Prepare and Serve a Meal and Interior Decoration | Page 8

cakes are passed.
The appearance of the finger bowl service follows the removal of the dessert plates. The finger bowl should be approximately one-fourth full of luke-warm water (never cold) and garnished. The dessert plate is removed with the left hand, the plate, finger bowl, and doily served with the left. The passing of the bonbons concludes the actual service at the table.
Coffee, as already mentioned, is poured by the hostess in the drawing room and, after the waitress has collected and removed the coffee service (and cups and saucers) she may, in the event that cordials are served, return with the cordial service, which the hostess pours and the waitress serves as in the case of the coffee.
If the ladies only retire to the drawing room, one waitress serves them there with coffee, while another remains in the dining room. Here she passes cigars and cigarettes on a tray, together with a lighted candle or matches, and then serves coffee and cordials or brandy and soda.
It is good form for the waitress to serve carbonated water in apollinaris glasses in the drawing room about an hour after the conclusion of the dinner.
THREE FORMAL DINNER MENUS
1. Grapefruit. Chicken Consomme with Oysters. Bread Sticks (served like roll in napkin). Deviled Crabs. Chicken Mousse with Sauterne Jelly. Saddle of Mutton. White Potato Croquettes. Carrots and Turnips a la Poulette. Currant Mint Sorbet. Mushrooms au Casserole. Roast Grouse, Bread Sauce. Watercress Salad. Willard Souffle. Strawberry Ice Cream. Salted Almonds. Bonbons. Crackers and Cheese. Black Coffee.
2. Oyster Cocktail. Saltines. Mushroom and Sage Soup. Dinner Braids. Lobster Chops. Cucumber Boats. Sauce Tartare. Swedish Timbales with Calf's Brains. Larded Fillet of Beef with Truffles. Brown Mushroom Sauce, Potato Rings. Flageolets. Buttered Carrots. Asparagus Jelly with Pistachio Bisque. Ice Cream. Cream Sponge Balls. Salted Almonds. Bonbons. Water Thins. Neufchatel Cheese. Black Coffee. (From "A Book of Good Dinners for My Friend": Fannie Merrit Farmer.)
3. Cocktails. Caviar Sandwiches. Selected Strawberries. Mock Bouillon. Olives. Sherry. Rolled Cassava Cakes. Turbans of Flounder. Dressed Cucumbers. Rolls. Delmonico Tomatoes. Roasted Incubator Chickens. Chantilly Asparagus Potatoes. Buttered Asparagus Tips. Champagne. Grapefruit and Alligator Pear Salad, Paprika Crackers. Montrose Pudding. Small Cakes. Coffee. Cordials. (From "Table Service," Lucy G. Allen).
CHAPTER VII
AFTERNOON TEAS
Afternoon teas are of two kinds, formal and informal, and the informal outdoor tea in the open, on the lawn or in the garden, is a variant of the latter variety. Here the tea wagon comes into play, and tea is often tea in name only, since at summer outdoor teas not only iced tea, but iced coffee, iced chocolate or punch are often served.
THE INFORMAL TEA
Do not set a table for the informal tea. The tea service is merely brought to the sun parlor, drawing room or living room in which the tea is to be served, and placed on the table. There the hostess makes and pours the tea, unless she prefers to have it brought in on a tea tray already made for pouring.
The tea service comprises: a teakettle for boiling water with filled alcohol lamp and matches; a tea caddy with teaspoon and (if only a few cups are to be made) a tea ball. A tea creamer, cut sugar, a saucer of sliced lemon, and cups and saucers with spoon on cup saucer, as well as tea napkins complete the service. The water brought in in the teakettle should be hot. If this precaution is observed, the tea will boil very soon after the lamp is lighted. The sandwiches served at an informal afternoon tea should be very simple: lettuce, olive or nut butter, or plain bread and butter, nor should the small cakes also passed be elaborate or rich.
THE FORMAL TEA
The formal tea--a tea becomes formal as soon as cards are sent out for it--is a very different affair. As many as four ladies may pour, two during the first, and two during the second hour. Friends of the hostess--they serve all refreshments, though waitresses assist, removing soiled cups and plates and bringing in fresh ones--preside at either table end, and the table is decorated (flowers and candles). At one end of the luncheon cloth (or the table may be laid with doilies) stands the service tray, with teapot, hot-water pot, creamer, sugar bowl with tongs and cut sugar, and sliced lemons in dish with lemon fork. The tray also contains cup and saucers (each saucer with spoon, handle paralleling cup). The coffee, bouillon or chocolate service is established in the same manner at the other end of the table. If coffee is served, the service tray is equipped with urn, cream and sugar; if chocolate, whipped cream in bowl with ladle; if bouillon, the urn alone.
Each lady who pours must have a large napkin convenient to guard her gown. Arranged along the table should be plates of sandwiches and cakes,