sixteenth century that the name of
_potage_ ceased to be applied to stews, whose number equalled their
variety, for on a bill of fare of a banquet of that period we find more
than fifty different sorts of _potages_ mentioned. The greater number of
these dishes have disappeared from our books on cookery, having gone out
of fashion; but there are two stews which were popular during many
centuries, and which have maintained their reputation, although they do
not now exactly represent what they formerly did. The _pot-pourri_, which
was composed of veal, beef, mutton, bacon, and vegetables, and the
_galimafree_, a fricassee of poultry, sprinkled with verjuice, flavoured
with spices, and surrounded by a sauce composed of vinegar, bread crumbs,
cinnamon, ginger, &c. (Fig. 119).

The highest aim of the cooks of the Taillevent school was to make dishes
not only palatable, but also pleasing to the eye. These masters in the art
of cooking might be said to be both sculptors and painters, so much did
they decorate their works, their object being to surprise or amuse the
guests by concealing the real nature of the disbes. Froissart, speaking of
a repast given in his time, says that there were a number of "dishes so
curious and disguised that it was impossible to guess what they were." For
instance, the bill of fare above referred to mentions a lion and a sun
made of white chicken, a pink jelly, with diamond-shaped points; and, as
if the object of cookery was to disguise food and deceive epicures,
Taillevent facetiously gives us a receipt for making fried or roast butter
and for cooking eggs on the spit.

[Illustration: Fig. 119.--Interior of Italian Kitchen.--Fac-simile of a
Woodcut in the Book on Cookery of Christoforo di Messisburgo, "Banchetti
compositioni di Vivende," 4to., Ferrara, 1549.]

The roasts were as numerous as the stews. A treatise of the fourteenth
century names about thirty, beginning with a sirloin of beef, which must
have been one of the most common, and ending with a swan, which appeared
on table in full plumage. This last was the triumph of cookery, inasmuch
as it presented this magnificent bird to the eyes of the astonished guests
just as if he were living and swimming. His beak was gilt, his body
silvered, resting 'on a mass of brown pastry, painted green in order to
represent a grass field. Eight banners of silk were placed round, and a
cloth of the same material served as a carpet for the whole dish, which