THE ART OF BREAKFASTING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1099, 21 September 1912, Page 4

THE ART OF BREAKFASTING.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE CRUCIAL MEAL OF THE DAY.

By Mrs Humphry (Madge)

It dinner is the most important, breakfast is the most crucial meal of the day. On the mental atmosphere at that meal depends the humour of at least half the waking hours. The city man views his work according to his breakfast, bis wife anticipates her duties bravely or dejectedly, and his sous or daughters each look forward through rose or grey glasses, in accordance with the mood of the breakfast hour. Yet many people think that they have but to send a message to the kitchen for bacon or eggs next morning, or kidneys and haddock, and the problem of breakfast is solved. There are some folk who are constitutionally in a bad temper in the morning ; and a good many men are too sleepy to be in time lor breakfast, and are then extremely grumpy because they are late. These poor things ought to be given their meals upstairs, or in a different room. It may seem like indulging them, but it is really only defending the rest ot the family from unnecessary gloom and possible bickerings, ff it is certain that Herbert will come down in a black fury if he is ten minutes late, it is far better to send a tray up nine minutes after the hour, and let him get over it upstairs. Breakfast may be idealised to a delightful extent; but only only among people ot leisure. Count D’Orsay’s lamous breakfasts took place well in the middle of the morning, after the guests had an hour’s ride, and were hungry and happy. The meal was a pageant of delicate dishes, and wine was served with it.

An Elizabethan breakfast was a wonderful thing. It was larger and much heavier than our Christmas dinners of to-day, and was washed down with plenty of sack. Even in the first half of the nineteenth century breakfasts were still weighty and serious matters. Thomas Love Peacock put into the mouth of his Dr. Polhott, who was a great expert in eating and drinking, the following sentiments ;—■

A mau of taste is seen at ouce in the array of his breaktast table. Chocolate, coffee, tea, cream, eggs, ham, tongue, cold fowl —all these are good, and bespeak good knowledge in him who sets them forth ; but the touchstone is fish. Anchovy is the first step, prawns and shrimps the second ; and I laud him who reaches even to these. Potted char and lampreys are the third, and a fine stretch ot progression ; but lobster is, indeed, matter for a May morning, and demands a rare combination of knowledge and virtue in him who sets it forth.

A formidable breakfast guest, Dr. Folliott, and we are told that his own meal on that very occasion consisted ot a small lobster, a large cup of tea, and a well-buttered muffin. Digestions have become sadly weak since then, evidently.

In small households it is often not possible to serve breakfast in the bedrooms without dislocating the routine of the servants’ work. Although we are rapidly coming round to the French idea that this is the ideal plan, we are not yet in England/econciled to the idea ot merely rolls and coffee for breakfast, and the serving of anything more important makes bedroom breakfasts troublesome. It therefore remains for the mistress ot the house to exercise a nice discrimination in what Dr. Folliott calls the setting forth of the breakfast, and to this task a great deal of thought is due. To begin with, it is a great mistake to allow this crucial meal to be served clumsily. Better let the dinner-table be awkwardly set than that coffee pot and cups, plates, and the rest of the utensils should be hastily put on a flowerless table. Everything should be harmonious and brigut, and on dull mornings in particular there should be gleaming silver and bright glass to supply the cheerfulness that is lacking from the light. Golden marmalade in a cut-glass jar, pale, clear honey, a neat pat of butter the colour ot primroses, if possible on a pale green dish or a leaf these are appetising and ornamental at the same time. Some of the French and Belgian blue and pale brown-patterned cloths with table napkins to match, are charming. Pale green linen, embroidered at the corners in white thread, is one ot the prettiest imaginable.

For two or three people, breakfast on a big dining table is a great mistake. A small round table near the fire in winter, by an open window in summer, makes a great difference in the appearance of the meal; and the hot dishes can be served either by the servants or from a side table placed close to the master’s chair, leaving the table itself free to be disposed prettily. If silence is golden as a rule, it is carved out ot a single emerald at breakfast time. Let those chatter who want to, let those remain silent who choose. Temperaments are all on the surface in the early morning ; and it is easier to keep quiet when one is cheerful than to be merry when one feels either sad or worried or merely sleepy. Letters and newspapers should be allowed to mask the silence of the sleepy ; and if theie be but one cheerful person present by him, not only in charity, but in policy, keep decently quiet till the difficult hour is past. Coventry Patmore has a charming couplet about: ‘■Breakfast enjoy’d, ’mid hush of boughs And perfumes through the windows blown.” This is, indeed, an ideal meal, and probably helped out by appetite. The huge difference between town and country breakfasts is sometimes ignored by those who direct them. In town, appetites must be tempted; in the country they need to be satisfied. Not even Dr. Folliott would have dared to mix lobster and tea and muffin in London ! Town life is sedentary, and few have the energy to lise early and have a long walk before the first meal. In the country things are different, and even if one does not go out, the clear air-allows one to wake up with an appetite so keen as to comfort even the sleepiest for the exertion of getting out of bed and dressing. Therefore, let country breakfasts be solid and savoury, and it will do no harm if the odour ot them goes abroad through the house.