dressing and trussing is essential for poultry, as the appearance of an untrussed fowl is enough to destroy the appetite and condemn the dinner. A fowl should be pressed into a rounded and smooth surface in order to dissociate the article served from the thing of life.
Meat should be placed exactly in the center of the platter, except in certain instances where studied irregularity is given for special garnishing. To place chops or cutlets neatly overlapping one another, either in rows or in a circle, requires some dexterity, perhaps, but this is acquired by a very little practice, and such an arrangement not only helps to keep the meats hot, but is in itself ornamental. The platter should be in right proportion to the article served upon it. A large joint on too small a platter gives the same sense of unsuitableness that an out-grown garment gives to a boy or a girl, and the carving of this seemingly overgrown joint usually results in accidents to the table-cloth. Again, too small a platter affords no room for garnishing.
The color given meat in cooking may be called its secondary garnish, space being the first. Care should be taken, if it is roasted, that it be well browned; if it is boiled, that it be white and clean-looking; if it is fried, that it be not blackened, but a clear lemon color. Poultry should have a golden color that suggests crispness. It is difficult to make the mediocre cook understand these points.
Larding also serves an ornamental purpose. Dry meats, like veal, and oftentimes fowls, are improved in flavor by being larded; and it should be so done as to make it an ornamental feature. There is no part in the preparation of dishes easier to per-
