Social Dilemma Solved by Sardines

Antique silver sardine servers — Knives are really only used with any dish that requires to be cut, such as cutlets, oxtail, filets de boeuf, grenadines of veal, hashed venison or beef, for these and similar dishes, a knife is a requisite. Sweetbreads are never eaten with a knife, for if they are properly cooked, they are so tender that a knife is quite wrong and out of place. Any mince with poached eggs, or puree of meat, game, or poultry, is also eaten with a fork only. It is usual to eat salads with both knife and fork, mayonnaise also. Omelettes, both savoury and sweet, are eaten with the fork alone; toasted cheese or Welsh rarebit with both knife and fork, which would also be used for most savouries, such as “sardines on toast,” “bloaters,” Anchovy toast, with poached eggs, all kinds of  ‘devils,’ ‘ham toast.’ Forks only would be used in eating ‘macaroni au gratin,’ ‘soufflés,’ whether savoury or cheese, ‘scalloped oysters,’ ‘tartlettes,’ whether savoury or sweet, creams, jellies, iced puddings, blancmanges, indeed all kinds of sweets of sufficient consistency to admit of it. — Lady Constance Eleanora C. Howard

SOCIAL DILEMMA 

Unexpected guests for an evening will often tax your ingenuity for a suitable luncheon. You can solve this social dilemma by having on hand always Booth’s Crescent Brand Sardines. One tin will make a splendid luncheon for four, and a more delicious, tid-bit was never tasted by anyone, than these savory little fish from the Bay of Monterey. They are larger than ordinary sardines and better, so much better that you will wonder why they are called sardines. 

Try a can and you’ll buy a case, for you’ll never want to be without them. 20 cents a tin at grocers everywhere. One tin is enough for a luncheon for four. Put up by Monterey Packing Company, Monterey, California. F. K. Booth, Sole Agent, San Francisco. Booklet of recipes for serving Crescent Brand Sardines mailed free if you send the name of your grocer. — Stockton Independent, 1910

Antique porcelain sardine box with antique silver set of sardine knife and fork, sardine lifters and sardine tongs — “Early tinned and canned items were too expensive for those in the lower, and even middle-class income brackets, at the time. Sardines were one imported tinned food that the wealthy could afford to serve, so sardine servers, dishes and tongs, were offered in abundance at the time. Tinned sardines and other such foods, suddenly offered an elegant way to not only outdo one’s neighbors, but another way illuminate one’s home.” — Maura Graber in “Reaching for the Right Fork”

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia