When the meat course is reached it be-
comes less easy to shirk Sunday labor. The
roast may be bound and skewered, the turkey
or chickens trussed for roasting, the bread
crumbed for the stuffing, on Saturday, but
the stuffing must not go in until the last mo-
ment, nor must the meats, to be at their best,
be put into the oven until just in time to per-
mit their being done in season for dinner.
With vegetables, too, much of the excellence
depends upon brisk cooking. Few of them
are, like spinach, benefited by each time of
warming over. Since this heavy w^ork can-
not be avoided, all the housekeeper can do is
to make the rest of the meal as easy as pos-
185
WHAT TO EAT — HOW TO SERVE IT
sible for herself and her servants. At the
best; there will be enough to do.
If a salad is served, the mayonnaise dress-
ing, if this is used, is no whit injured by
keeping on the ice even for two or three
days. The fish, flesh, or fowl, when such
enter into the composition of the salad, may
be minced the day before, and kept in a cold
place until needed. Or if, as is better at din-
ner, a simple salad of lettuce, celery, or some-
thing of the kind is used, upon which the
hostess bestows an ordinary French dressing
after it is brought to the table, the washing
and picking over of the salad are a trifling
matter.
As to desserts, it is a peculiar taste which
refuses to be satisfied with some one of the
many that can be made in part or entirely
the day before.
The number of cold desserts is legion, and
ranges all the way from ices and frozen
creams through charlottes, jellies, and the
like, to the simple blanc-manges and custards,
to say nothing of preserved or brandied fruit.
Pies of countless kinds there are which can
186
THE SUNDAY DINNER
readily be heated, if a hot dessert is wished,
and there are delicious cakes which are al-
most a dessert in themselves. Besides all
these, in this favored period, there is scarcely
a day in the year when an attractive dish of
fresh fruit is beyond the reach of people of
moderate means.
While anything approaching a desecration
of the Sabbath is to be avoided, there should
yet be a cheerfulness, a pleasant freedom of
speech at the Sunday dinner-table that ought
to render it the happiest meal of the week.
It is not the season for ceremonious enter-
taining — a large Sunday dinner-party is
not in America in the best form, even in so-
called worldly society — but it is the time for
making a place within the circle of the home
for solitary men or women far from their own
people, who have only boarding -places or
restaurants at which to eat their Sunday din-
ner. To them even a simple meal, eaten in a ])ri-
vate house and among friends, is a choice treat,
and inviting them is a deed which may fitly
be classed among the works of mercy which
even the Westminster Catechism permits.
187
THB SMALL DINNER-PARTY
THERE has been so much written about
the giving of dinner-parties that the
manager of a small household may well
shrink in dismay from the labor that obe-
dience to such rules would lay upon her.
When she reads descriptions of tables spread
with the most costly glass, silver, and china,
of courses consisting of delicacies prepared
from intricate directions, and served by three
or four trained servants — her heart sinks with
dismay, and she gives up then and there the
attempt to entertain her friends at dinner.
Such instructions may be of value to those
nouveaux riches who are at a loss how to
conduct a feast where expense is no object.
Even for them it seems as though it would
be easier to consign a big dinner to the charge
of a professional caterer than to drill their
own servants into fitness for preparing and
188
THE SMALL DINNER-PABTY
Page 48
Presented as published in 1891. 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 the meat course is reached it becomes less easy to shirk Sunday labor. The roast may be bound and skewered, the turkey or chickens trussed for roasting, the bread crumbed for the stuffing, on Saturday, but the stuffing must not go in until the last moment, nor must the meats, to be at their best, be put into the oven until just in time to permit their being done in season for dinner. With vegetables, too, much of the excellence depends upon brisk cooking. Few of them are, like spinach, benefited by each time of warming over. Since this heavy w^ork cannot be avoided, all the housekeeper can do is to make the rest of the meal as easy as pos-
sible for herself and her servants. At the best; there will be enough to do.
If a salad is served, the mayonnaise dressing, if this is used, is no whit injured by keeping on the ice even for two or three days. The fish, flesh, or fowl, when such enter into the composition of the salad, may be minced the day before, and kept in a cold place until needed. Or if, as is better at dinner, a simple salad of lettuce, celery, or something of the kind is used, upon which the hostess bestows an ordinary French dressing after it is brought to the table, the washing and picking over of the salad are a trifling matter.
As to desserts, it is a peculiar taste which refuses to be satisfied with some one of the many that can be made in part or entirely the day before.
The number of cold desserts is legion, and
ranges all the way from ices and frozen
creams through charlottes, jellies, and the
like, to the simple blanc-manges and custards,
to say nothing of preserved or brandied fruit.
Pies of countless kinds there are which can
readily be heated, if a hot dessert is wished, and there are delicious cakes which are almost a dessert in themselves. Besides all these, in this favored period, there is scarcely a day in the year when an attractive dish of fresh fruit is beyond the reach of people of moderate means.
While anything approaching a desecration of the Sabbath is to be avoided, there should yet be a cheerfulness, a pleasant freedom of speech at the Sunday dinner-table that ought to render it the happiest meal of the week. It is not the season for ceremonious entertaining — a large Sunday dinner-party is not in America in the best form, even in socalled worldly society — but it is the time for making a place within the circle of the home for solitary men or women far from their own people, who have only boarding -places or restaurants at which to eat their Sunday dinner. To them even a simple meal, eaten in a ])rivate house and among friends, is a choice treat, and inviting them is a deed which may fitly be classed among the works of mercy which even the Westminster Catechism permits.
THB SMALL DINNER-PARTY
THERE has been so much written about the giving of dinner-parties that the manager of a small household may well shrink in dismay from the labor that obedience to such rules would lay upon her. When she reads descriptions of tables spread with the most costly glass, silver, and china, of courses consisting of delicacies prepared from intricate directions, and served by three or four trained servants — her heart sinks with dismay, and she gives up then and there the attempt to entertain her friends at dinner.
Such instructions may be of value to those nouveaux riches who are at a loss how to conduct a feast where expense is no object. Even for them it seems as though it would be easier to consign a big dinner to the charge of a professional caterer than to drill their own servants into fitness for preparing and
THE SMALL DINNER-PABTY