Een French recipe from the seventeenth century Straight to the recipe A very simple recipe, because I am in the middle of moving house (summer 2007), and have been very busy. Where does the word lemonade come from? Lemonade comes from ‘lemon’ or the French ‘limon’. Another French word for lemon is citron, which is…
France
Sauce espagnole
Straigh to the recipe The first new historical recipe of 2018 concerns small chicken pies from nineteenth-century French cook CarĂȘme. The stuffing is seasoned with one spoonful of sauce espagnole. That will be easy, I thought, just look up what CarĂȘme has to say about this sauce and prepare it. But things were slightly more…
CarĂȘme on puff pastry and shortcrust
On this page is a short overview of what the French cook Antonin CarĂȘme (1784-1833) had to say about puff pastry and shortcrust in his book Le patissier royal (1815). He bakes his soufflĂ©s in a pie crust, that was the reason that I looked into this matter. Puff pastry There is quite a difference in making…
La Varenne’s meat stock
This is the first ‘historical’ recipe for stock on my site. This meat stock is taken from Le cuisinier françois by François Pierre la Varenne, from 1651. It is the opening recipe in the book, a real basic recipe. The stock is made with a lot of meat, and all kinds of it: beef, mutton, fowl. From…
Medieval mustard
Straight to the recipe Mustard has always been a popular condiment. Mustard is made from the seeds of several species of the brassica-family (cabbage). From some varieties the leaves can be eaten, and the seeds not only serve to make mustard, but can also be pressed to yield a culinary oil, or distilled to make…
Elegant mushroom pies
Straight to the recipe A fourteenth-century dish from France When I give a talk on medieval cuisine I always serve a sampling of medieval dishes and spiced wine. The recipe on this page never fails to be a success. The pasties were originally served during the first course of a medieval banquet, but in a…
Cucumber Salad
Straight to the recipe A familiar recipe with a twist One of the first modern recipes I published in the Dutch section of this website was a cucumber salad. That was back in 2002. In the following years I kept adding recipes to this page which eventually contained cucumber salads from all over the world. This is the first historical recipe for cucumber…
medieval eggs with mustard
Straight to the recipe ‘Souppe en civĂ©’ Eggs are very prominent in medieval cuisine, they are used as thickening agent in sauces and stuffings, as ‘guilding’ (roast meat and pasties were pasted with egg yolks), and of course there were dishes with cooked eggs, fried eggs, and omelettes. Medieval recipes for stuffed eggs can be found here and…
French pea soup
Straight to the recipe A vegetarian recipe from the seventeenth century This recipe for a nutritious soup made of split peas dates from the era of Louis XIV, the French Roi Soleil. The soup is meatless, and fits in a vegetarian diet. Potage was served during the first course of a meal. Often a thick slice…
Fish with ‘sauce ramolade’
Straight to the recipe A light dish from the court of Louis XIV Sometimes food from the past seems very modern, such as this elegant and simple fish dish from the seventeenth century. The source of the recipe is Le cuisinier royal et bourgeois by François Massialot. More on the author and his book…
Mint soufflé
Straight to the recipe The introduction to the recipe is on this page, about Antonin CarĂȘme and the history of soufflĂ©s, together with the recipe for strawberry soufflĂ©. This recipe for mint soufflĂ© is very long in its original version, so it got its own page. It is a soufflĂ© Ă la française, which means it is…
Strawberry Soufflé
Straight to the recipe Just a puff of hot air Dessert is the triumphant closure of an elaborate dinner. It must be something special to capture the attention of the already sated eater. Hunger has long since dissappeared, all that is left is gratification of the senses. On this page is the recipe for strawberry soufflĂ©…
Stuffed oranges
Straight to the recipe A feast for the eye This recipe is from the great Antonin CarĂȘme, the Frenchman who started as street urchin on the streets of Paris and became a cook for kings, czars and other great persons. More information on CarĂȘme is on the page with the recipe for soufflĂ©. And like the…
A medieval evergreen
Very, very healthy! In Asterix in Britain, the heroes Asterix and Obelix’ first meal on British soil is eaten in a pub called ‘The Jolly Boar’. Obelix is deeply disappointed, his favourite boar has not been roasted, but boiled. To make matters even worse, it is served in a green mint sauce. Boring. Had Obelix lived fourteen centuries later,…
Concentrated veal stock and lamb stock
Concentrated veal stock or jus de veau is a staple in the classic French cuisine. It is used in sauces, seldom if ever as a base for soup. Veal bones are rich in gristle, which results in a stock that forms a jelly when it is cold. However, the resulting jelly is not firm enough…