Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance PeriodJacob, P. L.
History
Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period
Jacob, P. L.
Clothing and dress; Manners and customs; Middle Ages; Renaissance
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and this, although cheaper, was superseded by oil extracted from the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.]
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