[Illustration:  Fig. 113.—­Interior of a Kitchen of the Sixteenth Century.—­Fac-simile from a Woodcut in the “Calendarium Romanum” of Jean Staeffler, folio, Tubingen, 1518.]

We find in the “Menagier,” amongst a long list of the common soups the receipts for which are given, soup made of “dried peas and the water in which bacon has been boiled,” and, in Lent, “salted-whale water;” watercress soup, cabbage soup, cheese soup, and gramose soup, which was prepared by adding stewed meat to the water in which meat had already been boiled, and adding beaten eggs and verjuice; and, lastly, the souppe despourvue, which was rapidly made at the hotels, for unexpected travellers, and was a sort of soup made from the odds and ends of the larder.  In those days there is no doubt but that hot soup formed an indispensable part of the daily meals, and that each person took it at least twice a day, according to the old proverb:—­

  “Soupe la soir, soupe le matin,
  C’est l’ordinaire du bon chretien.”

  ("Soup in the evening, and soup in the morning,
  Is the everyday food of a good Christian.”)

The cooking apparatus of that period consisted of a whole glittering array of cauldrons, saucepans, kettles, and vessels of red and yellow copper, which hardly sufficed for all the rich soups for which France was so famous.  Thence the old proverb, “En France sont les grands soupiers.”

But besides these soups, which were in fact looked upon as “common, and without spice,” a number of dishes were served under the generic name of soup, which constituted the principal luxuries at the great tables in the fourteenth century, but which do not altogether bear out the names under which we find them.  For instance, there was haricot mutton, a sort of stew; thin chicken broth; veal broth with herbs; soup made of veal, roe, stag, wild boar, pork, hare and rabbit soup flavoured with green peas, &c.

The greater number of these soups were very rich, very expensive, several being served at the same time; and in order to please the eye as well as the taste they were generally made of various colours, sweetened with sugar, and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds and aromatic herbs, such as marjoram, sage, thyme, sweet basil, savoury, &c.

[Illustration:  Fig. 114.—­Coppersmith, designed and engraved in the Sixteenth Century by J. Amman.]

These descriptions of soups were perfect luxuries, and were taken instead of sweets.  As a proof of this we must refer to the famous soupe doree, the description of which is given by Taillevent, head cook of Charles VII., in the following words, “Toast slices of bread, throw them into a jelly made of sugar, white wine, yolk of egg, and rosewater; when they are well soaked fry them, then throw them again into the rosewater and sprinkle them with sugar and saffron.”

[Illustration:  Fig. 115.—­Kitchen and Table Uensils:—­