At nine o’clock, let the ham be washed, and put to boil. Then let the vegetables be prepared, ready for cooking. Next prepare the pudding. The pastry ought to be baked the day before. If not, it should be done very early in the morning, and be out of the way.
The pudding should be one of those put in the list of rich puddings, which does not require long baking or boiling. The receipt will be the guide as to time for cooking it. Next, prepare the oysters. One large cannister (or three pints) will be needed for the dish of scolloped oysters, and a small cannister (or a pint) will be needed for the sauce for the turkey. This last is simply drawn butter, with the oysters put in it, and simmered a few minutes. Be sure and follow the receipt for drawn butter exactly, as cooks are very apt to spoil this kind of sauce.
Put the turkey to boil at one, if it is tender, as it ought to be, and sooner, if it is not. Put the ducks to roast at two. Ducks are best cooked rare, but the turkey must be boiled through entirely, so that all parts look the same color when carved.
The gravy for the ducks, and the drawn butter, must be prepared half an hour before taking up dinner. The fish must be put to boil in a fish kettle. The time depends on the size.
The soup should be boiled down the day before. Let it be, for example, the receipt named Macaroni Soup. In this case, any convenient time before dinner-time, put the macaroni to boil in a sauce-pan by itself, and when cooked enough, set it aside. Then, just before dinner is to be served, pour the cold soup into the kettle, add the seasoning and macaroni, and give it such a heat as just boils it for a minute or two, and then it is ready to serve.
The vegetables should be put to boil at such times as will have them cooked just right at the dinner hour, and this the housekeeper must calculate, according to their size and age.
Unless there is an experienced cook, who can be trusted with everything, the lady of the house must superintend herself in the kitchen, until it is time for her to dress; and as the company will not arrive till the hour appointed, she can, by arranging her dress, all but the finish, remain until it is nearly time to send up the dinner.
Setting the Table.
The table should be set early in the forenoon, by the waiter, under the direction of the lady of the house, and in the manner exhibited in Fig. 7.
The table rug must first be laid exactly square with the room, and the tables also set exactly parallel with the sides of the room. If the tables are handsome ones, put on two white table-cloths, one above the other. If the tables are not handsome, cover them with a colored table-cloth, and put two white ones over.