St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-01-02
GAsrRoNoM1c DEVICES.
The Inventions in the Culinary Art De-
signed to lad Test to the


appetite.
''We have to be thinking up new things
all the time" remarked well known ca
terer to q Boston Globe reporter, refectively.
"Wealthy, fashionable people, such as give
of course the handsomest entertainments,
want novelties in our line just as they do in
others, and we have to give them to them or
they will think we are behind the times.
Take, for example, the custom of placing
raw oysters on the table in a partially scooped
out block of clear ice. 1t is most excellent
custom. It looks well and keeps the oysters
at the right tenn perature, but l should hardly
dare to serve oysters in that way at really
swell dinner the device is too Old"
SIS the custom of serving birds in plum
age still sanctioned by our first families"'
'Yes; work of that kind, skillfully exc
cuted, will, believe, always be considered
CONNIE il faut.
''Tle head and plumaged skin of the bird,
of whatever kind it is, are first carefully re-
moved, an operation requiring some little
skill. The bird is then boned, with dressing
you know, and the boned meat returned to
the skin. At least, that is the way it is usu-
ally done. A pheasant served IN this way
makes particularly attractive dish. Taft,
you know, sometimes serves roasted hum
ming birds in walnut shells, and it is quite
possible to serve small sized red birds in the
same way"
"Rather an expensive dish, imaginen
Every. But some people, you know, will
pay heavily for having their palates or their
fancies tickled. A com paratively new and
very pretty custom is that of placing a large
mirror in the center of the dinner or supper
table, as the case may be, and surrounding
it with smilax. 1t has the effect of a minia-
ture lake, and this effect is heightened by
scattering few bright colored flowers, pan
sizes or something of that kind, over its sur
face"
'Dinner tables are sometimes decorated
with vegetables. are they not!'
''Yes, that has, of late years, become an
important feature of dinner-table decoration.
Beets, carrots, turnips, ETC., can be cut so as
to resemble flowers of many kinds. One Of
our cutters recently made what casual OBJ
server would have taken for handsome
basket Of flowers, and it was made, basket
and all, out of vegetables"
Another novelty is a house made of ice
appearance of miniature house on fire. A
ruined remnant, is left of ice cream, with
light inside of is also very effective, and
tower of clear ice lighted in the same way,
looks like miniature lighthouse. We make
ice cream in the shape of all kinds of flowers,
and put them together in the form of boquets.
Then, we have what appear TO be perfect
walnuts, filberts, ETC., which are filed with
sugar plums. In making these we use real
shells. We make imitation cherries, grapes
and plums, and fill them in the same way.
They decorate table very nicely"
do you think of anything else novel2''
'Oh, yes. heard of a party recently
where a caterer served what appeared to be
| perfect eggs, and when they were opened
they were found to contain live canary birds.
One of the party, young lady, broke into
one Of them rather carelessly-not knowing
what it contained-and by SO doing killed
its poor little inmate. I'm told that her
sorrow at the accident rather interfered with
the ENJOYMENT of the dinner. | hear that a
New York man recently design ed
what must have been very
pretty table decoration. 1t consisted
of miniature forest. made of spruce, pine
and hemlock branches, beneath which were
scattered moss, cones, pine needles, etc.
Perched among the branches were number
of birds and little squirrels. l know, too,
of caterer who sometimes uses musical
cake basket. The minute it is raised from
the table, for the purpose of passing around
the cake, it commences to play, and when
is again placed on the table the music
eases.
''What do you consider the most novel de-
vice that you know off'
'Well, perhaps the most novel is one that
| heard Of, but never saw. 1t was a large
block of clear, greeush jelly, in the center
of which was duck, in full plumage, headed
for some sprigs of celery. The upper surface
of the block was made in little ripples, and
looked Just as water would after duck
had dived through it. Around the
block grasses were arranged, and Pm told
that the piece, taken as a whole, was very
effective. I've seen another very pretty
piece by the way. 1t was made Of ice-crcam,
and represented man in sleigh drawn by
reindeer. Underneath the sleigh was
music-box, which played about fifteen
minutes after the piece was placed on the
the table, and running through the music
was the peculiar grating sound made by
sleighs"
1.-THE custom of introducing odd table de-
vices is very old, is it not"'
every. You will perhaps remember hear
ing Of Jeffrey Hudson, the celebrated dwarf,
who hourshed in about the middle Of the
seventeenth century. He was a great favor
tic OF Charles /, of England, and was on one
occasion served up in pie at a royal enter
tainment. When the cover to the pie was re-
moved he sprang out upon the table clad in
full armor. And you remember Mother
Goose's time honOred melody:
And when the pie was opened
The birds began to sing,
And wasn't that dainty dish
To set before the king?
'Tbave seen and heard of so many odd de-
vices that question If even the appearance
Of -four and twenty backbirds' at a feast
would startle me very much"
Good day, sir"
The sf0r"rHGI'f u Il Friends.