Dish

“ When the dinner is all ready to serve the fun will begin. Imagine the surprise of the guests when they sit down to the table, to find the soup served in teacups, the pickles shining forth from the sugar-bowl and the crackers in a covered vegetable dish. The roast beef will be cut in slices and arranged on a silver cake dish, the mashed potatoes in a dainty glass berry dish, and the gravy in small individual sauce dishes. ”

“ This Bouillabaisse a noble dish is— A sort of soup or broth, or brew, Or hotchpotch of all sorts of fishes, That Greenwich never could outdo; ”

“ They fashion the pots, they mould the pans, they carve the tables, they turn the chairs, they dream of the sauces, they dig for the salt, they weave the damask, they mould the dish to serve the Golden Calf. ”

“ Thus the meal is prepared, and now the circle gathers round it, when a boy comes along with a water-skin, pouring a little on the fingers of all in the group, who then proceed, one after the other, to dip their hands in the dish. How their faces shine as they take the savory mess! ”

“ A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt, will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter. ”

“ Whether the dish be carved on the family table, as it rarely fails to be when its head is interested in the cuisine, or whether it is handed in the presence of guests, the quality and the appearance of the dish greatly depend on the garnish. According to the meat, may be added with a view both to taste and appearance, some of the following—purées of sorrel, spinach, and other greens, of turnips, and of potatoes plain, in shapes, or in croquettes; cut carrots, peas, beans, endive, sprouts, and other green vegetables ”

“ On the other hand, with what little compunction do we ourselves, by every available means, harry their numbers to supply our table, and a savoury dish they are at present; cooked when freshly caught they are simply delicious. ”

“ In good old times, when dishes were scarce, when mother, wife, housekeeper, housemaid, and cook were all represented in one woman, and all service was of the most simple and primitive kind, a huge, round yellow pudding dish answered for platter and vegetable dish alike, and the entire contents of the pot, minus the liquor, were placed in this one dish. ”

“ It is the fashion now for great people to have only one dish, and that as plainly cooked as possible. I have been told by a friend of mine, who got a peep at the great dinner the Queen gave the other day to the foreign ambassadors, that there was nothing in the world upon the table, but a huge round of boiled beef, and a great dish of smoking potatoes, with their jackets on. ”

“ The difference between the elegance and refinement of one table and the vulgarity of another often lies merely in the manner of dishing and serving. Again, the step from plain to fancy cooking is very short. A simple and tasteful arrangement, or combination, of materials prepared in the ordinary way will make an ornamental dish. Minced chicken pressed into a ring mold to give it shape, and the center filled with a mushroom sauce, will make a more appetizing dish than if placed carelessly together with no regard to symmetry. ”

“ You need double the supply that the secular orders do when they fast, for your digestion is twice as active as theirs. Supper is now a sadly scanty meal; it consists simply of fish, bread, wine, and fruit. A miserable dish! not miserable as to quantity or quality, but because it is the solitary dish during the forty days of Lent, always excepting bread [Pg 387] and wine ad libitum. Fortunately, the friars are wise and provident; the slender supper is foreseen and provided against at dinner, which consists of four dishes. ”

“ Next the well-roasted bird—of game or poultry—accompanied or followed by salad, and a dish of choice vegetables. Then one light simple sweet, for those who take it, and a slight savory biscuit or morsel of cheese completes the repast. Such a meal contains within its limits all that can be desired for daily enjoyment and use. If well and liberally served, it is complete in every sense of the word. Dessert and its extent is a matter of individual taste ”

“ No one, least of all the French cook, calculates to feast the eye at the expense of the sense of taste, yet it is his experience after long years that good digestion is much more likely to wait upon the appetite that has been stirred to a preliminary enthusiasm by the attractive appearance of a dish. ”

“ The small individual dishes are pleasing, when served on a fresh doily. Lacking the individual dishes, or for variety, a stoneware platter, or a baking-dish may be half filled with the mixture and the eggs broken on top. ”

“ No matter how simple the dish, insist that it be attractive in appearance, and that every dish placed on the table show the care of the cook in its preparation; for instance, have every piece of toast of the same size and shape, evenly browned and carefully arranged on a hot plate. ”

“ Arrange these in a glass dish, and sugar them well. Then pour over them a glass of sherry, a glass of brandy, and a glass of maraschino.
Orange Sauce.
Cold mutton, according to my notions, is [Pg 162] “absolutely beastly,” to the palate. More happy homes have been broken up by this simple dish than by the entire army of Europe. And ’tis a dish which should never be allowed to wander outside the servants’ hall. The superior domestics who take their meals in the steward’s room, would certainly rise in a body, and protest against the indignity of a cold leg, or shoulder. ”

“ And if there is a proper harmony to be attained in the combining of various ingredients, making every perfect dish a poem, there is no less harmony in combining the various dishes for a repast, making a poem in every perfect meal. For every leading dish has its kindred and antagonistic ones: as, at dinner, one would not serve cauliflower with fricasseed chicken, nor turnips with boiled salmon, nor, at tea, currants with cream-toast, nor currants with custard. ”

“ Fitness must of course be observed. If crispness is a part of the excellence of a dish, it would not do to destroy that quality by using a moistening garnish.
Vegetables as garnishes come next in order of suitableness and convenience. When vegetables are placed on the same platter with meats, they not only 13ornament the dish, but contribute to the ease of serving a dinner. When they are used the dish is called à la jardinière or à la printanière. Probably every cook knows how to serve mashed or fried potatoes or green peas in the center of a circle of chops. ”

“ Then fill the dish with hot stewed fruit of any kind, and at once cover it with a layer of bread, gently pressed on the hot fruit. Turn out when cold on to a flat dish, pour over it a white sauce, and serve. ”

“ Take off the largest dishes, and set them on, with one hand, to show the ladies your vigour and strength of back; but always do it between two ladies, that if the dish happens to slip, the soup or sauce may fall on their clothes, and not daub the floor ”

“ All the food is in one dish, from which each person helps himself; the thin, soft bread can be twisted into a sort of spoon, and used to convey liquid food to the mouth, gradually disappearing with the food. ”

“ While a course is being eaten, softly carry out any soiled dishes from the sideboard and fill the glasses. Watch to see what is needed, and offer it. Do not offer any one what is already on his plate; that is, if you are passing a dish all around and see that he has some of it left, skip him and go on to the next. Now [Pg 56] I hear Bridget coming in with the soup-tureen; run and put on your very best apron and announce dinner as though you were the finest waitress in the land!" [Pg 57]
CHAPTER IV WASHING DISHES
It was Margaret's grandmother who gave her the lesson on dish-washing. ”

“ Moreover the odour of the viands on the table excited in me a longing to eat: so I went up to the table, and lifting the cover, found in the middle a porcelain dish, containing four fricasseed fowls, seasoned with spices, round which were four smaller dishes, one containing sweetmeats, another conserve of pomegranate-seeds, a third almond patties and a fourth honey fritters, and the contents of these dishes were part sweet and part acid. ”

“ When the large dish or the baking dish is placed on the table, it should be placed where the vegetable may be conveniently served by the host if it is to be put on the dinner plate or by the hostess in case it is to be served in individual dishes at the table. ”

“ For everyday use, where there is no maid, or only one, set in places convenient to pass, the salt and pepper, vinegar and sugar, bread plate and butter plate, and any small dish of condiment or pickle, with pretty mats for the hot dishes to be set on later, and enough spoons for serving. ”

“ The modern finger-glass and rose-water dish, which are an incidence of every entertainment of pretension, and in higher society as much a parcel of the dinner-table as knives and forks, are, from a mediaeval standpoint, luxurious anachronisms. ”

“ Each article of food is brought on in a single dish, which is placed in the centre of the table, and then each guest helps himself out of the common dish with his chop-sticks, the same chop- sticks being used during the entire meal. ”

“ Nowadays at most of the smart restaurants vegetable and cereal dishes are a feature of almost every meal, and at private houses no luncheon and few dinner menus are considered complete unless a vegetable or cereal dish is included. ”

“ A Jole of Sturgeon, cut it into thin morsels, and lay it round about the dish, Fresh Lamprey bak’d, open the pasty, then take white bread, and cut it thin, lay it in a dish, & with a spoon take out Galentine, & lay it upon the bread with red wine and powder of Cinamon ”

“ When the butler places a dish on the table, and tarries a moment or so for every one to look at it, if it does not happen to be so very attractive in appearance the performance seems very absurd; but when, after putting on the substantial dish, he places a vegetable dish at the other end of the table, his taking the substantial to carve seems a more rational proceeding. ”

“ For this is every cook's opinion, No savoury dish without an onion; ”

“ At the moment of the feast the dish or dishes containing the strong and savoury mixture are set on the middle of the table. But it is not served up till the end. Six or seven persons generally have a plate to themselves. ”

“ The 15th century Nominale enriches the catalogue of dishes then in vogue. It specifies almond-milk, rice, gruel, fish-broth or soup, a sort of fricassee of fowl, collops, a pie, a pasty, a tart, a tartlet, a charlet (minced pork) , apple-juice, a dish called jussell made of eggs and grated bread with seasoning of sage and saffron, and the three generic heads of sod or boiled, roast, and fried meats. In addition to the fish-soup, they had wine-soup, water-soup, ale-soup; and the flawn is reinforced by the froise. ”

“ A simple entrée, such as a dish of macaroni, a scallop dish, a mince, with good sauce (which is easily made where the stock pot is ever ready) , a cheese omelet, a vegetable salad, etc., etc., are suggested as a few of the dishes, which are called by the French plats d’amitié, and should enable any woman to enjoy the pleasure of entertaining unexpected guests in a hospitable manner.
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SERVING THE INFORMAL DINNER
In laying the table for an informal dinner, where the carving is to be done on the table, a napkin to protect the cloth is spread at the carver’s place. ”

“ It is the French cook's knowledge of the subtleties, the nuances of seasoning that stands him in good stead. The American woman who has essayed to use some spice or savory unfamiliar to her and has turned out a dish which her family has declared “tasted like medicine” is, naturally enough, discouraged from wandering after that particular strange god again. ”

“ It was a glorious supper. There was kippered salmon, and Finnan haddocks, and a lamb’s head, and a haggis—a celebrated Scotch dish, gentlemen, which my uncle used to say always looked to him, when it came to table, very much like a Cupid’s stomach—and a great many other things besides, that I forget the names of, but very good things, notwithstanding. ”

“ A dinner interlarded with a row of extra entrées, Roman punch, and hot dessert is unknown except at a public dinner, or in the dining-room of a parvenu. About thirty-five years ago such dinners are said to have been in fashion!
The Balanced Menu
One should always try to choose well-balanced dishes; an especially rich dish balanced by a simple one. Timbale with a very rich sauce of cream and pâté de foie gras might perhaps be followed by French chops, broiled chicken or some other light, plain meat. ”

“ Where but one substantial dish is served, it is permissible to be helped a second time. The dish can be removed to the side-table, and the second portions helped by the servant, if the carver does not care to be interrupted in his own dinner after he has performed the office of cutting the joint. ”

“ Important points in serving each dish.—Each dish should be perfectly done, neither over nor under cooked. All hot dishes should be hot, and cold dishes cold. Lukewarm food is not agreeable. Bread and cake and some kinds of pastry are the only foods that may have the temperature of the room. ”

“ Including vegetables, and sweets, and cheese, I have counted sixty-seven dishes on the bill of fare at one time, so that you have plenty of choice. For a shilling you can get a perfectly splendid dinner. And for sixpence you can get soup, and bread and cheese and butter; and they bring you the soup in a silver basin which is full to the brim. ”

“ In the recipes appended to the little dinners in this book a great many of the French cooks' materials and methods of procedure are set forth. But if the ordinarily experimental American housewife has the flavorings on hand, she will doubtless herself contrive many an alluring dish of her own. Variety is said to be the spice of life. ”