To give you an idea of what a kitchen was like in the days of Governor Claude de Ramezay, enter the museum and visit the garden-level rooms with the thick walls and vaulted ceilings. Near the kitchen, you will notice a large, shallow stone basin under the window, which was called “le potager”. It served as the kitchen sink to wash dishes and clean vegetables. The waste water was then drained out of the building to water the garden.
Now it is your turn! Here are some scrumptious recipes using vegetables and herbs that are grown in the Governor's Garden. These old recipes came from French cookbooks, which were available in New France in the mid-eighteenth century. They are now known to us thanks to the work of historians and can be found in Martin Fournier's book: Jardins et potagers en Nouvelle-France – Joie de vivre et patrimoine culinaire (Québec: Septentrion, 2004), which is available for sale at the Museum's Gift Shop.
The food which the better classes of Frenchmen ate was as follows: for dinner, clear soup, with slices of white bread and various kinds of relishes; then a dish of cooked meat sometimes fried after being cooked; occasionally beef or mutton, squabs or fowl. It was almost always fresh. Often the third course consisted of green peas and occasionally fried fish. The wheat bread used was quite good, but ordinarily, according to my taste, too salty. The salt was a gray, finely powdered variety. No cheese was served and very little butter, which had little salt in it. Milk was seldom used and generally it was boiled milk with slices of wheat bread in it, or fresh milk with berries similar to our blackberries. Occasionally pancakes were to be had. For a beverage, the Frenchmen either used pure wine, usually red wine, mixed with water, or else just water or spruce beer. In the evening there were served two dishes of meat, both fried, sometimes a fricassee or fried pigeons, also fried fish and now and then milk with berries. The third course in the evening was almost always a salad prepared in the usual manner. – Perh Kalm
The food which the better classes of Frenchmen ate was as follows: for dinner, clear soup, with slices of white bread and various kinds of relishes; then a dish of cooked meat sometimes fried after being cooked; occasionally beef or mutton, squabs or fowl. It was almost always fresh. Often the third course consisted of green peas and occasionally fried fish. The wheat bread used was quite good, but ordinarily, according to my taste, too salty. The salt was a gray, finely powdered variety. No cheese was served and very little butter, which had little salt in it. Milk was seldom used and generally it was boiled milk with slices of wheat bread in it, or fresh milk with berries similar to our blackberries. Occasionally pancakes were to be had. For a beverage, the Frenchmen either used pure wine, usually red wine, mixed with water, or else just water or spruce beer. In the evening there were served two dishes of meat, both fried, sometimes a fricassee or fried pigeons, also fried fish and now and then milk with berries. The third course in the evening was almost always a salad prepared in the usual manner.
– Perh Kalm
Traité historique et pratique de la cuisine, 1758.
La Varenne, Le cuisinier français, 1699.
Menon, La cuisinière bourgeoise, 1772.
Makes about 36 to 40 ramekins, the size of muffins or rolls
La Varenne, Le pâtissier français, 1699.