The Pleasures of the Table: An Account of Gastronomy from Ancient Days to Present Times. With a History of Its Literature, Schools, and Most Distinguished Artists; Together With Some Special Recipes, and Views Concerning the Aesthetics of Dinners and Dinner-givingEllwanger, George H. (George Herman)
History
The Pleasures of the Table: An Account of Gastronomy from Ancient Days to Present Times. With a History of Its Literature, Schools, and Most Distinguished Artists; Together With Some Special Recipes, and Views Concerning the Aesthetics of Dinners and Dinner-giving
Ellwanger, George H. (George Herman)
Gastronomy
Previous to the Renaissance the higher cultivation of cookery was
confined largely to the monasteries, which prided themselves upon their
excellent cheer and the hospitality they extended to distinguished
visitors. Indeed, numbers of food preparations may be traced to the
monastic orders, especially forms of cooking fish, eggs, and various
soups. The introduction of soup, which is mentioned for the first
time in history at the beginning of the fifteenth century, is closely
connected with the clergy. Then it was that, during the fêtes attendant
on the marriage of Catherine de Valois to Henry V of England, the
Archbishop of Sens, at the head of a procession of his priests, bore
the soup and the wine to the royal chamber, accompanied by the blessing
of the Papal See.
[Illustration: NON IN SOLO PANE VIVIT HOMO
From the original oil-painting by Klein]
Around the art of larding is likewise shed the halo of sanctity, its
discovery having occurred during the Council of Bâle in 1440, when
Amadeus of Savoy, elected pope under the name of Félix V, was tendered
a larded capon by his cook. Julienne, or a soup somewhat similar, it is
more than probable, is an old monastic dish having special reference
to days when meat was proscribed, the same observation applying to
numerous fish and vegetable soups and ragoûts.
There is much reason to suppose that not a few treatises on cookery
and on wines have appeared whose authors were dignitaries of the
church, or at least connected with clericalism, but whose rôle forbade
them attaching their names to works of this nature. Thus, during
the year 1671 there was published at Molsheim, in southern Germany,
an excellent cook-book which treated of the various branches of the
science, by Bernardin Buchinger, Abbot of Lützel, having for its title
"Koch-Buch so für Geistliche als auch Weltliche Grosse und Geringe
Haushaltungen," etc.,--"Cook-Book for large and small Religious as well
as Laical Establishments,"--a culinary grammar of much merit which has
since passed into several editions. In this work the hierophant's
name was omitted, the authorship being announced as "Durch Einen
Geistlichen Küchen-Meister desz Gotteshauses Lützel beschrieben und
practicirt,"--"described and practised by a religious Master-Cook of
the Monastery of Lützel." An important volume of three hundred pages
by Vittorio Lancellotti, published in Rome, appeared in 1627, in which
is presented month by month a description of a large number of feasts
given by various prelates in honour of eminent personages at the
commencement of the seventeenth century. The volume was dedicated to
Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandino, and is addressed chiefly to the clergy,
whose good taste in the matter of good cheer and luxury in entertaining
are minutely set forth.[35]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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