Misplaced Pages

***

Capatti and Montanari, Italian Cuisine: A Cultural History, p. 86 re "analytical taste" Jean-Louis Flandrin, Arranging the Meal, ...

Re fats: Flandrinm, Le gout et la necessite, Annales E.S.C. 38:2 (1983) 369-401 Aries/Duby, History of Private Life, 3:265-307 Flandrin "distinction through taste"

In modern Western cuisines, the opposition between sweet and savory dishes has been fundamental since the 18th century. Savory dishes include meat, fish, vegetables, and breads, and are seasoned with salt. Sweet dishes are noticeably sweet. Spices and other flavorings are classified as savory or pungent, or as sweet. Meals start with one or more courses of savory dishes and end in one sweet dish, the desserts.

Meat, fish, hard cheeses, pulses, and most vegetables appear only in savory dishes, are seasoned with salt, and contain little sugar. Fruit appears mostly in sweet dishes, which often include large amounts of sugar.

Some kinds of dish exist in both sweet and savory variants. Breads, pies, tarts, pastry, custards, and crepes can be sweet or savory. Some ingredients are used in both sweet and savory foods: flour, fresh soft cheese, lemon, ...

Flavorings

Sweet spices and flavorings include sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, allspice, cardamom, clove, mace, aniseed and star anise, ginger, cacao, poppy seed, and carob.

Savory or pungent spices and flavorings include salt, black pepper, caraway seed, chilis (including paprika and cayenne), , coriander, cumin, juniper berry, saffron, sumac, turmeric, mustard, horseradish, wasabi, and tamarind.

In German and Scandinavian cooking, cardamom is also used for sausages and ground meat.

History

Medieval European food was structured by the Galenic theory of humors and the Great Chain of Being. Galen classified foods along two axes: hot vs. cold, and moist vs. dry. The Great Chain classified foods as more or less noble. Foods from the air, such as tree fruits and birds, were more noble, those from near the ground, such as strawberries and melons, were less noble, and root vegetables were of the lowest value. Medieval and early modern foods often combined sweet and savory ingredients. For example, La Varenne presents a recipe for an omelette with parsley and scallions seasoned with sugar:

Omelette de persil

Cassez vos œufs, & assaisonnez les de sel, persil aché menu, & siboules si vous voulez ; battez les bien avec du beurre, & faites vostre omelette : estant faite, vous la roulez si vou voulez, & la coupez par ruelles, garnissez en une assiette ; sucrez, & servez le plus promptement que se pourra.

Break your eggs, and season them with salt, finely chopped parsley, and spring onions if you like; beat them well with butter, and make your omelette : when it is done, roll it if you like, and cut it into rounds, and serve it in a garnished plate; sugar it, and serve it as quickly as possible.

— La Varenne, 1654

Starting in the 18th century, cooking ...

French cuisine reduced the use of sugar in meat and fish dishes from the 14th to the 18th centuries.((Flandrin)) By the 19th century, French cuisine rather strictly segregated sweet dishes in a separate dessert course.((Jurafsky, 176)) Reducing the use Restricting sweet foods to a final dessert course developed in French cuisine from the 14th to the 18th century, and

Sequence of courses

For lunch and dinner, a meal generally consists of one or more savory courses followed by one sweet course. Sometimes courses may be separated by a tart sorbet. In formal British meals, the sweet course may be followed by a savoury.

Spices

The new cuisine of the 18th century emphasized natural, light flavors, and preferred herbs over spices. The spices that did continue to be used were divided into sweet and savory spices. Cinnamon and vanilla became the sweet flavorings par excellence; black pepper the savory spice. Nutmeg took on a limited role in both sweet and savory dishes, mostly in cream sauces.

United States

In modern American cuisine, many savory dishes are heavily sweetened.

((more from Jurafsky p 177)) salad dressings

Savory dishes with sweet elements

Despite the general rule, there are some well-known dishes in European cuisine which include sweet ingredients, yet are served in the savory part of the meal:

• Canard à l'orange
• Melon with prosciutto
• Agrodolce in Italian cuisine
• Waldorf salad
• Apple sauce and cranberry sauce, served with meats
• Tart sorbets as a palate cleanser
• Peanut butter and jelly and Fluffernutter sandwiches
• Hawaiian pizza, with pineapple
• Chicken and waffles served with syrup

Some chefs and restaurants are famous for dishes that violate the usual rules:

• Lutèce's foie gras with dark chocolate sauce and bitter orange marmelade
• Ferran Adrià...

Condiments

• Mostarda di frutta is a class of sweet and piquant condiments for boiled meat in Italian cuisine.
• Chutneys and piccalilli, adaptations of South Asian pickles, some of which are very sweet.
• Ketchup
• Many varieties of barbecue sauce
• Various mustards: Bavarian sweet mustard, Romanian Tecuci mustard, honey mustard

Sweet dishes with savory elements

• Salted caramel, invented in 1977
• Apple pie served with cheddar cheese, popular in the 19th century
• Chocolate with chili peppers, inspired by the Aztec practice

Some modern chefs include meat in desserts, as an intentionally incongruous ingredient:

• Pierre Hermé's macarons with chocolate and foie gras
• Various confections and dessert dishes with bacon, including pretzels, caramel popcorn, chocolate-covered bacon, cupcakes, and donuts.

Beverage pairings

In most Western cuisine, only water, dry wine, and beer are consumed with savory courses.

In the United States, sweet beverages are often eaten with savory courses, including soft drinks, sweetened iced tea, fruit juices, and milkshakes.

Contrast with other cuisines

Many cuisines combine ingredients which violate the Western sweet-savory contrast:

• North African and Persian cuisine include many dishes combining fruits and meat.
• Moroccan pastilla is a dish of chicken topped with almonds, cinnamon, and sugar.
• Many mole sauces in Mexican cuisine, notably model poblano, include chocolate and are served with turkey, to the surprise of Westerners.
• Many South Asian dishes use "sweet" spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg on meat.
• The classical Ottoman dessert tavuk göğsü, based on chicken.
• The cuisine of Henan province, China, is famous for Yellow River Carp, a sweet-and-sour fish dish, and other sweet-and-sour dishes.

Notes

1. quoted by Eric Asimov, "Critic's Notebook; In Defense Of Weird Food", New York Times, April 30, 2003
2. ^ Vanina Leschziner, "Epistemic foundations of cuisine: A socio-cognitive study of the configuration of cuisine in historical perspective",Theory and Society 35:4:421–443 (August 2006), doi:10.1007/s11186-006-9008-7
3. Nancy Hajeski, National Geographic Complete Guide to Herbs and Spices, p. 201ff
4. Hajeski, p. 233
5. Caitlin PenzeyMoog, On Spice: Advice, Wisdom, and History with a Grain of Saltiness p. 188
6. Pierre François La Varenne. Le cuisinier françois, 1654, p. 206
7. Mary Douglas, "Deciphering a Meal", Daedalus 101:1:61-81, special issue "Myth, Symbol, and Culture" (Winter, 1972) JSTOR 20024058
8. as quoted in Adam Gopnik, The Table Comes First, 2011, p. 269
9. ^ Michele Humes, "When Meat Becomes Dessert", The Atlantic August 20, 2009
10. Michael Waters, "The Long, Storied Controversy Over Cheese on Apple Pie", Atlas Obscura July 13, 2017
11. "About Apple Pie", The Country Gentleman, November 20, 1862, p. 335
12. "Bacon: Not Just For Breakfast Anymore", New York Post, November 30, 1999
13. Joel Stein, "What's Cooking? Bacon, For Dessert", Time, January 8, 2009, p. 51
14. Carla Spartos, "Bacon Whoopee!", New York Post, March 25, 2009
15. Diana Kennedy, The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, p. 324
16. Frederick J. Simoons, Food in China: A Cultural and Historical Inquiry, 1991, ISBN 9780849388040 p. 48