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

Cheese Course History

In Georgian times, cream was eaten in abundance and cheese was so popular that cheese mongers ran their own fleet of ships to distribute the cheeses from Liverpool to London. Stilton was named after a village near Peterborough. The landlord of the Bell Inn at Stilton was supplied by his sister- in-law, a farmer’s wife who made a variety of cheese now known as Stilton. Back then, it was eaten with a spoon so that you didn’t miss the maggots! Cheese was, for the fashionable set the end of the meal with it being eaten in pieces, or in savoury dishes such as Welsh Rabbit.

Eating is laden with booby traps. Which fork to use? Which glass? Should I use the cutlery laid for my asparagus or my fingers? Finally, and hopefully after dodging the landmines that are buried under the damask, we come to cheese...

The history of the cheese course starts in the beautiful Dairies of the great houses. The Royal Dairy at Windsor Castle, designed by Prince Albert in 1848 is one of the finest, with beautiful tiles from floor to ceiling. “The milk would be brought in, and gone in the settling pans. These pans would have kept cool throughout by water running from three fountains; a mermaid, a merman and a lady holding a jug. The water would have been running constantly under the marble trestle tops, keeping the milk at a temperature where the cream could be skimmed off and taken in the jugs and delivered to the Palaces.” Emma Clarke, Custodian of the Royal Creamery.

Dairies were a huge source of pride on Country Estates great and small, and dairymaids were well known for their beautiful complexions and soft skin. In 1796 it was discovered by Edward Jenner, the doctor who developed the first successful vaccine, that the diary maids who had contracted cowpox were protected from smallpox which killed so many and left those who lived horribly scarred. Dairymaids were so highly prized that one Gentleman in his 70’s with a fine Dairy courted and eventually married the dairymaid.

In Georgian times, cream was eaten in abundance and cheese was so popular that cheese mongers ran their own fleet of ships to distribute the cheeses from Liverpool to London. Stilton was named after a village near Peterborough. The landlord of the Bell Inn at Stilton was supplied by his sister- in-law, a farmer’s wife who made a variety of cheese now known as Stilton. Back then, it was eaten with a spoon so that you didn’t miss the maggots! Cheese was, for the fashionable set the end of the meal with it being eaten in pieces, or in savoury dishes such as Welsh Rabbit. – From The Cheese Course, by Amy Willcock @copyright 2023 reproduced with permission only

Author Amy Willcock is our newest contributor. Amy was the Best in Show Winner for the Etiquette Community in our 2nd Annual Etiquipedia Place Setting Competition. She is most well known for her books on AGA Stove cooking. Her books, "The Aga Bible," "Aga Cooking," "Aga Seasons," "Amy Willcock's Aga Baking," "Amy Willcock's Aga Know-How,"" At Home with Amy Willcock," and "B&B Know-How” are available on Amazon.

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

Table Knife Etiquette

We have all seen humorous pictures of the uncouth man who sits waiting for his plate with his knife in his right hand and his fork in his left, points upwards. See that you don't let yourself look so ridiculous. 

The Right Thing at the Right Time with the Knife

“Since trifles make the sum of human things.” —Hannah More

DON’T hold your knife at table as if you contemplated cutting your way through a barbed wire entanglement with it. Take it no further down toward the blade than is necessary to hold it securely. In fact, it is a mistake to let your fingers rest anywhere but on the handle, save that the index finger may be placed on the edge of the dull side. When you have finished with a course in which a knife is used, place the knife across the side of the plate with the sharp side of the blade toward the center. 

If you are dining with your family and send your plate to the carver for a second helping, the knife and fork should be placed in this way, not removed and laid on the butter plate, much less held in mid-air. Never hold the knife in the hand, save when using it. Some persons, you know, forget that they have it in their hand and raise it in an awkward fashion with the point of the blade ceiling-ward. We have all seen humorous pictures of the uncouth man who sits waiting for his plate with his knife in his right hand and his fork in his left, points upwards. See that you don't let yourself look so ridiculous. 

Never use a knife in eating salad. Do not use a steel knife in eating fish. Some persons would say, never use any knives at all with fish, but it is quite all right to use a silver knife and small silver knives are especially designed for the fish course. In the ordinary household where fish is served as a substitute for the meat course, it is served with the usual knife and fork, but this knife should not be of steel. Do not use a knife when eating desserts, although in some provincial hotels, the waiter will give you a knife and fork with pie. A small knife may be served and used with cheese. When this is done, cut off a bit of cheese and place it by means of the knife on the wafer with which it is served and then convey the wafer to your month by means of the left hand. 

Never, never use your knife as an implement with which to assist food on your fork or to scout about your plate the last morsels. In fact, the knife should not be used at all for potatoes or other vegetables, these being broken entirely by means of the fork. If no butter knives are used, it is quite all right to use the dinner knife for buttering bread. Remember, however, never to spread more than a small morsel at a time, and never wipe off gravy or other food on a slice of bread by way of polishing your knife before using it on the butter. — By Mary Marshall Duffee, 1922

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

Correct Gilded Age Dining

Above– An orange spoon with a gilded bowl, an orange peeler knife, a fruit knife and a citrus peeler. All 4 were helpful Victorian Era dining tools. – “The Ladies’ Home Journal affirms that the daintiest way to eat an orange is from a fork—that is, the skin and its coarse white lining are pared off with a sharp fruit knife, the orange is stuck on a fork and is eaten exactly as one would eat an apple.”

At the Table – The Correct Way of Serving and Eating Various Dishes

It is not an easy thing to eat an orange gracefully. The Ladies’ Home Journal affirms that the daintiest way to eat an orange is from a fork—that is, the skin and its coarse white lining are pared off with a sharp fruit knife, the orange is stuck on a fork and is eaten exactly as one would eat an apple. Cheese, says the same authority, may be taken between the fingers, or it may be put on a bit of bread with a knife and eaten on that, but a fork is not used with it. Artichokes are, of course, eaten with the fingers, each leaf being dipped in the dressing. 

All pastry is eaten from a fork, and it is an insult to the cook to touch it with a knife. In fact, your knife has no use, except for cutting or buttering something, and when it is resting, it should he laid sideways on your plate. Every vegetable can be eaten with a fork, the uses of a spoon being limited to a few desserts and for your coffee or teacup, and there its place is to repose in the saucer. Bouillon is drunk from the cups in which it is served; when it is jellied, it is eaten with a dessert spoon. Nothing excuses the chasing of a small particle of something to eat around your plate to polish it up. The old idea that one must eat every thing that is given to one no longer exists and the result is that children are not made gluttons. 

In drinking, remember to hold your goblet or wine glass by the stem, and not by the bowl. While watermelon is eaten with a fork, cantaloupe has served with it a dessert spoon. As it is customary nowadays, to have the salt served in open salt-cellars, it maybe mentioned that in helping one’s self, the salt should be put near the outer edge of one’s plate. In leaving the table it is not necessary to fold your napkin; instead, just as you rise, lay it on the table. – Red Bluff Daily News, 1892

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

Table Etiquette and "Ruth Ashmore"

Lucky young girls were raised by parents, and governesses, who could afford “youth-sized” flatware for which to practice good table manners. This size was also used for dining at tea-time. Those who were not as lucky, were thrilled to read popular etiquette columns by the likes of numerous “agony aunts,”  writing under popular pen-names in the 1890’s.

Table Etiquette for the “eldest daughter” from the 1892 Ladies Home Journal

As a people, we Americans have been laughed at for eating too fast, and we are credited as being a nation of dyspeptics, writes Ruth Ashmore in her interesting department, "Side Talks with Girls," in the Ladies Home Journal. Now, of course, this is generalizing, but you, the eldest daughter, have it in your power to make the boar at the dinner or tea-table one of real delight, it is an easy matter, one you will find, to start some pleasant conversation to get your father and brother interested in the talk of the day, so that you will eat your food more slowly, and you will achieve what the Frenchmen consider the great art—you will dine, not merely feed yourself.

But there are a few little questions about table etiquette of the table that some girl wants to know, and these I am going to tell her. She must hold her knife by its handle, and never let her fingers reach up to its blade. Whenever it is possible, a fork must be used in place of a spoon, and that same spoon, by the by, must never be left in a coffee or tea cup, but laid to rest politely and securely in the saucer.

Antique sterling, individual cheese fork 

Glasses with handles are held by them. A goblet should be caught by the stem, the fingers not entwining the bowl part. Don't butter a large piece of bread and take bites from it; instead, break your bread in small pieces, one at a time. Butter it, that is, if you are eating butter, and convey it to your mouth by your fingers.

Olives, celery, radishes, strawberries with stems, and asparagus are all eaten from the fingers. The old method of eating cheese with a knife has been given up, with a fork being used in its place. The use of many small dishes for vegetables is not in good taste: indeed, many vegetables should not be served at one time.—From The Ladies Home Journal, as posted in the Sacramento Daily Union, 1892

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