Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/540

 But marked by a special character are some dinners, which may be either small or large, in relation to the number of guests, but which are necessarily limited as regards the variety of aliments served. I refer to dinners at which either turtle or fish predominates. In accordance with a principle already enunciated, a bowl of substantial stock, containing four or five broad flakes of the gelatinous product, often miscalled "fat," which alone represents the turtle in the compound, is not a judicious prelude to a dinner arranged according to the orthodox programme, and offering the usual variety. A lover of turtle indulges freely in the soup, both thick and clear, making it in fact an important installment of his repast; and he desires, with or without some slight interlude, to meet the favorite food again in the form of an entree. After so substantial a commencement, the dinner should be completed chiefly by poultry, and game if in season, and for the most part by dishes which are grilled or roast, in contrast to the succulent morsels which have preceded.

The fish dinner, also an occasional departure from daily routine, is acceptable, and gratifies the taste for that delicate and pleasant food in considerable variety. But, if so indulged, very few dishes ought to appear subsequently. It is a curious fact that the traditional bacon and beans, which appear toward the close of a Greenwich whitebait dinner, should afford another illustration of undesigned compliance with the natural law referred to at the outset, the bacon furnishing complementary fat to supply its notable absence in fish.

The enjoyment of a curry—and when skillfully made it is almost universally admitted to be one of the most attractive combinations which can be offered to the senses of taste and smell—is only possible at a limited repast. When freely eaten, very little is acceptable to the palate afterward, exhausted as it is by the pervading fragrance of the spice and other adjuncts. Hence a curry should form the climax of a short series of dishes leading up to it: when presented, as it sometimes is, among the entrées of a first course, it is wholly out of place.

Here we may appropriately take a rapid glance at the characteristics of the feast where the guests are few in number.

The small dinner-party should be seated at a round or oval table, large enough for personal comfort, small enough to admit of conversation in any direction without effort. The table should of course be furnished with taste, but is not to be encumbered with ornaments, floral or other, capable of obstructing sight and sound. A perfect consommé, a choice of two fish, a filet or a Châteaubriand, a gigot or a fricandeau; followed by a chaudfroid, a crème de volaille garni, a roast and salad, a choice vegetable, and an iced soufflé or charlotte; and in summer a macédoine of fresh fruits in an old china family bowl, if there is one; and, lastly, a savory biscuit, accompanying vegetables and appropriate wines, may be regarded as furnishing a