FoodNet

Domestic science (Clark, Cornell home economics)

1911

Page 70

Presented as published in 1911. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Bring in the salad bowl, salad plate, saJad knife and fork. Serve same as the meat course. If crackers and cheese are to be served, serve now. After this course remove salad bowl, plates, water glass, salted nuts and olives, all by hand; pepper and salts on a tray. Remove carving cloth, crumbs, etc. Now bring in the dessert and place before the hostess, and serve same as the salad. If fruit is the dessert, serve same as fruit course at breakfast. If large coffee is served, it may be placed at the right of each guest, and cream and sugar passed at the left. If after-dinner coffee is served, small cups and saucers with cream and sugar are placed upon a tray and brought in and placed before the hostess, the waitress passing each cup, and then offering cream and sugar. The dinner could be planned and served by the class to guests or the teachers of the school at any time. This would be a simple family dinner. It could be made a little more elaborate by serving raw oysters on the half-shell as a first course, and a fish course after the soup. Then follows fish with sauce and bread, sometimes potatoes in some form. The next course may be a releve, — either a joint of meat or poultry, roasted, broiled, or boiled, and one vegetable. If the fish was boiled or baked and served with a sauce, the releve may be omitted and the entree served. Next may come a water-ice, half frozen, or a cheese or vegetable course. Then serve the roast, or broiled poultry, or game with a salad to be eaten with it. This salad maybe lettuce, sorrel, chicory, cress, etc., with French dressing, or it may be crisp celery with mayonnaise dressing. Some light cold sweet dish THE DINING-ROOM AND SERVING 173 may form the dessert. The dinner should end with small cups of strong black coffee, which may be served here or in the drawing-room. Cream and sugar are passed with the coffee. This might be considered as a simple dinner, but if it is well cooked, it is a very satisfactory one. The Waitress. The personal appearance of the waitress requires special attention. She should be trim in appearance, quiet in manner, and light of foot. Her dress should be clean and well-fitting, and her apron, collars and cuffs spotless. Fashion decrees a black dress, white collar and cuffs, and a small white cap. In many well regulated house- holds, the waitress wears a light print dress, — a fashion which commends itself because it means fresh- ness and cleanliness. She should wear soft-soled shoes or slippers. Attention. The waitress should understand her duties so well, and should be so attentive, as to render it unnecessary to ask for anything during the meal, unless a special taste not anticipated is to be satisfied. During a ceremonious dinner or luncheon, it is particularly important that all service should be rendered without exchange of words between mistress and maid. This can be accomplished only by seeing that the maid has a clear understanding of all that is required, and that she is watchful of each guest. If it is her daily habit to discharge her duties carefully, she will be in proper training for more formal occasions. Regular Duties, The regular duties of the waitress, as they are related to the dining-room and its ac- cessories, are varied. She sharpens the carving- 174 DOMESTIC SCIENCE knife and announces a meal." This announcement varies with the habits of the family and the style of living. If it is the family custom to gather in the living or drawing-room before each meal, the waitress, coming to the door, addresses the mistress of the house and says, " Dinner is served." When the family is large and scattered at meal-time, and the service is limited, the meal is announced by a bell or gong, which should be as musical as possible.