Tea at Trianon: Bread and Butter Basics

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Bread and Butter Basics

From Southern Lady:

First and foremost, bread should always be taken from the service plate and put on your bread plate (or dinner plate if no bread plate is offered). Bread is never taken directly from the service plate and eaten. Here is the proper way to eat bread and butter:

Place your bread on the bread plate.

Using the service knife, take a serving of butter from the butter dish, and put the butter on the plate.

Break the bread into medium-sized pieces.

Butter each piece of bread just before you eat it—do not butter the entire piece before you begin. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, mainly for Southern biscuits and cornbread that are served piping hot. Butter these immediately so that the butter will melt while the bread is hot.

Use your individual knife for buttering your bread and never use it to get more butter from the butter dish.

Even when the bread is small, it is best to break it before eating it.

(Read more.)