DINNER,
Being the grand solid meal of the day, is a matter of considerable importance; and a well-served table is a striking index of human ingenuity and resource.
The elegance with which a dinner is served depends, of course, partly upon the means, but still more upon the taste of the master and mistress of the house. It may be observed, in general, that there should always be flowers on the table, and, as they form no item of expense where a garden is, there is no reason why they should not be employed every day.
The variety of the dishes which furnish forth a modern dinner-table, does not necessarily imply anything unwholesome, or anything capricious. Food that is not well relished cannot be well digested; and the appetite of the over-worked man of business, or statesman, or of any dweller in towns, whose occupations are exciting and exhausting, is jaded, and requires stimulation. Men and women who are in rude health, and who have plenty of air and exercise, eat the simplest food with relish, and commonly digest it well; but those conditions are out of the reach of many men. They must suit their mode of dining to their mode of living, if they cannot choose the latter. It is in serving up food that is at once appetizing and wholesome that the skill of the modern housewife is severely tasked; and she has scarcely a more important duty to fulfil. It is, in fact, her particular vocation, in virtue of which she may be said to hold the health of the family, and of the friends of the family, in her hands from day to day.
The following aphorisms and short directions in relation to dinner-parties, are well deserving of notice:—“Let the number of your guests never exceed twelve, so that the conversation may be general. Let the temperature of the dining-room be about 68°. Let the dishes be few in number in the first course, but proportionally good. The order of food is from the most substantial to the lightest. The order of drinking wine is from the mildest to the most foamy and most perfumed. To invite a person to your house is to take charge of his happiness so long as he is beneath your roof. The mistress of the house should always be certain that the coffee is excellent; whilst the master should be answerable for the quality of his wines and liqueurs.”
Dinners à la Russe differ from ordinary dinners in the mode of serving the various dishes. In a dinner à la Russe, the dishes are cut up on a sideboard, and handed round to the guests, and each dish may be considered a course. The table for a dinner à la Russe should be laid with flowers and plants in fancy flower-pots down the middle, together with some of the dessert dishes. A menu or bill of fare should be placed by the side of each guest.
The following are bills of fare for dinners à la Russe, and eatable from July to November: the dishes can easily be varied to suit other months.
Service a la Russe (July).
Julienne Soup, Vermicelli Soup.