Pierre de Ronsard at the table

At the table of a learned 16th-century gentleman, the meal unfolds in several 'services' brought one after another: first the potages and broths, then roasts of meat and game sharpened with sweet-and-sour sauces, and finally the 'issue de table' — candied fruits, dragées, and spiced wine. There is no clear separation between savory and sweet: spices, sugar, and verjuice mingle in the same dish, according to the abundance and rank of the host.

A sour juice made from green grapes picked before ripeness, verjuice is the sweet-and-sour soul of Renaissance cooking. In Ronsard's Vendômois, ringed with vineyards, it often replaces lemon and lends sauces that lively freshness which the physicians of the time deemed healthy for the stomach.