Victorian Table Etiquette

Just in case you wanted a refresher on vintage table manners, here's some pointers from a 1890 Victorian cookbook:

The source of all good manners is a nice perception of , and kind consideration for, not only the rights, but the feelings of others.  The customs of society are adopted and observed to enable us to be more agreeable.  And nowhere is the distinction between gentleman and the boor more marked than at the table.

• Once sated at the table. gloves are drawn off and laid in the lap under the napkin, which is spread lightly, not tucked in.
• 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 sounds of the lips, and not sucked into the mouth audibly from the ends of the spoon. 
• Sit upright at the table, without bending over or lowering your head to partake of your food.  Do not sit too far away or too near the table, and do not sit with one arm lying on the table with your back half-turned to your left hand neighbor.
• Then one who serves at the table should not help too abundantly, or flood the food with gravies, as many do not like them, and it is better to allow each guest to help himself.  Water should be poured to the right of a person - everything else is passed to the left.  Do not watch the dishes while being uncovered or talk with your mouth full.  If you discover anything objectionable in the food, do not attract the attention of others to it, but quietly deposit it under the edge of your plate.
• One's teeth are never picked at the table; but if it is impossible to hinder it, it should be done behind the napkin

• Let the food be taken to the mouth, and not the mouth to the food.
• At the conclusion of a course, where they have been used, a knife and fork should be laid side by side across the middle of the plate - never crossed - with handles to the right.  The servant should offer everything at the left of the guest, that the guest may be at liberty to use the right hand, except water, which is poured at the right side.
• When you rise from your chair, leave it where it stands.     

Vintage Cookbooks

I was never a history buff, but I love finding vintage cookbooks! They put the past in perspective from the kitchen point-of-view.  I dug out my collection of American Cookery magazines yesterday and thought I would share some of the recipes... like this one for Ginger Cookies. Enjoy!

 

Ginger Cookies without Molasses

1 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups flour

1 teaspoonful soda

1 tablespoonful ginger

Cream the butter; beat in the sugar, then the flour sifted with the soda and ginger.  Stir in as much more flour as can be stirred in easily with a spoon.  With floured hands, roll the dough into marble shapes, and set these in a buttered pan some distance apart.  Bake to a light brown color.

Page 215 - From the October 1917 issue of American Cookery formerly The Boston Cooking School Magazine of Culinary Science and Domestic Economics

www.TimelessVintageAttic.etsy.com

Love Vintage Books

Up early this morning to check on an estate sale in the neighborhood.  It's an overcast morning, and early so I really could have stayed in bed, but what the heck!  One sign on the street corner pointed out the sale, and they had box after box of "stuff" mixed with old books and magazines.  I found some nice old cookbooks and magazines from the 40's.