Napoleonic Pleasures

Bataille d’Austerlitz surnommé la Journée des Trois Empereurs “Pièce militaire et historique pour le Forte-Piano avec accompagnement du Violon Précédée des Réjouissances du Camp Français pour l’anniversaire du couronnement de S. M. l’Empereur Napoléon. Dédiée à la Grande Armée”

Partant pour la Syrie or Le beau Dunois Partant pour la Syrie, Le jeune et beau Dunois, Venait prier Marie De bénir ses exploits : Faites, Reine immortelle, Lui dit-il en partant, Que j’aime la plus belle Et sois le plus vaillant. On lui doit la Victoire. Vraiment, dit le seigneur ; Puisque tu fais […]

In the street: waffles, Madeleines, and 'Echaudés'Many people lived in cramped apartments (which were particularly unbearable in summer) and often preferred to spend a good deal of time outdoors, either in the street or the courtyard. And as for snacks, there was no shortage of little shops or wandering salesman.

Soldiers' stewThese are the ancestors of the stock cube, used as a base for soups or to add flavour to rice and pasta. Feeding armies was a difficult business, and these tablets, which were easy to transport and did not go off, represented a quick meal solution, so long as the soldiers had water and […]

Root vegetables in the kitchen gardenAt the time of the First Empire the word “racines” (roots) was used to mean carrots, parsnips, salsify or black radish, in other words cultivated root vegetables, not the roots of wild plants that were gathered in times of famine. The carrot was very common, both at table and in animals' […]

Before the mushroom made it bigThe mushroom used to be a foodstuff with no particular links to any social class; it was as likely to be found on the plates of the rich, in the form of a ragoût to accompany meat, as on the plates of poor peasants, who had gathered the mushrooms themselves […]

A recipe for victoryDunan, chef to Napoleon's army in Italy, is generally credited with the invention of this recipe. He had to create a meal in haste in the evening after the Battle of Marengo (14 June 1800) for the victorious General Bonaparte. Having no butter to hand, and deciding that it would take too […]

“Alouette, alouette, je te plumerai …”During the First Empire, the term “mauviette” was used not to call someone a chicken, but to designate the field lark, and by extension any similar plump bird that might make a good meal. While nowadays the only lark dish tends to be “pâté d'alouette”, in the 19th century cuisine […]

Birds for your delectationHunting birds was a pastime practised by adults and especially by children. Traps, nets, pipes to attract them, slings and even ferrets were pressed into service to kill small birds, for sport, out of cruelty, and sometimes out of hunger. Thrushes and larks (“mauviettes”) were the most popular food, but people would […]

The philosophy of the culinary artJean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) is one of the world's most famous gastronomic critics. His best known work was The Physiology of Taste, published in 1825, a few months before his death. On publication, his contemporaries proclaimed him a genius and ranked this work on a level with De la Rochefoucauld's […]