Miss Beecher's Housekeeper and Healthkeeper / Containing Five Hundred Receipes for Economical and Healthful Cooking; also, Many Directions for Securing Health and Happiness

by Catharine Esther Beecher

For table-furniture, French china is deemed the nicest, but it is liable to the objection of having plates so made that salt, butter, and similar articles, will not lodge on the edge, but slip into the centre. Select knives and forks which have weights in the handles, so that, when laid down, they will not touch the table. Those with riveted handles last longer than any others. Horn handles (except buck-horn) are very poor. The best are cheapest in the end. Knives should be sharpened once a month, unless they are kept sharp by the mode of scouring.

ON SETTING TABLES.

Neat housekeepers observe the manner in which a table is set more than any thing else; and, to a person of good taste, few things are more annoying than to see the table placed askew; the table-cloth soiled, rumpled, and put on awry; the plates, knives, and dishes thrown about without any order; the pitchers soiled on the outside, and sometimes within; the tumblers dim; the caster out of order; the butter pitched on the plate, without any symmetry; the salt coarse, damp, and dark; the bread cut in a mixture of junks and slices; the dishes of food set on at random, and without mats; the knives dark or rusty, and their handles greasy; the tea-furniture all out of order, and every thing in similar style. And yet, many of these negligences will be met with at the tables of persons who call themselves well bred, and who have wealth enough to make much outside show. One reason for this is, the great difficulty of finding domestics who will attend to these things in a proper manner, and who, after they have been repeatedly instructed, will not neglect nor forget what has been said to them. The writer has known cases where much has been gained by placing the following rules in plain sight, in the place where the articles for setting tables are kept.

RULES FOR SETTING A TABLE.

1. Lay the rug square with the room, and also smooth and even; then set the table also square with the room, and see that the legs are in the right position to support the leaves.

2. Lay the table-cloth square with the table, right side up, smooth and even.

3. Put on the tea-tray (for breakfast or tea) square with the table; set the cups and saucers at the front side of the tea-tray, and the sugar, slop-bowls, and cream-cup at the back side. Lay the sugar-spoon or tongs on the sugar-bowl.

4. Lay the plates around the table at equal intervals, and the knives and forks at regular distances, each in the same particular manner, with a cup-mat or cup-plate to each, and a napkin at the right side of each person.

5. If meat be used, set the caster and salt-cellars in the centre of the table; then lay mats for the dishes, and place the carving-knife, and fork and steel by the master of the house. Set the butter on two plates, one on either side, with a butter-knife by each.

6. Set the tea or coffee-pot on a mat, at the right hand of the tea-tray, (if there be not room upon it.) Then place the chairs around the table, and call the family.