When clearing the table, remove dishes made with meat, poultry, fish, dairy, or eggs first, along with cooked rice and pasta and cut fruit. Next come vegetable dishes and soup, followed last by bread, dry sweets, and nuts. The order depends on how sensitive each food is to sitting out. Keep untouched food from the pot separate from leftovers in serving dishes.
It is normal for the table to stay set for a while after a meal; conversation continues, and tea is served. But the order in which dishes are cleared makes a difference because foods do not all tolerate sitting out equally well. Some foods quickly become unsafe at room temperature, while others remain unchanged for hours. The order is based on removing the most perishable foods from the table first. How long food can stay on the table is the subject of a separate tip; this one covers only the order.
Clear dishes made with meat, poultry, or fish first, along with dairy and yogurt dishes, creamy and mayonnaise-based sauces, and egg dishes. Cooked rice and pasta belong in this group too; another tip explains why cooked rice is sensitive to being left out. Clear cut fruit, especially watermelon and cantaloupe, with this group because it is no longer protected by its rind. Take these dishes to the kitchen before tea is served, when dessert begins. Do not wait until the meal is over to clear them.
The second group is vegetable dishes, olive-oil dishes, and soup. These are not as perishable as the first group, but they are not foods to leave on the table for hours either. Serving olive-oil dishes at room temperature does not mean they can sit out indefinitely; clear them when serving is over. If the soup pot never came to the table, there is no issue, but do not pour soup left in a serving bowl back into the pot. Salad belongs in this group too, although what to do with dressed salad afterward is a separate topic covered elsewhere.
Bread, cookies and dry sweets, nuts, honey, and jam are the last to be cleared. They have low moisture or high sugar content and can stay on the table longer, which is why they can remain there during tea. Bread is a separate case: bread left uncovered is more likely to dry out than spoil, so cover the bread basket and wrap leftover bread in a cloth when clearing the table. Dairy desserts belong in the first group, not this one; syrup-soaked desserts can stay with the dry sweets.
The most common mistake when clearing the table is pouring food left in a serving dish back into the pot. Everyone’s spoon has been in the serving dish, and it has sat on the table; the untouched food remaining in the pot has been protected. If the two are mixed, the entire pot takes on the history of the serving dish. Whether to save serving-dish leftovers and how to cool leftover food are subjects for separate tips; when clearing the table, keep the two containers separate. If all the food will not fit in the refrigerator right away, put away the most perishable group first, then the others in order.
Comments (4)
Sebze yemeklerinin ikinci grupta olması onların bekleyebileceği anlamına gelmiyor herhâlde, sadece sıra meselesi.
Doğru anlamışsınız, sıra meselesi. İkinci grup da aynı iki saatlik toplam sınıra tabi; yalnız bozulma hızları daha yavaş olduğu için birinci gruptan sonra kaldırılıyorlar.
Çay faslı uzayınca sofra iki saat kurulu kalıyor bizde, bu sıralamayı uygulamak gerekiyor.
Etli ve sütlü yemeklerin ilk grupta olması mantıklı, ben en son onları kaldırıyordum çünkü sofrada en çok onlar duruyordu. Yani tam tersini yapıyormuşum: en çabuk bozulanı en uzun bekletiyordum. Bundan sonra çay gelmeden önce o kapları kaldıracağım.
Kesilmiş meyvenin de ilk grupta olması dikkatimi çekti, onu hep dayanıklı sanıyordum.