CROCKERY

1. Dinner plate

The dinner plate is used more than any other plate. It is used to serve the main course at all meals, formal and informal. Modern dinner plates measure from 10 to 11 inches across.

At a formal dinner in a private residence, the entree is the third appetizer course, such as a creamed chicken in vol-au-vent cases, and as such is served on a medium-size plate, notably a salad plate. But in a restaurant, the main course often follows two appetizer courses, usually soup and salad. Typically, the entree consists of cooked meat served with vegetables, starch, and garnish, and as such is served on a dinner plate.

2. Luncheon plate

Luncheon is lighter, simpler meal than dinner, a repast served on a plate about 9 to 9.5 inches in diameter. Although the luncheon plate is used for formal and informal meals, it is not essential for either occasion.

3. Round Salad Plate

The round salad plate is made in two sized. The larger salad plate is about 8 to 8.5 inches in diameter, the smaller 7 to 7.5 inches.

At a formal meal, the salad plate is laid before the guest after the main course is cleared, an arranged salad is presented to the diner on a platter. At an informal meal, the salad plate functions to serve salad presented before the main course, as a side dish with the main course, or following the main course to stimulate the palate. But when salad is the main course, it is presented on a dinner plate.

4. Dessert plate

Dessert plates are ornately decorated. They are specialized plates about 7.25 to 8.5 inches in diameter, used at formal and informal meals, and made not as part of a dinnerware set.

5. Bread and butter plate.

The bread-and-butter plate is used to separate bread and butter from sauce, gravy, and juices that emanate from foods on the plate. Although the bread-and-butter plate is optional at formal dinners in Europe, in a private residence in North America it is not laid on a formal dinner table because the menu is planned to provide sufficient tast and texture without the need for bread and butter. Thinly sliced melba toast may be passed with soup, fish may be served in a pastry shell, and toasted crackers are passed with cheese, along with butter at room temperature. when dry toast and crackers are served at a formal dinner, they are placed on the tablecloth. However, at a formal dinner in a restaurant or club, bread is often provided to cleanse the palate between different wines and to tide one over during long lapses between courses.

 5. Soup plate.

Wide, shallow bowl with a flanged rim. Diameter is approximately 9 to 10 inches, the rim is 1 to 2 inches wide, the depth is up to 1 ½ inches deep, and the well is 6 to 7 inches across.

The only soup bowl used in formal dinner service.