Prepare and Serve a Meal and Interior Decoration | Page 9

bonbon dishes and dishes with salted nuts. But the table must not be crowded. This important rule is responsible for the existence of the frappe table.
The frappe table holds the afternoon tea punch. Since the dining room is apt to be well filled as it is, the frappe table had best be established in some other room. On its luncheon cloth is set the punch or frappe bowl with ladle, and individual ices, frozen creams (not too rich or elaborate) or punch are served in frappe or punch bowls by a friend of the hostess. The small plates on which the frappe glasses are served should be piled on the table with doilies (linen always) between the plates. When served, the glass is filled with the sherbet or cream, and a sherbet spoon laid at the right-hand side of plate (a tray of sherbet spoons belongs to the frappe table equipment, as well as a filled cake basket, dishes of candy, piles of small plates and small linen napkins). Unless you are entertaining guests to the number of a hundred or more, _never use paper doilies at a formal afternoon tea_!
A pretty custom dictates that young girl friends of the hostess serve the guests. They provide the latter with plate and napkin, ask their choice of beverage, and serve it, together with sandwiches and cakes. Or the plates and napkins may be handed the guests as they enter by a waitress stationed at the door, before they are served by the young girls.
A salad should never be offered at a formal afternoon tea! To do so is to commit a social solecism.
CHAPTER VIII
SUPPERS
Supper, "the evening meal," the last of the day, in modern usage often is actually a dinner, the most elaborate meal; the place of the former dinner being taken by the luncheon. A supper is often a particularly elaborate dinner or banquet, as, for instance, the "class supper."
THE LATE SUPPER
The late supper, often given after a theatre party, or a card party, is always an informal affair. Its favorite form is what might be called the "chafing dish supper," where should they wish, the guests may help themselves.
Two chafing dishes or one may grace the table (laid with luncheon cloth or luncheon set, flowers and candles) according to the number of guests. The chafing dish is set before the hostess on a metal tray resting on an asbestos mat. A teakettle of boiling water, an electric toaster (the asbestos mat of the chafing dish laid over the flame may also be used for keeping toast or croutons made in the kitchen warm while on the table), and plates already heated go with the chafing dish. Also, near at hand, should be matches, an extra napkin, a "sampling" fork and spoon, and a bowl of some sort for burned matches and the "sampling silver."
All that is to be cooked, dry or liquid, should already have been measured and be ready for use. All bowls, small dishes and pitchers containing ingredients for any one dish should be grouped on a single tray, at the left of the person attending to the chafing dish.
Chafing-dish rarebits may be of every kind, and every rarebit should have some main dominating flavor, as green or red pepper, onion, tomato, etc. Cheese souffles or sweet souffles are also successful chafing-dish products, as well as cooked fish heated in a piquant sauce.
For chafing-dish purposes there are available: Meats: Beef, Venison, Lamb, Cooked Tongue, Bacon and Ham, Chicken, Chicken Livers and Sweetbreads. Sea Food: Lobster, Terrapin, Crab Meat, Frogs' Legs, Oysters, Shrimps, Scallops, Sardines, Salmon and Finnan Haddie. Eggs, Cheese, Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Peas should also be included with this list.
Sliced and toasted bread or crackers heated usually form the basis of the chafing-dish preparation. Rarebits suppose toast or crackers, but creamed dishes demand toast. The chafing dish also pays homage to the sweet tooth in the shape of fudges (Ginger, Nut Raisin, Peanut Butter, Marshmallow, etc.); and hot coffee, wine cup, mineral water, beer, ale and cider are the customary chafing-dish supper drinkables.
CHAPTER IX
OUTSIDE THE EIGHTEENTH AMENDMENT
From the alcoholic beverages of the chafing-dish supper to those of the dinner is a natural transition. At the formal dinner wines often accompany the courses and, as already mentioned, liqueurs and cordials supply the final liquid note after the coffee. The theory of alcoholic beverages at the formal dinner is a simple one. Certain fixed and definite rules obtain and are generally observed. Three wines may be served, though the best social form prefers one or two.
SHERRY OR MADEIRA
Sherry or Madeira may accompany the soup course. They should be poured after the soup has been placed, and served from a decanter. In general wine should always be poured slowly, and glasses should be filled only two-thirds. The etiquette is