# What is the  order of "courses"  in a meal?



## tomchef (Nov 14, 2007)

hey im looking to find out the classical order of courses in a meal. not just appitozers and soup, i was wondering if any one had the full list, including egg ,fruit and vegetable dishes. pleeeease!


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## CharlieD (Nov 14, 2007)

Interesting question. Especially, when would you serve an egg during the meal?


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## VeraBlue (Nov 14, 2007)

According to Victorian tradition, circa 1890s

Soup
Fish
Meat
Game
Salad
Cheese
Dessert
Coffee & Tea
Port/Brandy

While I don't often serve this many courses, I do adhere to the order.


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## Rom (Nov 14, 2007)

Cool,  i have a dinner party this weekend (for which i just can't decide on what to cook - *STILL*) i will follow that list just because i can LOL or maybe i can just

*skip to the port tradition*


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## pacanis (Nov 14, 2007)

That's interesting VeraBlue.....
While restaurants have always served the salad first (in the USA anyway), I have always preferred to eat it after the main course and always saved it for last when at family dinners or making one for myself with dinner.
I guess I'm more Victorian than I ever realized


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## Robo410 (Nov 14, 2007)

some variations:

Italian: pasta comes before meat, and for example, pasta dressed in the sauce, separate from the meatballs served later. 

Salad may well come near the end of the meal as a digestif, or a dish of "bitter" greens with wine vinegar.


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## Rom (Nov 14, 2007)

Actually I like to eat my salad with the main course - what i noticed people will get so full if u bring anythign out after mains they will be like..."and where is that supposed to fit exactly?"
pasta has to come before meat!! altho my bf like to munch on the meatballs while eating the spaghetti, if i don't bring them out he's like "where are they"!?!?!?!? LOL


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## jet (Nov 14, 2007)

*Full course meal*

per Wikipedia:
Palate cleanser, or amuse
Second amuse
Caviar
Cold appetizer
Thick soup
Thin soup
Shellfish
Antipasto
Pasta
Intermezzo (Sorbet)
Quail
Wild mushrooms
Beef
Green salad
Pudding
Ice cream
Puffed pastry filled with herbed mousse
Cheese
Fruit
Coffee
Petit four


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## Uncle Bob (Nov 14, 2007)

Now I know how to expain to my DW the reason I drink a little bourbon or ice cold Grey Goose before dinner....It's a Palate Cleanser dear!




Thanks for posting Jet. Thats interesting!!


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## Rom (Nov 14, 2007)

Well thats nice and detailed jet!
LOL uncle Bob!!!


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## Bilby (Nov 15, 2007)

Thing is, it varies with different cultures. You get served your miso soup at the end of a Japanese meal (over here at least), and like Rom said, in Australia, salad is part of the main course or as an entree.

Can't say I have ever heard of any culture serving a separate mushroom course!


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## VeraBlue (Nov 15, 2007)

Bilby said:


> Thing is, it varies with different cultures. You get served your miso soup at the end of a Japanese meal (over here at least), and like Rom said, in Australia, salad is part of the main course or as an entree.
> 
> Can't say I have ever heard of any culture serving a separate mushroom course!



Same goes for the 'ice cream' course or the 'puff pastry and mousse' course.  For apparent reasons, I take wikipedia with a grain of proverbial salt. 

At the end of the day, while there may be traditional orders to follow, it's your meal, eat it how you like.


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## Bilby (Nov 15, 2007)

VeraBlue said:


> Same goes for the 'ice cream' course or the 'puff pastry and mousse' course. For apparent reasons, I take wikipedia with a grain of proverbial salt.
> 
> At the end of the day, while there may be traditional orders to follow, it's your meal, eat it how you like.


So true Vera.  So true.


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## radhuni (Nov 15, 2007)

Traditional Bengali full course meal:

Steaming Plain rice
I spoonful ghee(clarified butter)
Sukto (bitter dish)
Dal
fried potato 
fried brinjal
Torkari (vegetable dish)
Egg curry
Machher jhal(fish with mustard paste)
Machher chochchori(prepared with small fish like  'mourala'- _ Amblypharyngodon mola)_ 
Machher jhol(fish curry- prepared with large Rohu fish)
Mutton kassa
Chutney
Papad
Misti doi(sweet yogurt)
Sweets(sandesh, rasgulla)
Paan(Betel Leaf) with paan masala

This is not our everyday meal because nowadays one cannot eat so many items .


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## lulu (Nov 15, 2007)

In diferent parts of Europe whether the puddings are before or after cheese is different.  We alternate depending on the menu and who we have eating wih us.  I'm generally a pudding after cheese kinda gal.  Most often, in semi-formal meals I bring puddings and cheese out together: increasingly people will have more than one pudding, and then people go home earlier.....that never used to be a good thing but these days I like bed....


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## CharlieD (Nov 15, 2007)

Interesting, I'd never guess that soup is served before fish. I should look into this from the Russian historical view. I bet it would be very diferent.


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## jet (Nov 16, 2007)

What makes up a five-course meal in the USA?

I can come up with soup, salad, appetizer, entree and dessert, but that does not sound right.


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## VeraBlue (Nov 16, 2007)

While not carved in stone, in the USA it would be 
soup
salad
meat
cheese
dessert

or
soup
salad
pasta
meat
dessert

or 

soup or salad
pasta
fish
meat
dessert

The recent trend towards artisan cheeses have finally brought about a resurgence of the cheese course.  It's about time, I say.  

I recently hosted a formal dinner party that included a cheese course after three previous courses and prior to the dessert course.  I feared the cheese would remain mostly untouched as a result of the guests having consumed so much, already.  To my great pleasure, that course was so well received it was the highlight of the thank you notes.  It was a new experience to several of the guests.  Again, it's about time the cheese course was put back in the line up.


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## lulu (Nov 16, 2007)

Cheese has never gone out of fashion here in Europe!  

I prefer cheese before the pudding, VB not least for wine pairing ease...and of course, in the necessity of cracking down on drunk driving we find hosting less than half our guests join us in a dessert wine and coffee is popular boh for people to take with dessert or for those who take neither pudding nor cheese.


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## Bilby (Nov 16, 2007)

Most restaurants here offer either a cheese or dessert course but if they are both being served, esp in the home, it would be cheese after dessert, often with teas and coffees and chocs.  The cheese is routinely served with fresh or dried fruit, though it always puzzles me when restaurants here use only dried fruit. We have such an abundance of fresh produce available year round, and while having dried fruit on the plate is nice, it shouldn't be the only option here.


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## VeraBlue (Nov 16, 2007)

lulu said:


> Cheese has never gone out of fashion here in Europe!
> 
> I prefer cheese before the pudding, VB not least for wine pairing ease...and of course, in the necessity of cracking down on drunk driving we find hosting less than half our guests join us in a dessert wine and coffee is popular boh for people to take with dessert or for those who take neither pudding nor cheese.


If you ask me, Europeans have always been culinarily advanced than us peons across the pond.  It takes decades sometimes to catch up to you!


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## VeraBlue (Nov 16, 2007)

Bilby said:


> Most restaurants here offer either a cheese or dessert course but if they are both being served, esp in the home, it would be cheese after dessert, often with teas and coffees and chocs. The cheese is routinely served with fresh or dried fruit, though it always puzzles me when restaurants here use only dried fruit. We have such an abundance of fresh produce available year round, and while having dried fruit on the plate is nice, it shouldn't be the only option here.


 

How about we get a new thread started about the cheese course?


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## lulu (Nov 17, 2007)

VeraBlue said:


> If you ask me, Europeans have always been culinarily advanced than us peons across the pond. It takes decades sometimes to catch up to you!


 

In many areas you vastly have superceded us IMO.  But cheese, yeah, we do alright with cheese   Come visit me sometime VB...we'll do a cheese and plonk tour of Europe wearing great shoes.


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## Gossie (Nov 17, 2007)

Cheese wears shoes?    LoL


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## VeraBlue (Nov 17, 2007)

lulu said:


> In many areas you vastly have superceded us IMO.  But cheese, yeah, we do alright with cheese   Come visit me sometime VB...we'll do a cheese and plonk tour of Europe wearing great shoes.



Babe, in a heartbeat!


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## lulu (Nov 18, 2007)

LOL, its a plan then.


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