9. Why is it important that the can in a freezer should not be filled to the top?

10. Why does chopped ice and salt freeze the mixture?

11. Estimate the cost of the following dishes for five people: Potato salad with boiled dressing; a baked custard; a Brown Betty; French ice cream; raspberry or lemon ice.

12. Explain what is meant by garnishing.

CHAPTER XVI

PREPARATION OF MEALS AND TABLE SERVICE

The preparation of a number of dishes a.s.sembled for a meal requires a skill quite different from that necessary for the making of a single dish.

A menu being decided upon, it needs an accurate sense of time, forethought, and promptness, to have a number of dishes ready at the same time, or in proper sequence if several courses are served. Such questions as the following must be answered:

_Technique of preparation._

1. What steps in preparation can be taken ahead of time, as washing, paring, cutting, etc.?

2. What dishes take the longest to cook?

3. Which must be served the moment they are done?

4. Which can be kept hot for some time without injury?

5. Which can be finished and cooled perhaps several hours before?

6. Do the dishes selected require the same utensils at the same time? (If so, the menus must be changed.)

7. What is the order of serving?

To understand the bearing of these questions you will need to select some menu and make a plan for preparing it. (See exercises at the end of this chapter.)

The fact is obvious that in preparing a meal you cannot finish the dishes one at a time, but that steps individual to each dish must be interwoven with each other, and the cook must have them all "on her mind," and is often doing half a dozen things at once. As a high school girl, preparing a part of her first meal, remarked, "This is as good training as mathematics."

The woman at home will devise many ways of easing and shortening the labor just before the meal is served, avoiding haste and anxiety in this way.

With the fireless cooker and other slow-cooking apparatus, the heavy work may sometimes be done far ahead of mealtime. A dessert can be prepared and be cooking as breakfast dishes are washed, and at the time left overs are put away they can be arranged ready for serving, as in the case of poultry or meat to be served cold. While the preparation of the midday meal is in progress, something can sometimes be done for the last meal, too. This, indeed, is a field for generalship, and it is a successful campaign when the meals are all on time and well prepared, and the cook and family cheerful.

=Important points in serving each dish.=--Each dish should be perfectly done, neither over nor under cooked. All hot dishes should be hot, and cold dishes cold. Lukewarm food is not agreeable. Bread and cake and some kinds of pastry are the only foods that may have the temperature of the room. Sliced meat and salads should be _cold_. Chill chocolate eclairs before serving and see how much they are improved; indeed, experiment with a number of foods that are usually served at room temperature.

=To keep food hot.=--A hot closet above a coal or gas range is made for this purpose, and steam heaters sometimes have hot-closets. A double boiler is a help, and one utensil may be set into a larger, filled with boiling water. Some dishes can be set back on the stove, or over a simmering gas burner with an asbestos mat underneath. The oven may be used sometimes, with the door set ajar. The food may be kept covered unless it will steam, in which case cover it with a towel. Serve food in hot dishes.

=To keep food cool.=--Leave the dish in the ice box until the last possible moment. Sometimes serve with ice (b.u.t.ter in warm weather). If ice is lacking, use other cooling devices. Serve in chilled dishes.

=Garnishing the dish.=--All food must be neatly placed in the dish, and arranged or piled with some sort of symmetry, and this is the most that some people have time to do. Many foods may be served in the utensil or dish in which they are cooked, and in the case of a baking dish, if its appearance is not neat, a napkin can be folded about it. The simplest form of garnish is browning on the top, which makes many dishes attractive (mashed potato).

_Make the garnishing simple_, and have it eatable when possible. Slices of hard-boiled eggs on spinach, chopped parsley and b.u.t.ter on boiled or mashed potato, parsley and slices of lemon, with meat and fish.

_Vegetable borders_ are attractive and save labor in dish washing. Arrange the meat in the center of the platter, and pile mashed potato, or boiled rice or peas or beans, or a mixture of hot vegetables around the edge.

This saves time in table service, too.

The garnishing of salads, desserts, and cakes is treated in previous chapters.

=Table equipment and service.=--This is a place where beauty is a large element, and most people understand the charm of a daintily laid table, as the family gathers for a meal. But many factors must be taken into account, for it is an easy matter to pa.s.s from the simple and beautiful to an extravagant display, to spend more on the dining-room equipment than the income warrants, and to waste much energy in unnecessary work. Our great need here is to learn to see beauty in simplicity. We must remember, too, that many people in our country live in crowded quarters, and have no time for anything but the simplest kind of table service.[16]

The _table_ should be firm, large enough to accommodate the family comfortably, and it should permit of extension when occasion demands a larger board. The top should have an oil finish that will not easily mar and that can be washed off. Have a thick cloth or pad to protect it--the "silence cloth."

_Table covers_ may be the small doilies with centerpiece, strips of fine linen crash, or blue or brown and white j.a.panese toweling laid across both ways, a cloth that just covers the table, or a large cloth that hangs well below the table edge. The doilies and strips are used conventionally for breakfast and luncheon, but save much labor when used for all meals. The color may be white, or tinted, but the dark-colored cloth should be banished.

The material may be linen or mercerized cotton. Many people think white table oilcloth is impossible, but a table covered with it may be made very pretty; it can be kept clean by washing at the end of each meal, and the saving in labor is incalculable.

The pattern and quality and cost of table linens are mentioned in Chapter XXI.

_Napkins_ may match the tablecloths. A small size economizes labor. Avoid fringes, selecting a scalloped edge or hemst.i.tch. j.a.panese paper napkins are useful in summer, and for box luncheons.

_The dishes._--Only a few practical suggestions can be given here. This is a topic for the art cla.s.s.

Buy from "open stock." This means, not a single set, but a pattern that the manufacturer and retailer have always on hand, so that the purchaser can buy one plate or cup and saucer, to replace breakage.

An elaborate or highly colored design becomes wearisome, is not practical for those who have a limited supply of dishes, and is in questionable taste. A positive color demands always the same general scheme for other decorations. A band of color, or a narrow design at the edge, of a color harmonizing easily with other colors, is in good taste. Gold and green are safe colors. See Fig. 72. White dishes with a raised border are dainty, and any color scheme may be used with them. See Fig. 71.

The number of dishes depends upon the simplicity or elaborateness of the method of living and the size of the family. It is much better to begin with a few, and increase the number when necessary, than to have the shelves filled with unused ware. (See exercises.)

_Gla.s.sware_ is pressed or cut, the latter being beautiful, but an expensive luxury. Gla.s.ses for water, and dishes for berries, are made with simple and attractive designs in the pressed ware, and serve all ordinary purposes. A pretty shape for the gla.s.s for water is shown in Fig. 71.

_Silver and plated silver_ for knives, forks, and spoons, coffee and tea sets, all add to the charm of the table. A large collection is not necessary for everyday use, and it adds greatly to the labor of the housewife. Figure 70 shows some good designs in spoons, and spoons and forks of different sizes come in the same design. A simple design is easy to clean. Three sizes of spoons, tablespoons, teaspoons, and coffee spoons, and two sizes of forks are all sufficient, with a few larger spoons for service and desserts.

Triple-plated ware lasts for years, if well cared for, and comes in good designs.

Pewter, familiar in olden days, is being used again in Colonial designs, and makes an attractive tea or coffee set, is less costly than solid silver, and has a better tone and color than plated ware.

_Cutlery._--Plated knives are easy to care for, but steel knives are more effective for some purposes. Purchase good quality steel knives, especially in the carving set.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 70.--Good designs for table silver. _Courtesy of Gorham Co._]

=Setting the table.=--The first principles here are to have everything clean and shining, and to lay everything straight. Have as little on the table as possible. It is not comfortable to have a large array of articles at one's place. Figure 71 shows you a dainty and well-laid table, arranged for a Sunday night supper, and this arrangement is a good one for any meal, with subst.i.tutes for the chafing dish.

Be sure that the _cloth_ is straight, the center fold in the middle of the table, and that the cloth hangs evenly on all sides. See that centerpiece and doilies are laid at even distance.

_Laying each place._--In Fig. 71 the knife, edge out, is at the right, with one spoon, and the gla.s.s is at the right, in line with the end of the knife. Two forks are at the left, and a plate for bread and b.u.t.ter, with bread knife are at the left, opposite the gla.s.s. The napkin is at the left. This plan, somewhat elaborated, may be safely followed for formal service. Two knives may be placed at the right, with the soup spoon, and three forks at the left. If more than these are needed, they may be supplied later, laid on the plate placed for a certain course, in the middle of the plate, handle toward the guest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 71.--A table set for Sunday night supper. _Courtesy of Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College._]

The other articles on the table may vary widely. For everyday use, where there is no maid, or only one, set in places convenient to pa.s.s, the salt and pepper, vinegar and sugar, bread plate and b.u.t.ter plate, and any small dish of condiment or pickle, with pretty mats for the hot dishes to be set on later, and enough spoons for serving. See that the arrangement is symmetrical and convenient. A table laid in this way has room for little more in the way of "decoration" than a slender vase holding a few flowers in the center. The dishes for dessert can be ready on a side table.

For formal service nothing is placed on the table in addition to the equipment at each place, but some centerpiece containing ferns or flowers, with pretty dishes of silver or gla.s.s holding relishes, candies, or dried fruits, a graceful arrangement being to alternate four of these with four candlesticks for meals served late in the day.