How to set out a tin of butter cookies when friends drop by

A big tin of assorted butter cookies can host an unplanned visit on its own, if you know how to open it, plate it and close it again.

Start with the tin, not the plate

A tin of assorted butter cookies is a quiet piece of hosting equipment. The cookies are mostly flour, sugar and butter, which makes them sturdy, slow to go stale and easy to eat without a fork. Keep the lid on until someone is actually at the door. Butter cookies soften in humid air, and a closed tin is the reason the last ones are still crisp weeks after the first.

Set the table in four moves

First, put the kettle on, because the water takes longest and gives you the time to do the rest. Second, choose one small plate. A secondhand one with a speckled glaze looks easier than a matched set, and that is a matter of taste, not a rule.

Third, tip out about three cookies per guest and arrange them loosely. The ring shapes and pretzel shapes sit around the edge, the swirls and the sugar topped squares go in the middle, so people can see the choice at a glance. A full plate for two people looks like a lot of work. A half plate looks like an offer.

Fourth, fold a linen napkin beside the plate. Paper works just as well. The point is a place for crumbs to land that is not your sofa.

Put the rest away properly

Press the lid down until it seats all the way around, then keep the tin on a shelf away from the stove, where kettle steam would reach it. The thin paper cups inside are worth saving. They keep the shapes from rubbing and make a tidy way to send someone home with two cookies.

When the tin finally runs empty, it has a second job. In a great many households it becomes the sewing tin, holding thread, a thimble and a handful of loose buttons. That is an old joke about Danish style tins, and it is also a perfectly good use for a sturdy round box with a snug lid in a flat with one shelf.