Cucumber, though rather in request, was supposed to be an unwholesome

vegetable, because it was said that the inhabitants of Forez, who ate much

of it, were subject to periodical fevers, which might really have been

caused by noxious emanation from the ponds with which that country

abounded. Lentils, now considered so wholesome, were also long looked upon

as a doubtful vegetable; according to Liébault, they were difficult to

digest and otherwise injurious; they inflamed the inside, affected the

sight, and brought on the nightmare, &c. On the other hand, small fresh

beans, especially those sold at Landit fair, were used in the most

delicate repasts; peas passed as a royal dish in the sixteenth century,

when the custom was to eat them with salt pork.

Turnips were also most esteemed by the Parisians. "This vegetable is to

them," says Charles Estienne, "what large radishes are to the Limousins."

The best were supposed to come from Maisons, Vaugirard, and Aubervilliers.

Lastly, there were four kinds of lettuces grown in France, according to

Liébault, in 1574: the small, the common, the curled, and the Roman: the

seed of the last-named was sent to France by François Rabelais when he was

in Rome with Cardinal du Bellay in 1537; and the salad made from it

consequently received the name of Roman salad, which it has ever since

retained. In fact, our ancestors much appreciated salads, for there was

not a banquet without at least three or four different kinds.

Fruits.--Western Europe was originally very poor in fruits, and it only

improved by foreign importations, mostly from Asia by the Romans. The

apricot came from Armenia, the pistachio-nuts and plums from Syria, the

peach and nut from Persia, the cherry from Cerasus, the lemon from Media,

the filbert from the Hellespont, and chestnuts from Castana, a town of

Magnesia. We are also indebted to Asia for almonds; the pomegranate,

according to some, came from Africa, to others from Cyprus; the quince

from Cydon in Crete; the olive, fig, pear, and apple, from Greece.

The statutes of Charlemagne show us that almost all these fruits were

reared in his gardens, and that some of them were of several kinds or

varieties.

A considerable period, however, elapsed before the finest and more

luscious productions of the garden became as it were almost forced on

nature by artificial means. Thus in the sixteenth century we find

Rabelais, Charles Estienne, and La Framboisière, physician to Henry IV.,

praising the Corbeil peach, which was only an inferior and almost wild

sort, and describing it as having "_dry_ and _solid_ flesh, not adhering

to the stone." The culture of this fruit, which was not larger than a

damask plum, had then, according to Champier, only just been introduced

into France. It must be remarked here that Jacques Coythier, physician to

Louis XI., in order to curry favour with his master, who was very fond of

new fruits, took as his crest an apricot-tree, from which he was jokingly

called Abri-Coythier.

[Illustration: Fig. 80.--Cultivation of Fruit, from a Miniature of the

"Propriétaire de Choses" (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the

Library of the Arsenal of Paris).]

It must be owned that great progress has been made in the culture of the

plum, the pear, and the apple. Champier says that the best plums are the

_royale_, the _perdrigon_, and the _damas_ of Tours; Olivier de Serres

mentions eighteen kinds--amongst which, however, we do not find the

celebrated Reine Claude (greengage), which owes its name to the daughter

of Louis XII., first wife of Francis I.

Of pears, the most esteemed in the thirteenth century were the

_hastiveau_, which was an early sort, and no doubt the golden pear now

called St. Jean, the _caillou_ or _chaillou_, a hard pear, which came from

Cailloux in Burgundy and _l'angoisse_ (agony), so called on account of its

bitterness--which, however, totally disappeared in cooking. In the

sixteenth century the palm is given to the _cuisse dame_, or _madame_; the

_bon chrétien_, brought, it is said, by St. François de Paule to Louis

XI.; the _bergamote_, which came from Bergamo, in Lombardy; the

_tant-bonne_, so named from its aroma; and the _caillou rosat_, our

rosewater pear.

Amongst apples, the _blandureau_ (hard white) of Auvergne, the _rouveau_,

and the _paradis_ of Provence, are of oldest repute. This reminds us of

the couplet by the author of the "Street Cries of Paris," thirteenth

century:--

"Primes ai pommes de rouviau,

Et d'Auvergne le blanc duriau."

("Give me first the russet apple,

And the hard white fruit of Auvergne.")

The quince, which was so generally cultivated in the Middle Ages, was

looked upon as the most useful of all fruits. Not only did it form the

basis of the farmers' dried preserves of Orleans, called _cotignac_, a

sort of marmalade, but it was also used for seasoning meat. The Portugal

quince was the most esteemed; and the cotignac of Orleans had such a

reputation, that boxes of this fruit were always given to kings, queens,

and princes on entering the towns of France. It was the first offering

made to Joan of Arc on her bringing reinforcements into Orleans during the

English siege.

Several sorts of cherries were known, but these did not prevent the small

wild or wood cherry from being appreciated at the tables of the citizens;

whilst the _cornouille_, or wild cornelian cherry, was hardly touched,

excepting by the peasants; thence came the proverbial expression, more

particularly in use at Orleans, when a person made a silly remark, "He has

eaten cornelians," _i.e._, he speaks like a rustic.

In the thirteenth century, chestnuts from Lombardy were hawked in the

streets; but, in the sixteenth century, the chestnuts of the Lyonnais and

Auvergne were substituted, and were to be found on the royal table. Four

different sorts of figs, in equal estimation, were brought from

Marseilles, Nismes, Saint-Andéol, and Pont Saint-Esprit; and in Provence,

filberts were to be had in such profusion that they supplied from there

all the tables of the kingdom.

The Portuguese claim the honour of having introduced oranges from China;

however, in an account of the house of Humbert, Dauphin of Viennois, in

1333, that is, long before the expeditions of the Portuguese to India,

mention is made of a sum of money being paid for transplanting

orange-trees.

[Illustration: Figs. 81 and 82.--Culture of the Vine and Treading the

Grape.--Miniatures taken from the Calendar of a Prayer-Book, in

Manuscript, of the Sixteenth Century.]

In the time of Bruyérin Champier, physician to Henry II., raspberries were

still completely wild; the same author states that wood strawberries had

only just at that time been introduced into gardens, "by which," he says,

"they had attained a larger size, though they at the same time lost their

quality."

The vine, acclimatised and propagated by the Gauls, ever since the

followers of Brennus had brought it from Italy, five hundred years before

the Christian era, never ceased to be productive, and even to constitute

the natural wealth of the country (Fig. 81 and 82). In the sixteenth

century, Liébault enumerated nineteen sorts of grapes, and Olivier de

Serres twenty-four, amongst which, notwithstanding the eccentricities of

the ancient names, we believe that we can trace the greater part of those

plants which are now cultivated in France. For instance, it is known that

the excellent vines of Thomery, near Fontainebleau, which yield in

abundance the most beautiful table grape which art and care can produce,

were already in use in the reign of Henry IV. (Fig. 83).

[Illustration: Fig. 83.--The Winegrower, drawn and engraved in the

Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman.]

In the time of the Gauls the custom of drying grapes by exposing them to

the sun, or to a certain amount of artificial heat, was already known; and

very soon after, the same means were adopted for preserving plums, an

industry in which then, as now, the people of Tours and Rheims excelled.

Drying apples in an oven was also the custom, and formed a delicacy which

was reserved for winter and spring banquets. Dried fruits were also

brought from abroad, as mentioned in the "Book of Street Cries in

Paris:"--

"Figues de Mélités sans fin,

J'ai roisin d'outre mer, roisin."

("Figs from Malta without end,

And grapes from over the sea.")

Butchers' Meat.--According to Strabo, the Gauls were great eaters of meat,

especially of pork, whether fresh or salted. "Gaul," says he, "feeds so

many flocks, and, above all, so many pigs, that it supplies not only Rome,

but all Italy, with grease and salt meat." The second chapter of the Salic

law, comprising nineteen articles, relates entirely to penalties for

pig-stealing; and in the laws of the Visigoths we find four articles on

the same subject.

[Illustration: Fig. 84.--Swineherd.

Illustration: Fig 85.--A Burgess at Meals.

Miniatures from the Calendar of a Book of Hours.--Manuscript of the

Sixteenth Century.]

In those remote days, in which the land was still covered with enormous

forests of oak, great facilities were offered for breeding pigs, whose

special liking for acorns is well known. Thus the bishops, princes, and

lords caused numerous droves of pigs to be fed on their domains, both for

the purpose of supplying their own tables as well as for the fairs and

markets. At a subsequent period, it became the custom for each household,

whether in town or country, to rear and fatten a pig, which was killed and

salted at a stated period of the year; and this custom still exists in

many provinces. In Paris, for instance, there was scarcely a bourgeois who

had not two or three young pigs. During the day these unsightly creatures

were allowed to roam in the streets; which, however, they helped to keep

clean by eating up the refuse of all sorts which was thrown out of the

houses. One of the sons of Louis le Gros, while passing, on the 2nd of

October, 1131, in the Rue du Martroi, between the Hôtel de Ville and the

church of St. Gervais, fractured his skull by a fall from his horse,

caused by a pig running between that animal's legs. This accident led to

the first order being issued by the provosts, to the effect that breeding

pigs within the town was forbidden. Custom, however, deep-rooted for

centuries, resisted this order, and many others on the same subject which

followed it: for we find, under Francis I., a license was issued to the

executioner, empowering him to capture all the stray pigs which he could

find in Paris, and to take them to the Hôtel Dieu, when he should receive

either five sous in silver or the head of the animal.

It is said that the holy men of St. Antoine, in virtue of the privilege

attached to the popular legend of their patron, who was generally

represented with a pig, objected to this order, and long after maintained

the exclusive right of allowing their pigs to roam in the streets of the

capital.

The obstinate determination with which every one tried to evade the

administrative laws on this subject, is explained, in fact, by the general

taste of the French nation for pork. This taste appears somewhat strange

at a time when this kind of food was supposed to engender leprosy, a

disease with which France was at that time overrun.

[Illustration: Fig. 86.--Stall of Carved Wood (Fifteenth Century),

representing the Proverb, "Margaritas ante Porcos," "Throwing Pearls

before Swine," from Rouen Cathedral.]

Pigs' meat made up generally the greater part of the domestic banquets.

There was no great feast at which hams, sausages, and black puddings were

not served in profusion on all the tables; and as Easter Day, which

brought to a close the prolonged fastings of Lent, was one of the great

feasts, this food formed the most important dish on that occasion. It is

possible that the necessity for providing for the consumption of that day

originated the celebrated ham fair, which was and is still held annually

on the Thursday of Passion Week in front of Notre-Dame, where the dealers

from all parts of France, and especially from Normandy and Lower

Brittany, assembled with their swine.

Sanitary measures were taken in Paris and in the various towns in order to

prevent the evil effects likely to arise from the enormous consumption of

pork; public officers, called _languayeurs_, were ordered to examine the

animals to ensure that they had not white ulcers under the tongue, these

being considered the signs that their flesh was in a condition to

communicate leprosy to those who partook of it.

For a long time the retail sale of pork was confined to the butchers, like

that of other meat. Salt or fresh pork was at one time always sold raw,

though at a later period some retailers, who carried on business

principally among the lowest orders of the people, took to selling cooked

pork and sausages. They were named _charcuitiers_ or _saucissiers_. This

new trade, which was most lucrative, was adopted by so many people that

parliament was forced to limit the number of _charcuitiers_, who at last

formed a corporation, and received their statutes, which were confirmed by

the King in 1475.

Amongst the privileges attached to their calling was that of selling red

herrings and sea-fish in Lent, during which time the sale of pork was

strictly forbidden. Although they had the exclusive monopoly of selling

cooked pork, they were at first forbidden to buy their meat of any one but

of the butchers, who alone had the right of killing pigs; and it was only

in 1513 that the _charcuitiers_ were allowed to purchase at market and

sell the meat raw, in opposition to the butchers, who in consequence

gradually gave up killing and selling pork (Fig. 87).

Although the consumption of butchers' meat was not so great in the Middle

Ages as it is now, the trade of a butcher, to which extraordinary

privileges were attached, was nevertheless one of the industries which

realised the greatest profits.

We know what an important part the butchers played in the municipal

history of France, as also of Belgium; and we also know how great their

political influence was, especially in the fifteenth century.

[Illustration: Fig. 87.--The Pork-butcher (_Charcutier_).--Fac-simile of

a Miniature in a Charter of the Abbey of Solignac (Fourteenth Century).]

The existence of the great slaughter-house of Paris dates back to the most

remote period of monarchy. The parish church of the corporation of

butchers, namely, that of St. Pierre aux Boeufs in the city, on the front

of which were two sculptured oxen, existed before the tenth century. A

Celtic monument was discovered on the site of the ancient part of Paris,

with a bas-relief representing a wild bull carrying three cranes standing

among oak branches. Archæology has chosen to recognise in this sculpture a

Druidical allegory, which has descended to us in the shape of the

triumphal car of the Prize Ox (Fig. 88). The butchers who, for centuries

at least in France, only killed sheep and pigs, proved themselves most

jealous of their privileges, and admitted no strangers into their

corporation. The proprietorship of stalls at the markets, and the right of

being admitted as a master butcher at the age of seven years and a day,

belonged exclusively to the male descendants of a few rich and powerful

families. The Kings of France alone, on their accession, could create a

new master butcher. Since the middle of the fourteenth century the "Grande

Boucherie" was the seat of an important jurisdiction, composed of a mayor,

a master, a proctor, and an attorney; it also had a judicial council

before which the butchers could bring up all their cases, and an appeal

from which could only be considered by Parliament. Besides this court,

which had to decide cases of misbehaviour on the part of the apprentices,

and all their appeals against their masters, the corporation had a counsel

in Parliament, as also one at the Châtelet, who were specially attached to

the interests of the butchers, and were in their pay.

[Illustration: Fig. 88.--The Holy Ox.--Celtic Monument found in Paris

under the Choir of Notre-Dame in 1711, and preserved in the Musée de Cluny

et des Thermes.]

Although bound, at all events with their money, to follow the calling of

their fathers, we find many descendants of ancient butchers' families of

Paris, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, abandoning their stalls

to fill high places in the state, and even at court. It must not be

concluded that the rich butchers in those days occupied themselves with

the minor details of their trade; the greater number employed servants who

cut up and retailed the meat, and they themselves simply kept the

accounts, and were engaged in dealing through factors or foremen for the

purchase of beasts for their stalls (Fig. 89). One can form an opinion of

the wealth of some of these tradesmen by reading the enumeration made by

an old chronicler of the property and income of Guillaume de Saint-Yon,

one of the principal master butchers in 1370. "He was proprietor of three

stalls, in which meat was weekly sold to the amount of 200 _livres

parisis_ (the livre being equivalent to 24 francs at least), with an

average profit of ten to fifteen per cent.; he had an income of 600

_livres parisis_; he possessed besides his family house in Paris, four

country-houses, well supplied with furniture and agricultural implements,

drinking-cups, vases, cups of silver, and cups of onyx with silver feet,

valued at 100 francs or more each. His wife had jewels, belts, purses, and

trinkets, to the value of upwards of 1,000 gold francs (the gold franc was

worth 24 livres); long and short gowns trimmed with fur; and three mantles

of grey fur. Guillaume de Saint-Yon had generally in his storehouses 300

ox-hides, worth 24 francs each at least; 800 measures of fat, worth 3-1/2

sols each; in his sheds, he had 800 sheep worth 100 sols each; in his

safes 500 or 600 silver florins of ready money (the florin was worth 12

francs, which must be multiplied five times to estimate its value in

present currency), and his household furniture was valued at 12,000

florins. He gave a dowry of 2,000 florins to his two nieces, and spent

3,000 florins in rebuilding his Paris house; and lastly, as if he had been

a noble, he used a silver seal."

[Illustration: Fig. 89.--The Butcher and his Servant, drawn and engraved

by J. Amman (Sixteenth Century).]

We find in the "Ménagier de Paris" curious statistics respecting the

various butchers' shops of the capital, and the daily sale in each at the

period referred to. This sale, without counting the households of the

King, the Queen, and the royal family, which were specially provisioned,

amounted to 26,624 oxen, 162,760 sheep, 27,456 pigs, and 15,912 calves

per annum; to which must be added not only the smoked and salted flesh of

200 or 300 pigs, which were sold at the fair in Holy Week, but also 6,420

sheep, 823 oxen, 832 calves, and 624 pigs, which, according to the

"Ménagier," were used in the royal and princely households.

Sometimes the meat was sent to market already cut up, but the slaughter of

beasts was more frequently done in the butchers' shops in the town; for

they only killed from day to day, according to the demand. Besides the

butchers' there were tripe shops, where the feet, kidneys, &c., were sold.

[Illustration: Figs. 90 and 91.--Seal and Counter-Seal of the Butchers of

Bruges in 1356, from an impression on green wax, preserved in the archives

of that town.]

According to Bruyérin Champier, during the sixteenth century the most

celebrated sheep in France were those of Berri and Limousin; and of all

butchers' meat, veal was reckoned the best. In fact, calves intended for

the tables of the upper classes were fed in a special manner: they were

allowed for six months, or even for a year, nothing but milk, which made

their flesh most tender and delicate. Contrary to the present taste, kid

was more appreciated than lamb, which caused the _rôtisseurs_ frequently

to attach the tail of a kid to a lamb, so as to deceive the customer and

sell him a less expensive meat at the higher price. This was the origin of

the proverb which described a cheat as "a dealer in goat by halves."

In other places butchers were far from acquiring the same importance which

they did in France and Belgium (Figs. 90 and 91), where much more meat was

consumed than in Spain, Italy, or even in Germany. Nevertheless, in

almost all countries there were certain regulations, sometimes eccentric,

but almost always rigidly enforced, to ensure a supply of meat of the best

quality and in a healthy state. In England, for instance, butchers were

only allowed to kill bulls after they had been baited with dogs, no doubt

with the view of making the flesh more tender. At Mans, it was laid down

in the trade regulations, that "no butcher shall be so bold as to sell

meat unless it shall have been previously seen alive by two or three

persons, who will testify to it on oath; and, anyhow, they shall not sell

it until the persons shall have declared it wholesome," &c.

To the many regulations affecting the interests of the public must be

added that forbidding butchers to sell meat on days when abstinence from

animal food was ordered by the Church. These regulations applied less to

the vendors than to the consumers, who, by disobeying them, were liable to

fine or imprisonment, or to severe corporal punishment by the whip or in

the pillory. We find that Clément Marot was imprisoned and nearly burned

alive for having eaten pork in Lent. In 1534, Guillaume des Moulins, Count

of Brie, asked permission for his mother, who was then eighty years of

age, to cease fasting; the Bishop of Paris only granted dispensation on

condition that the old lady should take her meals in secret and out of

sight of every one, and should still fast on Fridays. "In a certain town,"

says Brantôme, "there had been a procession in Lent. A woman, who had

assisted at it barefooted, went home to dine off a quarter of lamb and a

ham. The smell got into the street; the house was entered. The fact being

established, the woman was taken, and condemned to walk through the town

with her quarter of lamb on the spit over her shoulder, and the ham hung

round her neck." This species of severity increased during the times of

religious dissensions. Erasmus says, "He who has eaten pork instead of

fish is taken to the torture like a parricide." An edict of Henry II,

1549, forbade the sale of meat in Lent to persons who should not be

furnished with a doctor's certificate. Charles IX forbade the sale of meat

to the Huguenots; and it was ordered that the privilege of selling meat

during the time of abstinence should belong exclusively to the hospitals.

Orders were given to those who retailed meat to take the address of every

purchaser, although he had presented a medical certificate, so that the

necessity for his eating meat might be verified. Subsequently, the medical

certificate required to be endorsed by the priest, specifying what

quantity of meat was required. Even in these cases the use of butchers'

meat alone was granted, pork, poultry, and game being strictly forbidden.

Poultry.--A monk of the Abbey of Cluny once went on a visit to his

relations. On arriving he asked for food; but as it was a fast day he was

told there was nothing in the house but fish. Perceiving some chickens in

the yard, he took a stick and killed one, and brought it to his relations,

saying, "This is the fish which I shall eat to-day." "Eh, but, my son,"

they said, "have you dispensation from fasting on a Friday?" "No," he

answered; "but poultry is not flesh; fish and fowls were created at the

same time; they have a common origin, as the hymn which I sing in the

service teaches me."

This simple legend belongs to the tenth century; and notwithstanding that

the opinion of this Benedictine monk may appear strange nowadays, yet it

must be acknowledged that he was only conforming himself to the opinions

laid down by certain theologians. In 817, the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle

decided that such delicate nourishment could scarcely be called

mortification as understood by the teaching of the Church. In consequence

of this an order was issued forbidding the monks to eat poultry, except

during four days at Easter and four at Christmas. But this prohibition in

no way changed the established custom of certain parts of Christendom, and

the faithful persisted in believing that poultry and fish were identical

in the eyes of the Church, and accordingly continued to eat them

indiscriminately. We also see, in the middle of the thirteenth century,

St. Thomas Aquinas, who was considered an authority in questions of dogma

and of faith, ranking poultry amongst species of aquatic origin.

Eventually, this palpable error was abandoned; but when the Church forbade

Christians the use of poultry on fast days, it made an exception, out of

consideration for the ancient prejudice, in favour of teal, widgeon,

moor-hens, and also two or three kinds of small amphibious quadrupeds.

Hence probably arose the general and absurd beliefs concerning the origin

of teal, which some said sprung from the rotten wood of old ships, others

from the fruits of a tree, or the gum on fir-trees, whilst others thought

they came from a fresh-water shell analogous to that of the oyster and

mussel.

As far back as modern history can be traced, we find that a similar mode

of fattening poultry was employed then as now, and was one which the Gauls

must have learnt from the Romans. Amongst the charges in the households

of the kings of France one item was that which concerned the

poultry-house, and which, according to an edict of St. Louis in 1261,

bears the name of _poulaillier_. At a subsequent period this name was

given to breeders and dealers in poultry (Fig. 92).

The "Ménagier" tells as that, as is the present practice, chickens were

fattened by depriving them of light and liberty, and gorging them with

succulent food. Amongst the poultry yards in repute at that time, the

author mentions that of Hesdin, a property of the Dukes of Luxemburg, in

Artois; that of the King, at the Hôtel Saint-Pol, Rue Saint-Antoine,

Paris; that of Master Hugues Aubriot, provost of Paris; and that of

Charlot, no doubt a bourgeois of that name, who also gave his name to an

ancient street in that quarter called the Marais.

[Illustration: Fig. 92.--The Poulterer, drawn and engraved in the

Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman.]

_Capons_ are frequently mentioned in poems of the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries; but the name of the _poularde_ does not occur until the

sixteenth.

We know that under the Roman rule, the Gauls carried on a considerable

trade in fattened geese. This trade ceased when Gaul passed to new

masters; but the breeding of geese continued to be carefully attended to.

For many centuries geese were more highly prized than any other

description of poultry, and Charlemagne ordered that his domains should

be well stocked with flocks of geese, which were driven to feed in the

fields, like flocks of sheep. There was an old proverb, "Who eats the

king's goose returns the feathers in a hundred years." This bird was

considered a great delicacy by the working classes and bourgeoisie. The

_rôtisseurs_ (Fig. 94) had hardly anything in their shops but geese, and,

therefore, when they were united in a company, they received the name of

_oyers_, or _oyeurs_. The street in which they were established, with

their spits always loaded with juicy roasts, was called Rue des _Oues_

(geese), and this street, when it ceased to be frequented by the _oyers_,

became by corruption Rue Auxours.

[Illustration: Fig. 93.--Barnacle Geese.--Fac-simile of an Engraving on

Wood, from the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster, folio, Basle, 1552.]

There is every reason for believing that the domestication of the wild

duck is of quite recent date. The attempt having succeeded, it was wished

to follow it up by the naturalisation in the poultry-yard of two other

sorts of aquatic birds, namely, the sheldrake (_tadorna_) and the moorhen,

but without success. Some attribute the introduction of turkeys into

France and Europe to Jacques Coeur, treasurer to Charles VII., whose

commercial connections with the East were very extensive; others assert

that it is due to King René, Count of Provence; but according to the best

authorities these birds were first brought into France in the time of

Francis I. by Admiral Philippe de Chabot, and Bruyérin Champier asserts

that they were not known until even later. It was at about the same period

that guinea-fowls were brought from the coast of Africa by Portuguese

merchants; and the travelling naturalist, Pierre Belon, who wrote in the

year 1555, asserts that in his time "they had already so multiplied in the

houses of the nobles that they had become quite common."

[Illustration: Fig. 94.--The Poultry-dealer.--Fac-simile of an Engraving

on Wood, after Cesare Vecellio.]

The pea-fowl played an important part in the chivalric banquets of the

Middle Ages (Fig. 95). According to old poets the flesh of this noble bird

is "food for the brave." A poet of the thirteenth century says, "that

thieves have as much taste for falsehood as a hungry man has for the flesh

of the peacock." In the fourteenth century poultry-yards were still

stocked with these birds; but the turkey and the pheasant gradually

replaced them, as their flesh was considered somewhat hard and stringy.

This is proved by the fact that in 1581, "La Nouvelle Coutume du

Bourbonnois" only reckons the value of these beautiful birds at two sous

and a half, or about three francs of present currency.

[Illustration: Fig. 95.--State Banquet.--Serving the Peacock.--Fac-simile

of a Woodcut in an edition of Virgil, folio, published at Lyons in 1517.]

Game.--Our forefathers included among the birds which now constitute

feathered game the heron, the crane, the crow, the swan, the stork, the

cormorant, and the bittern. These supplied the best tables, especially the

first three, which were looked upon as exquisite food, fit even for

royalty, and were reckoned as thorough French delicacies. There were at

that time heronries, as at a later period there were pheasantries. People

also ate birds of prey, and only rejected those which fed on carrion.

Swans, which were much appreciated, were very common on all the principal

rivers of France, especially in the north; a small island below Paris had

taken its name from these birds, and has maintained it ever since. It was

proverbially said that the Charente was bordered with swans, and for this

same reason Valenciennes was called _Val des Cygnes_, or the Swan Valley.

Some authors make it appear that for a long time young game was avoided

owing to the little nourishment it contained and its indigestibility, and

assert that it was only when some French ambassadors returned from Venice

that the French learnt that young partridges and leverets were exquisite,

and quite fit to appear at the most sumptuous banquets. The "Ménagier"

gives not only various receipts for cooking them, but also for dressing

chickens, when game was out of season, so as to make them taste like young

partridges.

There was a time when they fattened pheasants as they did capons; it was a

secret, says Liébault, only known to the poultry dealers; but although

they were much appreciated, the pullet was more so, and realised as much

as two crowns each (this does not mean the gold crown, but a current coin

worth three livres). Plovers, which sometimes came from Beauce in

cart-loads, were much relished; they were roasted without being drawn, as

also were turtle-doves and larks; "for," says an ancient author, "larks

only eat small pebbles and sand, doves grains of juniper and scented

herbs, and plovers feed on air." At a later period the same honour was

conferred on woodcocks.

Thrushes, starlings, blackbirds, quail, and partridges were in equal

repute according to the season. The _bec-figue_, a small bird like a

nightingale, was so much esteemed in Provence that there were feasts at

which that bird alone was served, prepared in various ways; but of all

birds used for the table none could be compared to the young cuckoo taken

just as it was full fledged.

As far as we can ascertain, the Gauls had a dislike to the flesh of

rabbits, and they did not even hunt them, for according to Strabo,

Southern Gaul was infested with these mischievous animals, which destroyed

the growing crops, and even the barks of the trees. There was considerable

change in this respect a few centuries later, for every one in town or

country reared domesticated rabbits, and the wild ones formed an article

of food which was much in request. In order to ascertain whether a rabbit

is young, Strabo tells us we should feel the first joint of the fore-leg,

when we shall find a small bone free and movable. This method is adopted

in all kitchens in the present day. Hares were preferred to rabbits,

provided they were young; for an old French proverb says, "An old hare and

an old goose are food for the devil."

[Illustration: Fig. 96.--"The way to skin and cut up a Stag."--Fac-simile

of a Miniature of "Phoebus, and his Staff for hunting Wild Animals"

(Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, National Library of Paris).]

The hedgehog and squirrel were also eaten. As for roe and red deer, they

were, according to Dr. Bruyérin Ohampier, morsels fit for kings and rich

people (Fig. 96). The doctor speaks of "fried slices of the young horn of

the stag" as the daintiest of food, and the "Ménagier de Paris" shows how,

as early as the fourteenth century, beef was dished up like bear's-flesh

venison, for the use of kitchens in countries where the black bear did not

exist. This proves that bear's flesh was in those days considered good

food.

Milk, Butter, Eggs, and Cheese.--These articles of food, the first which

nature gave to man, were not always and everywhere uniformly permitted or

prohibited by the Church on fast days. The faithful were for several

centuries left to their own judgment on the subject. In fact, there is

nothing extraordinary in eggs being eaten in Lent without scruple,

considering that some theologians maintained that the hens which laid them

were animals of aquatic extraction.

It appears, however, that butter, either from prejudice or mere custom,

was only used on fast days in its fresh state, and was not allowed to be

used for cooking purposes. At first, and especially amongst the monks, the

dishes were prepared with oil; but as in some countries oil was apt to

become very expensive, and the supply even to fail totally, animal fat or

lard had to be substituted. At a subsequent period the Church authorised

the use of butter and milk; but on this point, the discipline varied much.

In the fourteenth century, Charles V., King of France, having asked Pope

Gregory XI. for a dispensation to use milk and butter on fast days, in

consequence of the bad state of his health, brought on owing to an attempt

having been made to poison him, the supreme Pontiff required a certificate

from a physician and from the King's confessor. He even then only granted

the dispensation after imposing on that Christian king the repetition of a

certain number of prayers and the performance of certain pious deeds. In

defiance of the severity of ecclesiastical authority, we find, in the

"Journal of a Bourgeois of Paris," that in the unhappy reign of Charles

VI. (1420), "for want of oil, butter was eaten in Lent the same as on

ordinary non-fast days."

In 1491, Queen Anne, Duchess of Brittany, in order to obtain permission

from the Pope to eat butter in Lent, represented that Brittany did not

produce oil, neither did it import it from southern countries. Many

northern provinces adopted necessity as the law, and, having no oil, used

butter; and thence originated that famous toast with slices of bread and

butter, which formed such an important part of Flemish food. These papal

dispensations were, however, only earned at the price of prayers and alms,

and this was the origin of the _troncs pour le beurre_, that is, "alms-box

for butter," which are still to be seen in some of the Flemish churches.

[Illustration: Fig. 97.--The Manufacture of Oil, drawn and engraved by J.

Amman in the Sixteenth Century.]

It is not known when butter was first salted in order to preserve it or to

send it to distant places; but this process, which is so simple and so

natural, dates, no doubt, from very ancient times; it was particularly

practised by the Normans and Bretons, who enclosed the butter in large

earthenware jars, for in the statutes which were given to the fruiterers

of Paris in 1412, mention is made of salt butter in earthenware jars.

Lorraine only exported butter in such jars. The fresh butter most in

request for the table in Paris, was that made at Vanvres, which in the

month of May the people ate every morning mixed with garlic.

The consumption of butter was greatest in Flanders. "I am surprised," says

Bruyérin Champier, speaking of that country, "that they have not yet tried

to turn it into drink; in France it is mockingly called _beurrière;_ and

when any one has to travel in that country, he is advised to take a knife

with him if he wishes to taste the good rolls of butter."

[Illustration: Fig. 98.--A Dealer in Eggs.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut, after

Cesare Vecellio, Sixteenth Century.]

It is not necessary to state that milk and cheese followed the fortunes of

butter in the Catholic world, the same as eggs followed those of poultry.

But butter having been declared lawful by the Church, a claim was put in

for eggs (Fig. 98), and Pope Julius III. granted this dispensation to all

Christendom, although certain private churches did not at once choose to

profit by this favour. The Greeks had always been more rigid on these

points of discipline than the people of the West. It is to the prohibition

of eggs in Lent that the origin of "Easter eggs" must be traced. These

were hardened by boiling them in a madder bath, and were brought to

receive the blessing of the priest on Good Friday, and were then eaten on

the following Sunday as a sign of rejoicing.

Ancient Gaul was celebrated for some of its home-made cheeses. Pliny

praises those of Nismes, and of Mount Lozère, in Gévaudau; Martial

mentions those of Toulouse, &c. A simple anecdote, handed down by the monk

of St. Gall, who wrote in the ninth century, proves to us that the

traditions with regard to cheeses were not lost in the time of

Charlemagne: "The Emperor, in one of his travels, alighted suddenly, and

without being expected, at the house of a bishop. It was on a Friday. The

prelate had no fish, and did not dare to set meat before the prince. He

therefore offered him what he had got, some boiled corn and green cheese.

Charles ate of the cheese; but taking the green part to be bad, he took

care to remove it with his knife. The Bishop, seeing this, took the

liberty of telling his guest that this was the best part. The Emperor,

tasting it, found that the bishop was right; and consequently ordered him

to send him annually two cases of similar cheese to Aix-la-Chapelle. The

Bishop answered, that he could easily send cheeses, but he could not be

sure of sending them in proper condition, because it was only by opening

them that you could be sure of the dealer not having deceived you in the

quality of the cheese. 'Well,' said the Emperor, 'before sending them, cut

them through the middle, so as to see if they are what I want; you will

only have to join the two halves again by means of a wooden peg, and you

can then put the whole into a case.'"

Under the kings of the third French dynasty, a cheese was made at the

village of Chaillot, near Paris, which was much appreciated in the

capital. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the cheeses of Champagne

and of Brie, which are still manufactured, were equally popular, and were

hawked in the streets, according to the "Book of Street-Cries in Paris,"--

"J'ai bon fromage de Champaigne;

Or i a fromage de Brie!"

("Buy my cheese from Champagne,

And my cheese from Brie!")

Eustache Deschamps went so far as to say that cheese was the only good

thing which could possibly come from Brie.

The "Ménagier de Paris" praises several kinds of cheeses, the names of

which it would now be difficult to trace, owing to their frequent changes

during four hundred years; but, according to the Gallic author of this

collection, a cheese to be presentable at table, was required to possess

certain qualities (in proverbial Latin, "Non Argus, nee Helena, nee Maria

Magdalena," &c.), thus expressed in French rhyme:--

"Non mie (pas) blanc comme Hélaine,

Non mie (pas) plourant comme Magdelaine,

Non Argus (à cent yeux), mais du tout avugle (aveugle)

Et aussi pesant comme un bugle (boeuf),

Contre le pouce soit rebelle,

Et qu'il ait ligneuse cotelle (épaisse croûte)

Sans yeux, sans plourer, non pas blanc,

Tigneulx, rebelle, bien pesant."

("Neither-white like Helena,

Nor weeping as Magdelena,

Neither Argus, nor yet quite blind,

And having too a thickish rind,

Resisting somewhat to the touch,

And as a bull should weigh as much;

Not eyeless, weeping, nor quite white,

But firm, resisting, not too light.")

In 1509, Platina, although an Italian, in speaking of good cheeses,

mentions those of Chauny, in Picardy, and of Brehemont, in Touraine;

Charles Estienne praises those of Craponne, in Auvergne, the _angelots_ of

Normandy, and the cheeses made from fresh cream which the peasant-women of

Montreuil and Vincennes brought to Paris in small wickerwork baskets, and

which were eaten sprinkled with sugar. The same author names also the

_rougerets_ of Lyons, which were always much esteemed; but, above all the

cheeses of Europe, he places the round or cylindrical ones of Auvergne,

which were only made by very clean and healthy children of fourteen years

of age. Olivier de Serres advises those who wish to have good cheeses to

boil the milk before churning it, a plan which is in use at Lodi and

Parma, "where cheeses are made which are acknowledged by all the world to

be excellent."

The parmesan, which this celebrated agriculturist cites as an example,

only became the fashion in France on the return of Charles VIII. from his

expedition to Naples. Much was thought at that time of a cheese brought

from Turkey in bladders, and of different varieties produced in Holland

and Zetland. A few of these foreign products were eaten in stews and in

pastry, others were toasted and sprinkled with sugar and powdered

cinnamon.

"Le Roman de Claris," a manuscript which belongs to the commencement of

the fourteenth century, says that in a town winch was taken by storm the

following stores were found:--:

"Maint bon tonnel de vin,

Maint bon bacon (cochon), maint fromage à rostir."

("Many a ton of wine,

Many a slice of good bacon, plenty of good roasted cheese.")

[Illustration: Table Service of a Lady of Quality

Fac-simile of a miniature from the Romance of Renaud de Montauban, a ms.

of fifteenth century Bibl. de l'Arsenal]

[Illustration: Ladies Hunting

Costumes of the fifteenth century. From a miniature in a ms. copy of

_Ovid's Epistles_. No 7231 _bis._ Bibl. nat'le de Paris.]

Besides cheese and butter, the Normans, who had a great many cows in their

rich pastures, made a sort of fermenting liquor from the butter-milk,

which they called _serat_, by boiling the milk with onions and garlic, and

letting it cool in closed vessels.

[Illustration: Fig. 99.--Manufacture of Cheeses in

Switzerland.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the "Cosmographie Universelle" of

Munster, folio, Basle, 1549.]

If the author of the "Ménagier" is to be believed, the women who sold milk

by retail in the towns were well acquainted with the method of increasing

its quantity at the expense of its quality. He describes how his

_froumentée_, which consists of a sort of soup, is made, and states that

when he sends his cook to make her purchases at the milk market held in

the neighbourhood of the Rues de la Savonnerie, des Ecrivains, and de la

Vieille-Monnaie, he enjoins her particularly "to get very fresh cow's

milk, and to tell the person who sells it not to do so if she has put

water to it; for, unless it be quite fresh, or if there be water in it, it

will turn."

Fish and Shellfish.--Freshwater fish, which was much more abundant in

former days than now, was the ordinary food of those who lived on the

borders of lakes, ponds, or rivers, or who, at all events, were not so far

distant but that they could procure it fresh. There was of course much

diversity at different periods and in different countries as regards the

estimation in which the various kinds of fish were held. Thus Ausone, who

was a native of Bordeaux, spoke highly of the delicacy of the perch, and

asserted that shad, pike, and tench should be left to the lower orders; an

opinion which was subsequently contradicted by the inhabitants of other

parts of Gaul, and even by the countrymen of the Latin poet Gregory of

Tours, who loudly praised the Geneva trout. But a time arrived when the

higher classes preferred the freshwater fish of Orchies in Flanders, and

even those of the Lyonnais. Thus we see in the thirteenth century the

barbel of Saint-Florentin held in great estimation, whereas two hundred

years later a man who was of no use, or a nonentity, was said to resemble

a barbel, "which is neither good for roasting nor boiling."

[Illustration: Fig. 100.--The Pond Fisherman.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut of

the "Cosmographie Universelle" of Munster, folio, Basle, 1549.]

In a collection of vulgar proverbs of the twelfth century mention is made,

amongst the fish most in demand, besides the barbel of Saint-Florentin

above referred to, of the eels of Maine, the pike of Chalons, the lampreys

of Nantes, the trout of Andeli, and the dace of Aise. The "Ménagier" adds

several others to the above list, including blay, shad, roach, and

gudgeon, but, above all, the carp, which was supposed to be a native of

Southern Europe, and which must have been naturalised at a much later

period in the northern waters (Figs. 100, 101, and 102).

[Illustration: Fig. 101.--The River Fisherman, designed and engraved, in

the Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman.]

[Illustration: Fig. 102.--Conveyance of Fish by Water and

Land.--Fac-simile of an Engraving in the Royal Statutes of the Provostship

of Merchants, 1528.]

The most ancient documents bear witness that the natives of the sea-coasts

of Europe, and particularly of the Mediterranean, fed on the same fish as

at present: there were, however, a few other sea-fish, which were also

used for food, but which have since been abandoned. Our ancestors were,

not difficult to please: they had good teeth, and their palates, having

become accustomed to the flesh of the cormorant, heron, and crane, without

difficulty appreciated the delicacy of the nauseous sea-dog, the porpoise,

and even the whale, which, when salted, furnished to a great extent all

the markets of Europe.

The trade in salted sea-fish only began in Paris in the twelfth century,

when a company of merchants was instituted, or rather re-established, on

the principle of the ancient association of Nantes. This association had

existed from the period of the foundation under the Gauls of Lutetia, the

city of fluvial commerce (Fig. 103), and it is mentioned in the letters

patent of Louis VII. (1170). One of the first cargoes which this company

brought in its boats was that of salted herrings from the coast of

Normandy. These herrings became a necessary food during Lent, and

"Sor et blanc harene frès pouldré (couvert de sel)!"

("Herrings smoked, fresh, and salted!")

was the cry of the retailers in the streets of Paris, where this fish

became a permanent article of consumption to an extent which can be

appreciated from the fact that Saint Louis gave annually nearly seventy

thousand herrings to the hospitals, plague-houses, and monasteries.

[Illustration: Fig. 103.--A Votive Altar of the Nantes Parisiens, or the

Company for the Commercial Navigation of the Seine, erected in Lutelia

during the reign of Tiberius.--Fragments of this Altar, which were

discovered in 1711 under the Choir of the Church of Notre-Dame, are

preserved in the Museums of Cluny and the Palais des Thermes.]

The profit derived from the sale of herrings at that time was so great

that it soon became a special trade; it was, in fact, the regular practice

of the Middle Ages for persons engaged in any branch of industry to unite

together and form themselves into a corporation. Other speculators

conceived the idea of bringing fresh fish to Paris by means of relays of

posting conveyances placed along the road, and they called themselves

_forains_. Laws were made to distinguish the rights of each of these

trades, and to prevent any quarrel in the competition. In these laws, all

sea-fish were comprised under three names, the fresh, the salted, and the

smoked (_sor_). Louis IX. in an edict divides the dealers into two

classes, namely, the sellers of fresh fish, and the sellers of salt or

smoked fish. Besides salt and fresh herrings, an enormous amount of salted

mackerel, which was almost as much used, was brought from the sea-coast,

in addition to flat-fish, gurnets, skate, fresh and salted whiting and

codfish.

In an old document of the thirteenth century about fifty kinds of fish are

enumerated which were retailed in the markets of the kingdom; and a

century later the "Ménagier" gives receipts for cooking forty kinds,

amongst which appears, under the name of _craspois_, the salted flesh of

the whale, which was also called _le lard de carême_. This coarse food,

which was sent from the northern seas in enormous slices, was only eaten

by the lower orders, for, according to a writer of the sixteenth century,

"were it cooked even for twenty-four hours it would still be very hard and

indigestible."

The "Proverbes" of the thirteenth century, which mention the freshwater

fish then in vogue, also names the sea-fish most preferred, and whence

they came, namely, the shad from Bordeaux, the congers from La Rochelle,

the sturgeon from Blaye, the fresh herrings from Fécamp, and the

cuttle-fish from Coutances. At a later period the conger was not eaten

from its being supposed to produce the plague. The turbot, John-dory,

skate and sole, which were very dear, were reserved for the rich. The

fishermen fed on the sea-dragon. A great quantity of the small sea

crayfish were brought into market; and in certain countries these were

called _santé_, because the doctors recommended them to invalids or those

in consumption; on the other hand, freshwater crayfish were not much

esteemed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, excepting for their

eggs, which were prepared with spice. It is well known that pond frogs

were a favourite food of the Gauls and Franks; they were never out of

fashion in the rural districts, and were served at the best tables,

dressed with green sauce; at the same period, and especially during Lent,

snails, which were served in pyramid-shaped dishes, were much appreciated;

so much so that nobles and bourgeois cultivated snail beds, somewhat

resembling our oyster beds of the present day.

The inhabitants of the coast at all periods ate various kinds of

shell-fish, which were called in Italy sea-fruit; but it was only towards

the twelfth century that the idea was entertained of bringing oysters to

Paris, and mussels were not known there until much later. It is notorious

that Henry IV. was a great oyster-eater. Sully relates that when he was

created a duke "the king came, without being expected, to take his seat at

the reception banquet, but as there was much delay in going to dinner, he

began by eating some _huîtres de chasse_, which he found very fresh."

By _huîtres de chasse_ were meant those oysters which were brought by the

_chasse-marées_, carriers who brought the fresh fish from the coast to

Paris at great speed.

Beverages.--Beer is not only one of the oldest fermenting beverages used

by man, but it is also the one which was most in vogue in the Middle Ages.

If we refer to the tales of the Greek historians, we find that the

Gauls--who, like the Egyptians, attributed the discovery of this

refreshing drink to their god Osiris--had two sorts of beer: one called

_zythus_, made with honey and intended for the rich; the other called

_corma_, in which there was no honey, and which was made for the poor. But

Pliny asserts that beer in Gallie was called _cerevisia_, and the grain

employed for making it _brasce_. This testimony seems true, as from

_brasce_ or _brasse_ comes the name _brasseur_ (brewer), and from

_cerevisia, cervoise_, the generic name by which beer was known for

centuries, and which only lately fell into disuse.

[Illustration: Fig. 104.--The Great Drinkers of the North.--Fac-simile of

a Woodcut of the "Histoires des Pays Septentrionaux," by Olaus Magnus,

16mo., Antwerp, 1560.]

After a great famine, Domitian ordered all the vines in Gaul to be

uprooted so as to make room for corn. This rigorous measure must have

caused beer to become even more general, and, although two centuries later

Probus allowed vines to be replanted, the use of beverages made from grain

became an established custom; but in time, whilst the people still only

drank _cervoise_, those who were able to afford it bought wine and drank

it alternately with beer.

However, as by degrees the vineyards increased in all places having a

suitable soil and climate, the use of beer was almost entirely given up,

so that in central Gaul wine became so common and cheap that all could

drink it. In the northern provinces, where the vine would not grow, beer

naturally continued to be the national beverage (Fig. 104).

In the time of Charlemagne, for instance, we find the Emperor wisely

ordered that persons knowing how to brew should be attached to each of his

farms. Everywhere the monastic houses possessed breweries; but as early as

the reign of St. Louis there were only a very few breweries in Paris

itself, and, in spite of all the privileges granted to their corporation,

even these were soon obliged to leave the capital, where there ceased to

be any demand for the produce of their industry. They reappeared in 1428,

probably in consequence of the political and commercial relations which

had become established between Paris and the rich towns of the Flemish

bourgeoisie; and then, either on account of the dearness of wine, or the

caprice of fashion, the consumption of beer again became so general in

France that, according to the "Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris," it

produced to the revenue two-thirds more than wine. It must be understood,

however, that in times of scarcity, as in the years 1415 and 1482, brewing

was temporarily stopped, and even forbidden altogether, on account of the

quantity of grain which was thereby withdrawn from the food supply of the

people (Fig. 105).

[Illustration: Fig. 105.--The Brewer, designed and engraved, in the

Sixteenth. Century, by J. Amman.]

Under the Romans, the real _cervoise_, or beer, was made with barley; but,

at a later period, all sorts of grain was indiscriminately used; and it

was only towards the end of the sixteenth century that adding the flower

or seed of hops to the oats or barley, which formed the basis of this

beverage, was thought of.

Estienne Boileau's "Book of Trades," edited in the thirteenth century,

shows us that, besides the _cervoise_, another sort of beer was known,

which was called _godale_. This name, we should imagine, was derived from

the two German words _god ael_, which mean "good beer," and was of a

stronger description than the ordinary _cervoise_; this idea is proved by

the Picards and Flemish people calling it "double beer." In any case, it

is from the word _godale_ that the familiar expression of _godailler_ (to

tipple) is derived.

In fact, there is hardly any sort of mixture or ingredient which has not

been used in the making of beer, according to the fashions of the

different periods. When, on the return from the Crusades, the use of spice

had become the fashion, beverages as well as the food were loaded with it.

Allspice, juniper, resin, apples, bread-crumbs, sage, lavender, gentian,

cinnamon, and laurel were each thrown into it. The English sugared it, and

the Germans salted it, and at times they even went so far as to put darnel

into it, at the risk of rendering the mixture poisonous.

The object of these various mixtures was naturally to obtain

high-flavoured beers, which became so much in fashion, that to describe

the want of merit of persons, or the lack of value in anything, no simile

was more common than to compare them to "small beer." Nevertheless, more

delicate and less blunted palates were to be found which could appreciate

beer sweetened simply with honey, or scented with ambergris or

raspberries. It is possible, however, that these compositions refer to

mixtures in which beer, the produce of fermented grain, was confounded

with hydromel, or fermented honey. Both these primitive drinks claim an

origin equally remote, which is buried in the most distant periods of

history, and they have been used in all parts of the world, being

mentioned in the oldest historical records, in the Bible, the Edda, and in

the sacred books of India. In the thirteenth century, hydromel, which then

bore the name of _borgérafre, borgéraste_, or _bochet_, was composed of

one part of honey to twelve parts of water, scented with herbs, and

allowed to ferment for a month or six weeks. This beverage, which in the

customs and statutes of the order of Cluny is termed _potus dulcissimus_

(the sweetest beverage), and which must have been both agreeable in taste

and smell, was specially appreciated by the monks, who feasted on it on

the great anniversaries of the Church. Besides this, an inferior quality

of _bochet_ was made for the consumption of the lower orders and peasants,

out of the honeycomb after the honey had been drained away, or with the

scum which rose during the fermentation of the better qualities.

[Illustration: Fig. 106.--The Vintagers, after a Miniature of the "Dialogues

de Saint Gregoire" (Thirteenth Century).--Manuscript of the Royal Library

of Brussels.]

Cider (in Latin _sicera_) and perry can also both claim a very ancient

origin, since they are mentioned by Pliny. It does not appear, however,

that the Gauls were acquainted with them. The first historical mention of

them is made with reference to a repast which Thierry II., King of

Burgundy and Orleans (596-613), son of Childebert, and grandson of Queen

Brunehaut, gave to St. Colomban, in which both cider and wine were used.

In the thirteenth century, a Latin poet (Guillaume le Breton) says that

the inhabitants of the Auge and of Normandy made cider their daily drink;

but it is not likely that this beverage was sent away from the localities

where it was made; for, besides the fact that the "Ménagier" only very

curtly mentions a drink made of apples, we know that in the fifteenth

century the Parisians were satisfied with pouring water on apples, and

steeping them, so as to extract a sort of half-sour, half-sweet drink

called _dépense_. Besides this, Paulmier de Grandmesnil, a Norman by

birth, a famous doctor, and the author of a Latin treatise on wine and

cider (1588), asserts that half a century before, cider was very scarce at

Rouen, and that in all the districts of Caux the people only drank beer.

Duperron adds that the Normans brought cider from Biscay, when their crops

of apples failed.

By whom and at what period the vine was naturalised in Gaul has been a

long-disputed question, which, in spite of the most careful research,

remains unsolved. The most plausible opinion is that which attributes the

honour of having imported the vine to the Phoenician colony who founded

Marseilles.

Pliny makes mention of several wines of the Gauls as being highly

esteemed. He nevertheless reproaches the vine-growers of Marseilles,

Beziers, and Narbonne with doctoring their wines, and with infusing

various drugs into them, which rendered them disagreeable and even

unwholesome (Fig. 106). Dioscorides, however, approved of the custom in

use among the Allobroges, of mixing resin with their wines to preserve

them and prevent them from turning sour, as the temperature of their

country was not warm enough thoroughly to ripen the grape.

Rooted up by order of Domitian in 92, as stated above, the vine only

reappeared in Gaul under Protus, who revoked, in 282, the imperial edict

of his predecessor; after which period the Gallic wines soon recovered

their ancient celebrity. Under the dominion of the Franks, who held wine

in great favour, vineyard property was one of those which the barbaric

laws protected with the greatest care. We find in the code of the Salians

and in that of the Visigoths very severe penalties for uprooting a vine or

stealing a bunch of grapes. The cultivation of the vine became general,

and kings themselves planted them, even in the gardens of their city

palaces. In 1160, there was still in Paris, near the Louvre, a vineyard of

such an extent, that Louis VII. could annually present six hogsheads of

wine made from it to the rector of St. Nicholas. Philip Augustus possessed

about twenty vineyards of excellent quality in various parts of his

kingdom.

The culture of the vine having thus developed, the wine trade acquired an

enormous importance in France. Gascony, Aunis, and Saintonge sent their

wines to Flanders; Guyenne sent hers to England. Froissart writes that, in

1372, a merchant fleet of quite two hundred sail came from London to

Bordeaux for wine. This flourishing trade received a severe blow in the

sixteenth century; for an awful famine having invaded France in 1566,

Charles IX. did not hesitate to repeat the acts of Domitian, and to order

all the vines to be uprooted and their place to be sown with corn;

fortunately Henry III. soon after modified this edict by simply

recommending the governors of the provinces to see that "the ploughs were

not being neglected in their districts on account of the excessive

cultivation of the vine."

[Illustration: Fig. 107.--Interior of an Hostelry.--Fac-simile of a

Woodcut in a folio edition of Virgil, published at Lyons in 1517.]

Although the trade of a wine-merchant is one of the oldest established in

Paris, it does not follow that the retail sale of wine was exclusively

carried on by special tradesmen. On the contrary, for a long time the

owner of the vineyard retailed the wine which he had not been able to sell

in the cask. A broom, a laurel-wreath, or some other sign of the sort hung

over a door, denoted that any one passing could purchase or drink wine

within. When the wine-growers did not have the quality and price of their

wine announced in the village or town by the public crier, they placed a

man before the door of their cellar, who enticed the public to enter and

taste the new wines. Other proprietors, instead of selling for people to

take away in their own vessels, established a tavern in some room of their

house, where they retailed drink (Fig. 107). The monks, who made wine

extensively, also opened these taverns in the monasteries, as they only

consumed part of their wine themselves; and this system was universally

adopted by wine-growers, and even by the king and the nobles. The latter,

however, had this advantage, that, whilst they were retailing their wines,

no one in the district was allowed to enter into competition with them.

This prescriptive right, which was called _droit de ban-vin_, was still in

force in the seventeenth century.

Saint Louis granted special statutes to the wine-merchants in 1264; but it

was only three centuries later that they formed a society, which was

divided into four classes, namely, hotel-keepers, publichouse-keepers,

tavern proprietors, and dealers in wine _à pot_, that is, sold to people

to take away with them. Hotel-keepers, also called _aubergistes_,

accommodated travellers, and also put up horses and carriages. The dealers

_à pot_ sold wine which could not be drunk on their premises. There was

generally a sort of window in their door through which the empty pot was

passed, to be returned filled: hence the expression, still in use in the

eighteenth century, _vente a huis coupé_ (sale through a cut door).

Publichouse-keepers supplied drink as well as _nappe et assiette_

(tablecloth and plate), which meant that refreshments were also served.

And lastly, the _taverniers_ sold wine to be drunk on the premises, but

without the right of supplying bread or meat to their customers (Figs 108

and 109).

[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Banner of the Corporation of the

Publichouse-keepers of Montmedy.]

[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Banner of the Corporation of the

Publichouse-keepers of Tonnerre.]

The wines of France in most request from the ninth to the thirteenth

centuries were those of Mâcon, Cahors, Rheims, Choisy, Montargis, Marne,

Meulan, and Orléanais. Amongst the latter there was one which was much

appreciated by Henry I., and of which he kept a store, to stimulate his

courage when he joined his army. The little fable of the Battle of Wines,

composed in the thirteenth century by Henri d'Andelys, mentions a number

of wines which have to this day maintained their reputation: for instance,

the Beaune, in Burgundy; the Saint-Emilion, in Gruyenne; the Chablis,

Epernay, Sézanne, in Champagne, &c. But he places above all, with good

reason, according to the taste of those days, the Saint-Pourçain of

Auvergne, which was then most expensive and in great request. Another

French poet, in describing the luxurious habits of a young man of fashion,

says that he drank nothing but Saint-Pourçain; and in a poem composed by

Jean Bruyant, secretary of the Châtelet of Paris, in 1332, we find

"Du saint-pourçain

Que l'on met en son sein pour sain."

("Saint-Pourçain wine, which you imbibe for the good of your health.")

[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Banner of the Coopers of Bayonne.]

[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Banner of the Coopers of La Rochelle.]

Towards 1400, the vineyards of Aï became celebrated for Champagne as those

of Beaune were for Burgundy; and it is then that we find, according to the

testimony of the learned Paulmier de Grandmesnil, kings and queens making

champagne their favourite beverage. Tradition has it that Francis I.,

Charles Quint, Henry VIII., and Pope Leon X. all possessed vineyards in

Champagne at the same time. Burgundy, that pure and pleasant wine, was not

despised, and it was in its honour that Erasmus said, "Happy province! she

may well call herself the mother of men, since she produces such milk."

Nevertheless, the above-mentioned physician, Paulmier, preferred to

burgundy, "if not perhaps for their flavour, yet for their wholesomeness,

the vines of the _Ile de France_ or _vins français_, which agree, he says,

with scholars, invalids, the bourgeois, and all other persons who do not

devote themselves to manual labour; for they do not parch the blood, like

the wines of Gascony, nor fly to the head like those of Orleans and

Château-Thierry; nor do they cause obstructions like those of Bordeaux."

This is also the opinion of Baccius, who in his Latin treatise on the

natural history of wines (1596) asserts that the wines of Paris "are in no

way inferior to those of any other district of the kingdom." These thin

and sour wines, so much esteemed in the first periods of monarchy and so

long abandoned, first lost favour in the reign of Francis I., who

preferred the strong and stimulating productions of the South.

Notwithstanding the great number of excellent wines made in their own

country, the French imported from other lands. In the thirteenth century,

in the "Battle of Wines" we find those of Aquila, Spain, and, above all,

those of Cyprus, spoken of in high terms. A century later, Eustace

Deschamps praised the Rhine wines, and those of Greece, Malmsey, and

Grenache. In an edict of Charles VI. mention is also made of the muscatel,

rosette, and the wine of Lieppe. Generally, the Malmsey which was drunk in

France was an artificial preparation, which had neither the colour nor

taste of the Cyprian wine. Olivier de Serres tells us that in his time it

was made with water, honey, clary juice, beer grounds, and brandy. At

first the same name was used for the natural wine, mulled and spiced,

which was produced in the island of Madeira from the grapes which the

Portuguese brought there from Cyprus in 1420.

The reputation which this wine acquired in Europe induced Francis I. to

import some vines from Greece, and he planted fifty acres with them near

Fontainebleau. It was at first considered that this plant was succeeding

so well, that "there were hopes," says Olivier de Serres, "that France

would soon be able to furnish her own Malmsey and Greek wines, instead of

having to import them from abroad." It is evident, however, that they soon

gave up this delusion, and that for want of the genuine wine they returned

to artificial beverages, such as _vin cuit_, or cooked wine, which had at

all times been cleverly prepared by boiling down new wine and adding

various aromatic herbs to it.

Many wines were made under the name of _herbés_, which were merely

infusions of wormwood, myrtle, hyssop, rosemary, &c., mixed with sweetened

wine and flavoured with honey. The most celebrated of these beverages

bore the pretentious name of "nectar;" those composed of spices, Asiatic

aromatics, and honey, were generally called "white wine," a name

indiscriminately applied to liquors having for their bases some slightly

coloured wine, as well as to the hypocras, which was often composed of a

mixture of foreign liqueurs. This hypocras plays a prominent part in the

romances of chivalry, and was considered a drink of honour, being always

offered to kings, princes, and nobles on their solemn entry into a town.

[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Butler at his Duties.--Fac-simile from a Woodcut

in the "Cosmographie Universelle," of Munster, folio, Basle, 1549.]

The name of wine was also given to drinks composed of the juices of

certain fruits, and in which grapes were in no way used. These were the

cherry, the currant, the raspberry, and the pomegranate wines; also the

_moré_, made with the mulberry, which was so extolled by the poets of the

thirteenth century. We must also mention the sour wines, which were made

by pouring water on the refuse grapes after the wine had been extracted;

also the drinks made from filberts, milk of almonds, the syrups of

apricots and strawberries, and cherry and raspberry waters, all of which

were refreshing, and were principally used in summer; and, lastly,

_tisane_, sold by the confectioners of Paris, and made hot or cold, with

prepared barley, dried grapes, plums, dates, gum, or liquorice. This

_tisane_ may be considered as the origin of that drink which is now sold

to the poor at a sous a glass, and which most assuredly has not much

improved since olden times.

It was about the thirteenth century that brandy first became known in

France; but it does not appear that it was recognised as a liqueur before

the sixteenth. The celebrated physician Arnauld de Villeneuve, who wrote

at the end of the thirteenth century, to whom credit has wrongly been

given for inventing brandy, employed it as one of his remedies, and thus

expresses himself about it: "Who would have believed that we could have

derived from wine a liquor which neither resembles it in nature, colour,

or effect?.... This _eau de vin_ is called by some _eau de vie_, and justly

so, since it prolongs life.... It prolongs health, dissipates superfluous

matters, revives the spirits, and preserves youth. Alone, or added to some

other proper remedy, it cures colic, dropsy, paralysis, ague, gravel, &c."

At a period when so many doctors, alchemists, and other learned men made

it their principal occupation to try to discover that marvellous golden

fluid which was to free the human race of all its original infirmities,

the discovery of such an elixir could not fail to attract the attention of

all such manufacturers of panaceas. It was, therefore, under the name of

_eau d'or_ (_aqua auri_) that brandy first became known to the world; a

name improperly given to it, implying as it did that it was of mineral

origin, whereas its beautiful golden colour was caused by the addition of

spices. At a later period, when it lost its repute as a medicine, they

actually sprinkled it with pure gold leaves, and at the same time that it

ceased to be exclusively considered as a remedy, it became a favourite

beverage. It was also employed in distilleries, especially as the basis of

various strengthening and exciting liqueurs, most of which have descended

to us, some coming from monasteries and others from châteaux, where they

had been manufactured.

The Kitchen.

Soups, broths, and stews, &c.--The French word _potage_ must originally

have signified a soup composed of vegetables and herbs from the kitchen

garden, but from the remotest times it was applied to soups in general.

As the Gauls, according to Athenæus, generally ate their meat boiled, we

must presume that they made soup with the water in which it was cooked. It

is related that one day Gregory of Tours was sitting at the table of King

Chilpéric, when the latter offered him a soup specially made in his honour

from chicken. The poems of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries mention

soups made of peas, of bacon, of vegetables, and of groats. In the

southern provinces there were soups made of almonds, and of olive oil.

When Du Gueselin went out to fight the English knight William of

Blancbourg in single combat, he first ate three sorts of soup made with

wine, "in honour of the three persons in the Holy Trinity."

[Illustration: Fig. 113.--Interior of a Kitchen of the Sixteenth

Century.--Fac-simile from a Woodcut in the "Calendarium Romanum" of Jean

Staéffler, folio, Tubingen, 1518.]

We find in the "Ménagier," amongst a long list of the common soups the

receipts for which are given, soup made of "dried peas and the water in

which bacon has been boiled," and, in Lent, "salted-whale water;"

watercress soup, cabbage soup, cheese soup, and _gramose_ soup, which was

prepared by adding stewed meat to the water in which meat had already been

boiled, and adding beaten eggs and verjuice; and, lastly, the _souppe

despourvue_, which was rapidly made at the hotels, for unexpected

travellers, and was a sort of soup made from the odds and ends of the

larder. In those days there is no doubt but that hot soup formed an

indispensable part of the daily meals, and that each person took it at

least twice a day, according to the old proverb:--

"Soupe la soir, soupe le matin,

C'est l'ordinaire du bon chrétien."

("Soup in the evening, and soup in the morning,

Is the everyday food of a good Christian.")

The cooking apparatus of that period consisted of a whole glittering array

of cauldrons, saucepans, kettles, and vessels of red and yellow copper,

which hardly sufficed for all the rich soups for which France was so

famous. Thence the old proverb, "En France sont les grands soupiers."

But besides these soups, which were in fact looked upon as "common, and

without spice," a number of dishes were served under the generic name of

soup, which constituted the principal luxuries at the great tables in the

fourteenth century, but which do not altogether bear out the names under

which we find them. For instance, there was haricot mutton, a sort of

stew; thin chicken broth; veal broth with herbs; soup made of veal, roe,

stag, wild boar, pork, hare and rabbit soup flavoured with green peas, &c.

The greater number of these soups were very rich, very expensive, several

being served at the same time; and in order to please the eye as well as

the taste they were generally made of various colours, sweetened with

sugar, and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and aromatic herbs, such as

marjoram, sage, thyme, sweet basil, savoury, &c.

[Illustration: Fig. 114.--Coppersmith, designed and engraved in the

Sixteenth Century by J. Amman.]

These descriptions of soups were perfect luxuries, and were taken instead

of sweets. As a proof of this we must refer to the famous _soupe dorée_,

the description of which is given by Taillevent, head cook of Charles

VII., in the following words, "Toast slices of bread, throw them into a

jelly made of sugar, white wine, yolk of egg, and rosewater; when they are

well soaked fry them, then throw them again into the rosewater and

sprinkle them with sugar and saffron."

[Illustration: Fig. 115.--Kitchen and Table Uensils:--

1, Carving-knife (Sixteenth Century);

2, Chalice or Cup, with Cover (Fourteenth Century);

3, Doubled-handled Pot, in Copper (Ninth Century);

4, Metal Boiler, or Tin Pot, taken from "L'Histoire de la Belle Hélaine"

(Fifteenth Century);

5, Knife (Sixteenth Century);

6, Pot, with Handles (Fourteenth Century);

7, Copper Boiler, taken from "L'Histoire de la Belle Hélaine" (Fifteenth

Century);

8, Ewer, with Handle, in Oriental Fashion (Ninth Century);

9, Pitcher, sculptured, from among the Decorations of the Church of St.

Benedict, Paris (Fifteenth Century);

10, Two-branched Candlestick (Sixteenth Century);

11, Cauldron (Fifteenth Century).

]

It is possible that even now this kind of soup might find some favour;

but we cannot say the same for those made with mustard, hemp-seed, millet,

verjuice, and a number of others much in repute at that period; for we see

in Rabelais that the French were the greatest soup eaters in the world,

and boasted to be the inventors of seventy sorts.

We have already remarked that broths were in use at the remotest periods,

for, from the time that the practice of boiling various meats was first

adopted, it must have been discovered that the water in which they were so

boiled became savoury and nourishing. "In the time of the great King

Francis I.," says Noël du Fail, in his "Contes d'Eutrapel," "in many

places the saucepan was put on to the table, on which there was only one

other large dish, of beef, mutton, veal, and bacon, garnished with a large

bunch of cooked herbs, the whole of which mixture composed a porridge, and

a real restorer and elixir of life. From this came the adage, 'The soup in

the great pot and the dainties in the hotch-potch.'"

At one time they made what they imagined to be strengthening broths for

invalids, though their virtue must have been somewhat delusive, for, after

having boiled down various materials in a close kettle and at a slow fire,

they then distilled from this, and the water thus obtained was

administered as a sovereign remedy. The common sense of Bernard Palissy

did not fail to make him see this absurdity, and to protest against this

ridiculous custom: "Take a capon," he says, "a partridge, or anything

else, cook it well, and then if you smell the broth you will find it very

good, and if you taste it you will find it has plenty of flavour; so much

so that you will feel that it contains something to invigorate you. Distil

this, on the contrary, and take the water then collected and taste it, and

you will find it insipid, and without smell except that of burning. This

should convince you that your restorer does not give that nourishment to

the weak body for which you recommend it as a means of making good blood,

and restoring and strengthening the spirits."

The taste for broths made of flour was formerly almost universal in France

and over the whole of Europe; it is spoken of repeatedly in the histories

and annals of monasteries; and we know that the Normans, who made it their

principal nutriment, were surnamed _bouilleux_. They were indeed almost

like the Romans who in olden times, before their wars with eastern

nations, gave up making bread, and ate their corn simply boiled in water.

In the fourteenth century the broths and soups were made with

millet-flour and mixed wheats. The pure wheat flour was steeped in milk

seasoned with sugar, saffron, honey, sweet wine or aromatic herbs, and

sometimes butter, fat, and yolks of eggs were added. It was on account of

this that the bread of the ancients so much resembled cakes, and it was

also from this fact that the art of the pastrycook took its rise.

Wheat made into gruel for a long time was an important ingredient in

cooking, being the basis of a famous preparation called _fromentée_, which

was a _bouillie_ of milk, made creamy by the addition of yolks of eggs,

and which served as a liquor in which to roast meats and fish. There were,

besides, several sorts of _fromentée_, all equally esteemed, and

Taillevent recommended the following receipt, which differs from the one

above given:--"First boil your wheat in water, then put into it the juice

or gravy of fat meat, or, if you like it better, milk of almonds, and by

this means you will make a soup fit for fasts, because it dissolves

slowly, is of slow digestion and nourishes much. In this way, too, you can

make _ordiat_, or barley soup, which is more generally approved than the

said _fromentée_."

[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Interior of a Kitchen.--Fac-simile from a

Woodcut in the "Calendarium Romanum" of J. Staéffler, folio, Tubingen,

1518.]

Semolina, vermicelli, macaroni, &c., which were called Italian because

they originally came from that country, have been in use in France longer

than is generally supposed. They were first introduced after the

expedition of Charles VIII. into Italy, and the conquest of the kingdom of

Naples; that is, in the reign of Louis XII., or the first years of the

sixteenth century.

Pies, Stews, Roasts, Salads, &c.--Pastry made with fat, which might be

supposed to have been the invention of modern kitchens, was in great

repute amongst our ancestors. The manufacture of sweet and savoury pastry

was intrusted to the care of the good _ménagiers_ of all ranks and

conditions, and to the corporation of pastrycooks, who obtained their

statutes only in the middle of the sixteenth century; the united skill of

these, both in Paris and in the provinces, multiplied the different sorts

of tarts and meat pies to a very great extent. So much was this the case

that these ingenious productions became a special art, worthy of rivalling

even cookery itself (Figs. 117, 118, and 130). One of the earliest known

receipts for making pies is that of Gaces de la Bigne, first chaplain of

Kings John, Charles V., and Charles VI. We find it in a sporting poem, and

it deserves to be quoted verbatim as a record of the royal kitchen of the

fourteenth century. It will be observed on perusing it that nothing was

spared either in pastry or in cookery, and that expense was not considered

when it was a question of satisfying the appetite.

"Trois perdriaulx gros et reffais

Au milieu du paté me mets;

Mais gardes bien que tu ne failles

A moi prendre six grosses cailles,

De quoi tu les apuyeras.

Et puis après tu me prendras

Une douzaine d'alouètes

Qu'environ les cailles me mettes,

Et puis pendras de ces machés

Et de ces petits oiselés:

Selon ce que tu en auras,

Le paté m'en billeteras.

Or te fault faire pourvéance

D'un pen de lart, sans point de rance,

Que tu tailleras comme dé:

S'en sera le pasté pouldré.

S tu le veux de bonne guise,

Du vertjus la grappe y soit mise,

D'un bien peu de sel soit pouldré ...

... Fay mettre des oeufs en la paste,

Les croutes un peu rudement

Faictes de flour de pur froment ...

... N'y mets espices ni fromaige ...

Au four bien à point chaud le met,

Qui de cendre ait l'atre bien net;

E quand sera bien à point cuit,

I n'est si bon mangier, ce cuit."

("Put me in the middle of the pie three young partridges large and fat;

But take good care not to fail to take six fine quail to put by their

side.

After that you must take a dozen skylarks, which round the quail you must

place;

And then you must take some thrushes and such other little birds as you

can get to garnish the pie.

Further, you must provide yourself with a little bacon, which must not be

in the least rank (reasty), and you must cut it into pieces of the size

of a die, and sprinkle them into the pie.

If you want it to be in quite good form, you must put some sour grapes in

and a very little salt ...

... Have eggs put into the paste, and the crust made rather hard of the

flour of pure wheat.

Put in neither spice nor cheese ...

Put it into the oven just at the proper heat,

The bottom of which must be quite free from ashes;

And when it is baked enough, isn't that a dish to feast on!")

From this period all treatises on cookery are full of the same kind of

receipts for making "pies of young chickens, of fresh venison, of veal, of

eels, of bream and salmon, of young rabbits, of pigeons, of small birds,

of geese, and of _narrois_" (a mixture of cod's liver and hashed fish). We

may mention also the small pies, which were made of minced beef and

raisins, similar to our mince pies, and which were hawked in the streets

of Paris, until their sale was forbidden, because the trade encouraged

greediness on the one hand and laziness on the other.

Ancient pastries, owing to their shapes, received the name of _tourte_ or

_tarte_, from the Latin _torta_, a large hunch of bread. This name was

afterwards exclusively used for hot pies, whether they contained

vegetables, meat, or fish. But towards the end of the fourteenth century

_tourte_ and _tarte_ was applied to pastry containing, herbs, fruits, or

preserves, and _pâté_ to those containing any kind of meat, game, or fish.

[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Banner of the Corporation of Pastrycooks of

Caen.]

[Illustration: Fig. 118.--Banner of the Corporation of Pastrycooks of

Bordeaux.]

It was only in the course of the sixteenth century that the name of

_potage_ ceased to be applied to stews, whose number equalled their

variety, for on a bill of fare of a banquet of that period we find more

than fifty different sorts of _potages_ mentioned. The greater number of

these dishes have disappeared from our books on cookery, having gone out

of fashion; but there are two stews which were popular during many

centuries, and which have maintained their reputation, although they do

not now exactly represent what they formerly did. The _pot-pourri_, which

was composed of veal, beef, mutton, bacon, and vegetables, and the

_galimafrée_, a fricassee of poultry, sprinkled with verjuice, flavoured

with spices, and surrounded by a sauce composed of vinegar, bread crumbs,

cinnamon, ginger, &c. (Fig. 119).

The highest aim of the cooks of the Taillevent school was to make dishes

not only palatable, but also pleasing to the eye. These masters in the art

of cooking might be said to be both sculptors and painters, so much did

they decorate their works, their object being to surprise or amuse the

guests by concealing the real nature of the disbes. Froissart, speaking of

a repast given in his time, says that there were a number of "dishes so

curious and disguised that it was impossible to guess what they were." For

instance, the bill of fare above referred to mentions a lion and a sun

made of white chicken, a pink jelly, with diamond-shaped points; and, as

if the object of cookery was to disguise food and deceive epicures,

Taillevent facetiously gives us a receipt for making fried or roast butter

and for cooking eggs on the spit.

[Illustration: Fig. 119.--Interior of Italian Kitchen.--Fac-simile of a

Woodcut in the Book on Cookery of Christoforo di Messisburgo, "Banchetti

compositioni di Vivende," 4to., Ferrara, 1549.]

The roasts were as numerous as the stews. A treatise of the fourteenth

century names about thirty, beginning with a sirloin of beef, which must

have been one of the most common, and ending with a swan, which appeared

on table in full plumage. This last was the triumph of cookery, inasmuch

as it presented this magnificent bird to the eyes of the astonished guests

just as if he were living and swimming. His beak was gilt, his body

silvered, resting 'on a mass of brown pastry, painted green in order to

represent a grass field. Eight banners of silk were placed round, and a

cloth of the same material served as a carpet for the whole dish, which

towered above the other appointments of the table.

[Illustration: Fig. 120.--Hunting-Meal.--Fac-simile of a Miniature in the

Manuscript of the "Livre du Roy Modus" (National Library of Paris).]

The peacock, which was as much thought of then as it is little valued now,

was similarly arrayed, and was brought to table amidst a flourish of

trumpets and the applause of all present. The modes of preparing other

roasts much resembled the present system in their simplicity, with this

difference, that strong meats were first boiled to render them tender, and

no roast was ever handed over to the skill of the carver without first

being thoroughly basted with orange juice and rose water, and covered with

sugar and powdered spices.

We must not forget to mention the broiled dishes, the invention of which

is attributed to hunters, and which Rabelais continually refers to as

acting as stimulants and irresistibly exciting the thirst for wine at the

sumptuous feasts of those voracious heroes (Fig. 120).

The custom of introducing salads after roasts was already established in

the fifteenth century. However, a salad, of whatever sort, was never

brought to table in its natural state; for, besides the raw herbs, dressed

in the same manner as in our days, it contained several mixtures, such as

cooked vegetables, and the crests, livers, or brains of poultry. After the

salads fish was served; sometimes fried, sometimes sliced with eggs or

reduced to a sort of pulp, which was called _carpée_ or _charpie_, and

sometimes it was boiled in water or wine, with strong seasoning. Near the

salads, in the course of the dinner, dishes of eggs prepared in various

ways were generally served. Many of these are now in use, such as the

poached egg, the hard-boiled egg, egg sauce, &c.

[Illustration: Fig. 121.--Shop of a Grocer and Druggist, from a Stamp of Vriese

(Seventeenth Century).]

Seasonings.--We have already stated that the taste for spices much

increased in Europe after the Crusades; and in this rapid historical

sketch of the food of the French people in the Middle Ages it must have

been observed to what an extent this taste had become developed in France

(Fig. 121). This was the origin of sauces, all, or almost all, of which

were highly spiced, and were generally used with boiled, roast, or grilled

meats. A few of these sauces, such as the yellow, the green, and the

_caméline_, became so necessary in cooking that numerous persons took to

manufacturing them by wholesale, and they were hawked in the streets of

Paris.

These sauce-criers were first called _saulciers_, then

_vinaigriers-moustardiers_, and when Louis XII. united them in a body, as

their business had considerably increased, they were termed

_sauciers-moutardiers-vinaigriers_, distillers of brandy and spirits of

wine, and _buffetiers_ (from _buffet_, a sideboard).

[Illustration: Fig. 122.--The Cook, drawn and engraved, in the Sixteenth

Century, by J. Amman.]

But very soon the corporation became divided, no doubt from the force of

circumstances; and on one side we find the distillers, and on the other

the master-cooks and cooks, or _porte-chapes_, as they were called,

because, when they carried on their business of cooking, they covered

their dishes with a _chape_, that is, a cope or tin cover (Fig. 122), so

as to keep them warm.

The list of sauces of the fourteenth century, given by the "Ménagier de

Paris," is most complicated; but, on examining the receipts, it becomes

clear that the variety of those preparations, intended to sharpen the

appetite, resulted principally from the spicy ingredients with which they

were flavoured; and it is here worthy of remark that pepper, in these days

exclusively obtained from America, was known and generally used long

before the time of Columbus. It is mentioned in a document, of the time

of Clotaire III. (660); and it is clear, therefore, that before the

discovery of the New World pepper and spices were imported into Europe

from the East.

Mustard, which was an ingredient in so many dishes, was cultivated and

manufactured in the thirteenth century in the neighbourhood of Dijon and

Angers.

According to a popular adage, garlic was the medicine (_thériaque_) of

peasants; town-people for a long time greatly appreciated _aillée_, which

was a sauce made of garlic, and sold ready prepared in the streets of

Paris.

The custom of using anchovies as a flavouring is also very ancient. This

was also done with _botargue_ and _cavial_, two sorts of side-dishes,

which consisted of fishes' eggs, chiefly mullet and sturgeon, properly

salted or dried, and mixed with fresh or pickled olives. The olives for

the use of the lower orders were brought from Languedoc and Provence,

whereas those for the rich were imported from Spain and some from Syria.

It was also from the south of France that the rest of the kingdom was

supplied with olive oil, for which, to this day, those provinces have

preserved their renown; but as early as the twelfth and thirteenth

centuries oil of walnuts was brought from the centre of France to Paris,

and this, although cheaper, was superseded by oil extracted from the

poppy.

Truffles, though known and esteemed by the ancients, disappeared from the

gastronomie collection of our forefathers. It was only in the fourteenth

century that they were again introduced, but evidently without a knowledge

of their culinary qualities, since, after being preserved in vinegar, they

were soaked in hot water, and afterwards served up in butter. We may also

here mention sorrel and the common mushroom, which were used in cooking

during the Middle Ages.

On the strength of the old proverb, "Sugar has never spoiled sauce," sugar

was put into all sauces which were not _piquantes_, and generally some

perfumed water was added to them, such as rose-water. This was made in

great quantities by exposing to the sun a basin full of water, covered

over by another basin of glass, under which was a little vase containing

rose-leaves. This rose-water was added to all stews, pastries, and

beverages. It is very doubtful as to the period at which white lump sugar

became known in the West. However, in an account of the house of the

Dauphin Viennois (1333) mention is made of "white sugar;" and the author

of the "Ménagier de Paris" frequently speaks of this white sugar, which,

before the discovery, or rather colonisation, of America, was brought,

ready refined, from the Grecian islands, and especially from Candia.

[Illustration: Fig. 123.--The _Issue de Table_.--Fac-simile of a Woodcut

in the Treatise of Christoforo di Messisburgo, "Banchetti compositioni di

Vivende," 4to., Ferrara, 1549.]

Verjuice, or green juice, which, with vinegar, formed the essential basis

of sauces, and is now extracted from a species of green grape, which never

ripens, was originally the juice of sorrel; another sort was extracted by

pounding the green blades of wheat. Vinegar was originally merely soured

wine, as the word _vin-aigre_ denotes. The mode of manufacturing it by

artificial means, in order to render the taste more pungent and the

quality better, is very ancient. It is needless to state that it was

scented by the infusion of herbs or flowers--roses, elder, cloves, &c.;

but it was not much before the sixteenth century that it was used for

pickling herbs or fruits and vegetables, such as gherkins, onions,

cucumber, purslain, &c.

Salt, which from the remotest periods was the condiment _par excellence_,

and the trade in which had been free up to the fourteenth century, became,

from that period, the subject of repeated taxation. The levying of these

taxes was a frequent cause of tumult amongst the people, who saw with

marked displeasure the exigencies of the excise gradually raising the

price of an article of primary necessity. We have already mentioned times

during which the price of salt was so exorbitant that the rich alone could

put it in their bread. Thus, in the reign of Francis I., it was almost as

dear as Indian spices.

Sweet Dishes, Desserts, &c.--In the fourteenth century, the first courses

of a repast were called _mets_ or _assiettes_; the last, "_entremets,

dorures, issue de table, desserte_, and _boule-hors_."

The dessert consisted generally of baked pears, medlars, pealed walnuts,

figs, dates, peaches, grapes, filberts, spices, and white or red

sugar-plums.

At the _issue de table_ wafers or some other light pastry were introduced,

which were eaten with the hypocras wine. The _boute-hors,_ which was

served when the guests, after having washed their hands and said grace,

had passed into the drawing-room, consisted of spices, different from

those which had appeared at dessert, and intended specially to assist the

digestion; and for this object they must have been much needed,

considering that a repast lasted several hours. Whilst eating these spices

they drank Grenache, Malmsey, or aromatic wines (Fig. 123).

It was only at the banquets and great repeats that sweet dishes and

_dorures_ appeared, and they seem to have been introduced for the purpose

of exhibiting the power of the imagination and the talent in execution of

the master-cook.

The _dorures_ consisted of jellies of all sorts and colours; swans,

peacocks, bitterns, and herons, on gala feasts, were served in full

feather on a raised platform in the middle of the table, and hence the

name of "raised dishes." As for the side-dishes, properly so called, the

long list collected in the "Ménagier" shows us that they were served at

table indiscriminately, for stuffed chickens at times followed hashed

porpoise in sauce, lark pies succeeded lamb sausages, and pike's-eggs

fritters appeared after orange preserve.

At a later period the luxury of side-dishes consisted in the quantity and

in the variety of the pastry; Rabelais names sixteen different sorts at

one repast; Taillevent mentions pastry called _covered pastry,

Bourbonnaise pastry, double-faced pastry, pear pastry_, and _apple

pastry_; Platina speaks of the _white pastry_ with quince, elder flowers,

rice, roses, chestnuts, &c. The fashion of having pastry is, however, of

very ancient date, for in the book of the "Proverbs" of the thirteenth

century, we find that the pies of Dourlens and the pastry of Chartres were

then in great celebrity.

[Illustration: Fig. 124.--The Table of a Baron, as laid out in the

Thirteenth Century.--Miniature from the "Histoire de St. Graal"

(Manuscript from the Imperial Library, Paris).]

In a charter of Robert le Bouillon, Bishop of Amiens, in 1311, mention is

made of a cake composed of puff flaky paste; these cakes, however, are

less ancient than the firm pastry called bean cake, or king's cake, which,

from the earliest days of monarchy, appeared on all the tables, not only

at the feast of the Epiphany, but also on every festive occasion.

Amongst the dry and sweet pastries from the small oven which appeared at

the _issue de table_, the first to be noticed were those made of almonds,

nuts, &c., and such choice morsels, which were very expensive; then came

the cream or cheesecakes, the _petits choux_, made of butter and eggs; the

_échaudés_, of which the people were very fond, and St. Louis even

allowed the bakers to cook them on Sundays and feast days for the poor;

wafers, which are older than the thirteenth century; and lastly the

_oublies_, which, under the names of _nieules, esterets_, and

_supplications_, gave rise to such an extensive trade that a corporation

was established in Paris, called the _oublayeurs, oublayers,_ or

_oublieux_, whose statutes directed that none should be admitted to

exercise the trade unless he was able to make in one day 500 large

_oublies_, 300 _supplications_, and 200 _esterets_.

Repasts and Feasts.

We have had to treat elsewhere of the rules and regulations of the repasts

under the Merovingian and Carlovingian kings. We have also spoken of the

table service of the thirteenth century (see chapter on "Private Life").

The earliest author who has left us any documents on this curious subject

is that excellent bourgeois to whom we owe the "Ménagier de Paris." He

describes, for instance, in its fullest details, a repast which was given

in the fourteenth century by the Abbé de Lagny, to the Bishop of Paris,

the President of the Parliament, the King's attorney and advocate, and

other members of his council, in all sixteen guests. We find from this

account that "my lord of Paris, occupying the place of honour, was, in

consequence of his rank, served on covered dishes by three of his squires,

as was the custom for the King, the royal princes, the dukes, and peers;

that Master President, who was seated by the side of the bishop, was also

served by one of his own servants, but on uncovered dishes, and the other

guests were seated at table according to the order indicated by their

titles or charges."

The bill of fare of this feast, which was given on a fast-day, is the more

worthy of attention, in that it proves to us what numerous resources

cookery already possessed. This was especially the case as regards fish,

notwithstanding that the transport of fresh sea-fish was so difficult,

owing to the bad state of the roads.

First, a quarter of a pint of Grenache was given to each guest on sitting

down, then "hot _eschaudés_, roast apples with white sugar-plums upon

them, roasted figs, sorrel and watercress, and rosemary."

"Soups.--A rich soup, composed of six trout, six tenches, white herring,

freshwater eels, salted twenty-four hours, and three whiting, soaked

twelve hours; almonds, ginger, saffron, cinnamon powder and sweetmeats.

"Salt-Water Fish.--Soles, gurnets, congers, turbots, and salmon.

"Fresh-Water Fish.--_Lux faudis_ (pike with roe), carps from the Marne,

breams.

"Side-Dishes.--Lampreys _à la boee_, orange-apples (one for each guest),

porpoise with sauce, mackerel, soles, bream, and shad _à la cameline_,

with verjuice, rice and fried almonds upon them; sugar and apples.

[Illustration: Fig. 125.--Officers of the Table and of the Chamber of the

Imperial Court: Cup-bearer, Cook, Barber, and Tailor, from a Picture in

the "Triomphe de Maximilien T.," engraved by J. Resch, Burgmayer, and

others (1512), from Drawings by Albert Durer.]

"Dessert.--Stewed fruit with white and vermilion sugar-plums; figs, dates,

grapes, and filberts.

"Hypocras for _issue de table_, with _oublies_ and _supplications_.

"Wines and spices compose the _baute-hors_."

To this fasting repast we give by way of contrast the bill of fare at the

nuptial feast of Master Helye, "to which forty guests were bidden on a

Tuesday in May, a 'day of flesh.'"

"Soups.--Capons with white sauce, ornamented with pomegranate and crimson

sweetmeats.

"Roasts.--Quarter of roe-deer, goslings, young chickens, and sauces of

orange, cameline, and verjuice.

"Side-Dishes.--Jellies of crayfish and loach; young rabbits and pork.

"Dessert.--_Froumentée_ and venison.

"Issue.--Hypocras.

"Boute-Hors.--Wine and spices."

The clever editor of the "Ménagier de Paris," M. le Baron Jerôme Pichon,

after giving us this curious account of the mode of living of the citizens

of that day, thus sums up the whole arrangements for the table in the

fourteenth century: "The different provisions necessary for food are

usually entrusted to the squires of the kitchen, and were chosen,

purchased, and paid for by one or more of these officials, assisted by the

cooks. The dishes prepared by the cooks were placed, by the help of the

esquires, on dressers in the kitchen until the moment of serving. Thence

they were carried to the tables. Let us imagine a vast hall hung with

tapestries and other brilliant stuffs. The tables are covered with fringed

table-cloths, and strewn with odoriferous herbs; one of them, called the

Great Table, is reserved for the persons of distinction. The guests are

taken to their seats by two butlers, who bring them water to wash. The

Great Table is laid out by a butler, with silver salt-cellars (Figs. 126

and 127), golden goblets with lids for the high personages, spoons and

silver drinking cups. The guests eat at least certain dishes on

_tranchoirs_, or large slices of thick bread, afterwards thrown into vases

called _couloueres_ (drainers). For the other tables the salt is placed on

pieces of bread, scooped out for that purpose by the intendants, who are

called _porte-chappes._ In the hall is a dresser covered with plate and

various kinds of wine. Two squires standing near this dresser give the

guests clean spoons, pour out what wine they ask for, and remove the

silver when used; two other squires superintend the conveyance of wine to

the dresser; a varlet placed under their orders is occupied with nothing

but drawing wine from the casks." At that time wine was not bottled, and

they drew directly from the cask the amount necessary for the day's

consumption. "The dishes, consisting of three, four, five, and even six

courses, called _mets_ or _assiettes_, are brought in by varlets and two

of the principal squires, and in certain wedding-feasts the bridegroom

walked in front of them. The dishes are placed on the table by an

_asséeur_ (placer), assisted by two servants. The latter take away the

remains at the conclusion of the course, and hand them over to the

squires of the kitchen who have charge of them. After the _mets_ or

_assiettes_ the table-cloths are changed, and the _entremets_ are then

brought in. This course is the most brilliant of the repast, and at some

of the princely banquets the dishes are made to imitate a sort of

theatrical representation. It is composed of sweet dishes, of coloured

jellies of swans, of peacocks, or of pheasants adorned with their

feathers, having the beak and feet gilt, and placed on the middle of the

table on a sort of pedestal. To the _entremets_, a course which does not

appear on all bills of fare, succeeds the dessert. The _issue_, or exit

from table, is mostly composed of hypocras and a sort of _oublie_ called

_mestier_; or, in summer, when hypocras is out of season on account of its

strength, of apples, cheeses, and sometimes of pastries and sweetmeats.

The _boute-hors_ (wines and spices) end the repast. The guests then wash

their hands, say grace, and pass into the _chambre de parement_ or

drawing-room. The servants then sit down and dine after their masters.

They subsequently bring the guests wine and _épices de chambre_, after

which each retires home."

[Illustration: Figs. 126 and 127.--Sides of an Enamelled Salt-cellar, with

six facings representing the Labours of Hercules, made at Limoges, by

Pierre Raymond, for Francis I.]

But all the pomp and magnificence of the feasts of this period would have

appeared paltry a century later, when royal banquets were managed by

Taillevent, head cook to Charles VII. The historian of French cookery,

Legrand d'Aussy, thus desoribes a great feast given in 1455 by the Count

of Anjou, third son of Louis II., King of Sicily:--

"On the table was placed a centre-piece, which represented a green lawn,

surrounded with large peacocks' feathers and green branches, to which were

tied violets and other sweet-smelling flowers. In the middle of this lawn

a fortress was placed, covered with silver. This was hollow, and formed a

sort of cage, in which several live birds were shut up, their tufts and

feet being gilt. On its tower, which was gilt, three banners were placed,

one bearing the arms of the count, the two others those of Mesdemoiselles

de Châteaubrun and de Villequier, in whose honour the feast was given.

"The first course consisted of a civet of hare, a quarter of stag which

had been a night in salt, a stuffed chicken, and a loin of veal. The two

last dishes were covered with a German sauce, with gilt sugar-plums, and

pomegranate seeds.... At each end, outside the green lawn, was an enormous

pie, surmounted with smaller pies, which formed a crown. The crust of the

large ones was silvered all round and gilt at the top; each contained a

whole roe-deer, a gosling, three capons, six chickens, ten pigeons, one

young rabbit, and, no doubt to serve as seasoning or stuffing, a minced

loin of veal, two pounds of fat, and twenty-six hard-boiled eggs, covered

with saffron and flavoured with cloves. For the three following courses,

there was a roe-deer, a pig, a sturgeon cooked in parsley and vinegar, and

covered with powdered ginger; a kid, two goslings, twelve chickens, as

many pigeons, six young rabbits, two herons, a leveret, a fat capon

stuffed, four chickens covered with yolks of eggs and sprinkled with

powder _de Duc_ (spice), a wild boar, some wafers (_darioles_), and stars;

a jelly, part white and part red, representing the crests of the three

above-mentioned persons; cream with _Duc_ powder, covered with fennel

seeds preserved in sugar; a white cream, cheese in slices, and

strawberries; and, lastly, plums stewed in rose-water. Besides these four

courses, there was a fifth, entirely composed of the prepared wines then

in vogue, and of preserves. These consisted of fruits and various sweet

pastries. The pastries represented stags and swans, to the necks of which

were suspended the arms of the Count of Anjou and those of the two young

ladies."

In great houses, dinner was announced by the sound of the hunting-horn;

this is what Froissard calls _corner l'assiette,_ but which was at an

earlier period called _corner l'eau_, because it was the custom to wash

the hands before sitting down to table as well as on leaving the

dining-room.

[Illustration: Fig. 128.--Knife-handles in Sculptured Ivory, Sixteenth

Century (Collection of M. Becker, of Frankfort).]

[Illustration: Fig. 129.--Nut-crackers, in Boxwood, Sixteenth Century

(Collection of M. Achille Jubinal).]

For these ablutions scented water, and especially rose-water, was used,

brought in ewers of precious and delicately wrought metals, by pages or

squires, who handed them to the ladies in silver basins. It was at about

this period, that is, in the times of chivalry, that the custom of placing

the guests by couples was introduced, generally a gentleman and lady, each

couple having but one cup and one plate; hence the expression, to eat from

the same plate.

Historians relate that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, at

certain gala feasts, the dishes were brought in by servants in full

armour, mounted on caparisoned horses; but this is a custom exclusively

attached to chivalry. As early as those days, powerful and ingenious

machines were in use, which lowered from the story above, or raised from

that below, ready-served tables, which were made to disappear after use as

if by enchantment.

At that period the table service of the wealthy required a considerable

staff of retainers and varlets; and, at a later period, this number was

much increased. Thus, for instance, when Louis of Orleans went on a

diplomatic mission to Germany from his brother Charles VI., this prince,

in order that France might be worthily represented abroad, raised the

number of his household to more than two hundred and fifty persons, of

whom about one hundred were retainers and table attendants. Olivier de la

Marche, who, in his "Mémoires," gives the most minute details of the

ceremonial of the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, tells us

that the table service was as extensive as in the other great princely

houses.

This extravagant and ruinous pomp fell into disuse during the reigns of

Louis XI., Charles VIII., and Louis XII., but reappeared in that of

Francis I. This prince, after his first wars in Italy, imported the

cookery and the gastronomic luxury of that country, where the art of good

living, especially in Venice, Florence, and Rome, had reached the highest

degree of refinement and magnificence. Henry II. and Francis II.

maintained the magnificence of their royal tables; but after them,

notwithstanding the soft effeminacy of the manners at court, the continued

wars which Henry III. and Charles IX. had to sustain in their own states

against the Protestants and the League necessitated a considerable economy

in the households and tables of those kings.

"It was only by fits and starts," says Brantôme, "that one was well fed

during this reign, for very often circumstances prevented the proper

preparation of the repasts; a thing much disliked by the courtiers, who

prefer open table to be kept at both court and with the army, because it

then costs them nothing." Henry IV. was neither fastidious nor greedy; we

must therefore come down to the reign of Louis XIII. to find a vestige of

the splendour of the banquets of Francis I.

[Illustration: Fig. 130.--Grand Ceremonial Banquet at the Court of France

in the Fourteenth Century, archaeological Restoration from Miniatures and

Narratives of the Period.