Ambroise Paré at the table

During the Renaissance, a wealthy man's meal was served in successive courses brought to the table together: first pottages and boiled meats, then roasts accompanied by tart sauces, and finally the issue de table—dry preserves, dragées, and hippocras, believed to seal the meal and aid digestion. Sweet and savory were not separated: sweet spices perfumed both the capon and the wine.

Verjuice, the juice of unripe green grapes, was the king of souring agents in 16th-century French cuisine (before lemon became widespread). With cinnamon, ginger, and 'grains of paradise,' it defined the sweet-and-sour, spiced taste of the Renaissance table, inherited from medieval treatises and physician-cooks.