While the Mediterranean countries used oil, the North of
Europe consumed butter, clarified butter, lard, and other
animal fats. The inhabitants of Central France suffered
from an insufficient supply of both classes of fats, and thus
had a particular inducement for that precious application of
meat-broth which marks an epoch in the development of
culture. And at the present time the majority of Europeans
are so accustomed to this use of meat essence that even the
refined part of the cookery of the ancients, and much of the
cookery of the Spaniards, Italians and Greeks of our time,
appears to us inattractive.
* Voce ‘Greasy Diet’; cf. Pliny, ‘Nat. Hist.,’ lib. xii., cap. vii.
io6
THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY
Eumohrwas in possession of accounts of the housekeeping
of Louis XV. of France for the year 1756 ; these documents
proved that at the table of the Eoyal Family only eight or
nine dishes were served, while sixty appeared daily on the
table of Louis XVIII. But two-thirds of the meat which
was used in the kitchen were employed in the production of
bouillon intended for incorporation with the rest. This is a
very clear manifestation of the tendency of the art of cookery
since the Eenaissance. In culinary publications of the same
period, e.p., ‘ Dons de Comus,’ a book which passed through
many editions, the genuine French mode of preparing dishes
with broth is given, but at the same time, and very properly,
many of the over-mixed and over-cooked little dishes of
Italian art are described. Thus, in the chapter on ‘ Divers
Entremets ’ we find, under the title of roties, those little
pieces of fried bread, crustini, covered with some forcemeat,
which to this day form so prominent a part of the garnish
of Italian dishes.*
The French Eevolution improved the condition of the
lower classes, and with this revived the use of the old
French domestic meat-soup, the po^-u«-/czi.t This had the
effect of making the taste of the nation averse to the strong
spices, and inclined to a blander, simpler, finer diet. The
whole canon of French cooking was spread through Europe,
and even to East India, by the soldiers as well as the fugi-
tives from France. And the latter learned in England and
transferred to France those splendid modes of roasting meat
for which the English kitchen is celebrated, and which the
French kitchen, though largely profiting, has not even at
present completely acquired. Eepublic and First Empire
maintained the best traditions, as is shown by memis from
the time of Barere to the end of that of Napoleon. But the
Eestoration, under the corrupting example of Louis XVIII.,
* ‘ Tant en gras qu’en maigre,’ tom. iii., chap, vi., p. 137.
t Of. infra, where several modern recipes for this dish are given.
BOUILLON, OR MEAT-BROTH
107
led again to absurdly complicated extravagance, which out-
shone the efforts at reasonable moderation as expressed in
the popular work ‘ Cuisiniere Bourgeoise.’ The result was
affected over-complication, which was at first fostered by
the ‘ Almanach des Gourmands,’ a publication of which we
have spoken under the chapter on literature, and the affected
over-refinement reached an almost grotesque climax in the
‘ Physiologie du Gout,’ the author of which in reality stood
in the same relation to good cooking as the promoter of the
‘ Almanach ’ to polite manners.
Page 77
Presented as published in 1895. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
While the Mediterranean countries used oil, the North of Europe consumed butter, clarified butter, lard, and other animal fats. The inhabitants of Central France suffered from an insufficient supply of both classes of fats, and thus had a particular inducement for that precious application of meat-broth which marks an epoch in the development of culture. And at the present time the majority of Europeans are so accustomed to this use of meat essence that even the refined part of the cookery of the ancients, and much of the cookery of the Spaniards, Italians and Greeks of our time, appears to us inattractive.
* Voce ‘Greasy Diet’; cf. Pliny, ‘Nat. Hist.,’ lib. xii., cap. vii.
io6
Rumohr was in possession of accounts of the housekeeping of Louis XV. of France for the year 1756 ; these documents proved that at the table of the Eoyal Family only eight or nine dishes were served, while sixty appeared daily on the table of Louis XVIII. But two-thirds of the meat which was used in the kitchen were employed in the production of bouillon intended for incorporation with the rest. This is a very clear manifestation of the tendency of the art of cookery since the Eenaissance. In culinary publications of the same period, e.p., ‘ Dons de Comus,’ a book which passed through many editions, the genuine French mode of preparing dishes with broth is given, but at the same time, and very properly, many of the over-mixed and over-cooked little dishes of Italian art are described. Thus, in the chapter on ‘ Divers Entremets ’ we find, under the title of roties, those little pieces of fried bread, crustini, covered with some forcemeat, which to this day form so prominent a part of the garnish of Italian dishes.*
The French Revolution improved the condition of the lower classes, and with this revived the use of the old French domestic meat-soup, the pot-au-feu.t This had the effect of making the taste of the nation averse to the strong spices, and inclined to a blander, simpler, finer diet. The whole canon of French cooking was spread through Europe, and even to East India, by the soldiers as well as the fugitives from France. And the latter learned in England and transferred to France those splendid modes of roasting meat for which the English kitchen is celebrated, and which the French kitchen, though largely profiting, has not even at present completely acquired. Republic and First Empire maintained the best traditions, as is shown by memis from the time of Barere to the end of that of Napoleon. But the Restoration, under the corrupting example of Louis XVIII.,
* ‘ Tant en gras qu’en maigre,’ tom. iii., chap, vi., p. 137.
t Of. infra, where several modern recipes for this dish are given.
led again to absurdly complicated extravagance, which outshone the efforts at reasonable moderation as expressed in the popular work ‘ Cuisiniere Bourgeoise.’ The result was affected over-complication, which was at first fostered by the ‘ Almanach des Gourmands,’ a publication of which we have spoken under the chapter on literature, and the affected over-refinement reached an almost grotesque climax in the ‘ Physiologie du Gout,’ the author of which in reality stood in the same relation to good cooking as the promoter of the ‘ Almanach ’ to polite manners.