In order to arrange a dinner some practical acquaintance with food is necessary - Also of the season at which various kinds are in perfection - The art of menu writing - The scheme or elementary outline of a dinner - Menus should be written in French - Examples of simple menus for each month in the year - Some in English, chiefly in French, for comparison - Menus of higher character - Further remarks on the order in which dishes should be presented - And on other matters arising out of the subject.

The remark is frequently heard from the domestic head of an English family, the lady of the house - who, although in easy circumstances and much occupied in good society, does not care to delegate her authority to a skilled professional housekeeper - that nothing puzzles her more than the composition of mentis for the inevitable dinner parties. She feels almost as ready, or rather as unready, as she would be if called upon to compose a sonnet or a symphony. Her husband, whose counsels are so valuable, or at all events are so promptly furnished on almost all other topics, utterly fails in his attempt to offer a suggestion now. Hence she meets her cook on terms which, preclude exercise of choice or criticism; and the latter becomes mainly the author of the programme. But a leading confectioner or dinner purveyor may also be consulted, who supplies the suggestion desired, sending in a dish or two in consequence; and a suitable congruity is devoutly hoped for as the result. At all events, one may be assured that the menu will be sufficiently comprehensive; and there is even a probability that it will contain the latest novelty - well, let us say - in gastronomic nomenclature; since that of the imported dish itself may, perhaps, not be so easily or truthfully affirmed.

Alleged difficulty in composing a menu.

I venture, then, to offer a few hints relative to that particular form of literary composition which is involved in the so-called art of menu writing. Were it not that the art is really a very simple one, I should not risk the responsibility of offering advice. But it is necessary at the outset to state, that in order to insure success in this particular department of letters, some little knowledge of the subject, namely, food, its nature and principal forms, is really necessary.

First, then, the author of a menu must have a moderate acquaintance with the varied materials which form the natural produce of any given season throughout the year. Otherwise, we may meet with a proposal to serve Scotch salmon at Christmas, wild duck at Easter, oysters and grouse at Midsummer, asparagus at Michaelmas, and tender peas in November. I Must know the foods in season don't say that it is absolutely impossible to procure some of these things, more especially as the electric light may ultimately render us, for gardening purposes - and who knows for what else! - independent of sun and season; but at present most of those delicacies, like others which might be mentioned, are, at the periods named, practically unattainable. To be serious, it is necessary that a housekeeper should know what are the best products of the season, both of the animal and the vegetable world, in every month of the year. A pleasant stroll through Covent Garden once a week, and an occasional call on the fishmonger and poultryman, with frequent reference to some good manual of cookery, containing a kind of Almanack des Gourmands', will furnish a fair acquaintance with what is really an interesting branch of knowledge. See table of fish in season, Appendix, p. 293.

Practical hints on the "art of menu writing."

How to arrange a Menu.

Next, it is necessary to have a simple but clear notion of the foundation or outline, the pattern or "archetype" - if I may use a scientific term of rather lofty significance - on which every dinner, however great or however small, must be planned, as the groundwork of its construction. Certain primary elements are essential to the structure of a dinner; shorn of these there may without doubt be a meal, and indeed not a bad one of some kind; but there can be no dinner. Thus, a man may satisfy his throughout the year.

Every dinner should be arranged on a certain plan.

Hunger with a large plate of meat, piled with supplementary vegetables, and flanked by the attendant bread, and greatly enjoy his meal, but this is not dinner in any technical sense of the word, and cannot be so regarded; it is simply a plate of meat and vegetables. It offers no change in form, or kind, or flavour, and no slight interval of rest for the palate; it is a single movement, not a complete symphony - an "andante" in common time, but wanting the preliminary introduction, and without the bright and sparkling "minuet" to follow, which in its turn leads to the "grand finale; " while this in its course may present a plaintive minor passage, giving force and splendour to the resumption of the major key before the close. Thus it is that certain constituent parts are necessary, one lending force to another by help of relief or contrast; the attainment of perfection through variety being: as essential to the idea of a dinner as to that of a complete musical composition. Bearing this law in view, and maintaining the characters demanded, we may produce a dinner of Spartan simplicity, or may swell it to proportions which should satisfy a Lucullus; but the design or archetype is still to be discernible throughout.

A dinner to be complete within moderate limits should contain, in ideal terms I. An introductory or preliminary dish or two, as soup, or fish, or both.

A series of dishes, each having some relation to the next, so as to make an agreeable whole.

A complete dinner scheme System to be followed.

4. A dish of marked flavour and character easily digestible, inviting to the palate; either a roast or grill.