School and Home Cooking

by Carlotta C. Greer

While a general rule for laying silver is to place each piece at each cover in the order of its use, the knives are usually all grouped together at the right of the plate and the spoons laid together at the right of the knives. It is advisable, however, to place the spoons and knives in the order of their use, i.e. place the spoon that is to be used first farthest to the right and the knife that is to be used first, farthest to the right of the group of knives. Since only forks are placed at the left of the plate, they should be laid in the order of their use, that first to be used being placed farthest to the left (see Figure 33).

All silver should be placed from one half to one inch from the edge of the table; the sharp edges of the blades of the knives should be turned towards the plates; the spoons and forks should be placed with their bowls and tines turned up. The butter spreaders may be laid across the bread- and-butter plates. Generally when soup and raw oysters are served, the oyster fork is laid across the soup spoon. If the silver that is to be used in serving a dish of food is placed on the table, it should be laid beside not in the dish of food.

TABLE ACCESSORIES.—A low bowl of flowers or fruit, tastefully arranged, makes a pleasing centerpiece. A centerpiece, however, should be a real source of pleasure; it should not obstruct the view of guests opposite (see Figure 33).

Place cards afford a graceful means of seating guests. When used, they should be placed on the napkin. Menu cards, sometimes used for occasional dinners, are also placed on the napkin.

STYLES OF SERVING

There are several styles of serving:

ENGLISH (ordinary family service).—The foods are served at the table, the host serving fish, meat, and vegetables; the hostess serving soup, salad, and dessert; and other members of the family serving fruit and the vegetables that are served in individual dishes. The served dishes may be passed to each guest by the maid, or when no maid serves, they may be passed from one person to another. This method is used for family and informal service, and also when serving is done without a maid.

RUSSIAN (serving from the side).—This may be observed in one of two ways:

(a) Foods are separated into portions on individual plates and placed before the guests.

(b) Foods are separated into portions on the serving dishes and passed to the left of each guest so that he may help himself, or the portions may be served by the maid. The necessary serving spoon or fork should be provided with the serving dishes. The Russian style of serving is the most formal and requires the service of at least one maid.