The Decadent Cookbook Read Online Free PDF Page A

liver pie, and a puff-pastry crostata made with the sweetbreads, eyes, ears and testicles of a young goat. We could still be in ancient Rome.
    Scappi has lots of useful ideas for Decadent cooks: his black broth makes an excellent starter, with its lush blend of quinces, raisins, prunes, black cherries, grape juice, red wine, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, crushed fruit-cakes, Seville orange juice, and sugar. Menus are given for every month of the year, including Lent and fast-days, and what to serve if the Emperor Charles V comes to lunch (he expected at least 400 dishes). There’s also a handy appendix: Il Trinciante (the Carver) by Vincenzo Cervio, which tells you how to cut up everything, including peacocks, cranes, oysters, wild pig’s heads, crabs, thrushes, melons and eggs.
    Scappi knew how to furnish a table, and the Decadent faced with entertaining a party of dandies, bishops or chief constables for breakfast could do worse than use this menu - originally served after Vespers in a garden in Trastevere on a May morning.

    The table was laid with three table-cloths and decorated with a variety of flowers and leafy boughs, the wines were various, both sweet and dry, the sideboard furnished with cups of gold, silver, majolica and glass. A large bun made with milk, eggs, sugar and butter was placed under each napkin, and scented water was offered for the guests’ hands. There were eight stewards and four carvers. Fresh white napkins were given with every change of the table-cloth. Gold and silver knives and forks were used for the savouries and spoons for the sweets. Each course was accompanied by six statues: the first made of sugar, the second of butter, the third of sweet almond pastry. Music, played on a variety of instruments, accompanied the meal.

F IRST C OURSE

WITH SUGAR STATUES
    D IANA WITH THE MOON, BOW AND ARROWS ,
    DOGS ON A LEASH, AND FIVE NYMPHS .
    F IRST NYMPH HOLDING A SPEAR .
    S ECOND NYMPH WITH A BOW AND QUIVER .
    T HIRD WITH A VIOLA .
    F OURTH WITH A BUGLE .
    F IFTH WITH A CYMBAL .

    8 plates of each of the following:

    Preserved yellow cherries, strawberries with sugar, candied grapes, sweet oranges with sugar, Neapolitan fruit cakes, marzipan lozenges, miniature almond pastries, sweet pine-seed cakes, buns, cream cheeses with sugar, syringed butter sprinkled with sugar, junkets served in leaves with sugar and flowers, sliced fish-roes with lemon juice and sugar, pickled sturgeon and herrings, tuna fish charcuterie, pickled anchovies, asparagus salad, sugared caper and raisin salad, salad of sliced citrons with sugar and rose-water, lettuce and borage flower salad, cold trout pies, butter tartlets, Spanish olives, mushrooms stuffed with rice à la turque.

    The first table-cloth was removed and perfumed water offered for the guests’ hands.

S ECOND C OURSE

WITH SIX BUTTER STATUES
    A N E LEPHANT WITH A CASTLE ON ITS BACK,
    H ERCULES STRANGLING THE L ION,
    A LARGE C AMPIDOGLIO R USTIC,
    A C AMEL RIDDEN BY A M OORISH K ING,
    A U NICORN WITH ITS HORN IN A SERPENT’S MOUTH,
    M ELEAGER’S BOAR WITH AN ARROW IN ITS BREAST.

    8 plates of each of the following:

    Tender peas boiled in their pods with vinegar and pepper dressing; cooked artichoke hearts in vinegar, salt and pepper; truffles cooked in oil, Seville orange juice and pepper; artichokes fried in butter served with Seville orange juice and pepper; raw truffles served with salt and pepper; small Neapolitan palms; pear tarts; pears in wine and sugar; fresh musk-pears; yellow morello cherries; Florentine raviggiolo cheeses; sliced Parmesan cheese; March cheeses served in halves; fresh almonds on vine leaves; preserved grapes; cream cheeses with sugar; wafer rolls; small circular buns; roast chestnuts stewed in rose-water and served with sugar, salt and pepper; turnip compôte, carrot compôte, cucumber compôte, samphire compôte.

    The table-cloth was removed and water offered for the guests’ hands. Change of spoons, forks and napkins.

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