Colonial American Dining Etiquette

Early wooden handled fork with tines of steel.

When a family dined alone the whole dinner was set on the table at the same time and no fuss about it. In the farm household the only concession to a guest, perhaps the minister come to call, was a clean white cloth and an extra dish of pickles or so, but down in the village, particularly at the squire's home, a special feast would consist of two courses, each enough to be a dinner in itself. Tables were not "set" as we do them today. They were "covered." No pretty arrangement of silver, no sparkling glassware, no floral decoration not until much later. The attractiveness of the table depended first upon the symmetrical arrangement of the dishes and secondly upon their individual garnishment. It was an indication of a hostess's achievement when the tablecloth was hardly visible. A characteristic dinner menu, as suggested by Susannah Carter for the month of July, might be:

FIRST COURSE

1 Mackerel, etc… 

2 Herb Soup

3 Boiled goose and stewed red cabbage

4 Breast of Veal al la Braise

5 Venison Pasty

6 Chickens

7 Lemon pudding

8 Neck of Venison

9 Mutton Cutlets

SECOND COURSE

1 Roast Turkey

2 Fruit

3 Roast Pigeons

4 Stewed Peas

5 Sweetbreads

6 Custards

7 Apricot Tart

8 Fricassee of Rabbits

9 Cucumbers

Hostesses might not follow these menus to the letter but that they served dinners equally ample is well documented by sundry travelers of our period from New England's own John Adams, to the English Mrs. Hall. Writing to his wife in Braintree from Falmouth in 1774, John Adams declared, ". . . and a very genteel dinner we had. Salt fish and all its apparatus, roast chicken, bacon, peas, as fine a salad as ever was made, and a rich meat pie. Tarts and custards, &c., good wine and as good punch as ever you made." No wonder a hostess needed guidance! Mrs. Rundell stated only, "the mode of covering the table differs in taste," but Mrs. Carter's publishers wisely provided her readers not only with a bill of fare for every month but also with a chart to show the position of each dish so that the hostess knew exactly how to place her dishes on the table. No need to mark the individual places; a plate for each diner, a knife and fork, perhaps a wine glass though it was generally advised to place the glasses on the side table or sideboard and let the diners ask for what they wanted in the way of liquid refreshment. That was all that was necessary.— From “Customs on the Table Top: How New England housewives set out their tables,” by Helen Sprackling, 1958

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