At the Tourangelle table in Rabelais's time, the meal unfolded in several "services" brought all at once and set on the tablecloth: first pottages and entrées of tripe or meat in sauce, then roasts, and finally the "issues de table" — pastries, dragées, fruits, dry preserves, and spiced wine to aid digestion. Sweet and savory were not separated as they are today: sweet spices and tart verjus appeared together in the same dish. Bread and Touraine wine accompanied everything, from first to last course.

Juice of green grapes pressed before maturity, acidic and fruity: it was the reigning souring agent in French cuisine before lemons became common. The son of a winemaker from La Devinière, Rabelais grew up among the vines; verjus sharpens his sauces, pottages, and stews where we would use lemon or vinegar.