The British Pudding Course

From the book, “What have we here?”

A British silver-plate, “double decker” pudding set, with 6 pudding spoons, 6 pudding forks, a serving spoon and a serving fork. - The “pudding course” is the British equivalent of the American “dessert course” or “French sweets” course.

The two meanings of "pudding":

"Pudding" can refer generically to the sweet, final course of a meal, what Americans know as "dessert." (Because it's the UK, this has class implications. Nancy Mitford, in a famous essay comparing the speech of upper-class Britons with everyone else, categorized "pudding" as used by the elite and "sweet" as used by the proletariat)

But a pudding can also be a specific dish and a British pudding still isn't the same as an American one. American puddings are closer to what the Brits would call "custard."

A British pudding is a dish, savory or sweet, that's cooked by being boiled or steamed in something: a dish, a piece of cloth, or even animal intestine. The earliest puddings, in this sense of the word, were sausages; black pudding, a type of sausage made with pig's blood, is sometimes included in a traditional English breakfast.

Other puddings are sweet, such as "spotted dick" - a sort of steamed cake with currants that's barely sweet and, like many puddings, flavored with suet, or beef fat, rather than butterJam roly- poly, or roly-poly pudding, is traditionally steamed; it consists of a pastry made with suet, spread with jam, and rolled up.

And just to make things a bit more confusing, some dishes are referred to as "puddings" that are sometimes baked but formerly were boiled or steamed. The best example is sticky toffee pudding, a date cake with caramel sauce that's traditionally steamed but is now often baked. (It also might originally be Canadian, not British) - From Libby Nelson on Vox

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

Gilded Age Dining Requisites Revealed

What Have We Here? — I’m routinely sent photos of utensils via DM on Instagram, asking for their intended purpose. I’m happy to share the information. Here is a small selection from my personal collection appearing on the back of my latest book— A gilded age, souvenir spoon from Baltimore, featuring a turtle, or terrapin design, is on the far left of this assortment. Next, from left to right, are a gilded orange spoon; a multi-tined, gilded sardine fork; a gilded and pierced, nut scoop or bon bon scoop; a gilded, heart-shaped bon bon server; a gilded sugar sifter or confectioner spoon; a gilded, spiderweb design, lettuce serving fork; a gilded jelly (aspic) server or jelly roll cake server; and a gilded and pierced bon bon server. The gilding was applied to protect the silver from tarnishing due to salt, citric acid, and other harmful ingredients commonly found in foods.

The Gilded Age table often required numerous utensils for dining and serving. A souvenir spoon from Baltimore, featuring a turtle, or terrapin, is on the far left of this assortment. Each utensil was designed with at least one food —or purpose— in mind, yet many suited several foods, or even evolved to suit new foods which were considered delicacies, when the foods they were originally designed for, became less important when entertaining.  - The fancy for collecting “souvenir” spoons, one at a time, suggests a way to secure a valuable lot of spoons with out feeling the burden of the expense. Yet, on the other hand, these spoons are much more expensive than equally good plain silver, the extra price being paid other hand, these spoons are much more expensive than equally good plain silver, the extra price being paid for the “idea;” but the expenditure is worth while to those who value historical associations.— Agnes H. Morton. 1899

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

Gilded Age Specialty Utensils

Etiquette class students of mine have always been terribly confused as to why everyday fruits and vegetables, like tomatoes and cucumbers, would have utensils made specifically for them. I have to explain that these were perishable and without refrigeration, would spoil quickly. Perishable vegetables and fruits were also quite expensive. Showing them off by using beautiful utensils to serve them was another way of gilded age “one-upmanship” and showing off one’s wealth. The photo and the information below, is from the book, “What Have We Here?: The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond...” from Etiquipedia Site Editor, Maura J. Graber

What have we here?

Gilded Age, sterling cucumber and tomato servers. The smaller, cucumber servers (and in some patterns these were sold as “cheese servers”), have little “teeth” that tomato servers normally don’t have. These servers fell out of fashion as refrigerators became more common in people’s homes. Perishable foods were no longer a tremendous concern. The round servers which once served up tomato slices were found to be perfect, however, for serving slices of canned, jellied cranberry sauce at holiday dinners, and soon they were being marketed as “cranberry servers.” — From What Have We Here?: The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond..., 2021

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

Proper Oyster Fork Placement

 … or Cocktail Fork Placement 

A Gilded Age, 6 course, formal place setting, set for oysters as the first course.

As “What Have We Here?” at 162 pages, is 4 times longer than “Reaching for the Right Fork,” I could not use every photograph I took for the book. It would be too long. I will therefore be occasionally adding some of the photos which were ultimately unused to my blog posts. 

Here is one photo above, showing a Gilded Age formal place setting, set for a first course of oysters. Oyster forks, or any cocktail forks, can be properly placed in 3 different ways:

1. As the first of 3 forks to the left of a setting.
2. At the far right of a place setting, laying flat on the table next to the soup spoon or first knife, whichever utensil to be used afterward.
3. Or resting at an angle, with the small tines resting in the bowl of the soup spoon. 

In the setting above, the oyster fork rests at an angle in the soup spoon, or the 3rd option. This positioning was to help those dining at crowded Gilded Age tables deal with an ever-growing list of specialty utensils at each place setting. The fork on the far left of one setting could be mistaken for the first fork expected for many foods for the diner on the right. 

At the same time, the decision had just recently been made by the arbiters of good taste during that time period in the U.S., to no longer allow four forks on the left, but to limit them to three. Those not up to snuff on the most recent etiquette rules, whether hosting a dinner or as a guest at one, could be confused. Laying it at an angle with the tines resting in one’s soup spoon bowl, alerted that guest that the fork belonged to him or her and not the place setting to the right.

This below is a page from the book, “What Have We Here?”: The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond...

Contributor Maura Graber has been teaching etiquette to children, teens and adults, and training new etiquette instructors, for over 30 years now, as founder and director of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette.  She is also a writer, has been featured in countless newspapers, magazines and television shows and was an on-air contributor to PBS in Southern California for 15 years. Her books, “Reaching for the Right Fork” and “What Have We Here?” are both available on Amazon

 

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

What Have We Here? 18th–20th C. Etiquette

What Have We Here?: The Etiquette and Essentials of Lives Once Lived, from the Georgian Era through the Gilded Age and Beyond...

I have spoken about writing this book for the last few years, and finally the book is now here, available on Amazon. It was a labor of love and I enjoyed every moment of photographing the items I carefully chose to write about, many of which are on the front cover.

There is a lot of information on Gilded Age etiquette (in anticipation of the upcoming Julian Fellowes’ program now filming for HBO in New York) along with Georgian Era and Regency Era etiquette, etc… 

The crazy thing is that it took me several weeks to receive my author copies, but during my wait, people around the world were posting the most wonderful reviews on Instagram! Especially in Italy, where I have made several new friends.

Of course there are plenty of utensils in the book. Favorites are Edwardian era cayenne pepper spoons, like this sterling example below, from 1905.
                   

Gilded Age chocolate spoons with a chocolate muddler, demitasse-sized trembleuse and pots de creme cups.Many other items which are not utensils, but were part of everyday lives, are shown coming from the 1700’s through the early 1900’s. And, of course, there is a lot of etiquette included throughout, including place settings and proper use of glasses and dishes.

The Graber Olive House and beautiful late Spring weather offered a perfect backdrop for much of my photography.

Etiquette for gloves and glove stretchers like this Bailey & Co., sterling silver glove stretcher in the form of a duck, is one of my favorite items. Gloves and glove etiquette figure prominently in the book. And the section on napkins and gloves in the Gilded Age with the appropriately named, “napkin burrito,” is a must read and see!I want to thank all of the readers who have already purchased the book. Your incredible reviews online and Instagram have meant more than you know and make what I do all the more worthwhile.

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