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 pa.s.s 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.

Croutons and crackers lose their crispness if put into the tureen with the soup, and should therefore be pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.s 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.

Pa.s.s 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-cla.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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 a.s.sortment 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 sh.e.l.ls for block sugar, a slender-tined silver fork for pickles, a plentiful supply of large and medium-sized spoons, a carving-rest, a crumb-sc.r.a.per, 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.