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Dining during the Baroque Era
During the Baroque era, English cuisine consisted of various breads, meat pies, fresh fruit, sweets and desserts. Many residents of London ate four square meals a day. Forks were introduced from Italy as utensils for eating meat. (Before this time, the English used spoons, carving knives and bare fingers.)
In Europe, the pleasures of a formal dinner reached new gastronomic heights with the discovery of different and exotic foods and spices, and the creation of new recipes. Visually the table became more exciting and elaborate with new serving dishes such as tureens, sauceboats, and centerpieces to present the new recipes. New porcelain factories competed with silver and goldsmiths to supply large and elaborate dinner and dessert services to the courts of Europe, and a growing number of glass factories florished as wine glasses found their way onto the table. In this century, for the first time the dining room became a clearly defined space within a house dedicated to one particular purpose-the service and enjoyment of food and all the pomp and circumstance that can surround it.
Dining in 17th century Europe was hierarchical and stratified by economic background and the type of occasion. For example, at the Court of Versailles, Louis XIV's dining possibilities ranged from the heights of "the Royal Feast" through five variations of "le grand couvert" ("the large placesetting") and two of "le petit couvert," each with added nuances of informality. Louis XIV's Court at Versailles established the formal customs of dining throughout 18th century Europe via le service à la française (the French method of serving), which became universally accepted as the only civilized fashion of dining. In the French manner, at each course all the different dishes were placed on the table at the same time and in exactly prescribed locations. The diners would help themselves to whatever was near at hand without moving the dishes, and if necessary pass their plates to their neighbors to get food that was out of their reach. At large dinners this meant that it was impractical for guests to sample all the dishes, so it was important to have an interesting selection of foods near each guest.
Perhaps the most famous meal in American history occurred during the seventeenth century. The first Thanksgiving dinner was celebrated by the Pilgrims of Plymouth colony in 1621. After a devastating winter in 1620, they celebrated a successful harvest in 1621. The Pilgrims had 20 acres of corn, grown from seeds furnished by Indians. They feasted for three days on waterfowl, wild turkeys, fish and deer. The deer were contributed by Indian hunters. About 90 Indians of the Massachusetts Bay Wampanoag tribe, including chief Massasoit, feasted with the colonists.
Recipes of the Baroque Era
Excellent Small Cakes
Ingredients:
3 c flour
3/4 c sugar
3/4 lb currants = about 2 1/2 c
3/8 lb butter = 1 1/2 sticks
2 1/2 T cream
1 egg yolk
1/4 t nutmeg
2 t sack (Cook: we used sherry)
Instructions:
Take three pound of very fine flower well dried by the fire, and put to it a pound and a half of loaf sugar sifted in a very fine sieve and dried; 3 pounds of currants well washed, and dried in a cloth and set by the fire; when your flour is well mixed with the sugar and currants, you must put in it a pound and a half of unmelted butter, ten spoonfuls of cream, with the yolks of three newlaid eggs beat with it, one nutmeg; and if you please, three spoonfuls of sack. When you have wrought your paste well, you must put it in a cloth, and set it in a dish before the fire, till it be through warm. Then make them up in little cakes, and prick them full of holes; you must bake them in a quick oven unclosed. Afterwards ice them over with sugar. The cakes should be about the bigness of a hand breadth and thin; of the size of the sugar cakes sold at Barnet.
Icing: about 1/3 c sugar and enough water so you can spread it.
**Cook's Note: All of this assumes that "spoonful" = Tablespoon.
Cut butter into the flour as one would for piecrust. Bake cakes about 20 minutes at 350deg.
Sir Kenelm Digby, _The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby_, Opened, 1669, p. 221/175.
To Make a Custarde
Ingredients:
1 pie crust
2 c cream
3 egg yolks
1/4 c sugar
1/3 c raisins
1/4 c dates
3 t butter (or marrow)
Instructions:
A Custarde the coffyn must be fyrste hardened in the oven, and then take a quart of creame and fyve or syxe yolkes of egges, and beate them well together, and put them into the creame, and put in Suger and small Raysyns and Dates sliced, and put into the coffyn butter or els marrowe, but on the fyshe daies put in butter.
**Cook's Note: Make pie crust and pre-bake for 10-15 minutes at 400deg. . Chop dates. Beat the eggs, add cream, sugar, raisins and dates and pour into pie crust. Dot pie with butter. Bake at 350deg. for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Catherine Frances Frere, ed. _A Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye_, Cambridge: W. Heffer and sons, Ltd., 1913 (original from the 1500's), p. 23/C7.
Chocolate Brandy Dessert
In the Baroque Age, chocolate was considered a drink reserved for only the wealthy and powerful. Exotic recipes were created for chocolate; oftentimes, it was mixed with eggs, and added to coffee, tea and brandy. Chocolate was also prescribed as a medicine and considered a generally nourishing tonic. The following recipe is a modern concoction celebrating the Baroque Age's love of chocolate. Our recipe serves six.
3 eggs, separated
6 ounces plain chocolate, melted
3 tablespoons brandy
6 trifle sponges
1/4 pint whipped cream
1. Cream egg yolks with chocolate and brandy.
2. Whisk egg whites until stiff, and fold into the chocolate mixture.
3. Cut each sponge into 3 thin slices.
4. Cover the base of a glass bowl with sponge, and pour over some chocolate mixture. Repeat the layers finishing with the chocolate mixture.
5. Chill well and decorate with cream.
***Helen's British Cooking Recipes***
To Butter Eggs with Cream.
This is an egg & cream custard.
Take a dozen Eggs, a pint of Cream; beat them well together, and put three quarters of a pound of Butter to them, and so set them on the fire to harden, and stir them, till they are as hard as you would have them.
*The Closet Of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digby Kt. Opened, 1677*
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