When oysters are in season, they are usually served raw as a first
course, either in half the shell or in a block of ice. There should
be a soup of some kind. If it be a clear one, like bouillon or
consomme*, the most approved way of serving it is in cups. The
cup commonly used is of a size between tea and coffee cups, but
pretty china teacups will do very well. It is perfectly proper to
BILLS OF FARE. 905
use soup-plates, but the soup will not keep hot so long as in cups,
and may not look so inviting.
Decoration of the Table.
The hostess should be ambitious to have her table present none
of the characteristics of any other ; she should avoid copying, no
matter how charming a model she may have seen. It is worth the
while, provided expense be a matter of moment, to omit some ex-
pensive dish selected for a place in the bill of fare, and use the
money thus saved for flowers and ferns. Masses of fresh leaves and
vines, dotted with bright-colored flowers, are always grateful to the
eye at the table. A block of ice may be used effectively in the
decoration. It should be a square block, clear and smooth, and
weighing about ten pounds. Chip in the centre of it a hollow
about two inches in depth and three in diameter ; after laying two
or three folded napkins in the middle of a large stone-china platter,
place the ice upon them and cover the dish with ferns or any deli-
cate green stun0, and fill the cavity in the block with ferns and
flowers. Tliis ornament, which is suitable as a centre-piece for
either a luncheon, dinner, or supper table, looks bright, cool, and
refreshing, and is inexpensive. When one is in the country, where
ferns can be gathered in the woods, and the block of ice is first
surrounded with soft green moss, the effect is even more agreeable
than when the greenhouse supplies the embellishments.
A Few Points.
Perhaps the most convenient way ot serving raw oysters is on
plates made expressly for them, laying an oyster in each of the
imitation shells, and a quarter of a lemon in the centre of the plate.
The waiter should pass thin bread-and-butter sandwiches to be eaten
with the oysters. These sandwiches should be of a size not greater
than three inches square, and should be buttered very lightly. A
convenient way of serving bread is to tie together with narrow bright
ribbons three or four bread-sticks about six inches long, and place
a bundle at each person's plate. By this mode the appearance ot
the board is brightened considerably.
All the dishes should be so placed that the waiter can take them
in regular order, and should there be occasion for washing plates or
silver, the work should be done so quietly that no sound of it shah1
reach the dining-room. Care also must be taken, if the silver is to
906 MISS PARLOA'S KITCHEN COMPANION.
be used a second time, that it does not retain the heat of the water
in which it is washed. The dishes for soup, whether plates or cups,
should be warm ; so should be the dishes for all the hot courses ;
but for the cold they should be entirely free from heat.
Page 478
Presented as published in 1887. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
When oysters are in season, they are usually served raw as a first course, either in half the shell or in a block of ice. There should be a soup of some kind. If it be a clear one, like bouillon or consommé, the most approved way of serving it is in cups. The cup commonly used is of a size between tea and coffee cups, but pretty china teacups will do very well. It is perfectly proper to
use soup-plates, but the soup will not keep hot so long as in cups, and may not look so inviting.
Decoration of the Table.
The hostess should be ambitious to have her table present none of the characteristics of any other ; she should avoid copying, no matter how charming a model she may have seen. It is worth the while, provided expense be a matter of moment, to omit some expensive dish selected for a place in the bill of fare, and use the money thus saved for flowers and ferns. Masses of fresh leaves and vines, dotted with bright-colored flowers, are always grateful to the eye at the table. A block of ice may be used effectively in the decoration. It should be a square block, clear and smooth, and weighing about ten pounds. Chip in the centre of it a hollow about two inches in depth and three in diameter ; after laying two or three folded napkins in the middle of a large stone-china platter, place the ice upon them and cover the dish with ferns or any delicate green stuff, and fill the cavity in the block with ferns and flowers. This ornament, which is suitable as a centre-piece for either a luncheon, dinner, or supper table, looks bright, cool, and refreshing, and is inexpensive. When one is in the country, where ferns can be gathered in the woods, and the block of ice is first surrounded with soft green moss, the effect is even more agreeable than when the greenhouse supplies the embellishments.
A Few Points.
Perhaps the most convenient way ot serving raw oysters is on plates made expressly for them, laying an oyster in each of the imitation shells, and a quarter of a lemon in the centre of the plate. The waiter should pass thin bread-and-butter sandwiches to be eaten with the oysters. These sandwiches should be of a size not greater than three inches square, and should be buttered very lightly. A convenient way of serving bread is to tie together with narrow bright ribbons three or four bread-sticks about six inches long, and place a bundle at each person's plate. By this mode the appearance ot the board is brightened considerably.
All the dishes should be so placed that the waiter can take them in regular order, and should there be occasion for washing plates or silver, the work should be done so quietly that no sound of it shall reach the dining-room. Care also must be taken, if the silver is to
be used a second time, that it does not retain the heat of the water in which it is washed. The dishes for soup, whether plates or cups, should be warm ; so should be the dishes for all the hot courses ; but for the cold they should be entirely free from heat.