A Royal Banquet in Cracow: Difference between revisions
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== Pike in the Polish style == | == Pike in the Polish style == | ||
Let's return to Wirsing's original feast and try to answer the most interesting question: what was there served to eat? Longinus didn't write much about the | Let's return to Wirsing's original feast and try to answer the most interesting question: what was there served to eat? Longinus didn't write much about the menu, except that there was plenty of everything. | ||
{{Cytat | {{Cytat | ||
| It was him [Wierzynek, a councillor of Cracow] who, on King Casimir of Poland's orders, | | It was him [Wierzynek, a councillor of Cracow] who, on King Casimir of Poland's orders, demonstrated during these days such magnificence, opulence and liberality while hosting all the kings, princes, lords and any guests and strangers who had arrived by invitation or out of their own desire, that not only was food offered in generous amounts, but anything anyone asked for out of need or habit was provided to him in abundance. | ||
| źródło = Jan Długosz, ''op. cit.'', own translation | | źródło = Jan Długosz, ''op. cit.'', own translation | ||
| oryg = Qui [Wÿerzinek consul Cracowiensis] Kazimiro Polonie rege iubente, tantam regibus, princibus, baronibus et quibuslibet hospitibus et advenis, tam invitatis quam suapte venientibus monstravit in procurando illos diebus magnificenciam, opulenciam et liberalitatem, ut singulis non solum victualia largissima et expense preberentur, sed etiam que cuiusque postulasset privata necessitas vel usus, in abundancia ultro largirentur. | | oryg = Qui [Wÿerzinek consul Cracowiensis] Kazimiro Polonie rege iubente, tantam regibus, princibus, baronibus et quibuslibet hospitibus et advenis, tam invitatis quam suapte venientibus monstravit in procurando illos diebus magnificenciam, opulenciam et liberalitatem, ut singulis non solum victualia largissima et expense preberentur, sed etiam que cuiusque postulasset privata necessitas vel usus, in abundancia ultro largirentur. | ||
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}} }} | }} }} | ||
This must be one of the earliest descriptions of what is now considered an important part of traditional Polish hospitality, that is, forcing more food and drink down one's guests' throats than they are able to ingest. I can almost hear Wirsing and King Casimir urge their commensals with "You should try this one too! Just a little piece. But you must! Aren't you gonna drink with me?" | |||
Later descriptions of the banquet often stress the lavishness of golden and silver tableware, which is probably how the mentions of expensive gifts that were presented to the visiting monarchs have been interpreted by some historians. This may have been influenced by analogy with a chronicler's account of another famous banquet from Poland's medieval history -- the one in Gniezno, AD 1000, where Duke Boleslav the Brave entertained Emperor Otto III and impressed him so much that the emperor made Boleslav Poland's first king. | |||
{{Cytat | {{Cytat | ||
| Bolesław | | So Bolesław was thus gloriously raised to kingship by the emperor, and he gave an example of the liberality innate in him when for three days following his coronation he celebrated a feast in style fit for a king or emperor. Every day the plate and the tableware were new, and many different ones were given out, ever richer again. For at the end of the feast he ordered the waiters and the cupbearers to gather the gold and silver vessels -- for there was nothing made of wood there -- from all three days' courses, that is, the cups and goblets, the bowls and plates and the drinking horns, and he presented them to the emperor as a token of honor {{...}} | ||
| źródło = {{Cyt | | źródło = {{Cyt | ||
| nazwisko = | | nazwisko = | ||
| inni = | | inni = ed. Patrick J. Geary | ||
| tytuł = | | tytuł = Readings in Medieval History | ||
| autor r = [Gallus Anonymus] | |||
| | | autor2 r = ed. and trans. by Paul W. Knoll and Frank Shaer | ||
| rok = | | rozdział = The Deeds of the Princes of the Poles | ||
| | | adres rozdziału = https://books.google.com/books?id=9-KE2vdL1HkC&lpg=PA631&pg=PA632 | ||
| wydawca = Univeristy of Toronto Press | |||
| rok = 2010 | |||
| tom = II: The Later Middle Ages | |||
| strony = 632 | |||
}} | }} | ||
| oryg = Igitur Bolezlavus | | oryg = Igitur Bolezlavus in regem ab imperatore tam gloriose sublimatus, inditam sibi liberalitatem exercuit, cum tribus suae consecrationis diebus convivium regaliter et imperialiter celebravit, singulisque diebus vasa omni et supellectillia transmutavit, aliaque diversa multoque pretiosiora praesentavit. Finito namque convivio, pincernas et dapiferos vasa aurea et argentea, nulla enim lignea ibi habebantur, cyphos videlicet et cuppas, lances et scutellas et cornua de mensis omnibus trium dierum congregare praecepit et imperatori pro honore {{...}} praesentavit. | ||
| źródło-oryg = {{Cyt | | źródło-oryg = {{Cyt | ||
| nazwisko = Gallus Anonymus | | nazwisko = Gallus Anonymus | ||
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}} }} | }} }} | ||
It's possible that these gifts were not so much handed to the guests as allowed to be taken. During the congress of Cracow, these may have been parts of the interior design of royal sleeping chambers, "sumptuously decorated with purple and scarlet, gold, pearls and jewels",<ref>Jan Długosz, ''op. cit.''</ref> as well as precious-metal plates, which the visitors simply helped themselves to after the party. It's like you steal a towel from a hotel room and the hotel manager decides to make you a present of it; this just seems to have been the norm in the Middle Ages. It's little surprise, then, that both the guests and the chroniclers paid much more attention to the tableware than to the food and drink that was served on it. Especially that, outside of special occasions, even at royal tables people normally ate from trenchers cut out of stale loaves of rye bread, which -- soaked with rich, spicy sauces -- were later consumed by the servants.<ref>{{Cyt | |||
| nazwisko = Dembińska | | nazwisko = Dembińska | ||
| imię = Maria | | imię = Maria | ||
| Line 241: | Line 244: | ||
}}</ref> | }}</ref> | ||
Guillaume de Machaut wrote a little more about the food served in Cracow. | |||
[[File:Józef Simmler Uczta u Wierzynka.jpg|thumb| | [[File:Józef Simmler Uczta u Wierzynka.jpg|thumb|Wierzynek's Banquet by Józef Simmler (1862)]] | ||
{{Cytat | {{Cytat | ||
| <poem> | | <poem>And what a welcome they did get! | ||
How they were honoured, served and dined | |||
On bread and victuals, and on wine, | |||
All kinds of birds and fish, and beef, | |||
As well as plenty other meat {{...}}</poem> | |||
| źródło = {{Cyt | |||
| nazwisko = Machaut | |||
| imię = Guillaume de | |||
| inni = ed. Sophie Hardy | |||
| tytuł = La Prise d’Alexandrie | |||
</poem> | | url = ftp://ftp.univ-orleans.fr/theses/sophie.hardy_1730.pdf | ||
| źródło = Guillaume de | | wydawca = Université d’Orléans | ||
| rok = 2011 | |||
| strony = 38 | |||
}}, own translation | |||
| oryg = <poem> | | oryg = <poem> | ||
Comment il furent receü, | Comment il furent receü, | ||
| Line 262: | Line 268: | ||
De pain, de vin et de vitaille, | De pain, de vin et de vitaille, | ||
De toute volille et d’aumaille, | De toute volille et d’aumaille, | ||
De poissons et d’autre vïande | De poissons et d’autre vïande {{...}} | ||
</poem> | </poem> | ||
}} | }} | ||
It's better than nothing, but still rather generic -- bread, wine, fish, various kinds of meath -- but no word of specific dishes or recipes. Which is not surprising after all; mind you, de Machaut wasn't personally present at the feast. Even if he based his poem on a first-hand account of the event -- either from King Peter himself or from a member of his retinue -- he must have guessed the culinary details himself. And he simply guessed what one just could have expected at a royal feast -- that is, on the one hand, various meats aplenty, which is what inhabitants of Northern Europe liked best, and, on the other hand, bread and wine, the attributes of Christianity and Mediterranean civilization. And of course fish, as any banquet longer than three days must have covered some lean days. | |||
De Machaut wrote there's no point asking for further details of the feast, as grandeur of such scale can't be put into words anyway. Still, I'm going to try and imagine what kind of dishes may have been served on King Casimir and his visitors' table. Unfortunately, no Polish recipes from the Middle Ages have survided to our time, but we do have Czech recipes, which are worth looking at. Why? Because, firstly, the most important guest was Charles, a king of the Czech-speaking Bohemia who had been elected emperor, who resided at the Hradčany Castle in Prague, so it makes sense that some Czech recipes could have been included in the menu to honour him. And, secondly, the Poles generally looked up to Czech civilization, which stood much higher than their own at the time. | |||
Today the Poles are most keen to ape the Americans; earlier, "what a Frenchman dreamed up, a Pole soon adopted"<ref>{{Cyt | |||
| nazwisko = Mickiewicz | | nazwisko = Mickiewicz | ||
| imię = Adam | | imię = Adam | ||
| tytuł = Pan Tadeusz, | | tytuł = Pan Tadeusz, or The Last Foray in Lithuania: A Tale of the Gentry during 1811–1812 | ||
| url = https:// | | inni = translated by Marcel Weyland | ||
| url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170707131534/http://www.antoranz.net/BIBLIOTEKA/PT051225/PanTad-eng/PT-Start.htm#CONTENTS | |||
}}, Book I, verse 484</ref>; and even before that, Italy was the point of cultural reference. But few people in Poland remember that in the late Middle Ages and at the turn of the Renaissance everything Czech was ''en vogue'' in Poland. Under Casimir the Great, the Polish Kingdom was growing strong, and forgotten were the times when Poland was ruled by King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia (Charles's grandfather), while Vladislav the Ell (Casimir's father), leader of the anti-Bohemian opposition, had to hide in forests and caves; but Casimir still looked from Cracow to Prague -- now the ''de facto'' capital of the Roman Empire -- as the West, in both geographic and cultural terms, and eagerly copied Bohemia's legal, administrative and monetary solutions. Even the Czech language, which rings childish and funny to Polish ears today, was regarded as a speech of great beauty and elegance by 16th-century Poles. | |||
}}, | |||
And what about Old Czech cuisine? Well, not everyone was fond of it, least of all the French poet Eustache Deschamps, who had learned to rhyme from Guillaume de Machaut. | |||
{{Cytat | {{Cytat | ||
| <poem> | | <poem>Lice, fleas, pigs, mold, | ||
The gist of the Bohemian soul, | |||
Bread and salted fish and cold. | |||
Black pepper, leeks, a rotten cabbage roll, | |||
Smoked meat as hard and black as coal; | |||
Lice, fleas, pigs, mold: | |||
The gist of the Bohemian soul. | |||
Ten people eating from one bowl, | |||
A bitter drink — it’s beer, I’m told — | |||
Bad beds, and dark, straw, filth, a hole, | |||
Lice, fleas, pigs, mold, | |||
The gist of the Bohemian soul, | |||
Bread and salted fish and cold.</poem> | |||
| źródło = {{Cyt | | źródło = {{Cyt | ||
| inni = | | inni = ed. Ian S. Laurie, Deborah M. Sinnreich-Levi, trans. David Curzon and Jeffrey Fiskin | ||
| tytuł = Selected Poems | | tytuł = Selected Poems | ||
| url = https://epdf.tips/eustache-deschamps-selected-poems-routledge-medieval-texts.html | | url = https://epdf.tips/eustache-deschamps-selected-poems-routledge-medieval-texts.html | ||
| Line 319: | Line 311: | ||
| rok = 2003 | | rok = 2003 | ||
| strony = 188 | | strony = 188 | ||
}} | }} | ||
| oryg = <poem>Poulz, puces, puour et pourceaulx | | oryg = <poem>Poulz, puces, puour et pourceaulx | ||
Est de Behaingne la nature, | Est de Behaingne la nature, | ||
| Line 335: | Line 327: | ||
}} | }} | ||
It must be said, though, that Deschamps was the forerunner of the French belief in their culinary superiority and he criticized everything there was to eat east of the Rhine.<ref>{{Cyt | |||
| nazwisko = Scully | | nazwisko = Scully | ||
| imię = Terence | | imię = Terence | ||
| Line 343: | Line 335: | ||
| rok = 1995 | | rok = 1995 | ||
| strony = 233 | | strony = 233 | ||
}}</ref> | }}</ref> What disgusted him so much in Bohemian cuisine were the ways of food preservation that were typical for the climes of all Northern Europe, such as smoked meat, salted fish, brine-cured vegetables and beer-vinegar pickles. Unlike the Frenchman, the Poles had no qualms about imitating Bohemian foodways. The oldest-known Polish-language cookbook, ''Kuchmistrzostwo'' (''Cookery''), is in fact a translation of Pavel Severýn's ''Kuchařství'', published in Czech in 1535; sadly, only a few of the translated recipes have survived, all of them for vinegar at that.<ref>{{Cyt | ||
| tytuł = Przegląd Historyczny | | tytuł = Przegląd Historyczny | ||
| nazwisko r = Spychaj | | nazwisko r = Spychaj | ||
| Line 356: | Line 348: | ||
}}</ref> | }}</ref> | ||
Let's a take a peek, then, into the oldest recipe collection in the beautiful Czech language. It's ''Spis o krmiech kterak mají dělány býti'' (''Of Dishes to be Made''), known from a 15th-century manuscript, although some individual recipes included in it may be much older. It turns out that even back then Bohemian-Polish culinary exchange wasn't entirely one-sided and that among about 160 recipes we can find in the cookbook there are five which are described as ''po polsku'', or "in the Polish manner". One of them is Polish-style mutton and the remaining four are variants of ''štika po polsku'', or pike in the Polish way. Pike was a highly prized fish in the Middle Ages, so on a lean day it wouldn't have been out of place on the royal table. And how better to receive a Bohemian king in Poland than by treating him to a Polish-style Bohemian dish? So let's see how it was made. | |||
{{Cytat | {{Cytat | ||
| | | Cook some stock that is not too salty. Scale the pike, cut into pieces, wash in clean water, and when the stock comes to boil, put the pike inside and cook well. Then strain it and put into a bowl. Chop up some onion very finely, cook it in boiling water, and when it's done, divide the onion into two parts. Grind one part with parsley in a crock, and once it is well ground, pour wine or vinegar into the crock, mix well and force through a sieve. Pour this sauce into a kettle or a pot, put the pike inside and season with all spices except cloves. You can prepare carp and other kinds of fish in the same way. Mix the other part of onion with saffron. And when you lay the pike in a bowl, put this onion on top. | ||
| źródło = ''Spis o krmiech kterak mají dèlány byti'' (rękopis z XV–XVI w.), | | źródło = ''Spis o krmiech kterak mají dèlány byti'' (rękopis z XV–XVI w.), quoted in: {{Cyt | ||
| nazwisko = Zíbrt | | nazwisko = Zíbrt | ||
| imię = Čeněk | | imię = Čeněk | ||
| Line 368: | Line 360: | ||
| rok = 1927 | | rok = 1927 | ||
| strony = 134 | | strony = 134 | ||
}}; | }}; quoted in: {{Cyt | ||
| tytuł = W poszukiwaniu istoty języka | | tytuł = W poszukiwaniu istoty języka | ||
| nazwisko r = Jakobson | | nazwisko r = Jakobson | ||
| Line 378: | Line 370: | ||
| tom = I | | tom = I | ||
| strony = 102 | | strony = 102 | ||
}}, | }}, own translation | ||
| oryg = Zastav rosol nevelmi slaný, ostruž štiku a roztrhni ji na kusy, vymyj ji čistú vodú a když rosol zevře, daj ji do nĕho a obvař dobře. Potom ji oced' a naklad' na misu. Usekajž cibuli velmi drobnĕ, vař ji v vodĕ, at' prudce vře, a když uvře rozdĕl sobĕ tu cibuli na dvé, jednu polovici tři v pánvi s petruželi; když ji dobře utřeš, vezmi vína, anebo octa, rozpust' to v pánvi a potáhni skrze hartoch dajž tu jichu do kotlika nebo do hrnce, vklad' tam štiku, zakořeň všemi kořeními kromĕ hřebičkuo. Muožeš tiem zpuosobem kapry i jiné ryby dĕlati. Druhú pak polovici cibuli ošarfaň. A když štiku na misu daš, daj to cibuli svrchu. | | oryg = Zastav rosol nevelmi slaný, ostruž štiku a roztrhni ji na kusy, vymyj ji čistú vodú a když rosol zevře, daj ji do nĕho a obvař dobře. Potom ji oced' a naklad' na misu. Usekajž cibuli velmi drobnĕ, vař ji v vodĕ, at' prudce vře, a když uvře rozdĕl sobĕ tu cibuli na dvé, jednu polovici tři v pánvi s petruželi; když ji dobře utřeš, vezmi vína, anebo octa, rozpust' to v pánvi a potáhni skrze hartoch dajž tu jichu do kotlika nebo do hrnce, vklad' tam štiku, zakořeň všemi kořeními kromĕ hřebičkuo. Muožeš tiem zpuosobem kapry i jiné ryby dĕlati. Druhú pak polovici cibuli ošarfaň. A když štiku na misu daš, daj to cibuli svrchu. | ||
}} | }} | ||
[[File:Abramowicz Uczta u Wierzynka 1876.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left| | [[File:Abramowicz Uczta u Wierzynka 1876.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|left|Wierzynek's Banquet by Bronisław Abramowicz (1876)]] | ||
If someone wants to give this recipe a try, then please let me know if it's any good. As for me, I wouldn't want to waste good fish. Because what was so Polish about this dish? If you compare the recipes described as "Polish style" with others in the same cookbook, you will notice that the difference was in the method of thermal treatment. All of the supposedly Polish dishes were simply boiled, whereas in other recipes boiling was at best only the first step, which could be followed by roasting, baking, frying, stuffing, covering in aspic, etc.<ref>{{Cyt | |||
| tytuł = W poszukiwaniu istoty języka | | tytuł = W poszukiwaniu istoty języka | ||
| nazwisko r = Jakobson | | nazwisko r = Jakobson | ||
| Line 393: | Line 385: | ||
| tom = I | | tom = I | ||
| strony = 100–111 | | strony = 100–111 | ||
}}</ref> | }}</ref> In the case of the Polish pike, all that remained to be done was the spicy onion coulis, or thick sauce.<ref>Magdalena Spychaj, ''op. cit.'', s. 600</ref> In other words, purportedly Polish recipes were the most primitive and required little culinary expertise. Which doesn't mean that such a Polish-style pike could not be served at Wirsing's banquet after all. Maybe not as the ''pièce de résistance'' of Cracovian cooks, but perhaps for a change of pace in one of the courses. Today a single course consists of a single dish, sometimes accompanied by some sides, but a course in the medieval sense was an entire set of contrasting dishes all served at once.<ref>{{Cyt | ||
| nazwisko = Flandrin | |||
| imię = Jean-Louis | |||
| tytuł = L'ordre des mets | |||
| wydawca = Éditions Odile Jacob | |||
| miejsce = Paris | |||
| rok = 2002 | |||
| strony = 13 | |||
}}</ref> If roasted or fried fish dishes were being put on the table, then it was only natural to counterbalance them with a boiled one. | |||
Pike in the Polish style would later make a career throughout Europe. It was copied from Czech cookbooks into German, Austrian, French, Russian and even Polish ones.<ref>{{Cyt | |||
| tytuł = Silva Rerum | | tytuł = Silva Rerum | ||
| nazwisko r = Dumanowski | | nazwisko r = Dumanowski | ||
| Line 403: | Line 403: | ||
| wydawca = Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III w Wilanowie | | wydawca = Muzeum Pałacu Króla Jana III w Wilanowie | ||
| miejsce = Warszawa | | miejsce = Warszawa | ||
}}</ref> | }}</ref> As European gastronomy was evolving and moving away from excess of exotic spices, this medieval recipe remained a souvenir of the colourful times when boiled fish was being seasoned with wine, pepper, ginger, mace and saffron (but no cloves!), while a Cracovian merchant was hosting princes, kings and an emperor. | ||
{{Przypisy}} | {{Przypisy}} | ||
== | == Bibliography == | ||
* {{Cyt | * {{Cyt | ||
| nazwisko = Grodecki | | nazwisko = Grodecki | ||
| Line 462: | Line 462: | ||
[[Category: Pavel Severýn]] | [[Category: Pavel Severýn]] | ||
[[Category: Cracow]] | [[Category: Cracow]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category: Czechia]] | ||
[[Category: Middle Ages]] | [[Category: Middle Ages]] | ||
[[Category: 20th century]] | [[Category: 20th century]] | ||
[[Category: 21st century]] | [[Category: 21st century]] | ||
[[Category: Pike in the Polish style]] | [[Category: Pike in the Polish style]] | ||