THE GREAT DINNER QUESTION.
As a curious contrast to the famous problem—Ought a man to marry upon three hundred a year P—The Times has now elicited a controversy as to the best method of conducting rich and costly dinners. From the humble manage, where the housewife has hard work to make both ends meet, to the higher regions of epicurean luxury the transition is sudden ; but the spirit with which the discussion has been taken up is pleasant enough in its way ; much useful information has been infused into the debate ; enlightened and experienced minds are busying themselves with the ventilation of the question as gravely,—indeed more so than if it were a scheme of national reform which had been started, and one of the results of the movement will be, we doubt not, a par- tial reform in the housekeeping principles of a very large class of English Society. The article which first opened this discussion in the Times was manifestly written by one whose experiences of English dining have not been the happiest, and whose researches into the literature of Epicurism have not been very profound. Probably the latter ,does not extend beyond that very " Original " which he quotes with so much approbation,—certainly not so far as the ..Physioloyie du Gout by Brillat de Savarm for the Almanach des Gourmands. It is not, however, necessary for a man to be deeply learned in these matters in order to appreciate the evils attendant von dinner-giving in certain classes of English society. Thirty years ago complaints were made,—identical with those now pro- duced in the Times—of the eternal " dim soup," cod's head and shoulders boiled chickens, and roast saddle of mutton, which form the unchangeable menu which people go to each others houses, to devour ; Hook complained of them and tried to laugh them out of the region of Russell Square ; but his laugh has long since ceased to be heard around any mahogany and BUR the matter re- quires mending. " What we want," says the Times, " to bring especially under the notice of our English middle-class housewives —let no English lady scorn the honourable title—is, that with the best meat, fish, game, fruit, and vegetables in the world at their disposal, and with means of access to the markets of every foreign country which no other class of housekeepers can dream of, they have not succeeded, when they give an entertainment, in going beyond a regulation programme with which we are al familiar, even to nausea."
It is curious to note how this question, plainly enough put one would imagine has drawn out a number of speculations' most of which are altogether apart from and beside the matter in hand. We have had letters upon the merits of the diner a la Russe another learned gentleman—learned, it is rumoured, in the law' as in cookery—fills a column and a half of the Times with such an account of his own domestic arrangements as proves him to be a true disciple of Apicius and a lineal descendant of Heliogabalus, of whose costly banquets Petronius Arbiter gives us such a tooth- some sketch. This gentleman whom an envious " Barbarian " refers to with simulated contempt as one who "ought to be a professed cook," seems to pitch the lowest scale of dinner-giving incomes at something like 5000/. a year ; albeit he affects a certain chaste simplicity in his own arrangements, and pronounces for one soup, one fish, and so forth, instead of the " choice " usually given by more hospitable Amphitryons. "In dining," says this gentle- man, with no little dogmatism, "there is no choice" ; by which he means that one thing, and one alone legitimately follows each dish. This, be it observed parenthetically, is pure nonsense. If he means to assert that one class of dishes legitimately follows another, that is true enough ; but it would be as absurd to say that the choice of two or three entrées may not properly be offered after a certain fish, as to declare that when Bordeaux is recom- mended with grouse you may not give your guests Lafitte, Mar- gaux, or Larose indifferently. These speculations are, however, as we have already intimated, altogether beside the question originally posed by the Times. It is not for households where "thirteen courses" can be served that that sermon was preached, but for "our English middle-class housewives." Among the substantially wealthy classes of England, the nobles and old gentry, even in middle-class families of old standing, hospitality of the most solid and elegant kind is prac- tised in a manner which combines luxury with economy. Among no people in the world are the true advantages of money in making home comforable so thoroughly understood as among the upper English. The wives of these are not the pupils who are to sit at the feet of the Times Gamaliel and learn how to serve their husbands' dinners. It is the new middle classes of cities, the wives-of profes- sional men and tradesmen whose position in life has bettered, and whose bankers' account swelled since the time when they took that little office in Chancery Lane or served behind that counter ia Holborn. Their wives have risen with them, and from being the helpmates of poor working men find themselves in splendid man- sions and at the heads of grand dinner tables without knowing how to behave when they have got there. It is among the nou- veaux riches that these evils really exist ; the people who have plenty of money without knowing how to spend it, and who at- tempt to make up by the abundance of food for the want of taste manifested in the serving of it.
Now it must be obvious to any one who takes the slightest trouble to reflect upon this question, that any good that is to be done by taking up and discussing this matter must be very slow in its operation. Tastes are not to be changed in a day, and when people dine in a certain way, we may feel pretty sure that al- though they don't know any better, it s very much also because that way is entirely consistent with their taste. You may take the sturdy fellow who stands out for the single joint, or who vo- ciferates "give me a good rump steak, Sir, and you may have all the leickshaws for me,"—and show him a diner a In Russe- as the best way of dining ; he will laugh at you. Prove to him that to dine off several well-cooked dishes is more wholesome and nutritious than swallowing an immense piece of semi-raw beef ;— what cares he ? It is his taste and was his father's before him, and maybe his son's, unless the Times or some other public in- structor inculcates more civilized principles. If these things are to be mended, it must be by slow degrees, and as the taste of the na- tion is gradually becoming better in matters of art and dress, so we may one day hope to have the "feeding habits" of the mid- dle classes, rather more assimilated to the principles of good taste than at present, even though they may not quite come up to the high standard of G. H. M., the Lucullus of Berkeley Street. One word as to the way in which these things are managed among our neighbours to whom we generally give the credit of managing matters of taste better than we do. It is not so in the matter of dinners. Among the upper classes the case stands very much as it does here ; but among the middle classes of the French evils exist more cryinc,b and abominable than any that are complained of in the Times. Good French cookery is a very good thing, and the best parts of it have long since been grafted upon the scientific English cuisine, very much to the advantage of both schools ; but
of all the abominations under the sun, we do not except even the filthy details of Chinese dining, nothing can exceed bad, or even second-rate, French cookery. To those who have had any ex- perience of the greasy messes and be-garlicked olios of French middle class dinners, we need offer no further explanations ; to those who have not, all that we can say is, that in this ease ignorance is certainly bliss. So conscious are the French of their own shortcomings in this particular that the majority of their mid- dle classes, females as well as males, fly the domestio hearths, whenever they wish to give a treat to their friends, and purchase a more elegant style of luxury at one of the great restaurants. This, however, in our opinion, is the worse evil of the two. How can any decent man knowing by whom these establishments are usually patronised, bear to invite the pure-minded ladies of his acquaintance to make merrythere ? Shall his wife dine at a table yet unclean with the wine-stains left by Mademoiselle Aspasie of the Italian Opera? Or shall his innocent sister press the seat where Mademoiselle Phryne, of the Rue Change d'Antin, lolled but yesternight ? Surely " dim " soup, cod's head, boiled fowls, and all the other crimes of a non-cannery wife are prefer- able to this !
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