Section II: Dinner Registers — Monthly Dinner Plans and Household Serving Notes

Note. This section contains:

A) Menus for meat-inclusive dinners of four classes.

B) Cold appetizers.

C) A register of dishes served at breakfast to adults.

D) Cooling dishes and drinks.

E) Breakfast for children.

F) Evening tea. [The printed heading says 'evening hour', though the linked subsection is 'Evening Tea'.]

G) Refreshments during dancing.

H) Dessert.

I) Food for servants.

When composing dinner menus, the following general rules should be observed:

1) Make all dinners equally satisfying. To achieve this, arrange the courses so that some dishes are more substantial while others are lighter.

2) Do not repeat the same ingredient during a dinner.

3) Vary even the color of the dishes. For instance, if the soup is white, do not serve chicken or fish in a white sauce for the second course, but choose something in a dark sauce.

4) Similarly, do not serve two sour dishes, two sweet dishes, two cold dishes or two meat dishes consecutively.

To make it somewhat easier for young housewives to devise dinner menus, I have included here 600 meat-inclusive dinners. I divided them into four registers, grouping dinners of similar cost in each so that every housewife may choose according to her wishes and means.

Class I comprises the so-called large formal dinner parties, which may cost approximately 40–60 silver rubles for twenty-five people, without wine, or 10–15 rubles and more for six to eight people.

Class II comprises dinners of five, sometimes six, elaborate courses. Over the course of a year, each such dinner for six to eight people might cost approximately 7–10 silver rubles, in round figures.

Class III comprises the same kind of dinners as Class II, but with one course fewer: four, sometimes five, courses. Each dinner for six to eight people might therefore cost approximately 4–6 silver rubles, in round figures.

Class IV comprises dinners of three, sometimes four, courses, each costing approximately 2–3 silver rubles for six to eight people.

In general, prices in Russia vary so greatly and change so much, and above all continue to rise so markedly, that even an approximate price is difficult to assign.

Class I: Formal Dinner Menus

• Class I — January
• Class I — February
• Class I — March
• Class I — April
• Class I — May
• Class I — June
• Class I — July
• Class I — August
• Class I — September
• Class I — October
• Class I — November
• Class I — December

Classes II and III: Dinner Menus

• Introduction: Classes II and III (Russian original) (Opens in Russian — source not translated)
• Classes II–III — January
• Classes II–III — February
• Classes II–III — March
• Classes II–III — April
• Classes II–III — May
• Classes II–III — June
• Classes II–III — July
• Classes II–III — August
• Classes II–III — September
• Classes II–III — October
• Classes II–III — November
• Classes II–III — December

Class IV: Simpler Dinners

• Introduction: Class IV (Russian original) (Opens in Russian — source not translated)
• Class IV — January
• Class IV — February
• Class IV — March
• Class IV — April
• Class IV — May
• Class IV — June
• Class IV — July
• Class IV — August
• Class IV — September
• Class IV — October
• Class IV — November
• Class IV — December

Other Subsections

• B) Cold appetizers (Opens in Russian — source not translated)
• C) Dishes served for adults’ breakfast (Opens in Russian — source not translated)
• D) Cooling dishes and drinks (Opens in Russian — source not translated)
• E) Breakfast for children (Opens in Russian — source not translated)
• F) Evening tea
• G) Refreshments during dancing (Opens in Russian — source not translated)
• H) Dessert (Opens in Russian — source not translated)
• I) Food for servants (Opens in Russian — source not translated)

Browse English dinner menus →

Read the complete original in Russian →