Suppers: Novel Suggestions for Social Occasions

by Paul Pierce

From the original 1907 introduction:

This volume will fill a vacuum in the needs of society; it will supply a long felt want of both men and women, who often, so often, have worried over the proper forms and menus for suppers. The book is compiled by Paul Pierce, publisher of What to Eat, the National Food Magazine, an international authority on all subjects pertaining to dinings and other social functions.

Genres: Food

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1907

About the author

B 1866

Reviews

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

🖊 I smiled at the dedication: “To the Aristocracy of America. To that much abused, but very eminent class, the society women of America, this book is dedicated. It is with a realization that they constitute the better half of the best aristocracy in the world—probably the only real aristocracy of the present day.”

In the section regarding chafing dishes: “Have plenty of alcohol on hand to avoid the possibility of the lamp's going out just before some dish is completed, otherwise, if you are a man, you may be tempted to use language almost warm enough to cook the ingredients.”

Ha ha.

Again, as with many cookbooks and entertainment books from the turn of the century, sweetbreads seem to be wildly popular. Calf’s pancreas is not appealing to me.

In addition, how to prepare squirrel is found in many cookbooks from the time, even this one:

Broiled Squirrels—Your squirrels must be young and tender. Clean, and soak to draw out the blood. Wipe dry, and broil over a hot, clear fire, turning often. When done to a golden brown, lay in a hot dish and anoint with melted butter. Season each squirrel with a salt spoon of salt and half spoon of pepper. They are delicious.

There are so many good ideas for parties that can be a jumping off point for the host or hostess:

Folk Lore Supper.
Engage real colored singers to give a program of songs of the Southland, the old-time plantation melodies. Arrange the stage with a log cabin surrounded by sunflowers in the background and a cotton field in foreground, and have the singers costumed as field hands. Some of the best known and best liked songs include "Old Black Joe," "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Nobody Knows the Trouble I Am Seeing," "Nellie Gray," "Suawanee River," "Way Over Jordan," "Ride up in the Chariot," "Massa's in the Cold, Cold Ground," "Dixie." Serve a fried chicken supper with rice, hot biscuits, syrup, cornpone, ice cream and cake and coffee. The program can end with buck and wing dancing, jigs and cakewalks.

Books such as this one are a hostess’s delight, and an invaluable resource for readers and researchers. It not only provides ideas and menus for suppers, but also good conversation starters, how to decorate your table, and party ideas. This is a jewel of a book.

NOTE: Compiled by Paul Pierce, publisher of ‘What To Eat,’ the National Food Magazine, and the world's authority on all problems pertaining to the drawing room and the table.”

📕Published — 1907.

જ⁀ 🍋 Read on Project Gutenberg. In the public domain.
જ⁀🍇 Kindle.
༻ ༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻ ༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻༺ ༅ ✬ ༅ ༻ ༺

[Alessandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This 1907 menu guide is a weird little book. It's as though Martha Stewart's more extravagant Edwardian sister wrote a party book for people with ready access to an army of servants and multiple grand houses. There are few recipes and no illustrations, and the instructions are pretty general.

The author, Paul Pierce has stated outright that this book is dedicated to "the society women of America," and "American aristocrats," so it's no surprise that the supper ideas in here are beyond most regular people's capacities. To be honest, I'm not actually sure if these are meant to be real instructions for the wealthy, or a sort of daydream for middle-class readers.

Here's the entirety of "The Bohemian Picnic Supper": "An indoor moonlight picnic is a new diversion. The lights should be hidden by soft white silk shades, giving a moonlight effect, and the rooms decorated with foliage plants. A fishpond with grotesque objects, including a live mermaid, (a man in startling costume), is one feature. In one room is a 'merry-go-round.' The chairs are placed in a circle and a graphaphone [sic] in the center plays popular tunes. At 10 o'clock the doors to the dining room are opened. The table cloth is spread on the floor, surrounded by cushions. In one corner of the room are the baskets containing the supper of sandwiches, olives, pickles, baked beans, cake, pie, and other picnic favorites. The girls take the viands from the baskets and arrange them on the floor, while the men serve coffee from a coffee boiler on a small table. During the meal each guest is obliged to describe some picnic he has attended or pay a forfeit."

(I feel terrifically sorry for the poor man "in startling costume" as a mermaid sitting in the pond all evening.)

There is a chapter dedicated to "Entertaining in the Modern Apartment," which is so modest that the hostess "limits each 'at home' to twenty-five [guests] ... [and] needs no service beyond that of her own maid, making the expense marvelously small."

There is a grating amount of racism and casual ethnic snobbery.

The last chapter is toasts and jokes, which are notable for their utter lack of humor.

As a note, I bought a pristine secondhand copy of the 1907 printing recently for four dollars, so I'm not sure that reprint-sellers' claims that this is "rare" are to be given much credit. It is certainly in the public domain, and thus "free" for them to copy and sell.