Jump to content

Entremet: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Line 30: Line 30:
Noteworthy for its entertainment value to the assembled nobles of the time, the 17th century provided a memorable banquet event courtesy of the host, the Duke of Buckingham. In honor of his royal guests, Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, a pie was prepared concealing a human being — famous dwarf of the era, [[Jeffrey Hudson]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2010|p=201}}
Noteworthy for its entertainment value to the assembled nobles of the time, the 17th century provided a memorable banquet event courtesy of the host, the Duke of Buckingham. In honor of his royal guests, Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, a pie was prepared concealing a human being — famous dwarf of the era, [[Jeffrey Hudson]].{{sfn|Jenkins|2010|p=201}}


==The entremets in the "Classical Order" of table service==
==Entremets in the "Classical Order" of table service==
In the ''Livre fort'', the meal is presented in four stages, each composed of one or more ''mets'': the ''entree de table'' (entrance to the table), ''potaiges'' (foods boiled or simmered "in pots"), ''services de rost'' (meat or fowl "roasted" in dry heat), and ''issue de table'' (departure from the table).{{sfn|Albala|Tomasik|2014|pp=210–48}} Between the mid-16th and mid-17th century, the stages of the meal underwent several significant changes. Notably, the [[Entrée#"Classical Order" of service|entrée]] became the second stage of the meal, potage became the first, and entremets came to be served in their own stage of the meal. The term "entremets" then came to refer not just to a type of dish, but also to the fourth stage of the meal, after the soups, entrées (including [[Entrée#Small entrées|hors d’oeuvre]] and [[Entrée#Large entrées, Le Bouilli, Relevés|relevés]]), and roasts, and before the dessert. {{sfn|Flandrin|2007|pp=3–7, 71}}
In the ''Livre fort'', the meal is presented in four stages, each composed of one or more ''mets'': the ''entree de table'' (entrance to the table), ''potaiges'' (foods boiled or simmered "in pots"), ''services de rost'' (meat or fowl "roasted" in dry heat), and ''issue de table'' (departure from the table).{{sfn|Albala|Tomasik|2014|pp=210–48}} Between the mid-16th and mid-17th century, the stages of the meal underwent several significant changes. Notably, the [[Entrée#"Classical Order" of service|entrée]] became the second stage of the meal, potage became the first, and entremets came to be served in their own stage of the meal. The term "entremets" then came to refer not just to a type of dish, but also to the fourth stage of the meal, after the soups, entrées (including [[Entrée#Small entrées|hors d’oeuvre]] and [[Entrée#Large entrées, Le Bouilli, Relevés|relevés]]), and roasts, and before the dessert. {{sfn|Flandrin|2007|pp=3–7, 71}}

Revision as of 16:54, 5 May 2024

Entremet can also mean the opera genre Intermède.
Early entremets usually consisted of nothing more complicated than frumenty, a type of grain porridge, colored with saffron or egg yolk.
Part of a series on
Meals
Still life with fruits, nuts, and large wheels of cheese.
Meals
Components and courses
Related concepts

An entremet or entremets (/ˈɑːntrəmeɪ/; French: [ɑ̃tʁəmɛ]; from Old French, literally meaning "between servings") in French cuisine historically referred to small dishes served between courses but in modern times more commonly refers to a type of dessert.

In the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, an entremet marked the end of a course of the meal and could be a culinary preparation like frumenty (a type of wheat porridge) that was brightly colored and flavored with exotic and expensive spices, or elaborate models of castles complete with wine fountains, musicians, and food modeled into allegorical scenes. By the end of the Middle Ages, entremets had also evolved into dinner entertainment in the form of inedible ornaments or acted performances, often full of the symbolism of power and regality. In English, such displays were more commonly known as a subtlety (also sotelty or soteltie); they did not typically include acted entertainment, but did include culinary jokes like live blackbirds flying out of a pie, a scene immortalized in the folk song "Sing a Song of Sixpence".

Early use of the term

The staging of an elaborate entremet at the banquet of Charles V in 1378; illumination from Grandes Chroniques, late 14th century.

The word entremets as a culinary term first appears in the lai, Lanval, by Marie de France, line 185 (1155 × 1170), and subsequently in La Vengeance Raguidel, line 315 (early 13th century). The word has no discernible specialized meaning in the texts, but in both, it appears in the context of a meal.[a]

The earliest text to include entremets as culinary preparations is Le Viandier (c. 1300), which includes fourteen recipes under the heading "entremets".[1] Entremets also appear in Le Ménagier de Paris (1393),[2] Du fait de cuisine (1420),[3] and the Livre fort excellent de cuysine (1542).[b][5]

In Du fait de cuisine, entremets are served at dinner at the end of each stage of the meal, or mets (a serving of several dishes laid on the table together). In the menus[c] of the Livre fort, only one entremets is mentioned, and it is placed at the end of a "second service of roasts". The entremets served as a sort of pause between the mets, and they were often brightly colored with plant dyes to provide a sort of visual entertainment.[6]

Late-Medieval entremets

Over time, entremets became popular as illusion foods, such as peacocks or swans that were skinned, cooked, and redressed in their original plumage; or scenes depicting human activities, such as a knight in the form of a grilled capon equipped with a paper helmet and lance, sitting on the back of a roast piglet.[7] Elaborate models of castles made from edible material were also popular. At a feast in 1343 dedicated to Pope Clement VI, one of the entremets was a castle with walls made from roast birds, populated with cooked and redressed deer, wild boar, goat, hare, and rabbit. [8]

In the 14th century, entremets began to involve not just eye-catching displays of high-status cuisine, but also more prominent and often highly symbolic forms of inedible entertainment. In 1306, the knighting of the son of Edward I included performances of chansons de geste in what has been assumed to be part of the entremet.[9] During the course of the 14th century they would often take on the character of theatrical displays, complete with props, actors, singers, mummers and dancers. At a banquet held in 1378 by Charles V of France in honor of Emperor Charles IV, a huge wooden model of the city of Jerusalem was rolled in before the high table. Actors portraying the crusader Godfrey of Bouillon and his knights then sailed into the hall on a miniature ship and reenacted the capture of Jerusalem in 1099.[10]

Entremets made an effective tool for political displays. One of the most famous examples is the so-called Feast of the Pheasant, arranged by Philip the Good of Burgundy in 1454. The theme of the banquet was the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, and included a vow by Philip and his guests to retake the city in a crusade, though this was never realized. There were several spectacular displays at the banquet referred to by contemporary witnesses as entremets. Guests were entertained by a wide range of extravagant displays of automatons in the form of fountains and pies containing musicians. At the end of the banquet, an actor representing the Holy Church rode in on an elephant and read a poem about the plight of Eastern Christianity under Ottoman rule.[11]

From the late 14th century on in England, entremets are referred to as subtleties. This English term was derived from an older meaning of "subtle" as "clever" or "surprising".[12] The meaning of "subtlety" did not include entertainment involving actors; those were referred to as pageants.[11] The "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie", in the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence", has its genesis in an entremet presented to amuse banquet guests in the 14th century. This extravaganza of hospitality was related by an Italian cook of the era.[13] “Live birds were slipped into a baked pie shell through a hole cut in its bottom.” The unwary guest would release the flapping birds once the upper crust was cut into.[14]

A serving of boar's head, a popular form of entremet. The image of the boar caught with an apple in its mouth was possibly among the first dishes to attempt an imitation of a live animal.

At the end of the Middle Ages, the level of refinement among the noble and royal courts of Europe had increased considerably, and the demands of powerful hosts and their rich dinner guests resulted in ever more complicated and elaborate creations. Chiquart, cook to Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, described an entremet entitled Castle of Love in his 15th-century culinary treatise Du fait de cuisine ("On cookery"). It consisted of a giant castle model with four towers, carried in by four men. The castle contained, among other things, a roast piglet, a swan cooked and redressed in its own plumage, a roast boar's head and a pike cooked and sauced in three different ways without having been cut into pieces, all of them breathing fire.[d] The battlements of the castle were adorned with the banners of the Duke and his guests, manned by miniature archers, and inside the castle there was a fountain that gushed rosewater and spiced wine.[16]

Noteworthy for its entertainment value to the assembled nobles of the time, the 17th century provided a memorable banquet event courtesy of the host, the Duke of Buckingham. In honor of his royal guests, Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, a pie was prepared concealing a human being — famous dwarf of the era, Jeffrey Hudson.[17]

Entremets in the "Classical Order" of table service

In the Livre fort, the meal is presented in four stages, each composed of one or more mets: the entree de table (entrance to the table), potaiges (foods boiled or simmered "in pots"), services de rost (meat or fowl "roasted" in dry heat), and issue de table (departure from the table).[18] Between the mid-16th and mid-17th century, the stages of the meal underwent several significant changes. Notably, the entrée became the second stage of the meal, potage became the first, and entremets came to be served in their own stage of the meal. The term "entremets" then came to refer not just to a type of dish, but also to the fourth stage of the meal, after the soups, entrées (including hors d’oeuvre and relevés), and roasts, and before the dessert. [19]

While cookbooks and dictionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries rarely discuss the type of dishes appropriate to each stage of the meal with any specificity, entremets and the dishes of the other stages can be distinguished from each other by certain characteristics, such as their ingredients, cooking methods, and serving temperatures.[20] The distinct characteristics of the entremets were at first loosely observed, but by the early 18th century, certain ingredients and cooking methods were increasingly confined to the entremets stage of the meal.[21]

In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, entremets on meat days[e] included butchers' meats, suckling pig, fowl, furred and feathered game, and offal, all of which were also used for entrées. Entremets additionally included ham, eggs, vegetables, and fruits, ingredients that were used sparingly or not at all for entrées.[22]

Entremets were often chilled dishes, being the only chilled dishes of the meal served before dessert. Many entremets were entrées that had been chilled, including cold braises and stews of meat and fowl, and cold pâtés and pies of meat, game, and fowl.[23] Other chilled entremets included salads, aspics, custards, and forcemeat spread on toast.[24]

Ham, rare as an entrée, was almost exclusively served as an entremets, either hot or cold. Offal was similarly served either hot or cold, as either an entrée or an entremets.[25] Eggs were sometimes served as entremets on meat days, but they were most commonly served as entrées on lean days.[26]

Vegetables, which were never served alone as entrées, were served hot as entremets.[27] Fritters and other fried dishes of fruits, vegetables, cheese, or offal were also served hot as entremets.[28]

Various sweet dishes were served as entremets, and while they were generally presented alongside the savory entremets, sweet entremets were consumed after savory ones. Dried, preserved, and raw fruit were components of the dessert stage of the meal and were not served as entremets.[29]

On lean days, fish replaced meat and fowl in every stage of the meal. Fish served as entremets were most often fried; more rarely, they were marinated and stewed, preparations that were otherwise uncommon for entremets. Chilled aspics, pies, and pâtés made of fish were also served as entremets. Many other entremets that did not include meat were served on both meat and lean days, such as vegetables and, out of Lent, eggs and custards.[30]

Modern usage

In modern times, entremets are multi-layer desserts with various layered elements.

In modern times, the definition of "entremet" evolved to refer to a multi-layer dessert composed of various elements.[31][32] The dessert typically comprises a sponge cake base, mousse filling and layers of inserted set elements such as creams, jellies and compotes.[33] Each element is created in individual rings or molds before being assembled into layers in another mold to build the entremet; a mousse is added to surround these layers and form the body of the dessert.[33][34] After setting in the freezer, a mirror glaze or coating is usually added to the exterior of the entremet.[34]

See also

Notes, references, and sources

Notes

  1. ^ "entremets". Trésor de la langue française informatisé.
  2. ^ The Livre fort excellent de cuysine is one edition of the Petit traicté auquel verrez la maniere de faire cuisine first published by Pierre Sargent in Paris between 1534 and 1536. Philip and Mary Hyman have identified 27 editions of this book published between 1536 and 1627, under numerous titles.[4]
  3. ^ The word "menus" appropriately describes this section of the Petit traicté, but the first appearance of "menu" with that culinary meaning is in the much later Nouveau Dictionnaire de l’Académie françoise, 1718, p. II:50.
  4. ^ The effect was created by placing wax candles bound with strips of cotton that had been soaked in alcohol in the mouth of the animals and lighting them.[15]
  5. ^ In accordance with church regulations in force from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, the ingredients for every stage of the meal varied between "meat days" (jours gras, literally "fat days"), when all foods were allowed, and "lean days" (jours maigres), when the church forbade consumption of meat and fowl but not fish. Until the 16th century, white meats (milk, cream, butter, and cheese) and eggs were additionally forbidden in Lent, but beginning in the 17th century, white meats were allowed in Lent. Beginning in the 19th century, eggs were also allowed in Lent.

References

  1. ^ Scully 1988, pp. 112–39.
  2. ^ Brereton & Ferrier 1981, pp. 246–57.
  3. ^ Chiquart 2010, pp. 124–27, 137–146, 205, 281–86.
  4. ^ Hyman & Hyman 1992, pp. 66–68.
  5. ^ Albala & Tomasik 2014, p. 218.
  6. ^ Scully 1995, pp. 104–06.
  7. ^ Scully 1995, pp. 105–107.
  8. ^ Adamson 2004, p. 114.
  9. ^ Strong 2003, pp. 121–123.
  10. ^ Henisch 1976, p. 234.
  11. ^ a b Adamson 2004, p. 166.
  12. ^ Hieatt 2002, p. 35.
  13. ^ Scott 1916, pp. 333–34.
  14. ^ Jenkins 2010, pp. 200–01.
  15. ^ Scully 1995, p. 162.
  16. ^ Chiquart 2010, pp. 137–144.
  17. ^ Jenkins 2010, p. 201.
  18. ^ Albala & Tomasik 2014, pp. 210–48.
  19. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 3–7, 71.
  20. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 11, 21.
  21. ^ Flandrin 2007, p. 25.
  22. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 21–31.
  23. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 27–29.
  24. ^ Flandrin 2007, p. 24.
  25. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 24–25.
  26. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 23, 35.
  27. ^ Flandrin 2007, p. 22.
  28. ^ Flandrin 2007, p. 29.
  29. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 10, 79–80, 88.
  30. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 32–43.
  31. ^ Conroy, Rosie (21 March 2020). "What is an entremets and how can you make one?". GoodTo. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  32. ^ "Entremets: What are they and why you should try them!". Lacher Patisserie. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  33. ^ a b "Unveiling the Exquisite World of Entremets: Beyond the Ordinary Sponge Cake". SugarFall Patisserie. 1 June 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  34. ^ a b "What is an Entremet?". Dessertisans. 2 April 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2023.

Sources

Look up entremets or subtlety in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Entremet.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Entremet&oldid=1222369478"