Every once in a while, when my cookbook collection hits around 400, I start purging the shelves of unused, unwanted ones. In going through my cabinet of rare and antique "treasures", I remembered I had Vol. 2 of Vincent LaChappelle's The Modern Cook (Chef to the Earl of Chesterfield and Prince of Orange and Nassau) from around 1768. It's a little time-consuming to read, because it is printed in old English (where some of the "S's" are printed as a sort of "F", and a LOT of ingredients and item menus are unrecognizable (Fricandoes????). "A Table of 40 Covers, with three Courses, for Supper. The first consisting of 57 dishes; the second of 47, including the Sallets, and the third of 47". (And they didn't even have Pepto Bismol!!!!)
Just the seafood alone in the first course was overwhelming: crayfish "soop", pike, eels, trout, turbot oysters, carp, salmon with gravy, salmon in Fricandoes, sturgeon, barbot, mackaral, sole, perch, .............(how about a "cold pye made with porpoise"? First course meats included veal,saddle of mutton, rabbit pie, beef, pullets, ham, ducks, turkeys, several meat pies, veal, fowl, squab, more fowl, more pigeons, roasted rabbit. We haven't even gotten to the fouwl and fish on the Second Course. It's really something to see. I can't load it on this site, the file is too big, but if you'd like a copy, just email me.
Here's a recipe for you:
"Chickens the Tartarian Way
Pick your Chickens well, and findge 'em, cut them in two, and beat them with a Cleaver; put them in a Stew-pan with Bards of Bacon, Pepper, Salt, Sweet-herbs, fine Spices, Parfley, and young Onions, and let them stew flowly till they are almoft done, then bread 'em and broil 'em on a Gridiron. Let them be of a fine Colour, then ferve 'em with a Ramolade, or elfe with Gravey and the Juice of a Lemon upon it, and ferve it hot for a firft Courfe."
Just the seafood alone in the first course was overwhelming: crayfish "soop", pike, eels, trout, turbot oysters, carp, salmon with gravy, salmon in Fricandoes, sturgeon, barbot, mackaral, sole, perch, .............(how about a "cold pye made with porpoise"? First course meats included veal,saddle of mutton, rabbit pie, beef, pullets, ham, ducks, turkeys, several meat pies, veal, fowl, squab, more fowl, more pigeons, roasted rabbit. We haven't even gotten to the fouwl and fish on the Second Course. It's really something to see. I can't load it on this site, the file is too big, but if you'd like a copy, just email me.
Here's a recipe for you:
"Chickens the Tartarian Way
Pick your Chickens well, and findge 'em, cut them in two, and beat them with a Cleaver; put them in a Stew-pan with Bards of Bacon, Pepper, Salt, Sweet-herbs, fine Spices, Parfley, and young Onions, and let them stew flowly till they are almoft done, then bread 'em and broil 'em on a Gridiron. Let them be of a fine Colour, then ferve 'em with a Ramolade, or elfe with Gravey and the Juice of a Lemon upon it, and ferve it hot for a firft Courfe."
