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Structure of the MenuA great banquet was divided into several "services". Each of these could include many dishes (8, ... 17,... 20...). A service could hold a great variety of dishes or just mainly desserts (which were served afterwards, "a la postre" thus giving desserts their Spanish name (postre).A normal service begin with one or more cold dishes, generally sweets
(marzipans, milk sweets, confectioneries, etc.) or fruits. It continued
with meat dishes (or substitutes such as fish if it was during Lent). These
dishes could be very spectacular: for example, a peacock dressed in its
own plumage with the tail well-spread, spewing fire out of his beak. It
was fairly normal to eat a wide variety of meats: chicken, capon, pigeon,
peacock, veal, pork and even swan. The service finished with more sweets,
which often took the shape of edible sculptures in marzipan or were adorned
with gold foil (true gold being edible), etc. Spectacular pies such as
pies with live birds or musicians inside were also used. In this the cooking
of the period is clearly a descendant of the Classical Roman tradition
which mixed cuisine with entertainment.
A sample banquetThe banquet offered by Benedetto Salutati, from Florence, on the 16th of february, 1476 to the son of Fernando I of Naples (Kingdom of Aragón) took place in a palace adorned with hangings and tapestries in the colours of Aragón. In between the dishes there were fountains with orange blossom water.The menu: 1. Gilded pie of pine nuts and milk sweet for each guest
- Break - 14-26. Twelve more dishes. |