[Sca-cooks] help on 17th c. French Chocolate Drinking

[Ysabeau]

Aha!
http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2005_10_16_archive.html

It was no doubt a shrewd editorial decision that saw the inclusion of an
engraving of three exotic men in Lyon pharamcist Philippe Sylvestre Dufour's
1671 Traitez Nouveaux & Curieux du Café, du Thé et du Chocolate. Ouvrage
également necessaire aux Medecins , & à tous ceux qui aiment leur santé.
(The manner of Making Coffee, Tea & Chocolate)

The three men (above) represent the middle east, asia and the new worlds and
are depicted drinking coffee, tea and chocolate, which didn't become
particularly fashionable in europe until the latter part of the 17th
century, due in no little part to Dufour's popular book. In it he describes
methods for making each beverage and debates the medicinal benefits and
drawbacks of the caffeine drinks; though he lifted much of the
material<http://www.polybiblio.com/antiqbot/A103.html>from other
sources it seems.

This was not the first that had been heard of chocolate or Theobroma
cacao(food of the Gods) in europe. In the middle of the 16th century,
two Aztec
Indians produced the seminal botanical and herbal Badianus
manuscript<http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/hc/journeys/book13.html>or
Codex
Barberini<http://images.google.co.uk/images?num=100&hl=en&q=badianus%20&btnG=Search&sa=N&tab=wi>.
Their work was sent to King Charles V of Spain and it was reported that the
Aztec King Montezuma also drank chocolate before visiting his harem.

   - Dufour's book (the 1688 2nd edition) is online at Biblioteca Digital
   de Obras Raras et
Especiais<http://www.obrasraras.usp.br/obras/001866/>in Brazil (click
   on the book cover) but there is only one other engraving that I saw,
   with little in the way of artistic merit.

http://www.obrasraras.usp.br/obras/001866/   Is the link for the book. I
hope you can read old French!

Ysabeau



On 3/27/07, Ysabeau <lady.ysabeau at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I knew I'd seen it somewhere:
> http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy_regions/tuscany/2006/events/exhibition-reveals-chocolates-role-in-medici-rule/
>
>
> It's Italian but I found this:
> http://www.cuisinenet.com/digest/ingred/chocolate/timeline.shtml
> *1666 • Chocolate in France*
> Though it's not 100% clear how it got there, chocolate was popular in the
> court of Louis XIV, at least before his second marriage to the rather
> puritanical Madame de Maintenon. (By 1693, she had persuaded him to suppress
> it at Versailles, but, in spite of that, chocolate continued to gain in
> popularity in France.) It may have been introduced by the Sun King's mother,
> Anne of Austria, whose father was the Spanish King Philip III, or by his
> first wife, the Infanta Maria Teresa, who also grew up in Spain. Still a
> third theory credits Cardinal Richelieu<http://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/95sep/richelieu.html>,
> whose brother is known to have used chocolate medicinally.
>
> http://www.kakawachocolates.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=4_6
>  1692 French Elixir
> <http://www.kakawachocolates.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4_6&products_id=28&zenid=4167f9fb565e0f3a7f07790912414de7> Representative
> of the historic drinking chocolate of the French court of Versailles from
> the 1670's through the late 1700's. The recipe from M. St. Disdier,
> published in 1692, is an accurate example of how genteel chocolate was
> prepared in Baroque France - highly scented, exotic and semisweet.
> Traditionally made with water. Ingredients: 73.5% chocolate, Raw
> Unprocessed Cane Sugar*, Cloves*, Ceylon Cinnamon*, Mexican Vanilla &
> Culinary Essential...
>
> Okay, I did a quick search on "M. St. Disdier" and found Johnna quoting
> her in a message about vanilla in the florilegium (dated December 2001!),  I
> have not found the name of the book published...but another web page
> mentioned that s/he ran a chocolate shop.
>
> "One more source on vanilla---There are recipes for chocolate that use
> vanilla published in France by M St. Disdier in 1692. See Sophie and
> Michael Coe's The True History of Chocolate. pp.162-164" Johnnae llyn
> Lewis (is that our Johnna?)
>
> Hope this helps!
> Ysabeau
>
>
>
>
>  On 3/27/07, Anne-Marie Rousseau <dailleurs at liripipe.com> wrote:
> >
> > the first thing I'd do is look in Cotgrave... a 17th century
> > French:English dictionary. if the word isnt in
> > there, they didnt know about it :).
> >
> > also check out Toussaint Samats History of Food. since its franco
> > centric, it has some great references and
> > citations you wont find elsewhere.
> >
> > fun project!
> > --Anne-Marie
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Tue Mar 27  8:44 , Jadwiga Zajaczkowa / Jenne Heise  sent:
> >
> > >Ladies & Gents, here's your chance to show off-- I have a faculty
> > member
> > >looking for sources on 17th century (1600-1700) drinking of chocolate
> > in
> > >_France_. We've ILLed a bunch of things, and looked at the Florilegium,
> > >but any hints for sources-- i know there are some 17th c. French
> > cooking
> > >books that I'm not thinking of right off the top of my head-- would be
> > >welcome.
> > >
> > >--
> > >-- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
> > >"I thought you might need rescuing . . . We have a bunch of professors
> > >wandering around who need students." -- Dan Guernsey
> > >_______________________________________________
> > >Sca-cooks mailing list
> > >Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> > >http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sca-cooks mailing list
> > Sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> > http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/sca-cooks-ansteorra.org
> >
>
>