[Sca-cooks] Course/Remove

Christine Seelye-King kingstaste at mindspring.com
Thu Nov 15 15:15:31 PST 2007


> " 'England's Newest Way in All Sorts of Cookery, Pastry, and All Pickles
> that are Fit to be Used' (3rd edition, 1710) contains a diagram for a
> two-course dinner.  To quote from The Appetite and the Eye, "...there is
> even the recently adopted usage of the 'remove' (a dish to be succeeded by
> another). "  (snippage)

So (since I'm being lazy and have too many other things to dig up at the 
moment), when was this style of serving adopted in France, and what did the 
French call this particular object/action?

toodles, margaret


Escoffier calls it a releve:

The Escoffier Cook Book, Chapter XV Relevés and Entrées, pg. 359

"The difference between Relevés and Entrées needs only to be examined very
superficially in order for it to be seen how entirely the classification
depends on a question of bulk.  Indeed, with very few exceptions, the same
food products - meat, fish, poultry, and game - may be used with perfect
propriety in the preparation of either Relevés or Entrées.  And if the mode
of preparation and the nature of the garnishing ingredients are sometimes
dissimilar, it is owing to that difference in bulk referred to above, on
account of which the Relevés, being more voluminous, are usually braised,
poëled, poached, or roasted; while the Entrées, consisting of smaller
pieces, are chiefly sautéd, poached, or grilled.  
	In the menus of old-fashioned dinners à la Française, the line of
demarcation between Relevés and Entrées was far more clearly defined, the
latter being generally twice, if not three times, as numerous as the former.
The first service of a dinner for twenty people, for instance, comprised
eight or twelve Entrées and four soups, all of which were set on the
dining-table before the admission of the diners.  As soon as the soups were
served, the Relevés, to the number of four, two of which consisted of fish,
took the place of the soups on the table; they relieved the soups, hence
their name, which now, of course, is quite meaningless.  

	The Russian method of serving greatly simplified the practice just
described.  Nowadays a formal dinner rarely consists of more than one soup,
two Relevés (one of which is fish), and two Entrées for the first service.
Very often the fish Relevé, instead of being a large piece of fish, only
consists of fillets of sole, of chicken turbots, or crusted timbales, which
are the real Entrées; while the Relevés (consisting of large pieces of meat
or game), are served after the fish Relevé, when the diner's appetite is
still keen.  

	Thus, as the two above examples show, the parts played by the
Relevés and Entrées are very far from being clearly defined; and I therefore
resolved to treat them both in the same chapter, and to append a few grills
(usually accompanied by various sauces and garnishes), which are really only
luncheon-roasts.  The indications given concerning the class to which the
recipes belong will suffice to avoid confusion."

Christianna





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