables, bread,
sauce, etc.
The salad is to be served by the hostess. After that the table is
brushed and the dessert is brought in and placed before the hostess. The
coffee follows. If fruit be served, it is passed before the coffee.
Finger bowls are brought in after the made dessert has been served. A
dainty doily is spread on a dessert plate and the finger bowl placed on
this. The bowl should be about one quarter full of water. Each guest
lifts the bowl and doily from the plate and places them at the left hand
side. The doily is never to be used to wipe the fingers.
A good waitress will not pile one dish upon another when removing them
from the table. She should be provided with a tray for all the smaller
dishes, and should remove the plates one or two at a time.
All dishes from which people help themselves, such as vegetables, bread,
butter, etc., should be passed at the left; those that are set before
people, such as soup plates, clean plates, water glasses, finger bowls,
etc., should be passed at the right.
Serving Meals without a Servant.
A housekeeper who keeps no servant is often puzzled as to how to serve
dessert, how to serve the other dishes at dinner, whether the plates
should be distributed on the table or placed beside the carver, and so
forth.
The conditions are so different in different families that no arbitrary
rules can be given for these things, but here are a few suggestions
which may be helpful. Have everything ready in the kitchen to put on the
table without delay, and place the dishes where they will keep hot until
wanted. Eggs in any form must, of course, be served as soon as cooked;
therefore they must be timed very carefully. The mush should be put on
the table at the housekeeper’s own place, and served in saucers or
little dishes that come for that purpose. Any one who does not eat mush
or fruit may decline it, and wait for the next course. After the mush
has been served, remove the dishes, and place the rest of the breakfast
on the table. The plates should be hot, and be piled before or at one
side of the carver. While he is serving, pour the coffee. When there is
another member of the family who can put the second course on the table,
the housekeeper should be relieved of this part of the work. It is hard
on a woman not only to have to prepare the breakfast, but also to rise
from the table, bring in the second course and serve this, as she often
must, since, as a rule, men are in a hurry in the morning and cannot
assist their wives in serving the breakfast.
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