There are dishes which seem especially adapted to be served together. This should be a matter of some study. Of course, very few would serve cheese with fish, yet general combinations are often very carelessly considered.

Soup.

Soup is generally served alone; however, pickles and crackers are a pleasant accompaniment for oyster-soup, and many serve grated cheese with macaroni and vermicelli soups. A pea or bean soup (without bread croutons) at one end of the table, with a neat square piece of boiled pork on a platter at the other end, is sometimes seen. When a ladleful of the soup is put in the soup-plate by the hostess, the butler passes it to the host, who cuts off a thin wafer-slice of the pork, and places it in the soup. The thin pork can be cut with the spoon. Hot boiled rice is served with gumbo soup. Well-boiled rice, with each grain distinct, is served in a dish by the side of the soup-tureen. The hostess first puts a ladleful of soup into the soup-plate, then a spoonful of the rice in the centre. This is much better than cooking the rice with the soup.

Sometimes little squares (two inches square) of thin slices of brown bread (buttered) are served with soup at handsome dinners. It is a French custom. Cold slaw may be served at the same time with soup, and eaten with the soup or just after the soup-plates are removed.

Fish.

The only vegetable to be served with fish is the plain boiled potato. It may be cut into little round balls an inch in diameter, and served in little piles as a garnish around the fish, or it may be the flaky, full-sized potato, served in another dish. Some stuff a fish with seasoned mashed potatoes, then serve around it little cakes of mashed potatoes, rolled in egg and bread-crumbs and fried. Cucumbers, and sometimes noodles, are served with fish.

Beef.

Almost any vegetable may be served with beef. If potato is not served with fish, it generally accompanies the beef, either as a bed of smooth mashed potatoes around the beef, or À la neige, or as fried potato-balls (À la Parisienne), or, in fact, cooked in any of the myriad different ways. At dinner companies, beef is generally served with a mushroom-sauce. However, as any and all vegetables are suitable for beef, it is only a matter of convenience which to choose. Horse-radish is a favorite beef accompaniment.

Corned Beef

should be served with carrots, turnips, parsnips, cabbage, or pickles around it.

Turkeys.

Cranberry-sauce, or some acid jelly, such as currant or plum jelly, should be served with turkey. Many garnish a turkey with sausages made of pork or beef. Any vegetable may be served with a turkey; perhaps onions, cold slaw, turnips, tomatoes, and potatoes are the ones oftenest selected.

Chickens.

Fried chickens with cream dressing are good served with cauliflower on the same dish, with the same sauce poured over both. A boiled chicken is generally served in a bed of boiled rice. A row of baked tomatoes is a pretty garnish around a roast chicken. It is fashionable to serve salads with chickens.

Lamb

is especially nice served with green pease or with spinach; cauliflowers and asparagus are also favorite accompaniments.

Pork.

The unquestionable combination for pork is fried apples, apple-sauce, sweet-potatoes, tomatoes, or Irish potatoes. Pork sausages should invariably be served with apple-sauce or fried apples. Thin slices of breakfast bacon make a savory garnish for beefsteak. Thin slices of pork, egged and bread-crumbed, fried, and placed on slices of fried mush, make a nice breakfast dish; or it may garnish fried chickens, beefsteak, or breaded chops.

Mutton.

The same vegetables mentioned as suitable for lamb are appropriate for mutton. The English often serve salad with mutton.

Veal.

Any vegetable may be served as well with veal as with beef. I would select, however, tomatoes, parsnips, or oyster-plant.

Roast Goose,

apple-sauce, and turnips especially.

Game.

Game should invariably be served with an acid jelly, such as a currant or a plum jelly. Saratoga potatoes, potatoes À la Parisienne, spinach, tomatoes, and salads, are especially suitable for game.

Cheese

is served just before the dessert. It is English to serve celery or cucumbers with it. Thin milk crackers or wafer biscuits (put into the oven just a moment before serving, to make them crisp) should be served with cheese; butter also for spreading the crackers, this being the only time that it is usually allowed for dinner. Macaroni with cheese, Welsh rare-bits, cheese omelets, or little cheese-cakes, are good substitutes for a cheese course.

Sweet-breads.

Sweet-breads and pease—this is the combination seen at almost every dinner company. They are as nice, however, with tomatoes, cauliflowers, macaroni mixed with tomato-sauce or cheese, or with asparagus or succotash.

Roman Punch

is generally served as a course just after the beef. It is a refreshing arrangement, preparing one for the game which comes after. In England, punch is served with soup, especially with turtle or mock-turtle. One often sees Roman punch served as a first course just before the soup.

Cantaloupe Melons

are served just after the soup at dinner. This is especially French; however, this melon is more of a breakfast than a dinner dish. The water-melon is served the same time as fruit at dinner.