What might the Archbishop of Paris have served at the banquet following the solemn consecration of the Altar at Notre-Dame de Paris in 1182?

At the upcoming celebrations of the restored Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, one of the highlights will be the consecration of the new altar in Notre-Dame de Paris, scheduled to take place on Sunday, December 8th, 2024, during the first Mass to be celebrated in the restored Cathedral.

This date coincides with the second Sunday of Advent and is part of the reopening festivities for Notre-Dame following its extensive restoration after the devastating fire in April 2019. The consecration will be a significant moment in the reopening celebrations, marking the return of religious services to the Cathedral. Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris will preside over this ceremony.

The new altar, designed by French designer and sculptor Guillaume Bardet, is described as having a sober, bowl-shaped form crafted in sculpted bronze. This choice of material is intended to offer a “powerful, timeless and luminous aesthetic” while maintaining a “noble simplicity” in line with the Second Vatican Council’s guidelines for liturgical elements

The consecration of the altar will be part of a larger series of events surrounding the Cathedral’s reopening. To what extent will these celebrations in 2024 echo the events nearly 850 years ago? This is a moot point. We don’t know much, only that the choir was completed in 1177, and the high altar was consecrated on May 19th, 1182, by Cardinal Henri de Château-Marçay, the Papal legate in Paris, and Maurice de Sully, the Bishop of Paris.

Likely, Philippe Auguste – Philip II – was also present as the Cathedral was known to receive generous donations from the King on several occasions. Following his father’s death, he was even designated successor to his father in the great hall of the episcopal palace adjacent to the new church. Later, his first wife was buried in front of the altar from 1182.

Likely, htough, the consecrations was followed by a grand feast celebrated in the episcopal hall next door. What might have been served on this occasion?

A Medieval Feast

We do not have any cook books with collections of recipes preserved in French manuscripts from the 12th century, neither from royal nor episcopal courts. However, in 2013, a small collection of French recipes in a manuscript from approximately 1140 resurfaced in Durham.

These recipes for cooking were hidden among others for medical ointments and cures. Terse in tone, the recipes mainly provide directions for how to cook sauces to accompany mutton, chicken, duck, pork and beef, but there is also a recipe for cooking “Hen in Winter”. The sauces include some Mediterranean flavours, featuring ingredients like parsley, sage, pepper, garlic and coriander. Also, the text describes one recipe as deriving from Poitou in central Western France.

Much ink has been spilt on whether these recipes witness a distinct culinary culture or represent dietetic advice intended to help combat the lack of appetite among ill and feeble persons.

Arguments indicate the former was the case. In the manuscript, the recipes point to the particular dishes they were intended to accompany – beef, chicken etc. Also, one of the recipes is specifically said to derive from Poitou, the salsamentum pictauensium, which is also known from other recipe collections. And Poitou was already in the 12th century known from the gastronomic pleasures, one might look for in the culturally vibrant centre of Aquitaine fostered by the Poitivin dukes. Aquitaine was the inheritance of Eleanor married to first Louis VII and later Henry II, mother of Richard II (Lionheart). She was in constant residence there with her son until 1174, when she was imprisoned in England.

We don’t know many details about these Poitivin delights. However, we know that royal residences at that time were furnished with spectacular kitchens intended to cook for large households and on a grand scale. Thus, John Lackland (another son of Henry II and Eleonore), is known to have ordered the installation of a so-called furnesium at both Marlborough and Ludgershall where two to three oxen might be cooked simultaneously. (1) There is no doubt that bread and meat were the two main ingredients at these royal tables. Most likely, the feast in Paris in 1182 would have served a multitude of fish, but also deer, beef, and fowls.

Also, these meats would have been served with the condiment of a sauce, such as the salsamentum pictauensium.

This classical sauce is a mixture of sage, thyme, pepper, garlic, salt, and parsley pounded in a mortar and mixed with vinegar. A modern version calls for a mixture of two parts fresh thyme to one part sage mixed with garlic, pepper and cinnamon to taste. The recipe claims that mixed with vinegar the sauce might keep for eight days. This version is also especially recommended for being served together with boiled mutton.

Mayhap, the version which might have been served at the celebratory dinner following the consecration of Notre-Dame in 1182, was more delicious. At least, the variety from Durham called for one mixed with verjus (juice from raisins) and was intended to be served with beef. As an especially festive dinner, veal may have been on the menu.

Were the sauces boiled or served fresh, like modern mustard or Italian pesto sauces? It depends! We are taught by Le Ménagier de Paris (2), who admonishes his wife to master both versions. If boiled, he explains how a thrifty woman would steep some bread in verjus and then pound it in the mortar after the spices and herbs had been grinded together. This would soak up the expensive spices and help smooth the sauce. Vinegar may be rather harsh, and any modernised “Medieval Kitchen” should be familiar with verjus produced from highly acidic juice made by pressing unripe grapes, crab apples or other sour fruit. Sour, unsweetened apple juice is often as good.

Whichever, the exact recipe followed, it appears that at the court of King John, the sources refer specifically to Geoffrey, his sauce maker, who was in charge of the spices in the royal household. He was paid handsomely for his services in 1204, when he received remuneration equalling urban property to the sum of well over 7 £, on par with the minor gentry, writes Thomas (2020, p. 132).

Perhaps we can imagine that King John inherited a passion for grand cuisine from Southern France, whence the first cookbooks are believed to have been produced? And that he shared this with his step-sibling, Philippe Auguste?

Gallinam in Hieme

The consecration of the altar in 1182 was celebrated on May 19th in Paris. December, however, calls for a winterly recipe. Why not try out the Gallinam in Hieme? Not a difficult recipe, it suggests you cook your hen in a winterly soup seasoned with copious amounts of garlic, sage and whole pepper corn while adding some verjus. You can also use non-sweetened or tangy apple juice. When the hen is boiling, and the pan is hot, let it stand for hours and hours in the hay box. Or wrap the pot in a towel and place it beneath your duvet in your bed. The heat kills off any bedbugs. The trick is not to slush soup on the mattress. Haybox or retained heat cooking is used to cook a liquid-based food like a soup or stew in its own heat. An ancient cooking method, it became popular as a way to conserve cooking fuel during WW2. They used hay in a box because the air spaces in the hay were trapped in heat, and the soup or stew was allowed to cook in its own heat. Anything like hay, shredded newspaper, rice hulls, cotton balls, corn husks, etc., would work as long as it was packed loose and created air spaces.

After cooking, the pieces of the hen might be lifted out, and the breast cut off and served aside accompanied with salsamentum pictauensium. The remains are shredded in the soup and should be served in silver bowls with silver spoons.

Why not celebrate the reopening of Notre- Dame with your own medieval feast? Here is a menu suggested in one of the earliest cooking books preserved in Denmark (Vejrup 1993)

• Small patés with marrow from deer
• Lamprey filets in their own sauce
• Hen pastry with thyme sauce
• Hare served in a hot sauce served with walnut bread
• Hot scorzonera roots served with cold almondbutter
• Raisins marinated in verjus
• Almond dessert served with plum compote

  (Recipes in the many medieval cookbooks on the market)

NOTES:

(1) Power and Pleasure: Court Life under King John, 1199-1216
 By Hugh M. Thomas
Oxford University Press 2020, p. 126

(2) The Good Wife’s Guide. Le Ménager de Paris. A Medieval Household Book
Tr. by Gina L. Greco and Christine M. Rose.
Cornell University 2009

SOURCES:

Salsamenta pictavensium: Gastronomy and Medicine in Twelfth Century England
By: Gem Gasper and Faith Wallis
In: The English Historical Review (2016), Vol 131, No 553 pp 1353-1385

Fêtes gourmandes au Moyen Age.
By Jean-Louis Flandrin and Carole Lambert.
Imprimerie Nationale Editions 1998

Til taffel hos Kong Valdemar. Europas ældste kogebog efterto middelalderhåndskrifter fra 1300-tallet.
Hans Vejrup
Systime 1993

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