[Sca-cooks] Source information for the make-up of removes?

[Terry Decker]

>What I actually need help here with is trying to explain to a friend (a
>member of a Viking/dark ages group that does very little food research) why
>the idea of separate "soup/appertiser"; "main" and "dessert" courses is a
>modern invention.

Catherine de Medici is credited with introducing the three (multi-dish)
course meal in her later years, which probably means it is not an
apochryphal tale.  Whether she is actually the originator is open to debate.
I would suspect it was a means of getting the eating out of the way to get
on with the party.

>
>I'm trying to explain that a standard medieval remove would consist of a
>variety of dishes meant to bolster the eaters "humours"
>
>Am I totally off the beam on this?  Can anyone flip me a well worded
>explantion (including source) that I can pass one?
>
>Mari de Paxford
>(aka Sue Laing)
>http://www.livejournal.com/users/paxford/

As I am sure others will tell you, remove is not a period word and it does
not equate to a course.  A remove is a dish that is changed during a course.
The OED shows the first written usage as Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the
English Language 4 ed. (1773).

A fairly common and wide spread method of service during the manorial system
was to serve a group of dishes as a course divided into servings for two to
four people (messes).  I does not hold true universally.  Viking meals
outside of the king's court would more likely have been extended family
meals as Scandinavians tended to hold family steads.

In some parts of Germany, meals were served as individual dish courses
served in succession.

Dessert, BTW, derives from the French "desservir" (to clear the table), so
in the original usage, it is any dish served after the meal was cleared.

Bear