[Sca-cooks] online glossary/profiterole?

[Philip W. Troy & Susan Troy]

johnna holloway wrote:

> Regarding profiterole as a term, I am wondering if it meant then what it
> means now.
>
> OED cites Cotgrave describing  "pourfiterolle `a cake baked vnder hot
> imbers",
> and profiterolle, the latter also explained (in pl.) as `the small
> vayles, as
>  drinking money, points, pinnes, &c., gotten by a valet or groome in his
> maisters
>  seruice'. The etymological sense is thus `small gains'; ]
>
> a. Some kind of cooked food: see etym. and quots. 1515, 1727.
> b. Now spec. a small hollow case of choux pastry usu. filled with
>  cream and served with chocolate sauce.
> The quotations are:
>      1515 Barclay Egloges iv. (1570) C iv b/2 To toste white sheuers
>  and to make prophitroles And after talking oft time to fill the bowles.
>
>      1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Carp, They likewise make a
>  pottage of profitrolles with Carp flesh minced.
>
> Was it just a small cake prior to the modern use of a small cream puff?

Larousse says only (and again, while I tend to take Larousse with a ton
of salt, they're more likely to be accurate about things French) that
the name comes from a term meaning gratuity; I wonder if this is one of
those situations where you give the baker a small piece of your dough,
or the priest, or whatever. However, the Larousse etymology seems more
or less consistent with the OED's.

Modern profiteroles can be savory, of course. The 1727 reference sounds
more like quenelles than any modern use of the term.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98