Food

Typical features of the Baroque were emotionality, ornamentation and magnificence. These features were not only reflected in architecture, painting or sculpture, but also in culinary art.

In addition to exotic spices, the spectacular presentation of the food was also taken into consideration - coloring food with plums, for example. Peas were considered 'the best vegetables'. According to some sources, even whole pea feasts were held, where peas were used in all served courses. Especially popular at that time was apple, which was prepared in all ways - with butter, roasted etc...

All fresh herbs and edible flowers were widely used in the kitchen - nettle, yarrow, dandelion leaves, daisies, cress, strawberry leaves, spinach or garlic.

One of the most popular cookbooks of this epoque in the Czech Republic was written by Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová.

Cuisine

The Italian cuisine of the 17th century remains in its foundations of medieval inspiration, even if there are many recipes based on a rich choice of ingredients and renewed practices.

In the 17th century religious constraints such as abstention from eating meat on certain days of the week or during Lent, or prohibition of consuming animal products for the various festivities, gave products such as pasta (tortelletti, ravioli, gnocchi) the opportunity to establish themselves in the Baroque menus.

The cuisine of this period was characterized by an abundant use of spices both to make food tastier and as a sign of great wealth. In fact, the landlord's wealth and power were measured according the use of spices in the different dishes during banquets. The most common spices were: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, pepper and sugar. Sugar had been used by rich families since the Middle Ages and there were sugar cane plantations and refineries in Sicily and Spain.

Moreover, fish recipes were typical of Baroque culinary art. The chefs at the service of the great aristocratic families prepared dishes with fresh sea water fish, shellfish or fine freshwater fish. The recipes of the time gave an idea of what cooks could do with a sturgeon, a carp or a tench.

Unlike their Medieval predecessors, the 17th century cooks did not leave out the beef. The number and variety of preparations based on this kind of fresh meat , freshly slaughtered, is vast in the cookery books of the period.

Another peculiarity of the Baroque cuisine was the predilection for animal offal and entrails. Veal, beef and kid were dominant features of high gastronomy and each part was an important ingredient of many recipes. There were lots of dishes of liver, spleen, guts, tripe, kidneys, tongue or sweetbreads. Even fish entrails (liver and sturgeon guts or carp tongue) were cooked and served.

If in the Middle Ages very little social importance was given to milk and its by-products (brodetti or blancmange), in the Baroque period there was a wide use of butter( which became a fat of equal importance to lard), milk skin ( that is the cream collected from the surface of boiled milk and cooled), cheese of all kinds, eaten naturally or sprinkled with sugar.

But many of the dishes that made up the menu of Baroque banquets, highly elaborated, garnished and decorated, often lost the original flavour of the ingredients.