Cutlery

“ The dinner knife should be sharp enough to perform its office without too much muscular effort, or the possible accident of a duck's wing flying unexpectedly "from cover" under the ill-directed stress of a despairing carver's hand. I have seen the component parts of a fricasseed chicken leave the table, not untouched—oh! no; every one had been sawing at it for a half-hour—but uneaten it certainly was, for obvious reasons. The cutlery was pretty, but practically unequal to even spring chicken. ”

“ As with the sharpening steel, so with the fork which accompanies the carving knife—it too should have a guard to prevent the knife slipping and injuring the left hand.
If you buy the best cutlery from the most representative firms you will have the best results and be well repaid. Good cutlery, like everything good, is more expensive than the cheap varieties. Good cutlery may stand up longer under bad usage than poor cutlery ”

“ In the United States of America machinery has been extensively adopted for performing the various mechanical operations in forging and fitting table cutlery, and in Sheffield it is employed to a great extent in the manufacture of table and pocket knife blades, scissors and razors. The cutler of the 18th century was an artisan who forged and ground the blades and fitted them in the hafts ready for sale; to-day the division of labour is carried to an extreme degree. ”

“ It is right to add that although throughout the Dominion the table cutlery bears the names of the leading Sheffield houses, the more easily cleaned plated cutlery is coming into some use. During the past year 919 dozen were imported, to which the United States contributed 774 dozen and Great Britain only 140. ”

“ Sometimes the cutting edge alone is of steel, backed or strengthened with iron, to which it is welded. The tang, or part of the blade by which it is fastened to the handles, and other non-cutting portions, are also very often of iron. Brass, German silver, silver, horn, tortoise-shell, ivory, bone, mother-of-pearl, and numerous fancy woods are all brought into requisition for handles and other parts of cutlery, each demanding special treatment according to its nature. ”

“ When the meal consists of one dish, a knife and fork, either large or small, according to choice, and a small knife for bread and butter, should be laid for each person. When fish is included in the breakfast menu, the knife and fork provided for the service must be placed to the right and left outside the ordinary knife and fork. When the breakfast comprises several dishes, usually three knives and two forks are laid instead of one, but there is a steadily growing tendency in this direction, to avoid an unnecessary display of silver and cutlery. ”

“ But in neat and careful serving it is essential to have a soup-ladle, a gravy or sauce ladle, a pair of tongs or shells for block sugar, a slender-tined silver fork for pickles, a plentiful supply of large and medium-sized spoons, a carving-rest, a crumb-scraper, and at least one broad silver knife and fork, which if occasion requires may do duty at several courses.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST.
In offering a second portion of anything do not remind one that he has already been helped. ”

“ He holds his pan in his hand, lays his biscuit on the spar, his drink along side of it, takes his piece of potato, turnip, cabbage with his finger, serves his bone in the same way, and if the piece of meat which has fallen to his lot needs to be divided he feels for his sheath knife which he carries all the time in its sheath behind him, holds the meat with one hand and makes the sheath knife play the part both of knife and fork. ”

“ When it comes before the carver, he should place the carving-knife under the shoulder, and dexterously remove it. Having so done, he should place under the shoulder a slice of fresh butter, and then prepare some salt, cayenne pepper, and the juice of an orange or a lemon, which should be also poured over the part of the lamb from which the shoulder has been separated, and then pour the gravy with the gravy-spoon over the lamb, so that the butter, etc., may amalgamate well with the gravy. You have then the breast and the ribs, and the shoulder on the dish, ready to help your friends. ”

“ Crooked spreading of a table is an abomination.
At each place put a plate, knife, fork, and two spoons, the knife and spoons to the right, with the napkin beside them; the tumbler also on the right. The fork must be on the left, and near it the bread-and-butter plate. If fruit is the first course, there should be at each place a fruit-plate with a doily, finger-bowl, and fruit-knife on it. For oranges an orange-spoon should also be laid on the plate. When a cereal is the first course, the porridge bowls or saucers should be at each plate. ”

“ We lead here a strangely wild life. As we had no mules to bring our provisions, implements for cooking and labor, &c., we were obliged to bring them ourselves. We therefore left behind us every thing which could by any possibility be dispensed with. An iron pan, which we use for washing gold, serves also for boiling our coffee. A frying-pan is our only cooking utensil. In this one of the company—who leaves work before the others for the purpose—fries some pork, which is rancid, and then, in the fat, fries some flour batter. ”

“ A flour-dredger and a pepper-pot, a potato-cutter, patty pans, and those little tall tins that you bake castle puddings in, the round wooden moulds with which dairy-maids imprint cows and swans upon pats of butter, the kitchen mortar, especially the big marble one, so heavy that cook does not care to use it, brown earthenware bowls and stewing-pots, the lids of tea-pots, clothes-pegs, jars that have held ginger, and jars that have held jam—especially the brownish corrugated kind of jar—all these things and many more you may glean in a kitchen whose Queen is kind. ”

“ Cut your bread with your knife and break it not. Lay a clean trencher [20] before you, and when your pottage is brought, take your spoon and eat quietly; and do not leave your spoon in the dish, I pray you.
Look ye be not caught leaning on the table, and keep clear of soiling the cloth.
Do not hang your head over your dish, or in any wise drink with full mouth.
Keep from picking your nose, your teeth, your nails at meal-time—so we are taught.
Advise you against taking so muckle meat into your mouth but that ye may right well answer when men speak to you. ”

“ All meats served in mass, should be carved in thin slices, and each laid upon one side of the plate, carefully avoiding soiling the edge, or offending the delicacy of ladies, in particular, by too-ensanguined juices.
Different kinds of food should never be mixed on the plate. Keep each portion of the accompaniments of your meats neatly separated, and, where you pay for decency and comfort, take it as a matter of course that your plate, knife, and fork are to be changed as often as you partake of a different dish of meat. ”

“ Paper-bag cookery should appeal especially to the caterer for a small family. The difficulty of providing suitable joints for households of three or four persons is very great. A small piece of sirloin or half leg of mutton dries up to nothing when cooked in the ordinary way, and loud are the complaints that the flavour and juiciness of a large joint is not to be had under ten to twelve pounds of meat. Yet, if the housewife invests in the large, juicy joint desired, she finds it a very expensive business. One day's dinner hot and one cold is all that is really relished. ”

“ Even in the fifteenth century the appliances for cookery were evidently far more numerous than they had been. An illustrated vocabulary portrays, among other items, the dressing-board, the dressing-knife, the roasting-iron, the frying-pan, the spit-turner (in lieu of the old turn-broach) , the andiron, the ladle, the slice, the skummer; and the assitabulum, or saucer, first presents itself. It seems as if the butler and the pantler had their own separate quarters ”

“ One skillet and a couple of frying pans, a bag for flour or meal, another bag for salt, sugar and coffee, divided by a knot tied between, served the purpose as well. The skillet passed from mess to mess. Each mess generally owned a frying pan, but often one served a company. ”

“ Unless a change takes place in the present fashion, none except cooks will know anything about carving, which was once considered an art necessary to every gentleman. The boast of the high-born Southerner, that he could carve a canvas-back holding it on his fork, will be as unknown as the driving of a four-in-hand.
Old-fashioned butlers sometimes carve in the pantry, but in the most modern service all carving is done by the cook. Cold meats are, in the English service, put whole on the sideboard and the family and guests cut off what they choose themselves. ”

“ For instance, a plate in which meat is cooked is called a meat vessel, the knife with which it is cut is called a meat knife, the spoon with which one eats the soup that was cooked in a meat pot, though there is no meat in the soup, is a meat spoon, and to use that spoon for a milk thing is prohibited. ”

“ If all that they have to eat at that time is contained in the kettle, each, extracts, with his fingers or his knife, a piece of meat or a bone with meat on it, and, holding it in one hand, eats, while with the other hand each, in turn, supplies himself, by means of a great wooden spoon, from the porridge in the pot. ”

“ Such, with a knife and a spoon for each, is their equipment for the meal, for none, save the carver, has both knife and fork. In a corner of the hall is a basket for the broken-meats destined for the poor, a leathern sack being also provided for foods with gravy or sauce. ”

“ Utensils.—For bread-making purposes, earthen or china ware is preferable to either tin or wooden utensils: being a poor conductor, it protects the sponge from the cold air much more effectually than tin, and is much more easily kept clean and sweet than wood. The utensil should be kept exclusively for the purpose of bread-making, and should never be allowed to contain any sour substance. The bowl should be thoroughly scalded before and after each using. Use silver or granite-ware spoons for stirring the bread. Iron and tin discolor the sponge. ”

“ One must learn first of all to carve neatly, without scattering crumbs or splashing gravy over the cloth or platter; also to cut straight, uniform slices. This may seem an easy matter; but do we often see pressed beef, tongue, or even bread cut as it should be? Be careful to divide the material in such a manner that each person may be served equally well. Have you never received all flank, or a hard dry wing, while another guest had all tenderloin, or the second joint? ”

“ The tea-spoons, cups, saucers, and milk-jug, come next to be washed in warm water, and lastly, the silver forks, plates, and butter-dish; by this arrangement the articles not greasy will not be dimmed by those that are; the knives should be put aside in a knife-box, to be taken away by the person who is to clean them, and the tray, after being washed over, and well rubbed up, should be placed in the butler’s pantry, with its face to the wall, and each tea-cup hung up on a nail, with the saucers ranged below on shelves for the purpose ”

“ If the dessert is fruit, a fruit napkin may be used in place of the doily, the real purpose of which is to prevent the bowl from sliding about the plate in moving it. A fork and silver knife, or knife and spoon as the fruit may require, should be served with it.
General Suggestions for Waiters.—In serving a dish from which people are expected to help themselves, always go to the left side.
Soup, food in individual dishes, clean plates, and finger bowls should be set down before people at their right hand. ”

“ An old-fashioned iron kettle in which to stew the beans and boil the dried apples, or vice versa, coffee pots, frying pans, tin plates, cups, iron knives and forks, spoons and a combination dish and bread-pan made up the remainder of the cooking and eating utensils. ”

“ A cast-iron skillet with legs to lift it above the coals and ashes. As all cooking vessels were 55 used at an open fire they were all made either to hang above it like a pot or to stand before it like a tin oven, or to rest upon its coals like a three-legged skillet.
FIGURE 5
A tin kitchen or roaster. A box of tin standing on legs and with one side open. A steel spit was stuck through the meat and the meat was fastened to it by skewers, which passed through the meat and through small holes in the spit itself. ”

“ For cooking you will need an iron pot and boiling kettle, tin kettles fitting inside of one another, a frying-pan with a handle like the kettle, a coffee-pot, some knives and tin plates, cups, spoons, forks and deep dishes, and above all an oyster broiler. ”

“ Watch a good carver, and practice when you have a chance. A few simple directions can be given, but a demonstration is really necessary. First and foremost, have a sharp, strong knife, and a strong fork. The next essential is a platter large enough to hold the meat, without having it slip off. The fork must be firmly placed in the meat, and the meat held down. ”

“ Season and flour the meat, place a small piece of suet on top, insert in bag, fasten with paper clips, and put on a broiler in a hot oven, reducing the heat after about five minutes. Allow fifteen minutes for each pound. It will be a rich brown on the outside but rare and juicy. With an exceptionally sharp carving knife the meat should be cut in very thin, appetizingly rare and tender slices. ”