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."