Things I never thought I'd need to know.

[matt_doyle]

18th-century French haute cuisine.  Right now in The Hellion Prince, I'm writing a formal dinner scene, and I feel the need to know what kind of extravagant dishes might be served.  The region is roughly analogous to Normandy in France when it comes to climate and what sort of things they produce, but anything from 17th or 18th century England or France could be at least explainable.  If anyone has any ideas for truly baroque dishes, or over-the-top expensive things, that's what I'm really interested in finding descriptions of or recipes for.

Comments

[inaurolillium.livejournal.com]

Go poke around for the works of Marie-Antoine Careme. Careme was the father of grande cuinsine, starting at the end of the 18th Century, and created some truly extraordinary stuff.

[matt_doyle]

Excellent, thanks!

[dragondances.livejournal.com]

Normandy has always been known for its apples and apple cider (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic). There's also a cool kind of meat from the Mont St.-Michel region: they put their sheep out to graze on the salt flats, and then the meat gets a particular salty taste. They put it into stews and have different ways of preparing it (lamb with mint jelly is popular, I believe).

That's regional specialties, if you wanted to incorporate them into fancy dishes. I've always thought that if you stuff foods inside other food, make animals (like peacocks and such) look like they're still alive after roasting, or cover them in glazes and candy and painted designs, you're getting fancier by the minute.