The dinner bell : a gastronomic manual teaching the mistress how to rule a dainty and thrifty cuisine, and the cook how to prepare a great variety of dishes with economy / edited by Fin Bec.

Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dinner bell : a gastronomic manual teaching the mistress how to rule a dainty and thrifty cuisine, and the cook how to prepare a great variety of dishes with economy / edited by Fin Bec. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ A round table, spacious enough, but not too spacious, for comfortable conversation,* with low- lying fruits and flowers in the centre, and eight guests, and not more than eight dishes in all (on this point all epicures of authority are, I think, agreed, from old-fashioned Thomas Walker to the present illustrious chef of the Paris Jockey Club)— this, if the chef be cool and practised, and the guests be chosen well, is the perfect way of dining. Touching on the choice of dishes, which should have, if possible, some relation with the tastes of the guests, Mr. Walker makes some excellent general observations—not the less valuable because they have an old-fashioned complexion. “ In whatever style people live, provided it is good in its kind, they will always have attractions to offer by means of a little extra exertion well directed within their own bounds; but when they pass those bounds, they forego the advantages of variety and ease. It is almost always practicable to provide something out of the common way, or something common better than common; and people in different situations are the most likely * “ Utque fluat germo feliciter ‘ ore rotundo De more Arthuri, mensa ‘ rotunda placet” Ars Camandi. A actore Carolo Dclapryme, ALA. [ Unpublishedi]