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.

Original French recipe from 1651 and a Dutch translation from 1701.

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

Recipe by Smodder.com (Stef Bruurs)Course: breakfast, lunchCuisine: French

Servings

servings

Chimney time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

A 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.