_Table decorations._--Here fancy may run riot with color schemes, and pretty devices for special occasions. A painted place card, a small bonbon box, a single flower with a pin for fastening it on,--all these have their place at times. Satin ribbon is not an appropriate table decoration laid across the table in a broad band, even when it displays a cla.s.s color.

Find some other way to make the color effective. A color scheme in the food can be carried out to a degree for some occasion, but do not let the color interfere with a really satisfactory menu.

Relishes have already been suggested as decoration--radishes cut in rose shape, olives, candies, and fruit.

_The tray for invalid and convalescent._--Figures 72 and 73 suggest the daintiness possible in setting a tray. It is well worth while to spend time in the careful arrangement of the tray, for pretty dishes in orderly array may tempt the appet.i.te of the invalid.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 72.--A convalescent's tray. _Courtesy of the Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 73.--A convalescent's tray with rack for holding cover. _Courtesy of the Dept. of Foods and Cookery, Teachers College._]

=Waiting on the table.=--When we wait on ourselves, this should be done with cheerfulness, and all should take a share. After the food is on the table, one person can "help" one thing and one another. It is a good plan for the young people of the family to take turns as waiter in removing the soiled dishes and food and putting on the dessert. A quick method is to place a tray on a small stand near the table, taking the dishes from one place at a time, and sorting them on the tray as you go. The tray can then be carried into the kitchen, with the dishes partly arranged for washing.

One mother uses a plan for having everybody help at breakfast time, modeled after the tray system of a cafeteria. The breakfast is cooked ready to serve, and on the kitchen table is a small tray for each one of the family of four. All necessary articles are at hand, and even the boy of seven sets his own tray and helps himself to food, and takes his place at the table; and then when the meal is ended each one carries out his dishes and puts them in neat array for washing.

The waitress at a formal meal has to be alert, rapid yet gentle in all her motions, with a desire to make other people comfortable, and a faculty for remembering their likes and dislikes. A good waitress does not pa.s.s a second time a dish once declined.

The waitress must know the menu, and have everything ready for each course at hand on the sideboard, with dishes kept hot in the hot closet.

The table is laid in time, she herself is immaculate, and the room is well aired and the temperature agreeable. A piece of bread is folded in each napkin. If the first course is cold,--perhaps a grapefruit,--she arranges these at each place. If it is to be a hot bouillon, the cook tells her that all is ready, and then she informs the hostess that dinner or luncheon is served.

The details of this type of waiting vary with the place and the taste of the hostess, but the following method is simple and rapid.

=Serving.=--Serve everything from the side table. Hold the dish to be served firmly in two hands with a napkin underneath, a tablespoon and fork being placed on the dish. Pa.s.s to the left of the guest, and hold the dish at a convenient height and near the plate. After all the dishes in a course are pa.s.sed in this way, watch to see if second helps are needed.

Remove the soiled plates at the left, and place the clean at the left, removing with the left hand and placing with the right.

Fill gla.s.ses at the right, and remove silver at the right before dessert when there are pieces left unused.

Brush crumbs with a soft, folded napkin upon a plate, at the left, just before dessert when everything is taken from the table but the center decoration, the candies, and the gla.s.s of water. With this plan the guest helps himself each time, even the after-dinner coffee being pa.s.sed on a tray with cream and sugar, and he can take as little as he pleases, or decline. Some hostesses have some of the courses arranged on individual plates and placed, and these may be placed either from the left or right.

But the other method is simple and satisfactory.

The finger bowls may be set on plates of dessert size with a doily underneath. If a spoon or fork is needed with the dessert, one or both may be placed on the plate also, one on each side, if both are used. The bowls should be less than half full of water and the water should be a comfortable temperature, neither cold nor noticeably warm. Set the plates arranged in this way before each guest. The guest himself will remove the bowl and doily and silver before the dessert is pa.s.sed. In large banquets the food must be placed on the individual plate.

The question is sometimes asked, "Who shall be served first?" It is a good plan to change this from course to course, beginning the first time with the guest of honor. It is not a matter of great importance, provided no one has to wait long. Two waitresses make the service quicker.

The guests of honor sit at the right of the host and hostess.

_The number of courses._--Two or three courses are enough for everyday comfort and health. In formal serving, it is good taste not to have too many. A first course of grapefruit or perhaps oyster c.o.c.ktail, a soup, a fish course, or some light subst.i.tute for it,--the main course with meat, a salad, dessert, coffee--make a quite sufficient meal. The "entree" is a light dish, say sweetbreads in cases, after the fish course, but it is quite unnecessary. Many people are becoming very weary of the long-drawn-out dinners and banquets, which are certainly far from hygienic.

=Carving.=--This is an art that used to be taught as an accomplishment to girls, and it is not an easy matter to master.

If not done at the table, it must nevertheless be well done. Watch a good carver, and practice when you have a chance. A few simple directions can be given, but a demonstration is really necessary. First and foremost, have a sharp, strong knife, and a strong fork. The next essential is a platter large enough to hold the meat, without having it slip off. The fork must be firmly placed in the meat, and the meat held down. Notice the shape of the cut of meat. Meat must be cut across the grain. Loosen from the bone, notice the grain, and cut evenly and firmly. With fowl, discover the joints, pierce with the end of the knife, disjoint, and lay at the side, and then slice the breast across the grain. If carving at the table, learn the preference of those served, whether they wish light or dark meat, meat well done or underdone. Have a spoon for dish gravy and stuffing.

EXERCISES

1. Plan the order of work for the following menus: (_a_) Cooked cereal and cream, stewed prunes, poached egg on toast, popovers, coffee. (_b_) Tomato bisque, lamb chops with peas and mashed potatoes, plain lettuce with French dressing, Brown Betty with foamy sauce, black coffee.

2. What are the important points in serving each dish? Give some simple garnishes.

3. Obtain price lists and estimate the cost of table furnishings.

4. What do you consider good taste in china and silver?

5. What are the important points in table setting?

6. Make a list of dishes to be used for the menus given above, or other menus.

7. What are the fundamentals in waiting on the table?

8. How may the home service be made comfortable?

9. Discuss different methods in formal service.

10. How may the guest be made most comfortable?

CHAPTER XVII

THE COST AND PURCHASING OF FOOD

This is at all times an important matter, but the notable increase in food prices, during the last decade, has made it a matter of interest to all.

The cost of food is one item only in the whole cost of living, and this is affected by many conditions in manufacture and commerce and the business of the nations. Economists and others interested in social questions are studying the problem, but as yet they do not agree upon the cause, or causes, of the increased cost of living. We cannot hope, therefore, to understand the situation fully; but we must be determined to spend money as wisely as we can, and to learn what we may about food prices in relation to food values. There are a few causes of the difference in price between one food and another that are more or less unchanging. The cost of food may be considered from several points of view. The question of the cost for each individual a day and relation of cost and nutritive value are studied in Chapter XVIII. The proportion of the income to be spent for food is taken up in Chapter XIX.

=Labor and prices.=--The amount of labor involved in producing a food material affects its price. Meats cost more than staple vegetable foods, like corn, wheat, or beans, because we must raise the corn first to feed the animals. Meat is as cheap as vegetable foods only when the animal can find its own food, as in the pioneer days of any country, when only a small part of the land is under cultivation. To the Pilgrim Fathers, meat was cheaper than corn, in terms of labor, with deer at hand in the forest and corn raised with difficulty in small clearings. Meat production is now an industry, and the product an expensive one, especially as the wide cattle ranges of our West, where the animals have formerly found natural food, are now used more and more for other purposes.

=Transportation.=--Carrying food from place to place increases its cost.

In one sense this is another form of labor. Each person who handles the food material from producer to consumer adds something to what the consumer pays. We have heard much discussion of late of the "middleman,"

and the effort to bring the producer and consumer closer together. This simply means doing away with some person who handles the product after it leaves the producer and before it reaches the consumer and who must have something for his labor. In transportation there is another element involved, the original cost of the means of conveyance; and the natural wear and tear on the product are items that increase the final cost. The modern farmer who carries his produce to market in an auto truck must have a return for the original cost of the truck and the keeping of it in repair. The long-distance railway furnishes cold-storage cars, and the cost of these and their maintenance affect freight rates. A peach from South Africa costs from fifty to sixty cents in the Boston market. It is probably true, in this case, that a fancy price is asked because African fruit is a novelty here; but the difficulty and expense of long-distance transportation naturally make it costly.

=Demand and supply.=--The relation of demand to supply affects the price of food in a way not difficult to understand. Where the supply is permanently small and the demand widespread, the price of the particular food material will be high, and _vice versa_. Olive oil is a good example of the permanently high-priced food. California olive oil brings a high price not only because it is pure and well flavored, but because many people want it, and the industry is a small one. Many years are needed to establish an olive grove, and olive raising is not a popular way of making money, because it is slow. One enterprising American firm has bought an olive grove in Spain, and is using new methods there, but the product, though delicious, is no cheaper. Although the manufacture of olive oil will doubtless remain a rather small industry, the use of olive oil is increasing, in this country, at least. It does not seem likely, therefore, to become a cheap form of fat.

We find nearly the opposite of this in cottonseed oil, a large supply and a relatively smaller demand making a low price. The seed (a by-product of the cotton industry) contains a large quant.i.ty of oil, and it is not all used as food. Therefore, it is permanently a low-priced fat, as contrasted with the permanently high-priced fat, olive oil.

=Agricultural conditions.=--There are two things of which the farmer can never feel sure, the kind of weather to expect and the general character of the season. Of course, the season affects the quality and the amount of any crop, and this, again, influences the price.

Another aspect of the effect of season on food is this: that a food is in its own locality cheaper when it is in season than at other times of year, when it has to be brought from a distance.

Insect pests and plant diseases not infrequently spoil a crop, and the market price goes up with the smaller supply. This is what happened not long since to the potato crop and potato prices, when potatoes were affected by the potato blight. Moreover, if the farmer succeeds in keeping his crop free from a particular pest, it means a more or less permanent increase in his expenses, for in fighting insects and fungi there is an outlay for machinery and chemicals, and much labor is expended.

Unfortunately, injurious insects and plant diseases are on the increase, and this may mean a permanent rise in the cost of certain foods. Another fact has to be reckoned with in comparing the prices of different foods.

Some vegetables are more difficult to raise than others, even when the season is favorable, and the insects at least partly conquered. Some plants have more vitality than others, and grow under almost any condition of soil and moisture.

Animal diseases must also affect the price of food. If a large number of cattle are found to have tuberculosis, and are condemned as food, healthy cattle bring a higher price, because, again, the supply is small in relation to the demand.

=Quality of food.=--Poor food always costs less money than good food, but it may not be economy to buy it. There may be more usable material in one good apple at five cents than in three wormy ones for five.