Dinner Parties in the Victorian Age
By celticeagle
@celticeagle (176786)
Boise, Idaho
July 9, 2025 12:21pm CST
Getting the dinner intricacies wrong met public disgrace. A proper Victorian dinner setting had a fork for the fish, one for meat, another for salad, and desert. One slightly smaller one for pastries. You started with utensils farthest from your plate worked inward. There might also be a oyster fork, a game fork, and an odd looking object used to dismembering asparagus. If you used the wrong implement people may never speak to you again.
Knives had to be used correctly too. You would never cut a roll in half. Instead you would tear off a small bite, put a small amount of butter on your plate and butter the small bit.
Soups had to be spooned away from you tilting the bowl slightly. Small sips, never slurped. If you dropped any on the table cloth your reputation was gone.
The napkin was elegantly unfolded and placed in your lap just as you sat down. You never used it to blow your nose or you would be thought of as a peasant. If you needed to leave your seat it should be folded and placed on your chair. When you were finished you would place the napkin beside the plate, never on it.
For dessert you would use both a fork and a spoon.
You always start after the hostess and wait until everyone was finished before leaving the table.
4 people like this
4 responses
@Vikingswest1 (6552)
• United States
22h
This all from people that bathed once a month. If you were rich.
Etiquette was far more important than hygiene.
2 people like this
@celticeagle (176786)
• Boise, Idaho
18h
Hygiene is not all that important. Bath too much and you wash away important oils.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (176786)
• Boise, Idaho
2h
@Vikingswest1 .......Not necessarily. Some people don't perspire. 

1 person likes this
@Vikingswest1 (6552)
• United States
18h
@celticeagle
Bathe too little and you wash away important friends, lol.
1 person likes this

@RasmaSandra (86752)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
22h
Glad I was not around then sounds so complicated I would rather pick up a chicken drumstick and eat it,
2 people like this
@Traceyjayne (3015)
• United Kingdom
9 Jul
Absolutely, and that’s the way it should be. A lot of it is good manners.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (194036)
• United States
18h
I wonder how they'd feel about my spilling food on myself. I put on an apron when I eat at home! lololol
1 person likes this
