Michel de Montaigne at the table

At a Renaissance gentleman's table, meals were not served as starter-main-dessert in sequence, but in "courses": several dishes arrived together, covering the table, mixing savory and sweet, roast and pottage. The meal began with pottages and entrées, continued with roasts and meats in sauce, and ended with the "issue de table" — hypocras, dragées, fruits, and preserves. Spice reigned as much as in the main course, and verjuice provided acidity wherever we would use lemon.

The juice of unripe green grapes pressed before maturity, the queen of acidity in 16th-century French kitchens. Montaigne, who drank wine from his own vineyards in Périgord, had the same vine at hand to produce verjuice: a tart freshness that enlivens poultry, game, and sauces without the sweetness of ripe fruit.