OUR GET- TOGETHERS sticks, so that invitees could toothpick. The best of table-ware, silver coated, was always rested at the heart of the table, it was where most noble visitants were seated, further away pewters and tins. Later on, faience and posh porcelain became popular, so soon in 17 century luxurious china, glass and crystals reigned those grand tables. .
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Dinner served
inally, the key subject matter, namely menu. By and large, typical breakfast was soup on warmed beer, together with honey, ginger-race, eggs and white cheese – the description of which Adam Mickiewicz expressed in “The Mister Thaddeus”. This paired with coffee, as its popularity grew within 18 century. After some time only, there was proper morning meal served, which is sauerkraut stew, rashers, sausage, brawn, kinds of pâté and cold cut, butter, radish. Dinner was commenced with soup – among which the leading were broth, beetroot one and bullion, but there were also wine and beer-based – such as cabbage soup, barley soup, pea or sorrel soup, not to mention those long-forgotten like hemp or poppy seed ones. On special occasions, there was rare capers soups or rice soups mixed with raisins. In turn, the second course was dished on roast-meat, chops, tripe, poultry (for instance goose with cream and dried mushrooms, chicken jointly with liver, capon with caviar, turkey), it was quite common to eat veal, cooked grey or white, along with mutton. Meat was always served in company of sauces, some colored with seasoning, some not, as horseradish dressing. De luxe set of choices was game menu, chiefly birds: pheasants, fieldfares, wood grouses, hazel hens, if not finest fish: carps, salmons, trouts, sturgeons. Aristocrats treated themselves with oysters, snails or frogs. Amongst relishes was crawfish, or extraordinary fancy of wild fowl combs, or “partridge legs’ tips browned neatly above wax candle”. To cite farinaceous food, they ate noodles, dumplings, crêpes and pasta. On the other hand, potatoes were few and far between. In 18 century potatoes were set apart for festive occasions only. There was 2 reasons behind it: firstly, as an out of the country commodity potatoes were high-priced, secondly – were thought to be unpalatable, troublesome and not healthful. The moment the dinner was finished, dessert started. The selection was plentiful indeed: fruit, nuts, raisins, figs, cheese (homely assortment turned in a while foreign), custards, jellies, compotes, sweetmeats, jams. Within the variety there was also French cakes, layer cakes and doughnuts.
Culinary ideas and images
n the prosperous households, it was important to decorate tables and beautify dishes. They expected to impress their guests or to play a trick on somebody. Gilding and dying, intricate shaping, using authentic feathers, hairs and furs was in practice then. Cooks inventiveness boiled down to win a known dish into another new one, for example to figure meat into carp or pike, or the other way round. One of cookery stunt was “capon full in cruet” (the stripped capon skin was placed in a bottle and filled with eggs, what being boiled inflated to the brim), or “uncut fish, fried at its head, roasted inside with ragout and sauce on its tail”. However, some more cruel mischief happened to come to pass: chickens, intoxicated with alcohol, were plucked being still alive and grilled a touch. The creatures were served on platters as if normal, but the moment they were stung with a fork they jumped fiercely up breaking out and flabbergasting guests at the time. It took much longer and
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Cukrzyca a Zdrowie
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