Christmas in FranceDinner on Christmas Eve in a French farmhouse of the pre-1914 era was a succession of homely country dishes for which almost every ingredient would have been produced on the farm itself. A characteristic menu, sustaining and solid, reads as follows:Poule au riz à la fermièreJambon cuit au foinPetits pois jaunes en puréeDindonneaux farcis aux marronsSalade de céleris et betteravesPoires étuvées au vin rougeGalettes à la boulangèreFromage de la fermeCafé. Vieux MarcVins: Moulin-à-Vent et… eau de puitsEscoffier, recording the dinner in a professional culinary magazine in the year 1912, thought it, in its ‘rustic simplicity’, worthy of inclusion among the festive menus of the Majestics, the Palaces, the Ritz-Carltons, the Excelsiors of Europe. How many of these menus, he asks, would be in such perfect taste? One senses a hint of envy in his words, for any chef who served such a menu in an English restaurant of the period would have been a laughing stock. The Carlton (where Escoffier was then presiding) Christmas menu for that year started with the inevitable caviare and turtle soup, and went on through the fillets of sole with crayfish sauce, the quails and stuffed lettuces, lamb cutlets, out-of-season asparagus, the foie gras and frosted tangerines, to start again with the truffled turkey, celery salad, plum pudding, hot-house peaches, friandises.
What do You think about Is There A Nutmeg In The House??
