The Probert Encyclopaedia of Food & Drink

DINNER

Prior to the Second World War, dinner parties were an extraordinary part of life among the wealthy British and French, ruled by complex rituals and etiquette. The menu for a dinner consisted typically of nine courses: hors d'oeuvres; soup; fish; entrees; removes (a main dish of boiled, braised or roasted meat accompanied by vegetables); roast (poultry or game simply roasted and accompanied often by salad and chipped potatoes); sweets; coffee. With the sweets course further divided into three distinct courses of: a dressed vegetable; a sweet dish; a savoury dish (including cheese). With a choice of dishes offered for most courses, for example a thick soup and one clear. The diner was expected to make a prompt decision as to their choice, without hesitation, but was not required to partake of every course, although this was acceptable manners. Rather the supply of so many varied courses, a choice of soups and two fish courses, was to provide something for everyone in case any guests didn't like a particular meat, game or fish.

Upon arriving at the dinner table, the servants or the host would typically indicate where the guests were to sit, the man sitting to the left of the lady the host had arranged for his to accompany to dinner. At the table the guests would find the hors d'oeuvres ready to hand, and bread wrapped in their napkin. Contrary to modern tradition, the bread was eaten with the fish course, and not with the soup. Before the late 19th century it was customary at dinner to wait for everyone to be seated and served before starting to eat. However, by Victorian times this practise was dispensed with, and guests started eating immediately. The soup would usually be accompanied by croutons or fried bread crumbs, passed around the dinner table in a dish with a spoon in the dish for the guests to serve themselves. Sauces and accompaniments to the courses were usually served by the guest onto their own plate, and experience was required in not appearing rude by taking either too little or too much. As a rule, sauces were always taken sparingly.

Complex rules governed which implements were to be used to eat which foods. Oysters for example were eaten with a fish knife and fork; fish rissoles with a fish fork only; savouries with a fork; bread broken and touched only by the fingers; celery and asparagus with the fingers; watercress with the fingers; cheese cut with the supplied cheese knife and conveyed to the mouth on a piece of bread or biscuit; jellies and creams with a fork; tarts with a spoon and fork; bananas were peeled with a knife and fork and eaten with a fork; oranges cut and eaten with a fork; apples, pears, peaches and apricots were peeled with a knife and fork and eaten with the fork; strawberries were held by the stalk, dipped in sugar and cream and then eaten; strawberries without a stalk were eaten with a spoon; pineapple and melon was eaten with a spoon; preserved ginger was eaten with a knife and fork; nuts were cracked with a nutcracker; brazil nuts and filberts were peeled with a knife and fork; crystallised fruits were eaten with a knife and fork.

With the dinner a choice and selection of wines would be offered. Prior to the late 19th century it was considered unmanly for a gentleman not to partake of wine, but by Victorian times it was perfectly acceptable for either a man or lady to request water with the meal. Following the deserts a choice of two liqueurs would often be offered, of which it was polite to choose only one, and not both!
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