II. Course

Fully illustrates what we have said. The soup in it is not considered as part of the dinner, but is treated as a prelude, and the large entrée or remove is served immediately after the soup, and fish occurs in the second course as the roast. It is a common English idea of a dinner that it should consist of fish, flesh, and fowl; if then we substitute the fish after the soup and change the order of the large and small entrées, we have at once the modern English dinner as served on almost all occasions, and dealt with in my article on the menu. It was a saying of Brillat-Savarin’s that the progression of dishes at a dinner should be from the more substantial to those of a lighter and delicate nature, and though many authorities have written in a similar strain, the public verdict seems to be opposed to that opinion, for with few exceptions, at the present day the service is to lead up to the joint in the order of soup, fish, entrées, joint. The terms first and second service are rarely used, and in fact fulfil no purpose, with the single exception that the term ‘second course’ dish is given to any of those which may be served as a roast or in the place of one.