Prepare and Serve a Meal and Interior Decoration | Page 3

If necessary steady with right hand on edge of dish. Close
contact with the person served always should be avoided. The serving
tray comes into its own for removing or passing cream and sugar,
pepper and salt, etc. Candies, salted nuts, water and wineglasses stay on
the table until the meal is over.
In clearing the table remove glass and silver first, brush up crumbs
which may have fallen on the floor, and carefully shake, fold and put
away the table linen.
CHAPTER III
BREAKFAST
Breakfast is the first meal of the American day. It should be daintily
and deftly served. Fruit, cereal and some main dish (bacon, fish, eggs)
together with toast, hot rolls or muffins, coffee, tea or cocoa, are its
main essentials. The bare, doilied table is popular for breakfast use.
BREAKFAST FRUIT
Fresh pears, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, mandarins and apples

are all served in the same manner--on a plate about six inches across,
with a silver fruit knife for quartering and peeling. If a waitress serves,
fruit knife and plate are placed first, and then the dish containing the
fruit is passed.
Berries--raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, as also
baked apples, stewed fruits (peaches, prunes and apricots) and all
cooked fruits, are offered in little fruit dishes on service plates, together
with powdered (or fine granulated) sugar and cream. Strawberries are
sometimes left unhulled, when of "exhibition" size. They then should
be served in apple bowls or plates, with powdered sugar on the side.
In serving grapes, the waitress, after supplying fruit plates, passes a
compote containing the grapes and offers fruit shears, so that each
guest may cut what he or she desire. Cherries are served in the same
manner, with the addition of a finger bowl.
When grapefruit is served, it is usually as a half, the core removed and
sugar added, on a fruit plate or in a grapefruit bowl, together with an
orange spoon.
Oranges may be served from a compote, whole, and may be eaten cut
crosswise in halves, with the orange spoon; or peeled and eaten in
sections. If oranges are served peeled and sliced on a fruit plate they
may be eaten with a fork. Sugar should always be passed when they are
eaten in this way. Orange juice is the extracted juice served in small
glasses two-thirds full.
Cantaloupe (filled with cracked ice) and honeydew melon (it is smart to
accompany the latter with a slice of lemon) are served in halves or
quarters, on fruit plates (or special melon dishes) and eaten with a fruit
spoon. Sugar, salt and pepper should be offered with these by the
waitress. Watermelon is usually cut in wedges or circles. It should
always be served very cold, on a large fruit plate, and with fruit knife
and fork. If half-melons are served, with the rind, the host cuts
egg-shaped pieces from the fruit, and places it on individual plates for
passing by the waitress.

Bananas may be served "in the skin" at breakfast, or peeled and sliced,
with sugar and cream, or sprinkled with sugar and lemon juice.
Shredded pineapple, sprinkled with sugar, or sliced pineapple (slices an
inch thick) may be served from a large dish by the waitress.
Fruit at breakfast does not necessarily demand a waitress. In may be
served at each cover before the guests and family seat themselves. It
does call for a finger bowl, however. Only when berries or sliced fruits
are served can the finger bowl be omitted.
CEREALS
Cereals are a matter of personal taste. Cooked cereals, such as oatmeal,
rolled oats, hominy, corn-meal mush and cracked wheat should come
on the table hot, and be served in bowls with sugar (brown sugar, if
preferred) and cream. Again, the host may serve the cereal from a large
porringer, the waitress bringing him the individual bowls, and taking
them to the guests when filled. Dry cereals are served in the same way.
Puffed grains or flakes gain crispness and flavor when reheated, not
browned, before serving.
TOAST
The best breakfast toast is that made at the table over an electric toaster.
Be sure, if you have French toast, hot cakes or waffles served, that they
come from the kitchen hot. A perforated silver cover should cover the
plate containing them to prevent their cooling. Never use a soup plate
or bowl for the purpose! The steam cannot escape and the toast grows
soggy. Do not forget syrup when waffles, hot cakes or French toast are
served. Some prefer cinnamon and sugar to syrup with hot cakes, and
they should also be on hand.
BACON
Bacon is the ideal breakfast meat. The rasher of bacon should be served
piping hot on a hot silver platter, in crisp, curling slices. Incidentally, it
should be just as crisp when