On these occasions a char-woman is often employed to do the dirty work. Ignorant persons often hinder you more than they help you. We advise a cook to be hired to assist to dress the dinner: this would be very little more expense, and the work got through with much more comfort in the kitchen and credit to the parlour.
When you have a very large entertainment to prepare, get your soups and sauces, forcemeats, &c. ready the day before, and read the [7th chapter] of our Rudiments of Cookery. Many made dishes may also be prepared the day before they are to go to table; but do not dress them quite enough the first day, that they may not be over-done by warming up again.
Prepare every thing you can the day before the dinner, and order every thing else to be sent in early in the morning; if the tradesmen forget it, it will allow you time to send for it.
The pastry, jellies, &c. you may prepare while the broths are doing: then truss your game and poultry, and shape your collops, cutlets, &c., and trim them neatly; cut away all flaps and gristles, &c. Nothing should appear on table but what has indisputable pretensions to be eaten!
Put your made dishes in plates, and arrange them upon the dresser in regular order. Next, see that your roasts and boils are all nicely trimmed, trussed, &c. and quite ready for the spit or the pot.
Have your vegetables neatly cut, pared, picked, and clean washed in the colander: provide a tin dish, with partitions, to hold your fine herbs: onions and shallots, parsley, thyme, tarragon, chervil, and burnet, minced very fine; and lemon-peel grated, or cut thin, and chopped very small: pepper and salt ready mixed, and your spice-box and salt-cellar always ready for action: that every thing you may want may be at hand for your stove-work, and not be scampering about the kitchen in a whirlpool of confusion, hunting after these trifles while the dinner is waiting.
In one drawer under your SPICE-BOX keep ready ground, in well-stopped bottles, the several spices separate; and also that mixture of them which is called “ragoût powder” ([No. 457] or [No. 460]): in another, keep your dried and powdered sweet, savoury, and soup herbs, &c. and a set of weights and scales: you may have a third drawer, containing flavouring essences, &c. an invaluable auxiliary in finishing soups and sauces. (See the account of the “MAGAZINE OF TASTE,” or “SAUCE-BOX,” [No. 462].)
Have also ready some THICKENING, made of the best white flour sifted, mixed with soft water with a wooden spoon till it is the consistence of thick batter, a bottle of plain BROWNING ([No. 322]), some strained lemon-juice, and some good glaze, or PORTABLE soup ([No. 252]).
“Nothing can be done in perfection which must be done in a hurry:”[63-*] therefore, if you wish the dinner to be sent up to please your master and mistress, and do credit to yourself, be punctual; take care that as soon as the clock strikes, the dinner-bell rings: this shows the establishment to be orderly, is extremely gratifying to the master and his guests, and is most praiseworthy in the attendants.
But remember, you cannot obtain this desirable reputation without good management in every respect. If you wish to ensure ease and independence in the latter part of your life, you must not be unwilling to pay the price for which only they can be obtained, and earn them by a diligent and faithful[64-*] performance of the duties of your station in your young days, which, if you steadily persevere in, you may depend upon ultimately receiving the reward your services deserve.