Gilded Age Finger Foods

Saratoga Chips or ‘chipped potatoes’ were a favorite dish in the gilded age. Shown above is a gilded and sterling Saratoga Chip server” in the Hope” pattern by Mount Vernon Silver, circa 1899“Chipped potatoes are generally eaten with the fingers by epicures. There must be no particle of fat adhering to the chipped potatoes and they must be crisp.” —Delineator, 1903

Finger Food Etiquette is Particular 

There are a number of things that the most- fastidious and well-behaved persons now eat at the dinner table without the aid of either knife, fork or spoon. The following are a few examples:

• Olives, to which a fork should never be applied. whether hot or cold, when served whole, as it should be. 
• Lettuce, which should be dipped in the dressing or a little salt. 
• Celery, which may properly be placed on the tablecloth beside the plate. 
• Strawberries, when served with the stems on, as they usually are. 
• Bread, toast, tarts, small cakes, etc… 
• Fruits of all kinds, except preserves and melons, which are eaten with a spoon. 
• Cheese, which is almost invariably eaten with the fingers by the most particular. 
• Either the leg or small pieces of a bird. 
• Ladies at most of the fashionable lunches pick small pieces of chicken without using knife and fork.
• Chipped potatoes are generally eaten with the fingers by epicures. There must be no particle of fat adhering to the chipped potatoes and they must be crisp.—The Delineator, 1903

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