Salmon. — In carving a piece of salmon, take thin slices, as shown from A to B, and serve with each piece some of the belly taken in the direction from C to D. The best part is the upper or thick flesh. VII. The Service of the Table. Breakfast is and should be one of the pleasantest meals of the day. Here the family assemble, if not before, and courtesies and pleasant chat are interchanged over the frao-rant coffee, chops and rolls. The linen should be of the cleanest, the silver bright, and the china dry and polished. The plates should be hot in winter; rolls should be hot, unless cold bread is preferred, and the dry toast just from the fire. Buttered toast should be served as soon as it is made. Let there be flowers to adorn the table at each meal, if possible. If you have an urn for hot water, place the coffee-pot and the tea-pot in front of it, the coffee cups and saucers at your right and the tea-cups at the left; the cream and hot milk at the right, the slop-basin and 368 TWENTIETH CENTURY HOME COOK BOOK. milk-pitcher at the left, and tiic sugar-bowl haiuly. There should be a fruit-plate and breakfast-i)late for each i)ers()u. Tea is a more simple meal, but none the less pleasant, since it closes the labors of the day. Luncheon also is a pleasant meal, because simple and lively with chat. Dinner is the stately nieal of the day, unless simply a family meal. It is then, one of the most pleasant. In fact, why should not every meal be pleasant, and with- out ceremony? Pleasant conversation and plenty of time at meals make digestion easy. There is no reason why a meal should be bolted because of the labors of a hurraying season. It is bad for digestion, and that is bad both for the temper and the health. The farmer, of all the laboring classes, deserves that his table should be pleasant to look at, and adorned with tlowers and green things. He has it all within himself to make it so. VIII. Some Dishes for Epicures. We have it from the most ancient authorities that their meals were not dull. The household of Job, for instance, would seem to have been hospitable and merry, for we read: "His sons went and feasted in their houses, every one their day (birth- day) ; and sent and called for their three sisters tOiCat and drink with them." The tables, however, probably were not provided with cooked peacock, feathers, tail and all. That was a whim of later and more degenerate days, even if of a higher civili- zation. The Romans — who were fond of the dish just spoken of and many others still more curious, as for instance a pig baked on one side and boiled on the other — fed the thrushes destined for their gourmand tables, with tigs, wheat and aromatic grains. A French epicure has said that small song-birds should lie eaten the last of November, for then the feeding on juniper berries gives their flesh the much-admired bitter flavor. So with us, the grouse of Pennsylvania — our "prairie hen" — is supposed to be much finer than anywhere else, from the mountain berries they feed upon. All wild birds are supposed to be more nutritious and digestible than domesti- cated ones, probably because they contain more fibrine and less fat. The same may be said of venison. It produces "highly stimulating chyle," hence the digestion is easy and rapid. IX. Queer Facta about Vegetables.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Salmon. — In carving a piece of salmon, take thin slices, as shown from A to B, and serve with each piece some of the belly taken in the direction from C to D. The best part is the upper or thick flesh. VII. The Service of the Table. Breakfast is and should be one of the pleasantest meals of the day. Here the family assemble, if not before, and courtesies and pleasant chat are interchanged over the fragrant coffee, chops and rolls. The linen should be of the cleanest, the silver bright, and the china dry and polished. The plates should be hot in winter; rolls should be hot, unless cold bread is preferred, and the dry toast just from the fire. Buttered toast should be served as soon as it is made. Let there be flowers to adorn the table at each meal, if possible. If you have an urn for hot water, place the coffee-pot and the tea-pot in front of it, the coffee cups and saucers at your right and the tea-cups at the left; the cream and hot milk at the right, the slop-basin and milk-pitcher at the left, and the sugar-bowl handy. There should be a fruit-plate and breakfast-plate for each person. Tea is a more simple meal, but none the less pleasant, since it closes the labors of the day. Luncheon also is a pleasant meal, because simple and lively with chat. Dinner is the stately nieal of the day, unless simply a family meal. It is then, one of the most pleasant. In fact, why should not every meal be pleasant, and without ceremony? Pleasant conversation and plenty of time at meals make digestion easy. There is no reason why a meal should be bolted because of the labors of a hurraying season. It is bad for digestion, and that is bad both for the temper and the health. The farmer, of all the laboring classes, deserves that his table should be pleasant to look at, and adorned with tlowers and green things. He has it all within himself to make it so. VIII. Some Dishes for Epicures. We have it from the most ancient authorities that their meals were not dull. The household of Job, for instance, would seem to have been hospitable and merry, for we read: "His sons went and feasted in their houses, every one their day (birthday) ; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and drink with them." The tables, however, probably were not provided with cooked peacock, feathers, tail and all. That was a whim of later and more degenerate days, even if of a higher civilization. The Romans — who were fond of the dish just spoken of and many others still more curious, as for instance a pig baked on one side and boiled on the other — fed the thrushes destined for their gourmand tables, with tigs, wheat and aromatic grains. A French epicure has said that small song-birds should lie eaten the last of November, for then the feeding on juniper berries gives their flesh the much-admired bitter flavor. So with us, the grouse of Pennsylvania — our "prairie hen" — is supposed to be much finer than anywhere else, from the mountain berries they feed upon. All wild birds are supposed to be more nutritious and digestible than domesticated ones, probably because they contain more fibrine and less fat. The same may be said of venison. It produces "highly stimulating chyle," hence the digestion is easy and rapid. IX. Queer Facta about Vegetables.

Twentieth century home cook book