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hrj(For previous posts in this series, see items tagged with 'messisbugo'.)
As discussed in the overview, this course consists of multiple fowl dishes, a liver dish, a quadruped dish, frequently a fruit dish (often fresh), and other dishes with no general pattern. I’ve numbered the identifiable “template slots” or thematic groups for clarity.
Fowl Dishes
1) Partridges and/or pigeons, rarely chicken, sometimes with tomaselle (a sort of liver meatball wrapped in caul fat) served in various manners (6 menus)
This isn’t so much a clear “template slot” as a fuzzy grouping with overlap of a selection of primary ingredients. Furthermore as two of the partridge dishes are served with oranges, this group also overlaps fuzzily with a second fowl dish:
2) Roast pheasant, usually with oranges (4 of 6 menus, with the other 2 menus being those that have roast partridge with oranges)
This complex fuzzy grouping may be clearer if one identifies the two category slots as “A” an “B” as shown in the following table of characteristics. (I hope the formatting works for all browsers.)
It’s this sort of complex “theme with differences” that really piqued my interest when I first started looking at these menus.
3) Capon, generally served with some sort of salami, typically served on bread (5 of 6 menus)
This is another example of how varied the specific dishes can be while still having a thematic unity. The capons may be described as boiled, boiled in pastry, in pastry, boneless, or boneless and stuffed. All five include some sort of salumi (2 with salami, 2 with mortadelle, 1 with persutto). Three mention being served “with slices of bread underneath” (either the capon or the salumi or both). In one case the capon in pastry is accompanied by veal breast in wine as well as the preserved meat.
Other Fowl
Each of the six menus has at least one other fowl dish in the First Course and one has as many as four additional fowl dishes. (The 15?0 menu has one of each of the following except the peacock.) There are three conceptual groups and two singleton dishes.
· 4) Pigeons, in pastry or in a pie (3 of 6)
· 5) Small birds & meatballs (3 of 6) - I’m cheating a bit because one of the three is rabbit with tomaselle and polpette, but this connects it with the other two dishes (thrushes and turtledoves with polpette, and quails with tomaselle and polpette).
· 6) Ducks in pastry with torteletti (2 of 6) but see also one menu with a dish of torteletti with no duck
· 7) Jelly with capon meat (1 of 6)
· 8) A roast peacock in pieces, covered with white sauce and mustard, [with] the device of His Excellency (1 of 6)
9) Liver/Organ Dish(es) (5 of 6 menus)
This was a bit of a startling group to me, given modern attitudes towards liver and organ meats. (That is, not that I was startled to find liver as a standard menu item, simply that it stood out as different from modern tastes.) All 5 menus with this item have a liver dish, one that also includes sweetbreads, and one menu that has a separate sweetbread dish. The meat may be fried (2) or served in a torte (2) and may be accompanied by sausage or salami (2). A sauce may be mentioned (1) but a majority describe being served with sugar (3). Now there’s a daring taste sensation: “little tortes of liver with sugar and cinnamon inside and on the top”.
10) Quadruped Dish (5 of 6 menus)
I almost feel guilty for grouping these into a single template-slot, given the variety of animals and recipes that are represented. But when you look at the menus as a whole, “red meat” is quite rare. So when the pattern seems to be that a course includes one (and typically only one) dish focusing on “red meat”, it seems reasonable to think that there is intent and purpose. With regard to this category, note also the rabbit dish (with tomaselle and polpette) that I grouped with the “small birds with tomaselle and polpette” above. This was part of the 1537 menu which you may recall is the most elaborate, and which is the only one with multiple quadruped dishes in this course. (In addition to the rabbit, there are dishes of veal and boar.) Due to the variety of dishes in this group, I’ll simply list them.
15?0: none
1524: 80 little heads of kid and lamb split open and gilded.
1536 Boar in black broth with candied pine nuts on top, 10 plates.
1537: 14 pieces of veal breast, stuffed Lombard-style, with 14 salami in 14 plates.
* Boar Hungarian-style, in pieces in 14 plates.
* (note also the rabbit dish with tomaselle and polpette that I’ve grouped with the “small birds” above)
1540: Hare in pepper sauce, 12 little plates.
1548: 7 whole stuffed roasted little kids in 7 plates.
11) Sauce (2?, 3?, 5? of 6 menus)
It’s hard to know how to count this group in terms of how many menus include it as there are dish descriptions that include a sauce for that specific dish. Only 2 menus have a listing or a sauce as a separate item, not attached to another dish. (Mustard, and “sweet certosina sauce” about which nothing further is known.) But 5 other items mention a sauce accompanying a specific dish (carp with white and red sauce, livers with yellow sauce, partridges with French sauce, hare in pepper sauce, peacock with white sauce and mustard). So overall 5 of 6 menus mention sauces in some fashion. I’d be disinclined to consider this a true “separate dish” in the course template, though. In Messisbugo’s recipe collection, the word “sauce” seems frequently to be used in a sense familiar to modern cuisine, i.e., a thickened semi-liquid accompaniment poured over a dish. But there are also some dishes called “soups” where the soup is also referred to as a sauce. In fact there is a recipe for “royal soup” that is described in this fashion, so perhaps the “gilded royal soup” mentioned in the “misc.” category below could be included here instead.
Fruit ( 3 of 6 menus)
There is a later course where fresh fruit is much more clearly a standard template-slot. These may not be intended to be a unified conceptual category, given the variety of types. We have apple pie, fresh grapes (that are explicitly mentioned as being left on the table for the rest of the meal), and a dish of oranges and lemons.
Miscellaneous
I’ll leave off numbering the dish groupings as we’ve come down to the “one-off” items. 4 of the 6 menus include dishes that can’t be shoehorned into any sort of general pattern.
The 1524 menu has 3 fish dishes (fried pike tails, turbot in pottage, boiled carp served decorated with the device of one of the guests of honor). The 1524 menu, in fact, has several fish dishes in every numbered course and -- with the exception of oysters (which clearly have their own template-slots) -- is the only menu that has any fish dishes at all. Given that these are carnival banquets, and therefore a prelude to Lent when fish would dominate the menu, the general absence of fish is, perhaps, not surprising. That makes the 1524 menu stand out all the more for featuring them so heavily.
The 1536 menu includes two pastry-type dishes: fried pastries filled with genestrata (a sort of thickened pudding with spices, nuts, and dried fruits) and a flaky “pizze”. (I’d need to check with the translator to know if this name is in any way related to the source of “pizza”.)
The 1540 menu includes a dish of Turkish style rice (which appears to be a sort of sweet rice pudding with rosewater) and mantegate (pine-nut pastries).
The 1548 menu has a “gilded royal soup” (for which he gives a recipe elsewhere: an egg-thickened soup of ground almonds with spices and raisins) and a dish of tortelletti served with sugar and cinnamon. (Tortelletti are described as thin sheets of pasta filled with various fillings and then cooked in broth or fried, so you may mentally translate it as “tortellini” if you please, though the specific shape isn’t indicated.) Note that this dish connects with the set of “duck served with tortelletti” mentioned among the fowl dishes. And among Messisbugo’s recipes there are several places where it is mentioned that “these tortelli can be served either alone or for covering capons, ducks, pigeons, and others, if you like” (and similarly) so perhaps the template-slot should be thought of as “tortelletti, sometimes with duck” rather than the other way around.
The Lists of Dishes
Here I give the full lists of dishes in the original order for each menu.
15?0 - Note that this menu might be considered the "basic bare-bones" template
As discussed in the overview, this course consists of multiple fowl dishes, a liver dish, a quadruped dish, frequently a fruit dish (often fresh), and other dishes with no general pattern. I’ve numbered the identifiable “template slots” or thematic groups for clarity.
Fowl Dishes
1) Partridges and/or pigeons, rarely chicken, sometimes with tomaselle (a sort of liver meatball wrapped in caul fat) served in various manners (6 menus)
This isn’t so much a clear “template slot” as a fuzzy grouping with overlap of a selection of primary ingredients. Furthermore as two of the partridge dishes are served with oranges, this group also overlaps fuzzily with a second fowl dish:
2) Roast pheasant, usually with oranges (4 of 6 menus, with the other 2 menus being those that have roast partridge with oranges)
This complex fuzzy grouping may be clearer if one identifies the two category slots as “A” an “B” as shown in the following table of characteristics. (I hope the formatting works for all browsers.)
| 15?0 | 1524 | 1536 | 1537 | 1540 | 1548 | |
| Other Characteristics (A) | (A) Roasted with sugar and cinnamon on top | (A) Roasted | (A) Roasted, with French sauce | (A) In fried pastry | ||
| Pigeon/Chicken | Dish A (pigeon) | Dish A (pigeon) | Dish A (chicken) | |||
| Tomaselle | Dish A | Dish A | Dish A | |||
| Partridge | Dish A | Dish A | Dish A | Dish A | Dish B | |
| Oranges | Dish A | Dish A | Dish B | Dish B | Dish B | |
| Pheasant | Dish B | Dish B | Dish B | Dish B | ||
| Other Characteristics (B) | (B) Roasted | (B) Roasted | (B) Roasted, with pieces of yellow sausage |
It’s this sort of complex “theme with differences” that really piqued my interest when I first started looking at these menus.
3) Capon, generally served with some sort of salami, typically served on bread (5 of 6 menus)
This is another example of how varied the specific dishes can be while still having a thematic unity. The capons may be described as boiled, boiled in pastry, in pastry, boneless, or boneless and stuffed. All five include some sort of salumi (2 with salami, 2 with mortadelle, 1 with persutto). Three mention being served “with slices of bread underneath” (either the capon or the salumi or both). In one case the capon in pastry is accompanied by veal breast in wine as well as the preserved meat.
Other Fowl
Each of the six menus has at least one other fowl dish in the First Course and one has as many as four additional fowl dishes. (The 15?0 menu has one of each of the following except the peacock.) There are three conceptual groups and two singleton dishes.
· 4) Pigeons, in pastry or in a pie (3 of 6)
· 5) Small birds & meatballs (3 of 6) - I’m cheating a bit because one of the three is rabbit with tomaselle and polpette, but this connects it with the other two dishes (thrushes and turtledoves with polpette, and quails with tomaselle and polpette).
· 6) Ducks in pastry with torteletti (2 of 6) but see also one menu with a dish of torteletti with no duck
· 7) Jelly with capon meat (1 of 6)
· 8) A roast peacock in pieces, covered with white sauce and mustard, [with] the device of His Excellency (1 of 6)
9) Liver/Organ Dish(es) (5 of 6 menus)
This was a bit of a startling group to me, given modern attitudes towards liver and organ meats. (That is, not that I was startled to find liver as a standard menu item, simply that it stood out as different from modern tastes.) All 5 menus with this item have a liver dish, one that also includes sweetbreads, and one menu that has a separate sweetbread dish. The meat may be fried (2) or served in a torte (2) and may be accompanied by sausage or salami (2). A sauce may be mentioned (1) but a majority describe being served with sugar (3). Now there’s a daring taste sensation: “little tortes of liver with sugar and cinnamon inside and on the top”.
10) Quadruped Dish (5 of 6 menus)
I almost feel guilty for grouping these into a single template-slot, given the variety of animals and recipes that are represented. But when you look at the menus as a whole, “red meat” is quite rare. So when the pattern seems to be that a course includes one (and typically only one) dish focusing on “red meat”, it seems reasonable to think that there is intent and purpose. With regard to this category, note also the rabbit dish (with tomaselle and polpette) that I grouped with the “small birds with tomaselle and polpette” above. This was part of the 1537 menu which you may recall is the most elaborate, and which is the only one with multiple quadruped dishes in this course. (In addition to the rabbit, there are dishes of veal and boar.) Due to the variety of dishes in this group, I’ll simply list them.
15?0: none
1524: 80 little heads of kid and lamb split open and gilded.
1536 Boar in black broth with candied pine nuts on top, 10 plates.
1537: 14 pieces of veal breast, stuffed Lombard-style, with 14 salami in 14 plates.
* Boar Hungarian-style, in pieces in 14 plates.
* (note also the rabbit dish with tomaselle and polpette that I’ve grouped with the “small birds” above)
1540: Hare in pepper sauce, 12 little plates.
1548: 7 whole stuffed roasted little kids in 7 plates.
11) Sauce (2?, 3?, 5? of 6 menus)
It’s hard to know how to count this group in terms of how many menus include it as there are dish descriptions that include a sauce for that specific dish. Only 2 menus have a listing or a sauce as a separate item, not attached to another dish. (Mustard, and “sweet certosina sauce” about which nothing further is known.) But 5 other items mention a sauce accompanying a specific dish (carp with white and red sauce, livers with yellow sauce, partridges with French sauce, hare in pepper sauce, peacock with white sauce and mustard). So overall 5 of 6 menus mention sauces in some fashion. I’d be disinclined to consider this a true “separate dish” in the course template, though. In Messisbugo’s recipe collection, the word “sauce” seems frequently to be used in a sense familiar to modern cuisine, i.e., a thickened semi-liquid accompaniment poured over a dish. But there are also some dishes called “soups” where the soup is also referred to as a sauce. In fact there is a recipe for “royal soup” that is described in this fashion, so perhaps the “gilded royal soup” mentioned in the “misc.” category below could be included here instead.
Fruit ( 3 of 6 menus)
There is a later course where fresh fruit is much more clearly a standard template-slot. These may not be intended to be a unified conceptual category, given the variety of types. We have apple pie, fresh grapes (that are explicitly mentioned as being left on the table for the rest of the meal), and a dish of oranges and lemons.
Miscellaneous
I’ll leave off numbering the dish groupings as we’ve come down to the “one-off” items. 4 of the 6 menus include dishes that can’t be shoehorned into any sort of general pattern.
The 1524 menu has 3 fish dishes (fried pike tails, turbot in pottage, boiled carp served decorated with the device of one of the guests of honor). The 1524 menu, in fact, has several fish dishes in every numbered course and -- with the exception of oysters (which clearly have their own template-slots) -- is the only menu that has any fish dishes at all. Given that these are carnival banquets, and therefore a prelude to Lent when fish would dominate the menu, the general absence of fish is, perhaps, not surprising. That makes the 1524 menu stand out all the more for featuring them so heavily.
The 1536 menu includes two pastry-type dishes: fried pastries filled with genestrata (a sort of thickened pudding with spices, nuts, and dried fruits) and a flaky “pizze”. (I’d need to check with the translator to know if this name is in any way related to the source of “pizza”.)
The 1540 menu includes a dish of Turkish style rice (which appears to be a sort of sweet rice pudding with rosewater) and mantegate (pine-nut pastries).
The 1548 menu has a “gilded royal soup” (for which he gives a recipe elsewhere: an egg-thickened soup of ground almonds with spices and raisins) and a dish of tortelletti served with sugar and cinnamon. (Tortelletti are described as thin sheets of pasta filled with various fillings and then cooked in broth or fried, so you may mentally translate it as “tortellini” if you please, though the specific shape isn’t indicated.) Note that this dish connects with the set of “duck served with tortelletti” mentioned among the fowl dishes. And among Messisbugo’s recipes there are several places where it is mentioned that “these tortelli can be served either alone or for covering capons, ducks, pigeons, and others, if you like” (and similarly) so perhaps the template-slot should be thought of as “tortelletti, sometimes with duck” rather than the other way around.
The Lists of Dishes
Here I give the full lists of dishes in the original order for each menu.
15?0 - Note that this menu might be considered the "basic bare-bones" template
- 60 tomaselle, 60 polpette, 40 quails, together in 10 plates.
- 40 roasted partridges with oranges and sugar and cinnamon on top in 10 plates.
- 10 domestic ducks in pastry, covered with tortelletti, in 10 plates.
- 10 pies of guaste apples in 10 plates.
- 10 broiled tortes of large veal livers and sweetbreads, in 10 plates.
- 40 domestic pigeons in fried pastry in 10 plates.
- Thick jelly with capon meat at the bottom in 10 plates.
- 80 roasted partridges with 200 tomaselle and oranges on top, together in 20 little plates.
- 80 little heads of kid and lamb split open and gilded.
- 80 large fried kid livers with yellow sauce, 10 pounds in 20 little plates.
- 80 thrushes, 120 polpette, 80 turtledoves, together on 20 little plates.
- 30 boiled capons in pastry with 10 salami in quarters, with slices of bread underneath, in 20 little plates.
- 20 fried pike tails in 20 little plates.
- Large turbot in pieces in pottage, 20 little plates.
- Boiled carp covered with white and red sauce, the device of our Most Reverend, 20 little plates.
- Fresh grapes that always stood on the table [i.e. were there for the rest of the meal], 20 little plates.
- 20 roast pheasants with 40 split oranges, in 10 plates.
- 40 roast partridges with French sauce on top, in 10 plates.
- 10 stuffed boneless capons, with 10 liver mortadelle, in 10 plates.
- 60 little fried pasties of royal pastry filled with genestrata [a sort of thickened pudding with spices, nuts, and dried fruits], in 10 plates.
- 40 tomaselle, 40 capon livers and 30 slices of fried salami with sugar, in 10 plates.
- Boar in black broth with candied pine nuts on top, 10 plates.
- 10 ducks in pastry covered with tortelletti, 10 plates.
- 10 flaky pizze in 10 plates.
- Mustard in 10 plates.
- 18 domestic pigeons and 28 partridges in fried pastry, in 14 plates.
- 56 roast pheasants with 28 split oranges in 14 plates.
- 14 rabbits, 56 tomaselle and 56 polpette together in 14 plates.
- 14 pieces of veal breast, stuffed Lombard-style, with 14 salami in 14 plates.
- 56 little French-style pigeon pasties in pieces, in 14 plates.
- Boar Hungarian-style, in pieces in 14 plates.
- Fat boiled capons with slices of bread underneath and 14 yellow mortadelle, in 14 plates.
- Sweet certosina sauce [nature uncertain] in 14 plates.
- 24 pheasants and 48 partridges with 36 oranges in 12 little plates.
- 48 domestic pigeons and 100 tomaselle together [30r] in 12 little plates.
- 80 fried capon livers and yellow sausages in pieces, 46.
- 40 veal sweetbreads fried, with sugar, in 12 little plates.
- 12 capons in pastry and 12 big pieces of veal breast in Vernaccia wine and minced persutto, in 12 little plates.
- 12 pies of large French pigeons in 12 little plates.
- Turkish-style rice in 12 little plates.
- 12 mantegate [pine nut pastries] in 12 little plates.
- Hare in pepper sauce, 12 little plates.
- Oranges and lemons, 12 little plates.
- 28 young chickens and 30 tomaselle together on 7 plates.
- 7 boneless capons with meat salami split in slices, with slices of bread underneath, 7 plates.
- 7 roast pheasants and 28 little pieces of yellow sausage together in 7 plates.
- Gilded royal soup, 7 plates.
- Broiled little tortes of liver, and other kinds, with sugar and cinnamon inside and on top, 7 plates.
- 7 whole stuffed roasted little kids in 7 plates.
- A roast peacock in pieces, covered with white sauce, sauce and mustard, the device of His Excellency, 7 plates.
- Tortelletti in plates with sugar and cinnamon on top in 7 plates.
