Toast with chimney soot 1651

Different times, different tastes..
Digging through archives in search of old (European) recipes; you come across a lot of recipes that are forgotten for a reason. Flamingo, crane, lark, whale and other animals we are not allowed to hunt anymore..or some recipes are just “why?”. Why did it excist in the first place.

This recipe for toast with chimney soot was found in a French cookbook from 1651; Le cuisinier François by François Pierre de la Varenne. The French kitchen by a guy named French. A link of the book is posted below.
In the original French recipe it is called “ramequin” with chimney soot. A Ramequin is a small porcelain or glass pot for 1 person. Hence I can imagine it translates as a “small dish for one” in this context. The Dutch title is “heard-butter” with chimney soot. I am not sure if that reffers to the butter used; or was a name for a piece of bread prepared in butter or something.
This recipe is not recommended for actual consumption. Although charcoal biscuits are still a thing; invented in England in the early 19th century to get rid of too many farts and still sold today in alternative medical stores for an healthy digestive system, I would not eat soot from your chimney or BBQ etc. That’s just not healthy.
It makes you wonder if they ate this at that time for health reasons too; but since it’s a recipe in a cookbook and not a medical book they probably just liked the taste. I wonder if the chimney soot also tasted a bit like the many meats that were prepared in the fireplace. If it had a smokey flavour. I might lick my chimney someday.
The yummy recipe for toast with chimney soot.
Toast with chimney soot 1651
Course: breakfast, lunchCuisine: French1
servings5
minutes10
minutesA recipe from toast with chimney soot from 1651.
Ingredients
1 slice of bread
Butter or oil
A pinch of salt and a good amount of white pepper
Chimney soot to your taste
Directions
- Put on a mining helmet and spelunk your chimney as deep as possible to get to that best bit of chimney soot. Scrape of as many of that black delight as you wish.
- Put a good amount of butter or oil in a pan.
- Bake a slice of bread in said pan until it’s more then the half brown. So I guess that’s 2/3 brown. Or 3/4. Or 99%. Or over 3000.
- Add salt, a lot of white pepper, and soot.
Notes
- The amount of soot is not specified. I live by “the more the better” so went all out. When you treat yourself once in a while with good French cuisine meant for nobles; you have to REALLY treat yourself and go all out, you know. Be a queen.
Book links:
French: Le Cuisinier françois (1651) by François Pierre de la Varenne.
Dutch: De geoefende of ervaren keukenmeester of verstandige kok (1701) translated by François Pierre de la Varenne by Bastiaan Schouten.
Where did you get that?
Blue towel: 2nd hand shop.
Wooden handmade gaucho plate at Amazon:
The cup is a communion chalice/cup/goblet from the 2nd hand store.
New wooden communion cups are on sale at Amazon too