A Dinner Party
An English Dinner
From Louis Simond A Journal of a Residence and Tour in Great Britain During the Years 1810-1811 (1817 ed.) 55-63
An English dinner is very different from a French one; less so, however, than formerly,--the art of cookery being in fact now half French. England was always under great obligations to its neighbours in that respect; and most of the culinary terms are French, as well as those of tactics.
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The master and mistress of the house sit at each end of the table,--narrower and longer than the French tables,--the mistress at the upper end;--and the places near her are the places of honour. There are commonly two courses and a dessert. I shall venture to give a sketch of a moderate dinner for ten or twelve persons.
(See above)
The soup is always a consomme, succulent, and high-seasoned. Vegetables, on the contrary, are exhibited in all the simplicity of nature, like hay to horses, only a little boiled instead of dried. Such a dinner as I have described is now perhaps a little antiquated. Among people of fashion the master and mistress generally abandon the ends of the table,--which indeed has often no end, being round; there are more made-dishes or French ragouts; they are served in succession, hot and hot, and vegetables do not appear quite in naturalibus. Good old English families have frequently no soup at all and the dishes are only roast and boiled.
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[P]lum-pudding, celebrated by Voltaire, is quite a national dish, and my French readers will thank me for the receipt of it, which they will find in a note.* The German mineralogists have given the name of pudding-stein to a ponderous and hard stone, composed of fragments bound together by a common cement. I do not know whether the pudding is derived from the stone, or the stone from the pudding, and either might be considered as a reflection; but to my taste plum-pudding is excellent.
The wine generally drunk is Port, high in colour, rough and strong,--Madeira, and Sherry; Bordeaux wine, usually called here Claret, Burgundy Champagne and other French wines, are luxuries. Few of these wines come to England without some heightening of brandy. People generally taste of fewer dishes here than at Paris, each generally dining on one or two. You are not pressed to eat or drink. The ordinary beverage during the dinner is small-beer, porter rarely, and sparkling ale, which is served in high shaped glasses like Champagne glasses; water, acidulated by the carbonic gas, is frequently used; few drink wine and water mixed. The crystal vessels called decanters, in which wine is brought on table, are remarkably beautiful. Formerly it was the invariable custom to drink everybody’s health round the table; and although less general now, it is by no means entirely abolished. It was done in this way; One of the guests challenged another, male or female; this being accepted by a slight inclination of the head, they filled respectively each watching the motions of his adversary, then raised their glasses, bowing to each other, and in this attitude, looking round the table, they had to name every one of the company successively. This ceremony finished, the two champions eyed each other gravely and carrying their glasses to their lips, quaffed their wine simultaneously As one challenger did not wait for another, and each guest matched himself without minding his neighbours the consequence was, circular glances, calls of names, and mutual bows, forming a running-fire round the table, crossing in every direction It was then the invariable custom to introduce guests to each other by name, and it was quite necessary to recollect these names, in order to drink their healths at table. This custom of introducing is losing its ground every day; and in fact the height of fashion is to banish every thing like gene and ceremony. This is certainly very well; but some people go a bit farther; and under pretence of ease, every appearance of mutual good -will is excluded. . . . True politeness, I presume, is merely benevolence in small things, which cost so little, and requires so few sacrifices, that it is not worthwhile to dispense with it; When politeness promises no more, it is consistent with perfect sincerity. The manners of those who have that sort of politeness resemble each other in all countries, while the arbitrary politeness of fashion is more local. Fashionable people in England are very apt to be insolent--in France probably impertinent.
Soon after dinner the ladies retire, the mistress of the house rising first, while the men remain standing. Left alone, they resume their seats, evidently more at ease, and the conversation takes a different turn,--less reserved--and either graver or more licentious.
Politics are a subject of such general interest in England, both for men and women, that it engrosses the conversation before, as much as after the retreat of the ladies; the latter, indeed, are still more violent and extravagant than the men, whenever they meddle at all with politics, and the men out of Parliament, I think, more than those in Parliament. Women, however, do not speak much in numerous and mixed company. The political topics most usually agitated relate to the measures of administration; and the ministers are infallibly blamed or praised for the same things and for every thing, as the person who speaks happens to belong to one or the other party This ministerial controversy, however, is carried on with sufficient good-humour; but there is another branch of politics which is hardly ever introduced without producing more heat and earnestness of debate,--that is, parliamentary reform; a nice and intricate question which few of the disputants understand, and they are more positive and violent on that very account. As to ministers, it is quite another thing; the disputants on this point know exactly how the matter stands; those who support them are in general supposed to be in duty bound to do so--and there is no disputing on a point of duty.
The minister Walpole, who is thought to have understood the manipulation of his art better than any one, and to have known how to manage mankind, used to say, that he was sure to keep his guests at table in good-humour by leading the conversation to eating and women;--They were all of one mind on these subjects. The recipe has lost nothing of its efficacy, and the matter is at this day discussed con amore. Old men and young all join in it; and make themselves amends, over the bottle, for the restraint necessary before women.
There are some customs here not quite consistent with that scrupulous delicacy on which the English pique themselves. Towards the end of dinner, and before the ladies retire, bowls of coloured glass full of water are placed before each person. All (women as well as men) stoop over it, sucking up some of the water, and returning it, perhaps more than once, and, with a spitting and washing sort of noise, quite charming,--the operation frequently assisted by a finger elegantly thrust into the mouth! This done, and the hands dipped also, the napkins, and sometimes the table-cloth, are used to wipe hand and mouth. This, however, is nothing to what I am going to relate. Drinking much and long leads to unavoidable consequences. Will it be credited that, in a corner of the very dining room, there is a certain convenient piece of furniture, to be used by any body who wants it. The operation is performed very deliberately and undisguisedly, as a matter of course, and occasions no interruption of the conversation. I once took the liberty to ask why this convenient article was not placed out of the room, in some adjoining closet; and was answered that in former times, when good fellowship was more strictly enforced than in these degenerate days, it had been found that men of weak heads or stomachs took advantage of the opportunity to make their escape shamefully, before they were quite drunk; and that it was to guard against such an enormity that this nice expedient had been invented. I have seen the article in question regularly provided in houses where there were no men, that is, no master of the house; the mistress, therefore, must be understood to have given the necessary orders to her servants--a supposition rather alarming for the delicacy of an English lady.
*Plum-pudding is a mass of paste, formed of equal quantities of bread, or of flour, of firm fat from the kidneys of breef, of dried raisins, properly stoned, and of corinths, a sort of dried grape which comes from the Mediterranean. Eggs and a small quantity of milk are also added; and to improve the whole, a little citron, spices and brandy. All this well mixed, is tied in a piece of linen cloth, and boiled for five or six hours in a pot full of water, but suspended so as not to touch the bottom, which might burn it. The longer it is boiled the better; and this precious faculty of not suffering any thing from waiting has made it be named emphatically Hunter’s Pudding. The cloth is taken from it before serving. The pudding forms a large ball, which is cut into slices upon which each pours a sauce composed of butter, sugar, and wine,
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