Early modern European cuisine - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The cuisine
Cuisine
Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...

of early modern Europe
Early modern Europe
Early modern Europe is the term used by historians to refer to a period in the history of Europe which spanned the centuries between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, roughly the late 15th century to the late 18th century...

(c. 1500-1800) was a mix of dishes inherited from medieval cuisine

Medieval cuisine

Medieval cuisine includes the foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, a period roughly dating from the 5th to the 16th century...

combined with innovations that would persist in the modern era. Though there was a great influx of new ideas, an increase in foreign trade and a scientific revolution, preservation of foods remained traditional: preserved by drying, salting and smoking or pickling in vinegar. Fare was naturally dependent on the season: a cookbook by Domenico Romoli called "Panunto" made a virtue of necessity by including a recipe for each day of the year. The discovery of the New World

New World

The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...

, the establishment of new trade routes with Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

and increased foreign influences from sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...

and the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

meant that Europeans became familiarized with a multitude of new foodstuffs. Spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

s that previously had been prohibitively expensive luxuries, such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger, soon became available to the majority population, and the introduction of new plants like maize

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

, potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

, sweet potato

Sweet potato

The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...

, chili pepper

Chili pepper

Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...

, cocoa, vanilla

Vanilla

Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...

, tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

, coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

and tea

Tea

Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...

transformed European cuisine forever.

There was a very great increase in prosperity in Europe during this period, which gradually reached all classes and all areas, and considerably changed the patterns of eating. Everywhere both doctors and chefs continued to characterize foodstuffs by their effects on the four humours

Humorism

Humorism, or humoralism, is a now discredited theory of the makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers, positing that an excess or deficiency of any of four distinct bodily fluids in a person directly influences their temperament and health...

: they were considered to be heating or drying to the constitution, moistening or drying. Nationalism

Nationalism

Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...

was first conceived in the early modern period, but it was not until the 19th century that the notion of a national cuisine emerged. Class differences were far more important dividing lines, and it was almost always upper-class food that was described in recipe collections and cookbooks.

Meals

In most parts of Europe two meals per day were eaten, one in the early morning to noon and one in the late afternoon later at night. The exact times varied both by period and region. In Spain and in parts of Italy such as Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

and Venice

Republic of Venice

The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...

the early meal was the lighter one while supper was heavier. In the rest of Europe, the first meal of the day was the more substantial. Throughout the period, there was a gradual shift of mealtimes. The first meal, then called dinner in English, moved from before noon to around 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon by the 17th century. By the end of the 18th century, it could be held as late as 5:00 or 6:00. This necessitated a midday meal, luncheon, later shortened to lunch, which was established by the late 18th century. Breakfast

Breakfast

Breakfast is the first meal taken after rising from a night's sleep, most often eaten in the early morning before undertaking the day's work...

does not receive much attention in any sources. Breakfast, when it began to be fashionable, was usually just a coffee, tea or chocolate, and did not become a more substantial meal in many parts of Europe until the 19th century. In the south, where supper was the largest meal, there was less need for breakfast, and it therefore remained unimportant, something that can still be seen today in the traditionally light breakfasts of southern Europe, which usually consists of coffee or tea with bread or pastry. There is no doubt that working people since medieval times ate some sort of morning meal , but it is unclear exactly at what time and what it consisted of. The three-meal-regimen so common today did not become a standard until well into the modern era.

As in the Middle Ages, breakfast in the sense of an early morning meal, is largely absent from the sources. It's unclear if this meant it was universally avoided or that it simply was not fashionable enough to be mentioned, as most sources were written by, for and about the upper class.

Cereals

For most of Europe, the many varieties of grain were the most important crop and formed the daily staple for segments of society. The differentiation was in the varieties, its quality and how it was prepared. The lower classes ate bread that was coarse and of considerably higher bran content while the upper classes enjoyed the finely ground, white wheat flower flour that most modern Europeans are used to. Wheat was considerably more expensive than other grains, and rarely eaten by many. Most bread was made with a mixture of wheat and other grains.

Grain remained the undisputed main staple of early modern Europe until the 17th century. By this time the skepticism towards New World imports such as potato

Potato

es and maize

Maize

had softened among the general populace, and the potato in particular found new appreciation in Northern Europe, where it was a much more productive and flexible crop than wheat. In Ireland, this would later have disastrous results. In the early 19th century, when much of the country depended almost exclusively on potato, the potato blight

Phytophthora infestans

Phytophthora infestans is an oomycete that causes the serious potato disease known as late blight or potato blight. . Late blight was a major culprit in the 1840s European, the 1845 Irish and 1846 Highland potato famines...

, a fungus that rotted the edible tubers of the potato plant while still in the ground, caused a massive famine that killed over a million people and forced another two million to emigrate. In Northern and Eastern Europe the climate and soil types were less suited for wheat cultivation and rye and barley were far more important in regions such as Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

, and Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

. Rye was used to bake the dense, dark bread that is still common in countries like Sweden, Russia and Finland. Barley was more common in the north, and was often used to make beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

.

Oats

OATS

OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...

made up a considerable minority of the produced grain but stood very low in status and was commonly used as animal feed, especially for horses. Millet

Millet

The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal crops or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Their essential similarities are that they are small-seeded grasses grown in difficult...

, grown in much of Europe since prehistoric times was still used throughout much of the early period, but had largely disappeared by the 18th century although its exceptional storage period of up to twenty years meant it was used for emergency reserves. For example the Italian dish polenta

Polenta

Polenta is a dish made from boiled cornmeal. The word "polenta" is borrowed from Italian.-Description:Polenta is made with ground yellow or white cornmeal , which can be ground coarsely or finely depending on the region and the texture desired.As it is known today, polenta derives from earlier...

, previously made from millet, later was made with maize

Maize

. Pasta

Pasta

Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...

had been a common food since the middle of the medieval period, and gained in popularity during the early modern period (notably in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, where it was not often seen until the late 18th century), but it was not yet usual to use the hard variety of durum wheat or semolina

Semolina

Semolina is the coarse, purified wheat middlings of durum wheat used in making pasta, and also used for breakfast cereals and puddings. Semolina is also used to designate coarse middlings from other varieties of wheat, and from other grains such as rice and corn.-Name:The term semolina derives from...

to make dried pasta until the Industrial era. Rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

became established in many places, especially Italy and Spain, during the period, but was regarded as a low-status food; the well-off might occasionally have rice pudding

Rice pudding

Rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with water or milk and sometimes other ingredients such as cinnamon and raisins. Different variants are used for either desserts or dinners. When used as a dessert, it is commonly combined with a sweetener such as sugar.-Rice pudding around the world:Rice...

but otherwise ignored it.

Pea

Pea

A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...

s and beans, which made up a very large part of the diet of the medieval poor, were still often treated as a staple food, but to a diminishing extent over the period, to be replaced by cereals and the potato.

Meats

No parts of animals were wasted; blood was used in soups, for blood sausage

Blood sausage

Black pudding, blood pudding or blood sausage is a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. The dish exists in various cultures from Asia to Europe...

s, tripe

Tripe

Tripe is a type of edible offal from the stomachs of various farm animals.-Beef tripe:...

was an ingredient in stews, soups or pies, and even cuts that clearly reminded of the live creature were readily consumed. Calf's head could be served as a separate dish, and eating eyes, tongue or cheeks was not seen as problematic; in some regions they were even considered to be delicacies.

European consumption of meat remained exceptional by world standards, and during the period high levels generally moved down the social scale. But the poor continued to rely mainly on egg

Egg (food)

Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

s, dairy products, and pulses for protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

. Often they did better in the less populated regions, where wild game and fish could still easily be found. The richer nations, especially England, ate considerably more meat than the poorer ones. In some areas, especially Germany and the Mediterranean counties, the meat consumption of ordinary people actually declined, beginning in about 1550, and continuing throughout the period. Increasing population seem to lie behind this trend.

Fats

A map of Early Modern Europe could be drawn based on the characteristic fat

Fat

Fats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...

s that predominated: olive oil

Olive oil

Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...

, butter

Butter

Butter is a dairy product made by churning fresh or fermented cream or milk. It is generally used as a spread and a condiment, as well as in cooking applications, such as baking, sauce making, and pan frying...

and lard

Lard

Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to butter. Its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by its saturated-fat content and its often negative...

. These kitchen staples had not changed since Roman times, but the onset of the Little Ice Age

Little Ice Age

The Little Ice Age was a period of cooling that occurred after the Medieval Warm Period . While not a true ice age, the term was introduced into the scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939...

that coincided with Early Modern Europe affected the northernmost regions where olives would flourish. Only olive oil was a subject of long-distance trade.

Sugar

Cane sugar, native to India, was already known in Europe in the Middle Ages, expensive and mainly regarded as a medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

. From the end of the 17th century greatly increased New World production struggled to meet the increase in European demand, so that by the end of the period the maritime nations of England, France, the Low and Iberian Countries were consuming large quantities, but other parts of Europe used it far less. At the same time, modern distinctions between sweet and savoury dishes were becoming general; meat dishes were much less likely to be sweetened than in the Middle Ages.

Drink

Water

Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

as a neutral table beverage did not appear in Europe until well into the Industrial era

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

, when efficient water purification could ensure safe drinking water. All but the poorest drank mildly alcoholic drinks

Alcoholic beverage

An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...

on a daily basis, for every meal; wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

in the south, beer

Beer

in the north and east. Both drinks came in many varieties, vintages and at varying qualities. Those northerners who could afford to do so drank imported wines, and wine remained an integral part of the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

, even for the poor. Ale

Ale

Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...

had been the most common form of beer in England through most of the Middle Ages, but was mostly replaced with hopped

Hops

Hops are the female flower clusters , of a hop species, Humulus lupulus. They are used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer, to which they impart a bitter, tangy flavor, though hops are also used for various purposes in other beverages and herbal medicine...

beer from the Low Countries

Low Countries

The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....

in the 16th century.

Spirits

The art of distillation was perfected in Europe during the 15th century and many of today's most common and familiar spirits were invented and perfected before the 18th century. Brandy

Brandy

Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...

(from Low German Brandwein via Dutch brandewijn, meaning "burnt wine") first appeared in 15th century Germany. When the English and Dutch were in fierce competition for the control of the lucrative European export market, the Dutch encouraged wine growing outside the Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

area, where the English had strong connections. The result that the regions of Cognac

Cognac

Cognac is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:Cognac is situated on the river Charente between the towns of Angoulême and Saintes. The majority of the town has been built on the river's left bank, with the smaller right...

and Armagnac

Armagnac (region)

The hilly countship of Armagnac , in the foothills of the Pyrenées between the Adour and Garonne rivers, is a historic countship of the Duchy of Gascony, established in 601 in Aquitaine...

became famous for producing high-quality brandy. Many of today's most famous cognac producers, like Martell

Martell

Martell is a manufacturer of cognac, founded by Jean Martell in 1715. It was sold in 1988 by the Firino-Martell family to Seagram and again in 2002 to the Pernod Ricard Group, which also owns the Cognac brands Biscuit and Renault....

, Rémy Martin

Rémy Martin

Rémy Martin is a brand selling cognac , specialist of the Cognac Fine Champagne originally produced by Rémy Martin, a French winemaker, who founded the company in 1724...

and Hennessy

Hennessy

Jas Hennessy & Co., or more simply Hennessy, is a world-leading cognac house with headquarters in Cognac, France. Today, the company of Jas Hennessy & Co...

started their businesses in the early-to-mid-18th century. Whisky

Whisky

Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Different grains are used for different varieties, including barley, malted barley, rye, malted rye, wheat, and corn...

and schnapps

Schnapps

Schnapps is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage. The English word schnapps is derived from the German Schnaps , which can refer to any strong alcoholic drink but particularly those containing at least 32% ABV...

were produced in small household stills. Whisky became fashionable, commercialised and exported in the 19th century. Gin

Gin

Gin is a spirit which derives its predominant flavour from juniper berries . Although several different styles of gin have existed since its origins, it is broadly differentiated into two basic legal categories...

, grain liquor flavored with juniper

Juniper

Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...

, was invented by the Dutch and commercial production by Lucas Bols

Lucas Bols

Lucas Bols is a privately held Dutch company in the business of production, distribution, sales and marketing of alcoholic beverages. It is the oldest Dutch company still active and the oldest distillery brand in the world. Its brand portfolio consists of Bols, Galliano, Vaccari, Pisang Ambon,...

began in the mid-17th century. The production was later refined in England and became immensely popular among the English working classes.

In the triangular trade

Triangular trade

Triangular trade, or triangle trade, is a historical term indicating among three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come...

which began in the 16th and 17th century between Europe, North America and the Caribbean, rum

Rum

Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...

was one of the most important commodities. It was made from molasses

Molasses

Molasses is a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word melaço, which ultimately comes from mel, the Latin word for "honey". The quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or sugar beet,...

and was one of the most important products made from the sugar grown on the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

Islands and in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

Coffee, tea and chocolate

Before the Early modern period, the social drinks of Europe had all been alcoholic. With the increased contact with Asia and Africa and the discovery of the Americas meant that Europeans came into contact with tea

Tea

, coffee

Coffee

and drinking chocolate. But it was not until the 17th century that all three products became popular as social beverages. The new drinks contained caffeine

Caffeine

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a stimulant drug. Caffeine is found in varying quantities in the seeds, leaves, and fruit of some plants, where it acts as a natural pesticide that paralyzes and kills certain insects feeding on the plants...

or theobromine

Theobromine

Theobromine , also known as xantheose, is a bitter alkaloid of the cacao plant, with the chemical formula C7H8N4O2. It is found in chocolate, as well as in a number of other foods, including the leaves of the tea plant, and the kola nut...

, both mild stimulants that are not intoxicating in the same way as alcohol. Chocolate was the first drink to gain popularity, and was one of the preferred drinks of the Spanish nobility in the 16th and early 17th century. All three remained very expensive throughout the early modern period.

National cuisines

As nations began to form in Europe, the foundations of cuisine had begun to form. Although nationalization of many of today's European nations had not occurred in early modern Europe, many of the characteristics that establish a national cuisine began to emerge. These attributes included attributes such as the emergence of professional chefs, professional kitchens, the printing of codified culinary texts, and educated diners.

France

In France in particular, this characteristic change came from the specialization of culinary skills by-way-of guild

Guild

A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...

s. The two major separations of guilds were between those who supplied raw products and those who prepared them. Those who were members of guilds, specialized in specific forms of cookery, including baker

Baker

A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...

s, pastrycooks, saucemaker

Saucier

A Saucier is a position in the classical brigade style kitchen, which is still used in large commercial kitchens such as some restaurants. It can be translated into English as sauce cook. This position prepares sauces, stews and hot hors d'œuvres and sautés food to order...

s, poulterers, and caterers. It was through this specialization that many of the well-known French dishes of today began to take hold, but it was not until the 17th century that France's haute cuisine

Haute cuisine

Haute cuisine or grande cuisine was characterised by French cuisine in elaborate preparations and presentations served in small and numerous courses that were produced by large and hierarchical staffs at the grand restaurants and hotels of Europe.The 17th century chef and writer La Varenne...

would begin codification with La Varenne

La Varenne

La Varenne may refer to:* La Varenne-Saint-Hilaire, a small town in the suburbs of Paris, part of the commune of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, in France...

the author of works such as Cvisinier françois and Le Parfait confitvrier, he is credited with publishing the first true French cookbook

Cookbook

A cookbook is a kitchen reference that typically contains a collection of recipes. Modern versions may also include colorful illustrations and advice on purchasing quality ingredients or making substitutions...

. His recipe

Recipe

A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...

s marked a change from the style of cookery known in the Middle Ages, to new techniques aimed at creating somewhat lighter dishes, and more modest presentations of pies as individual pastries and turnovers.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, French cuisine assimilated many new food items from the New World. Although they were slow to be adopted, records of banquets show Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici

Catherine de' Medici was an Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France....

serving sixty-six turkeys at one dinner. The dish called cassoulet

Cassoulet

Cassoulet is a rich, slow-cooked bean stew or casserole originating in the south of France, containing meat , pork skin and white haricot beans....

has its roots in the New World discovery of haricot beans, which are central to the dish's creation but had not existed outside of the New World until its exploration by Christopher Columbus.

Italy

Italy similarly was undergoing its own shift toward a national cuisine. However, a didactic switch occurred during the early modern era which changed the cuisine from one of high court cuisine, to a regional local cuisine by the end of the era. In the beginning of the era the courts of Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

and Ferrara

Ferrara

Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...

were an integral component to the creation of fine cooking in Italy with the court of Estes

Estes

Estes is a popular surname derived from the House of Este. It is also said to derive from Old English and have the meaning "of the East." As a surname, it has been traced to southern England in the region of Kent, as early as the mid-16th century....

in Ferrara a central figure to the creation of this high-cuisine. A number of chefs were integral to this process, including Christoforo Messisbugo, steward to Ippolito d'Este, published Banchetti Composizioni di Vivande in 1549, which detailed banquets in the first half of the book, while the second half of the book featured a multitude of recipes for items such as pies and tarts (containing 124 recipes with various fillings). In 1570, Opera was written by Bartolomeo Scappi

Bartolomeo Scappi

Bartolomeo Scappi was a famous Renaissance chef. His origins had been the subject of speculation, but a recent research shows that he came from the town of Dumenza in Lombardy, according to the inscription on a stone plaque in the church of Luino...

, personal chef to Pope Pius V

Pope Pius V

Pope Saint Pius V , born Antonio Ghislieri , was Pope from 1566 to 1572 and is a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman liturgy within the Latin Church...

, a five-volume work which to that date encompassed the most comprehensive example of Italian cooking. The work contained over 1,000 recipes, with information on banquets including displays and menus as well as illustrations of kitchen and table utensils. Opera was an important text as it is seen as one of the first integral works which shed game meats in favor of domesticated animals. Additionally "alternative" cuts of animals such as tongue, head, and shoulder appear in recipes. Seasonality to fish and seafood dishes was also featured along with emphasis on Lenten cookery. Opera also featured an early version of the Neapolitan

Naples

pizza

Pizza

Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...

, however, it was a sweet concoction unlike today's savory dish. Turkey and maize also appear for a first time in Italy in this book.

Unlike France's continued path toward high-cuisine, Italy began to show a change toward regionalism and simple cooking in the late 17th century. In 1662 the last cookbook on Italian high-cuisine was published by Bartolomeo Stefani chef to Gonzagas. L'Arte di Ben Cucinare introduced vitto ordinario ("ordinary food") to Italian cookery. In turn, at the beginning of the 18th century the cookery books of Italy began to show the regionalism of Italian cuisine in order for Italian chefs to better show the pride of their regions instead of the high cuisine of France. These books were no longer addressed to professional chefs but to bourgeois housewives who could address their home cook. Originating in booklet form, periodicals such as La cuoca cremonese (The cook of Cremona) written in 1794 give a sequence of ingredients according to season along with chapters on meat, fish and vegetables. As the century progressed these books increased in size, popularity and frequency, while the price to attain them dropped well within the reach of the general populace.

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