Will you have Maroon Ice Cream with Sponge Drops or a Tutti-Frutti Ice? Canton Mousse with Cream Cones, or Orange Cream Sherbet with Chocolate Petits Fours? Chocolate Parfait with Lady Fingers or Frozen Neapolitan Charlotte with Marshmallow Wafers? You must exercise your individual choice among these and a hundred others.
The passing of the finger-bowl service (plate, bowl and doily) precedes the appearance of the demi-tasse, and the passing of candies and bonbons. (At less formal luncheons, the hostess pours the coffee at the table. When this is done the service usually is placed before her when the dessert course ends.)
The more formal luncheon dictates that coffee be served in the drawing room. Here the waitress passes the after-dinner coffee which the hostess pours. If it seems preferrable to serve coffee at the table, the waitress, after she has placed the finger-bowl service, puts the coffee at the guest’s left hand, and passes him cream and sugar. When he has removed his finger bowl the guest uses the plate for his bonbons.
CHAPTER V: THE INFORMAL (HOME) DINNER
The setting of the table for the home dinner follows the general rules already given. As it is a quite informal affair, however, the side dish (never seen at a formal dinner) is permissible. Dessert, too, may be served in a small dish set in a plate. A carving cloth (for paterfamilias usually carves at the home dinner) protects the tablecloth from spatters and bits of crisp fat which the most skillful carver cannot always avoid sending over the dish.
If a maid serves, she should always have an extra plate, one more than the number of individuals to be served. She will need it.
A salad served with meat, at an informal dinner, is placed on the right side, from the right, the exception to the rule of serving from the left.
Vegetables, once served, are taken back to the kitchen, to keep them warm. If a second serving is desired, the mistress rings. Suit yourself about having the serving silver placed on the table before the dish to be served is carried in. The latest wrinkle—and it is a time and step-saving one—dictates that the silver be brought in on a platter. The soup, to be served hot (it should always be served in soup plates at dinner and never in bouillon cups) must be brought in after the family have taken their places.
A family dinner may be served quite comfortably even without a maid. The table set and the service laid, the younger members of the family should attend to her duties. One may bring in the soup, hot, in individually heated plates. Another may fill the water glasses, pass butter or sauces and remove dishes between courses. The most convenient way of serving vegetables, under these circumstances, is for some member of the family next the carver to attend to it, as soon as meat has been laid on the plate. It saves extra passing. See to it that too many things—butter, salt, pepper, cream, sauces, etc.—are not traveling about the table at once. All the formal features of the more formal meals may be dropped or modified to suit individual needs or circumstances in the informal home dinner.