#LE REPERTOIRE DE LA CUISINE 17TH EDITION SKIN#
One of the grandest showpieces of the time was roast swan or peacock sewn back into its skin with feathers intact, the feet and beak being gilded. Gold and silver leaf were placed on food surfaces and brushed with egg whites. Yellow was obtained from saffron or egg yolk, red came from sunflower, and purple came from Chrozophora tinctoria or Heliotropium europaeum. Brilliant colors were obtained by adding, for example, juices from spinach and the green part of leeks. A common form of food preparation was to finely cook, pound and strain mixtures into fine pastes and mushes. Sweet-sour flavors were commonly added to dishes with vinegars and verjus combined with sugar, or honey. Some spices used then, but no longer today in French cuisine are cubebs, long pepper (both from vines similar to black pepper), grains of paradise, and galingale.
Spices were treasured and very expensive in those days – they included pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and mace. Kitchen gardens provided herbs, included some as rare today as tansy, rue, pennyroyal, and hyssop. Game was highly prized, but very rare, and included venison, wild boar, hare, rabbit, and birds. Poultry was kept in special yards, with pigeon and squab being reserved for the rich. Artificial freshwater ponds (often called stews) were used held carp, pike, tench, bream, eel, and other fish. Whale, dolphin and porpoise were considered fish, so the salted meats of these sea mammals were eaten during Lent. Fruits, nuts and root vegetables would be boiled in honey for preservation. Cucumbers were brined as well, while greens would be packed in jars with salt. Bacon and sausages would be smoked in the chimney, while the tongue and hams were put in brine, or dried. Beef was often salted, and pork was salted and smoked. Livestock were slaughtered at the beginning of winter. Late spring, summer, and autumn afforded abundance, while winter meals were more sparse. The ingredients of the time varied greatly according to the seasons and the church calendar also many food items were preserved with salt, spices, honey, and other preservatives. Meals often ended with an issue de table, which later changed into the modern dessert, and which typically consisted of dragées (in the Middle Ages, meaning spiced lumps of hardened sugar or honey), aged cheese and spiced wine, such as hypocras. Pies were a common item in banquets, and their the crust serving primarily as a container, rather than as food itself, but it was not until the very end of the Late Middle Ages that the shortcrust pie was developed. Sauces were highly seasoned and thick, and mustards were heavily flavored. Food was generally eaten using the hands meats were cut into large pieces, held between the thumb and two fingers, and introduced into the mouth. Multiple courses would be prepared, but served in a style called service en confusion, i.e., all the courses at once. Middle Ages In the days of the French medieval cuisine, banquets were common among the aristocracy. This cuisine eventually spread throughout the country and reached other countries through overseas export trade and colonization, which in turn brought numerous other influences from around the world. The city of Paris was the center of many innovative movements led by royal chefs that eventually gave birth to the modern French cuisine that we can enjoy today. The national cuisine began to take shape during the Middle Ages through the work of skilled chefs who served the French nobility. Over centuries the French cuisine has evolved extensively thanks to local and foreign influences.
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