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Classic
Cook Books
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page 497
of the table, and last, but not least, to eat slowly and masticate the food
thoroughly. All these points should be most carefully taught to children, and
then they will always feel at their ease at the grandest tables in the land.
There is no position where the innate refinement of a person is more fully
exhibited than at the table, and nowhere that those who have not been trained in
table etiquette feel more keenly their deficiencies. The knife should never be
used to carry food to the mouth, but only to cut it up into small mouthfuls;
then place it upon the plate at one side, and take the fork in the right hand,
and eat all the food with it. When both have been used finally, they should be
laid diagonally across the plate, with both handles towards the right hand; this
is understood by well-trained waiters, to be the signal for removing them,
together with the plate.
Be careful to keep the mouth shut closely while masticating the food. It is the
opening of the lips which causes the smacking which seems very disgusting. Chew
your food well, but do it silently, and be careful to take small mouthfuls. The
knife can be used to cut the meat finely, as large pieces of meat are not
healthful, and appears very indelicate. At many tables, two, three or more
knives and forks are placed on the table, the knives at the right hand of the
plate, the forks at the left,--a knife and a fork for each course, so that there
need be no replacing of them after the breakfast or dinner is served. The
smaller ones, which are for game, dessert, or for hot cakes at breakfast, can be
tucked under the edges of the plate, and the large ones, for the meat and
vegetables, are placed outside of them. Be very careful not to clatter your
knives and forks upon your plates, but use them without noise. When you are
helped to anything, do not wait until the rest of the company are provided, it
is not considered good breeding. When passing the plate for a second helping,
lay them together at one side of the plate, with handles to the right. Soup is
always served for the first course, and it should be eaten with dessert spoons,
and taken from the sides, not the tips of them, without any sound of the lips,
and not sucked into the mouth audibly from the ends of the spoon. Bread should
not be broken into soup or gravy. Never ask to be helped to soup a second time.
The hostess may ask you to take a second plate, but you will politely decline.
Fish chowder, which is served in soup plates, is said to be an exception which
proves this rule, and when eating of that it is correct to take a second
plateful, if desired.
Another generally neglected obligation is that of spreading butter on one's
bread as it lies in one's plate, or but slightly lifted at one end of the plate;
it is very frequently buttered in the air, bitten in gouges, and still held in
the face and eyes of the table with the marks of the teeth on it. This is
certainly not
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Classic
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