“Cruda gravant stomachum relevant pyra cocta gravatam.”
Talking of the chasselas grape of Fontainbleau, the reader will naturally ask why I have hitherto omitted all mention of the finest fruit, oranges excepted. This was from no indisposition to do every justice to grapes, the wholesomest and most grateful of fruits. The best grapes in France are undoubtedly the chasselas, which come into the Paris markets neatly packed in small baskets, sold for forty, fifty, and sixty sous each, according to the quality. In the autumn of the year many of the Parisian badauds undergo a regimen of grapes, eating nothing else for three weeks or a month. Used thus, grapes have all the effect of the Cheltenham waters. “They open the body,” says old Lémery, physician to Louis XIV., “create an appetite, are very nourishing, and qualify the sharp humour of the heart. They agree with every age and constitution, provided they be not used to excess.” The ciotat, the Corinthe, the black morillon, the muscat of Touraine, are all excellent grapes, and may be purchased in France for a few sous a pound. In the southern departments of France as many grapes as the most inveterate eater of that fruit would desire may be had for the small sum of one penny, though it must be admitted that the hot-house grapes of England are superior in flavour and variety to every description of grape in France, excepting the chasselas; but the prices asked in Covent Garden Market are enormous and wholly unjustifiable. Hot-house grapes are, in fact, a luxury wholly beyond the reach of persons of moderate fortune.
Notwithstanding the decided taste which Louis XV. had for strawberries, and the efforts made by his minions to furnish him with this fruit at his dessert all the year round; we have, nevertheless, for the last century and a half, surpassed the French in the variety and quality of this esculent. The Chilian strawberry is one of the largest produced in the imperial gardens of Versailles and Fontainbleau; but strawberries of nearly twice the size may be daily seen during the months of May, June, and July, in Covent Garden Market. The pine strawberry, originally of Louisiana, was first introduced into France in 1767. Though it may have more pine flavour than our pine strawberry, yet it is by no means so large as the common run of pines in Covent Garden. It too frequently happens, however, that what fruits gain in size they lose in flavour. Every good judge of fruit is quite opposed to the idea of monster fruit, fish, flesh, or fowl; convinced that average-sized turbots, bullocks, turkeys, and fruits, are among the very best.
The dried fruits are, of course, never produced at dessert, when fresh fruits can be obtained. A very common French dessert in the winter months is composed of almonds, raisins, and figs; but, though these afford a passable pastime enough when nothing better can be had, yet the opinion of the Gauls concerning their value may be learned from the name given to them. If you wish to obtain the trio at a restaurant after a copious or a spare dinner, you must not call for des amandes, des raisins, et des figues, but ask for trois mendiants. Provence furnishes dried figs to Paris; the ancient province of Maine, dried cherries; and Rheims, Tours, and Brignoles, dried plums. Dried apples, a very palatable dessert, come from Tours and Orleans.
In England our winter dessert is thus furnished: the raisins come from Malaga, the figs and currants from Turkey and the Grecian islands, the almonds from Syria and the Archipelago, and the olives from Spain and Italy. France produces this latter fruit on her own soil. The Phocians, founders of Marseilles, first planted the olive in that locality; and, according to Strabo, taught the natives the art to cultivate it. Olives are now grown in every part of Provence and Languedoc, and may be always found at dessert at the most moderate tables d’hôte of Marseilles, Toulon, Nismes, Montpelier, Avignon, &c. Biscuits, cakes, and sweetmeats, are also an accompaniment. The poets of the thirteenth century speak of flamiches and galettes chauds, and at this period the Rheims gingerbread was also in great vogue. When Champier wrote, about 1560, the gingerbread of Paris was nearly as renowned at dessert as the famous croquets of Rheims. A cake made of powdered sugar and almonds, called massepain, has also been common at dessert in France for more than three centuries. Its component parts are filberts, almonds, pistachio nuts, pines, sugar, and a little flour. It is, however, rather a dear morsel, and can only be eaten by the wealthy. L’Etoile, describing a magnificent collation of three courses given at Paris in 1596, says, “Que les confitures seiches et massepans y estoit si peu espargnez que les dames et damoiselles, estoient contraintes de s’en décharger sur les pages et les laquais, auxquels on les bailloit tous entiers.”
In the time of Rabelais a tartlette or cake called darioles, was eaten at dessert; there were also other friandises called ratons, and cassemuseaux, and petit choux. The first and last words have since been adopted as terms of endearment among lovers, and from nurses and nursery-maids to children.
Aromatic spices and warm seeds were much more frequently used at dessert a century and a half ago than in our own day. After dinner, says the work called “Les Triomphes de la Noble Dame,” “On sert chez les riches, pour faire la digestion, de l’anis du fenouil et de la coriandre confits au sucre.” The author of “Ile des Hermaphrodites,” in painting the manners of the court of Henry III., makes the same remark. After the dessert, says he, “Les uns prenoient un peu d’anis confit, les autres, cotignac,[23] mais il falloit qu’il fût musqué. Autrement il n’eut point eu d’effet en leur estomach qui n’avoit point de chaleur s’il n’etoit parfumé.”
At the royal table, and in establishments of great lords, another custom prevailed which did not obtain in the houses of private persons. Independently of the spices which composed the dessert, there were others more select still, which were served in a small box divided into compartments. This box was of gold, silver, or silver gilt, and was called a drageoir, comfits being the principal portion of its contents. This box was generally presented to the king by an esquire or person of condition, and to the king only, unless his majesty wished particularly to honour some one among the guests. He then sent to him his comfit-box, “On apporta vins et épices,” writes Froissart, “et servit du drageoir, devant le Roi de France tant seulement, le Comte d’Harcourt.”
Brandied fruits, compotes and fruits preserved in syrup, are generally produced at a French dessert; as are marmalade fruits, as, for instance, marmelade d’abricots, de pêches, de pommes, &c. Fruit jellies, as cornel berry jelly, apple jelly, are also esteemed delicacies. Various pastes are also occasionally handed round at dessert, as apricot paste, peach paste, and ginger paste. Le Loyer, in his poetical pieces, speaks of these pastes as proper to be given to cold and indifferent husbands:—
“Que, sur la fin du dessert, on leur porte