Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-30

Some eff the Latest Freaks of Fashion
al the Dining Table.


NARROW BONES IN NAPKINS. HOT CRACKER AND
BRoH.ED FLOWER ENsCoNCED IN GROVE OF
PARSLEY sPRIGs AND CELERY ToPS-EaTISG
THATCHED HOUSES THAT ARE FULL OF BIRDS.
From the New York Sun.
The fashionable season in this city is opening
with cookery that even BriIlat-Savarin would
have deSGed to eat. Dinners and luDcheons
are the favorite form of entertainment. Modern
furnishings and the bric-a-brae mania make
dancing difficult in the parlors of an ordinary
city house. The old-fashioned party has dis
appeared. Receptions are voted tiresome and
afternoon tea comes too early to attract many
gentlemen, and 80 late that there is risk of
spelling the appetite tor dinner. The tea is
only pnpular way for the ladies to make calls,
and is ~ 5idered a perfunctory means of pay
Ing social debts.
In the main things Of dinner the fillet aud
roast. there is little change, but in minor things
the caterer rules. To begin with oysters FIVE
not six is now the fashionable number for the
half shells. At formal dinners it is the inrari-
able rule that ladies' and gentlemen should be
seated alternately. never allowing two ladies' or
two gentlemen to sit together. At dinners of
eight. twelve. or sixtccn persons. this can be
managed only By putting gentlemen at both
ends of the table. HOSteSSeS generally have a
prejudice against giving up their customary
seat forgetting the old saving: where the
Douglass sits. there is the head of the table ;"
and avoid the awkward number.
A rather graceful fashion. making an excuse
Tor the necessity. Is to serve two kinds of soup.
one at each end of the table. A thick soup
terrapin. turtle. calves head. or gumbO-is
placed in silver tureen before the host and at
the other end a clear soup. or bouillon. i'm a
glass tureen, with a glass Iadle. The effect is
very, pretty especially when the latter dish is
thick and cut like a rose diamond
Though now new roast has been discovered
sensible gravy spoon has appeared-large. long
handled. with a silver knob on the under side to
prevent it slipping into the platter.
Among entrees. the reigning novelty is a
dish of marrow bones. This has been tabOOed
since the days of Taify. the Dutchman. 1t is
not served as in the oden time on toast. but
the bones are brought to the table folded i'm a
napkin With them Is a new queer-lOOking,
bucket-shaped spoon. which the siiyersmiths
have introduced to meet the fashion. The mar
row Is eaten with a thin, pain trumpet, almost
as plain. but not so brittle as the Dent crackers
which are served hot with salad. However, the
dish is SO rich that like Lambs roast pig it is
more talked of than eaten.
new Improvement upon baking four ana
twenty blaekbirds in pie is seen in dish of
pioyer- deep crust of mashed potato is filed
with hot broiled ployer or snipe. and then hidden
%
tops stuck into the potato. 1t Comes to the
table loohiug as green and fresh as a salad. But
Is pleasant surprise to find the salad is still to
come-thaf You have struck a fresh cOyey of
birds. Reed birds are much better brOiled
than cooked i'm any other way that it is pity to
bake them.
If any one is disposed to offer up q sacrifice on
the altar of decorative art, the prettiest pastry
OF the season is a matched house full of birds.
The dish seems very elaborate when on the table,
H4f.h .,a Ioffo
and sides of deep pie dish are lined with small
pieces OF yermiceli laid in regularly az matches
are put on roof. 1t is filled with birds covered
with pun paste. and baked When done it is
turned out. the yermicelli under-crust forming
the roof and making very good imitation of
straw thatches if well Drowned An artistic
cook can improve the dish by browning in win
dOws and doors with the edge of salamander
or small iron.
For desserts there are various new fashions.
Jellies are tastefully served in the rinds of
fruits, halves of oranges. lemons and bananas
the pulp having been scraped out carefully with
out breaking the skin. The juices are squeezed
into gelatine. or calves foot jelly The rinds OF
the various fruits are then packed in deep
dish. so they will retain an upright position,
and form little cups to receive the liquid jelly.
Each fruit skin is filled with jelly. favored with
its own Iuice and set aside to cool. When the
jelly has hardened, the edges are trimmed with
a sharp knife. Pineappies are filled with grated
pulp, only enough gelatine being added to
stitfen the pulp. Bananas are filled with guava.
ounce or peach jelly. platter filled with
these jellied fruits. Valencia and Mandarin
oranges. red and yellow bananas lemons and
slices OF pineapple is very tempting dish. 1t
looks as though a magician had worked
charm beneath the familiar orange skins and
banana peelings, and left those tabled apples of
lstkahar which had One-half sweet and the
other sour. or spread feast of that luscious
fruit the Persians call the 'seed of the sun"
Z a honey the month
The latest fancy in ice cream is single form;
not those little individual mOulds in fruit and
Mower shapes which have been in fashion during
two or three years. One Of the newest designs
Is something that can float or swim i'm sea of
spun sugar; for instance. a ship with the hull
made of ttt5 frtGth. and rigging that melts away
before yonr eyes-a very phantom of delight.
mandarin cake, made with mandarin Or
enges and sweet orange icing. is the latest
Doom IN Jelly cake, and mammoth cream cake
filled with roman punch and covered with a
soft rum icing is late concession to teetotalers
that must delight X. B. Hayes of Ohio. Fancy
Cakes I'm crlmped papers are always good. but.
like many good things and people, they are out
OF fashion Plates. not cake baskets, with bun
dies of lady fingers and other long crumbes
and Jumbies tied loosely in separate pyramids
nine or ten together, with satin ribbons are the
fashion. Under the cake is placed a lace paper
napkin Itese napkins are almost perfect mi-
tations OF "a lace of various kinds. They come
In gold. silver and white paper. The other day
the writer saw a cake that neither ribbon nor
lace napkin could adorn 1t was cut on the
table by the hostess while her husband opposite
was serving Cupid of flesh-cOlOred ice cream
The Cupid looked so natural that it seemed al
most cannibalish to eat it. But after one taste
all prejudices vanished. and however bad Cupid
may be said to be, those dsjointed members
were certainly good. The cake was a water
melon. The center was made with pink sugar
with big whole rasins cOunterfeiting almost
perfectly the shiny black seeds of the fruit The
rind was formed OF a delicate white cake A
pisrache icing made the green skin. 1t was both
novel and good.
Ii is predicted that dinner favors are having
their last season After being comfortably
dined people do not care to carry away a week s
supply OF candy. The strips of plush i'm the
center of tables are also doomed. Plush does
not bear silver. 1t needs plenty of glass and
crystal candelabra TO tone it down. The highly
decorated china now much used does not
look so we'll upon it as plain white service
Nothing seems so suitable for a table covering
a white linen cloth, and plush no matter how
carefully trimmed with smilax has no utilitar-
Ian excuse for being upon table Center pieces
Tor dinners in the new fashion are so low as not
to interrupt the view of any part of the table
AT wedding breakfasts and receptions where
every one stands, high decorations are used
Made pieces of cut flowers are onincr nv If 10