Chops and cutlets should be trimmed into uniform size and shape. This can be done without waste, as the trimmings have their uses. Careful dressing and trussing is essential for poultry, as the appearance of an untrussed fowl is enough to destroy the appetite and condemn the dinner. A fowl should be pressed into a rounded and smooth surface in order to dissociate the article served from the thing of life.
Meat should be placed exactly in the center of the platter, except in certain instances where studied irregularity is given for special garnishing. To place chops or cutlets neatly overlapping one another, either in rows or in a circle, requires some dexterity, perhaps, but this is acquired by a very little practice, and such an arrangement not only helps to keep the meats hot, but is in itself ornamental. The platter should be in right proportion to the article served upon it. A large joint on too small a platter gives the same sense of unsuitableness that an outgrown garment gives to a boy or a girl, and the carving of this seemingly overgrown joint usually results in accidents to the table-cloth. Again, too small a platter affords no room for garnishing.
The color given meat in cooking may be called its secondary garnish, space being the first. Care should be taken, if it is roasted, that it be well browned; if it is boiled, that it be white and clean-looking; if it is fried, that it be not blackened, but a clear lemon color. Poultry should have a golden color that suggests crispness. It is difficult to make the mediocre cook understand these points.
Larding also serves an ornamental purpose. Dry meats, like veal, and oftentimes fowls, are improved in flavor by being larded; and it should be so done as to make it an ornamental feature. There is no part in the preparation of dishes easier to perform than larding, and no novice need hesitate to undertake it.
Hashes and minces can, with very little trouble, be made attractive in appearance as well as in taste. Hash pressed into a mold, giving it a ring or a dome shape, then masked or not with a sauce, or simply turned upon a platter, can be prettily garnished with eggs and greens. Plain meat-balls and potato- or hominy-balls can be placed together on a platter with such regard to effect that the dish assumes the character of an entrée, instead of appearing like a makeshift from left-over pieces.
The next means after larding in what may be called natural garnishing is in the employment of gravies and sauces. No article should ever swim in sauce, but a little can be used with good effect on many dishes. A venison steak wet with a currant jelly sauce, and just enough of the sauce poured on the bottom of the platter to color it, gives a glaze and juicy look to the steak which improves its appearance. A very little tomato sauce under breaded veal chops or croquettes gives color and emphasis to the dish. White sauce poured over boiled dishes gives greater whiteness and often covers defects. In French cooking, much use is made of masking, which is often done by glazing and by the use of sauces. As white sauces will make white foods whiter, so brown ones will make brown ones browner. Fitness must of course be observed. If crispness is a part of the excellence of a dish, it would not do to destroy that quality by using a moistening garnish.
Vegetables as garnishes come next in order of suitableness and convenience. When vegetables are placed on the same platter with meats, they not only ornament the dish, but contribute to the ease of serving a dinner. When they are used the dish is called à la jardinière or à la printanière. Probably every cook knows how to serve mashed or fried potatoes or green peas in the center of a circle of chops. Similar combinations can be made in various ways and of many things. Spinach, beans, carrots, purées, macaroni, spaghetti, or rice may be placed so as to form a base, raising the chops like a crown, or grouped with them in rows, or alternating with the individual pieces. Macedoine is a mixture of any number of vegetables, such as peas, beans of various kinds, carrot and turnip balls, flowers of cauliflower and any other vegetable obtainable. They may be mixed together, or each vegetable may be kept distinct and placed in small piles around the platter. Small portions of vegetables left over may be used to advantage in this way. Very little need be used of any one, and any number may be combined on the same dish. Potatoes boiled or fried can be prepared in many fancy ways to make them suitable for garnishing. Well-seasoned spinach is excellent with chops, steaks, or roasts. Browned onions are often used. Meats with onion garnishes make dishes called à la soubise. Brussels sprouts, hot, are a suitable garnish for corned beef; or cold, with a French dressing, are an excellent salad to serve with cold beef. They should not be over-cooked or they will lose their shape. Stuffed tomatoes may be used with almost any meat dish.
Vegetable purée, in fancy form, is useful for embellishment, and may take the place of a fresh vegetable. Purée is made of any vegetable mashed and seasoned in the same manner as potato. Navy beans, lima beans, flageolets, and peas, either fresh or dried, are so used. The purée can be pressed through a pastry-bag into forms simulating roses, or placed in piles on rounds of toast. Vegetables intended to be eaten with the meats they garnish should be well seasoned before being placed on the platter; but where they are to serve only an ornamental purpose, they may sometimes, as in the case of carrots and turnips, be used uncooked, as they have a better color and more firmness when raw. These two vegetables are very useful, as they are obtainable all the year round. Carrots are particularly pretty when small. Large ones sliced and then stamped into fancy shapes, combined with turnips treated in the same way, are frequently used for making designs. Sometimes they are cut into balls, sometimes are carved into forms simulating roses. It is easy to make them into cups, using a fluted knife to shape the outside, and hollowing the center with a potato-scoop. These cups are good for holding any vegetable or for vegetable salads.
Rice is generally used for borders which are intended to keep creamed dishes and fricassees in shape. Sausages cut in halves or quarters, or fried bacon, make a good relish as well as a garnish for many meats; they are particularly good with egg dishes. Paper frills on protruding bones serve the excellent purpose of concealing these unsightly ends. They are easily made by folding a strip of paper lengthwise, then cutting it down about one and a half inches at intervals of one-eighth inch on the folded side, thus making a double fringe; next slip one side up a little, making the fringe round out; and, finally, roll this around a stick, leaving the openwork in a close spiral. These frills are used on the bones of a leg of mutton, on ham, on chops, and on drumsticks.
The green garnishes are parsley, watercress, small crisp lettuce leaves, green lettuce cut into ribbons, chicory, and celery tops. These are all edible, and all have places where they are especially appropriate. Parsley, which is most commonly used, is preëminent for convenience, beauty of leaf, and freshness. In many cases, however, greens which can be eaten with the dish are preferable, such as watercress with broiled or fried meats or fish. Parsley may be used with almost everything in its purely ornamental function, but it can be chopped and sprinkled over foods for both its flavoring and decorative qualities. A woman who has mastered the art of making an omelet will usually give it this finishing touch. Parsley should be very green and crisp, well washed, and dried with a cloth before being used; it may then be broken into sprigs and placed at intervals, or formed into a wreath. Sometimes a large bunch, like a bouquet, may be used with good effect.