TIMES FOR MEALS

Temuka Leader, Issue 2278, 10 November 1891, Page 4

TIMES FOR MEALS

According to the occupations and ages of those for whom meals are prepared sp must the hours for them be arranged] but there are two golden rules concerning them—namely, that there should be sufficient time allowed for them to be partaken of without hurry, and that they should be punctually served. Of little hse is it having a dainty breakfast ready .for the master of the house ten minutes before he has to start for business, or a well-cooked good dinner for the children when they have to hurry through it to be in time for afternoon school. Better is it to allow a little more time than to run the risk of people having to bolt their food or go without it. There should always be a clear half-hour allowed for breakfast, and this should not be a meal that, as in many houses, runs on from 8 to 10 o’clock. This is fatal to the regular household routine; nor can breakfast be served comfortably and properly for different members keeping different times, unless it being large households, where there are many hands for the morning work. The servants should be allowed time for their breakfast before that in the dining-room commences; and for them to do this it is absolutely necessary that they rise betimes. Children also should have an early breakfast, or there wall be too long an interval between that and their tea of the day before! For master and mistress we cannot suggest a tinie, unless it be not later than 9 o’clock. Where there are little ones and several servants, a dinner must be served in the middle of the day ; but it is generally necessary to have some cooking done later when the master of the house returns. Most men who value their health prefer to have only a light luncheon during working hours and return to dinner late, and this is certainly more economical than dining away from home. We would advise young housekeepers not to make a trouble of this meal, and to be ready to partake of it with their husbands. Many think it impossible with one or two servants to have a late dinner, or what now often takes its place, a high tea; but in reality there is no more work attached to its preparation than that of an ordinary tea and its following supper, and the late dinner is served and cleared away long before a supper could be. If the latter meal be taken it should be moderately early, and then we cannot see that it is more injurious than a very late dinner.— Beeton’s Every-day Cookery and Housekeeping Book.