Chapter 3

Place it on the platter with the head at the left and the outward curve on the farther side of the dish. Make an incision along each side of the backbone the entire length of the fish. Then cut through the gashes on the side nearest you and lay each portion away from the bone. Then remove the fish on the farther side of the bone. Raise the bone to reach the stuffing, and serve a little of the fish, stuffing, and sauce to each person. The skeleton should be left entire on the platter.

If the fish has been baked in the usual way and placed on the platter on its side, cut across through to the backbone, but not through it, and serve, apportioning as may be desired. Slip the knife under and remove the portion from the bone. When the fish is all removed from the top, remove the backbone, and then divide the lower portion.

SCALLOPED DISHES, MEAT PIES, ENTRÉES, ETC.

Meats and fish which have the sauce on the same dish require special care in serving, that they may present a neat rather than a sloppy appearance on the plate. A drop of gravy on the edge of the plate will offend a fastidious taste.

_Scalloped Dishes_, or anything with a crust of crumbs, should be served with a spoon.

_Meat Pies_, with a pastry crust, require a broad knife and spoon. Put the portion on the plate neatly, with the crust or browned side up.

_Poached Eggs, Quails, and other Meats on Toast._ A broad knife should be used in helping to these dishes. Take up the toast carefully, and lay it on the plate without displacing the egg or bird.

SALADS.

The most tasteful way of arranging meat-salads or fish-salads is with whole, fresh, lettuce-leaves. Put two or more leaves together on the platter, and in the nest or dish thus made lay a spoonful of the salad, with the Mayonnaise on the top. In serving, slip the spoon or broad knife under the leaves and keep them in place with the fork. Put the salad on the plate carefully, in the same position, not tipped over. Or you may have a border of fresh lettuce-leaves in the salad-dish. With the fork lay one or two leaves on the plate, and then put a spoonful of salad on the leaves. In this way each person has the Mayonnaise on the top; the lettuce is underneath and fresh and crisp, instead of wilted, as it would be if all of it were mixed with the salad.

VEGETABLES.

In serving vegetables, take up a neat, rounding spoonful. Lay them on the bottom of the plate, not on the rim or edge. Where there are several kinds, do not let them touch each other on the plate.

Serve, on separate dishes, _fritters_ with a sweet sauce, _peas_, _tomatoes_, or any vegetable with much liquid.

_Asparagus on Toast_ is a dish that one often sees served very awkwardly. Use a square or rectangular platter rather than one narrow at the ends.

The bread for the toast should be cut long and narrow, rather than square, and should be laid, not lengthwise, but across the platter. Lay the asparagus in the same direction, the tips all at the farther side. Put the knife, which should be broad and long, under the toast, and keep the asparagus in place with the fork. You will find it much easier to serve than when arranged in the usual way.

_Macaroni_ as often prepared is another dish which it is not easy to serve neatly. Always break or cut it into pieces less than two inches long, before cooking, or before it is sent to the table.

In serving _sweet corn_ on the cob, provide finger-bowls, or a small doily to use in holding the ear of corn.

SOUPS.

One ladleful of soup is sufficient for each plate. It is quite an art to take up a ladleful and pour it into the soup-plate without dropping any on the edge of the tureen or plate, and it requires a steady hand to pass the plate without slopping the soup up on the rim. Dip the ladle into the soup, take it up, and when the drop has fallen from the bottom of it, lift it over quickly but empty it slowly.

Croûtons and crackers lose their crispness if put into the tureen with the soup, and should therefore be passed separately.

TEA AND COFFEE.

Much has been written on the importance of serving neatly the various drinks for an invalid. But careful service is equally essential at the daily home table. It is mistaken generosity to fill the cup so full that when sugar and cream are added, the liquid will spill over into the saucer. One should never be compelled to clean the bottom of the cup on the edge of the saucer, or on the napkin, to keep the liquid from dripping on the cloth.

In serving tea and coffee, ascertain the tastes of those at the table as to sugar and cream. Put the cream and sugar in the cup, and an extra block of sugar in the saucer; pour in the liquid until the cup is three fourths full. Where there are no servants to wait on the table, this way makes less confusion than to pass the sugar and cream to each person.

Always provide a pitcher of boiling hot water and a slop-bowl. In cold weather, pour hot water into the cups to warm them; then turn it into the bowl. In serving a second time, rinse the inside of the cup with hot water before filling.

PIES.

It was formerly considered necessary to divide a pie with mathematical exactness into quarters or sixths. A better way is to cut out one piece of the usual size and offer it, and then if less be desired, cut off such portions as may be needed.

In serving a pie, always use a fork with the knife.

Pies with no undercrust are more easily served with a broad knife or a triangular knife made expressly for pies. For serving berry and juicy fruit pies, a spoon also may be needed. Where two or three kinds are served, help to very small portions of each, even if it be at a Thanksgiving dinner.

It is presuming on the capacity of the common-sized plate, and it is an insult to the human stomach, to offer any one three sixths of a pie after a dinner of the usual courses.

PUDDINGS.

Hot puddings of a soft consistency should be served with a spoon; sometimes a fork also is needed. With the edge of the spoon cut through the brown crust in a semicircle, slip the spoon under, and take up a spoonful; slip it off on the plate, leaving it right side up.

Take special case to serve temptingly anything with a meringue.

MOULDS OF PUDDING, CREAMS, CHARLOTTE RUSSE, ICE-CREAM, ETC.

Anything stiff enough to be moulded should be cut in slices from three fourths of an inch to an inch thick; the wider slices in oval-shaped moulds may be divided through the middle. A broad silver knife with a raised edge is very convenient to use in serving Bavarian Cream, Ice-Creams, and Charlottes.

FRUIT AND NUTS.

A pair of grape scissors should be laid on the fruit-dish to use in dividing large bunches of grapes or raisins; but a nut-cracker is too suggestive of hotel life to be acceptable on the home table. Crack the nuts before they are sent to the table. Salt should be served with the nuts.

Pass oranges, apples, pears, peaches, and bananas in the fruit-dish, to allow each person the opportunity of choice.

_Watermelon_. Before serving, cut a slice from each end. Make incisions through the middle in the form of the letter V, separate the parts, and place each in an upright position. Cut through the divisions, and serve one section to each person.

Cantaloupes, if small, are sometimes served cut in halves. If large, divide from end to end in nature’s lines of depression.

THE THICKNESS OF SLICES.

By “very thin slices of meat” we mean slices less than an eighth of an inch thick.

“Thin slices” are from one eighth of an inch to three sixteenths of an inch in thickness.

Slices of “medium thickness” are one quarter of an inch.

Bread for dinner should be cut in slices one inch and a half thick, and each slice should be divided across into three or four long pieces, according to the width of the slice.

For tea, cut slices three eighths of an inch thick, and for toast, one quarter of an inch.

Thick loaves of cake should be cut in slices from three fourths of an inch to an inch thick, and divided once. Cut loaves of medium thickness in pieces as broad as the cake is thick, and divide them once. Thin sheets of cake should be cut in rectangular pieces twice as broad as the cake is thick. Then divide once, or even twice, if the sheet be very wide. Layer cakes baked in round pans are usually divided into triangular pieces; but they are less suggestive of baker’s Washington pie, which is so offensively common, if the edges be trimmed in such a way as to leave a square. Then cut this square into smaller squares or rectangles.

UTENSILS FOR CARVING AND SERVING.

In any first-class cutlery store you will find knives for each special kind of carving. If your purse will permit the indulgence, it will be convenient to have a breakfast-carver, a slicer, a jointer, a game-carver, and a pair of game-scissors. But if you can afford to have only one, you will find a medium-sized meat-carver the knife best adapted to all varieties of carving. The blade should be about nine inches long and one inch and a quarter wide, slightly curved, and tapering to a point.

The fork should have two slender curving tines about three eighths of an inch apart and two and a half inches long, and should have a guard.

A breakfast or steak carver is of the same general shape, but the handle is smaller, and the blade is six or seven inches long. A slicer for roasts has a wide, straight blade, twelve inches long, and rounded instead of pointed at the end. This is especially convenient for carving thin slices from any large roasts, or other varieties of solid meat. The width of the blade helps to steady the meat, and its great length enables one to cut with a single, long, smooth stroke through the entire surface. With a knife having a short blade a sort of sawing motion would be made, and the slice would be jagged. As there are no joints to separate, a point on the blade is unnecessary.

A jointer is another form of carver, useful where the joints are so large or so difficult to separate that considerable strength is required. The handle has a crook or guard on the end to enable the carver to grasp it more securely and use all the strength necessary.

A game-carver has a small, narrow, pointed blade; but the shape and length of the handle is the distinguishing feature. The handle should be long enough to reach from the tip of the forefinger to an inch beyond the back side of the hand, so that the edge of the hand about an inch above the wrist rests against the handle of the carver. In dividing a difficult joint, the manipulation should be made, not by turning the hand, but by turning the knife with the fingers. In this way the position of the point of the blade can be more easily changed as the joint may require. The handle of the carving-knife supports the hand of the carver.

Game-scissors have handles like scissors; the two short blades are quite deeply curved, something like the blade of a pruning-knife, making the cutting-power greater. This enables the person using them to cut through quite large bones in tough joints which would otherwise be quite difficult to separate.

Another form of jointer has two blades, one shorter than the other, and a round handle divided the entire length, with a spring in the end next the blade. When the handle is closed, the blades are together and the outer edge of the longer blade is used like a knife for cutting the meat. By opening the handle the curving edges of the blades are used like scissors for cutting the bones.

There are various styles of steels or knife-sharpeners, but the one now in my possession is the best I have ever seen.

It is a four-sided bar of steel, about three eighths of an inch wide and thick, and eight inches long, having the four sides deeply grooved, thus making the edges very prominent. These edges are so sharp that but little pressure of the knife on the steel is required. The handle has a large guard to protect the left hand from the edge of the blade.

But few people know how to use a steel properly. It is difficult to describe the process,--so easy to a natural mechanic and so awkward to others,--or to instruct one in the knack of it, by mere description. Hold the steel firmly in the left hand. Let the edge of the knife near the handle rest on the steel, the back of the knife raised slightly at an angle of about 30°. Draw the knife along lightly but steadily, always at the same angle, the entire length of the blade. Then pass the knife under the steel and draw the other surface along the opposite edge of the steel, from the handle to the point, at the same angle. Repeat these alternate motions the entire length of the blade, not on the point merely, until you have an edge.

Some persons prefer to turn the knife over, drawing it first from the left hand and then toward it, sharpening each surface alternately on the same edge of the steel. This is more difficult to do, as you cannot so surely keep the blade at the same angle,--and this is the most important point. If held at any other than the proper angle, either no edge is made, or it is taken off as soon as obtained.

It is bewildering, if one has any intention of buying, to examine the assortment of spoons, knives, forks, etc., displayed at the silversmith’s.

There are ladles for soups, sauces, gravy, and cream; shovels for sugar and salt, and scoops for cheese; tongs for sugar, pickles, olives, and asparagus; spoons for sugar, jelly, fruit, sauces, salads, vegetables, and macaroni; slicers for ice-cream, cake, and jelly; knives for fish, pie, cake, and fruit; forks for fish, oysters, pickles, olives, salad, and asparagus; scissors for grapes and raisins; crackers and picks for nuts; and rests for the carving knife and fork. Some of these are really useful; some as little so as many of the hundred and one novelties designed particularly for wedding gifts. But in neat and careful serving it is essential to have a soup-ladle, a gravy or sauce ladle, a pair of tongs or shells for block sugar, a slender-tined silver fork for pickles, a plentiful supply of large and medium-sized spoons, a carving-rest, a crumb-scraper, and at least one broad silver knife and fork, which if occasion requires may do duty at several courses.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST.

In offering a second portion of anything do not remind one that he has already been helped.

“Can’t I give you another piece of meat or pie?” “Won’t you have some more tea or pudding?” Expressions like these are frequently heard.

It is in far better taste to say, “Will you have some hot coffee?” “May I give you some of the salad?” “Let me help you to this choice portion.”

We trust none of our readers will regard this suggestion as trivial. For, concerning kindness, we know that perfection is no trifle. It is the essence of that second commandment which we are divinely told is like “the first of all the commandments;” and it cannot be attained without assiduous attention to all the minor words and the common acts of life.

“_Among all the Cook-Books this will certainly take its place as one of the very best_.”--THE CHRISTIAN UNION

* * * * *

MRS. LINCOLN’S

BOSTON COOK-BOOK.

WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO IN COOKING.

BY MRS. MARY J. LINCOLN,

FIRST PRINCIPAL OF THE BOSTON COOKING SCHOOL

NEW REVISED EDITION, including 250 additional recipes.

_With_ 50 _Illustrations_. 12_mo_. _Cloth_. 600 _pages_. _Price_ $2.00.

* * * * *

A SELECTION FROM SOME OF THE MANY NOTICES BY THE PRESS.

“Mrs. Lincoln, nothing daunted by the legion of cook-books already in existence, thinks there is room for one more. Her handsome and serviceable-looking volume seems to contain everything essential to a complete understanding of the culinary art. The Introduction of thirty-five pages discusses such subjects as cooking in general, fire, fuel, management of a stove, the various processes of boiling, stewing, baking, frying, roasting, and broiling, with full explanation of the chemical theory underlying each and distinguishing them; also hints on measuring and mixing, with tables of weights, measures, and proportions; of time in cooking various articles, and of average cost of material. One who can learn nothing from this very instructive Introduction must be well-informed indeed. Following this comes an elaborate and exhaustive chapter on bread-making in all its steps and phases. To this important topic some seventy pages are devoted. And so on through the whole range of viands. Exactness, plainness, thoroughness, seem to characterize all the author’s teachings. No point is neglected, and directions are given for both necessary and luxurious dishes. There are chapters on cooking for invalids, the dining-room, care of kitchen utensils, etc. There is also a valuable outline of study for teachers taking up the chemical properties of food, and the physiological functions of digestion, absorption, nutrition, etc. Add the miscellaneous questions for examination, the topics and illustrations for lectures on cookery, list of utensils needed in a cooking-school, an explanation of foreign terms used in cookery, a classified and an alphabetical index,--and you have what must be considered as complete a work of its kind as has yet appeared.”--_Mirror, Springfield, Ill_.

“In answer to the question, ‘What does cookery mean?’ Mr. Ruskin says: ‘It means the knowledge of Circe and Medea, and of Calypso and of Helen, and of Rebekah and of all the Queens of Sheba. It means knowledge of all fruits and balms and spices, and of all that is healing and sweet in fields and groves, and savory to meals; it means carefulness and inventiveness, and readiness of appliances; it means the economy of your great-grandmothers and the science of modern chemistry; it means much tasting and no wasting; it means English thoroughness, and French art, and American hospitality.’ It is not extravagant to say that as far as these mythological, biblical, and practical requirements can be met by one weak woman, they are met by Mrs. Lincoln. And to the varied and extensive range of knowledge she adds an acquaintance with Milton and with Confucius, as shown by the apt quotations on her titlepage. The book is intended to satisfy the needs and wants of the experienced housekeeper, the tyro, and of the teacher in a cooking-school. In its receipts, in its tables of time and proportion, in its clear and minute directions about every detail of kitchen and dining-room, it has left unanswered few questions which may suggest themselves to the most or the least intelligent.”--_The Nation_.

“Mrs. Lincoln’s ‘Boston Cook-Book’ is no mere amateur compilation, much less an _omnium gatherum_ of receipts. Its title does scant justice to it, for it is not so much a cook-book as a dietetic and culinary cyclopædia. Mrs. Lincoln is a lady of culture and practical tastes, who has made the fine art of _cuisine_ the subject of professional study and teaching. In this book she has shown her literary skill and intelligence, as well as her expertness as a practical cook and teacher of cookery. It is full of interest and instruction for any one, though one should never handle a skillet or know the feeling of dough. Nothing in the way of explanation is left unsaid. And for a young housekeeper, it is a complete outfit for the culinary department of her duties and domain. There are many excellent side-hints as to the nature, history, and hygiene of food, which are not often found in such books; and the Indexes are of the completest and most useful kind. We find ourselves quite enthusiastic over the work, and feel like saying to the accomplished authoress, ‘Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.’”--_Rev. Dr. Zabriskie, in Christian Intelligencer_.

“Among all the cook-books, Mrs. D.A. Lincoln’s ‘Boston Cook-Book’ will certainly take its place as one of the very best. It is published and arranged in a very convenient and attractive form, and the style in which it is written has a certain literary quality which will tempt those who are not interested in recipes and cooking to peruse its pages. The recipes are practical, and give just those facts which are generally omitted from books of this sort, to the discouragement of the housekeeper, and frequently to the lamentable disaster and failure of her plans. Mrs. Lincoln has laid a large number of people under obligation, and puts into her book a large amount of general experience in the difficult and delicate art of cooking. The book is admirably arranged, and is supplied with the most perfect indexes we have ever seen in any work of the kind”--_The Christian Union_.

“Mrs. Lincoln has written a cook-book; really written one, not made merely a compilation of receipts,--that sort of mechanical work any one can do who has patience enough to search for the rules, and system enough to arrange them. Mrs. Lincoln’s book is written out of the experience of life, both as a housekeeper and a teacher. Her long experience as principal of the Boston Cooking-School has enabled her to find out just what it is that people most want and need to know. I have no hesitation in recommending Mrs. Lincoln’s as the best cook-book, in all respects, of any I have seen. It is exactly fitted for use as a family authority, in that it is the work, not of a theorizer, but of a woman who knows what she is talking about. It is the very common-sense of the science of cookery.”--_Extracts from Sallie Joy White’s letters in Philadelphia and Portland papers_.

“Mrs. Lincoln’s ‘Boston Cook-Book’ is a characteristically American, not to say Yankee, production. Boston productions are nothing if not profound, and even this cookery manual must begin with a definition, a pinch of philology, and the culinary chemistry of heat, cold, water, air, and drying.... But a touch of the blue-stocking has never been harmful to cookery. This book is as deft as it is fundamental. It is so perfectly and generously up to everything culinary, that it cannot help spilling over a little into sciences and philosophy. It is the trimmest, best arranged, best illustrated, most intelligible, manual of cookery as a high art, and as an economic art, that has appeared.”--_Independent_.

“It is a pleasure to be able to give a man or a book unqualified praise. We have no fear in saying that Mrs. Lincoln’s work is the best and most practical cook-book of its kind that has ever appeared. It does not emanate from the _chef_ of some queen’s or nobleman’s _cuisine_, but it tells in the most simple and practical and exact way those little things which women ought to know, but have generally to learn by sad experience. It is a book which ought to be in every household.”--_Philadelphia Press_.

“The ‘Boston Cook-Book’ has a special recommendation. The author, Mrs. Lincoln, was early trained to a love for all household work. That precious experience is a thing for which a cooking-school is no manner of substitute, while it is just the thing for professional training to build upon, widen, and correct. Mrs. Lincoln’s book is practical, and though there is much of theory, it gives proof of being based less upon theory and much upon experiment. The book is handsomely gotten up, and will ere long attest its usefulness in better food better prepared, and therefore better digested, in many homes.”--_Leader_.

“It is the embodiment of the actual experience and observation of a woman who has learned and employed superior domestic methods. It is the outcome of Mrs. Lincoln’s conscientious and successful labors for the development of practical cooking. It is to be recommended for its usefulness in point of receipts of moderate cost and quantity, in its variety, its comprehensiveness, and for the excellence of its typographical form.”--_Boston Transcript_.