FOOD IN MEDIEVAL TIMES
rope did was to make such dishes an integral part of lavish banquets.
In England these entertaining dishes were known as sotelties, literally
“subtleties,” and in France as entremets. The latter word, meaning
“between courses,” points to the position such dishes occupied within
a multicourse meal. Initially just simple dishes sent to the hall for
guests to nibble on as they waited for the next course to arrive, the
sotelties or entremets soon became substantially more elaborate and
more playful, as cooks began to experiment with unusual colors and
color combinations, edible building structures, making cooked food
look raw and vice versa, live animals look dead and vice versa, making
animals look and act like humans, inventing fabulous creatures, and
assembling entire allegorical scenes.76
If the medieval French cookbook known as Le Viandier (The Provi-
sioner) by Taillevent is any indication, then the earliest entremets were
nothing more than millet porridge, frumenty or wheat porridge, rice,
or such lowly ingredients as the livers, gizzards, and feet of poultry
cooked and garnished or served in a sauce.77 All these recipes have one
thing in common, however: they contain saffron to give the dishes a
golden hue. More sophisticated than these monochrome dishes was
the blanc manger that was no longer only a “white” dish, as the name
suggests, but was served in two contrasting colors on a plate.78 Jellies,
too, soon became the subject of much experimentation by cooks.
With jelly squares in different colors the desired checkerboard effect
could be achieved.79 And, of course, encasing fish, crayfish, and the
like in clear jelly made these animals look as if they were still immersed
in water, their natural element.
It has been noted that English cooks, in particular, liked to make
towers and castles out of dough.80 Given the strong Italian and Sicil-
ian influence on Anglo-Norman and English cookery, this predilec-
tion for edible structures made from dough may have had Italian
roots. (See Chapter 3.) Cases in point are the famous Parmesan Pies
or Parma Pies that were covered in gold or silver leaf and shaped like
towers, complete with crenelations and banners at the top.81 But more
than buildings, it was animals that inspired imitation dishes in the
Middle Ages. Ground almonds were the basis for hedgehogs that had
almond slivers for quills and came in different colors. Alternatively, the
meat of fish, fowl, or seafood was often heavily processed and pressed
in molds, or stuffed back into the raw skin of the animal.82 Carrying
the theme of “the raw versus the cooked” or “nature versus culture”
even further was the idea of returning the prepared meat into the full
plumage of a decorative bird such as a peacock or a swan, and mount-
74
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