Hors-d’Œuvres

The preparations described hereafter all belong to the order of cold hors-d’œuvres. I did not deem it necessary to touch upon the hot kind, for, apart from the fact that these are very seldom served in England, at least under the head of hors-d’œuvres, they are mostly to be found either among the hot Entrées or the Savouries proper.

Generally speaking, hors-d’œuvres should only form part of a meal that does not comprise soup, while the rule of serving them at luncheons only ought to be looked upon as absolute.

It is true that restaurants à la carte deliberately deviate from this rule, but it should be remembered, in their case, that, in addition to the fact that “hors-d’œuvres de luxe,” such as caviare, oysters, plovers’ and lapwings’ eggs, &c., are mostly in question, they also find the use of hors-d’œuvres expedient if only as a means of whiling away the customers’ time during the preparation of the various dishes that may have been ordered.

Moreover, the hors-d’œuvres enumerated are not subject to the same objection as those composed of fish, salads, and No. 168, Cooked Marinade for Venison vegetables. The use of cold hors-d’œuvres in these special cases is thus, to a certain extent, justified, but it is nevertheless to be regretted that an exception of this kind should degenerate into a habit, and that it should be made to prevail under circumstances which, in themselves, are insufficient warrant for the abuse.

In Russia it is customary to have a sideboard in a room adjoining the dining-room, dressed with all kinds of special pastries, smoked fish, and other products, and these the diners partake of, standing, together with strong liqueurs, before taking their seats at the table. The general name given to the items on the sideboard is “Zakouski.” Caterers and hotel-keepers in different parts of the world, more zealous than judicious, introduced the custom of the zakouski without allowing for the differences of race, which are due, to some extent, to the influence of climate; and at first, probably owing to everybody’s enthusiasm for things Russian, the innovation enjoyed a certain vogue, in spite of the fact that, in many cases, the dishes served resembled the Zakouski in name alone, and consisted of cold and very ordinary hors-d’œuvres, served at the dining-table itself.

At length the absurdity of investing such common things as hors-d’œuvres with an exotic title began to be perceived, and nowadays the occasions are rare when the Russian term is to be found on a menu; nevertheless, the custom unfortunately survives.

For my own part, I regard cold hors-d’œuvres as quite unnecessary in a dinner; I even consider them counter to the dictates of common sense, and they are certainly prejudicial to the flavour of the soup that follows.

At the most, caviare might be tolerated, the nutty taste of which, when it is quite fresh, can but favourably impress the consumer’s palate, as also certain fine oysters, provided they be served with very dry Rhine wine or white Bordeaux. But I repeat that hors-d’œuvres consisting of any kind of fish, salad, No. 168, Cooked Marinade for Venison vegetables, &c., should be strictly proscribed from the items of a dinner.

The custom of serving cold hors-d’œuvres at lunch is, on the contrary, not only traditional, but indispensable, and their varied combinations, thrown into relief by tasteful and proper arrangement, besides lending a cheerful aspect to the table, beguile the consumer’s attention and fancy from the very moment of his entering the dining-room. It has been said, with reason, that soups should foretell the dominant note of the whole dinner, and cold hors-d’œuvres should in the same way reveal that of a luncheon.

Possibly it was with a sense of the importance of hors-d’œuvres, from this standpoint, that their preparation was transferred from the office (the exclusive concern whereof used, formerly, to be the hors-d’œuvres) to the kitchen.

The results of this change manifested themselves immediately in prodigious variations and transformations of the hors-d’œuvres, both in respect of their preparation and dishing-up, so much so, indeed, that perhaps in no other department of culinary art has there been such progress of recent years.

Their variety is infinite, and it would be impossible to compute, even approximately, the number of combinations an ingenious artist could effect in their preparation, seeing that the latter embraces almost every possible use of every conceivable esculent product.

Well may it be said that a good hors-d’œuvrier is a man to be prized in any kitchen, for, although his duties do not by any means rank first in importance, they nevertheless demand in him who performs them the possession of such qualities as are rarely found united in one person, viz., reliable and experienced taste, originality, keen artistic sense, and professional knowledge.

The hors-d’œuvrier should be able to produce something sightly and good out of very little, and the beauty and attractiveness of a hors-d’œuvre should depend to a much greater degree upon his work and the judicious treatment of his material than upon the nature of the latter.