If a simple salad of lettuce is to be served, have the oil, vinegar, pepper and salt, and the spoonful of finely chopped onion, in a group all ready. If a Mayonnaise dressing is to be served, that should be made in the morning.
Look at the clock in the kitchen, and calculate the time it will take each dish to cook, and put it to the fire, so that it will be finished “to a turn” just at the proper minute.
During dinner, one person should attend to placing out of the way all the dishes brought from the dining-room, and, if necessary, should wash any spoons, platters, etc., which may be needed a second time. She should know beforehand, however, just what she is to wash, as every one must know exactly her own business, so that no questions need be asked at the last moment. The cook can attend to nothing but the cooking, at the risk of neglecting this most important part.
As the course just before the salad is sent into the dining-room, begin to make the salad, having every thing all ready. First, pick over the lettuce-leaves, wash and leave them to drain, while you prepare the dressing. It should just be ready when its turn comes to be sent to table.
If the dinner company is very large, and there are many dishes, the cooking of them may be distributed between two persons, and perhaps the second cook may use the laundry stove; but with a little practice and the one or two assistants, one cook can easily prepare the most elaborate dinner, if it is only properly managed before the time of cooking. She should, of course, never attempt any dish she has not made before. A bain-marie is very convenient for preserving cooked dishes, if there is some delay in serving the dinner.
Of all things, never on any occasion serve a large joint or large article of any kind on a little platter, as nothing looks so awkward. Let the platter always be at least a third larger than the size of its contents.
I give several bills of fare. They are long enough and good enough for any dinner party. Guests do not care for better or more, if these are only properly cooked. They can be easily prepared in one’s own house, and this is always more elegant than to have a list of a hundred dishes from a restaurant.
A Winter Dinner.
Oysters on the half-shell.
Amber soup.
Salmon; sauce Hollandaise.
Sweet-breads and pease.
Lamb-chops; tomato-sauce.
Fillet of beef, with mushrooms.
Roast quails; Saratoga potatoes.
Salad: lettuce.
Cheese; celery; wafers.
Charlotte-russe, with French bottled strawberries around it.
Chocolate Fruit Ice-cream.
Fruit.
Coffee.