Third Course (Soteltie/Entremet, Dessert, Issue de Table & Send-Off)

Many menus of the 14th and 15th century describe beautifully elaborate dishes that were for show. The French referred to these dishes as entremet while the English would refer to them subtlety, sotelty or soteltie. In the 12th century, entremets referred specifically to entertainments, or an elaborate dish or course featuring a spectacle dish or dishes which were served between courses. However, by the 17th century, an entremet had come to mean a dish that was served between a roast and the dessert.

The term “dessert” comes from the French desservir meaning to clear the table, indicating to the diner that they had come to the end of their meal. The first recorded usage of the term desservir was in 1539. At the conclusion of the meal, there would be served a series of dishes that could be either savory or sweet. The modern diner expects a completely sweet course, and it is in this progression of the dishes a resurgence of dry and warm spices and hot and moist sugar is prevalent.

After diners had finished desert they would be invited to withdraw from the table and enter into another room, where they received the Issue de Table, an offering that could be as narrow as wafers and hypocras or as broad as a selection of light pastries, wafers, juice, or wine.

The last part of a meal in the 14th and 15th century, was the boute hor’s, or send off. Diners received wine and épices de chambre (chamber spices), fruit candied in sugar or honey, candied nuts and fruit pastes. Not only did these items have the benefit of serving to further close the stomach, they also freshened the breath.

When recreating the feel of a feast today, an elaborate third course composed of all manner of sweet or savory dishes should be used to signal the ending of the meal. A modern medieval cook may choose to end their meal with a variety of dishes such as a custard tart, stewed fruits, wafers with snow, fruit pastes, manus christi and spices in comfit. Other items for consideration include sweet dishes made with honey and sugar, glazed dishes, crepes, fruit rissoles, puddings, custards, and light cakes.

At many modern feasts, the Issue de Table is not observed, but suggestions to invoke the spirit of the Issue include the addition of candied fruits, spices and nuts, along with candied ginger, fruit pastes and other sweetmeats served with spiced fruit juice or wine.

Here you will find an index of recipes that would be appropriate for those dishes you would find on the table as desserts, issue and send off for a four course medieval dinner (assuming that you are serving a meal that consists of appetizers, two courses and a dessert).

Index of Recipes 

A far morselletti Romaneschi - To make Roman style morsels

Bryndons - Crispy Fried Dough with a Sweet and Fruity Sauce

Callishones - Marzipan Flavored with Coriander

Comfits - Candied Anise, Fennel, Caraway, Cinnamon, etc. seeds

Coriander Flavored Marzipan -A Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1621

Creme Bastarde - Cream Bastarde

Fig, Walnut and Candied Ginger Fruit Paste - A rift on Rapeye

Fruit Paste

Gyngerbrede - Gingerbread

How to cover all kinds of Seeds, or little pieces of Spices, or Orange or Limon Pill, with Sugar for Comfits. The queen-like closet (1670) - Comfits and Candied Orange or Lemon Peel

How to Make Chardequince, Chardewardon (pear paste), Chardecrab (crab apple paste) and Chardedate - Fruit Paste or Fruit Cheese of Quinces, Pears, Apples/Crab Apples or Dates

Insalata di arance tagliate a fette, servite con zucchero e acqua di rose - Sliced orange salad with rosewater and sugar

Jellied Ypocras - Jellied Hippocras - spiced wine Jello

Marchpane A Book of Cookrye, 1591 - Almond Paste "cookie"

Mell Violatum (Voilet Honey)

Okashi お菓子 - Various Japanese Sweet Dishes - Shiratama Dango, Red bean paste, Kuromitsu (Black Sugar Syrup), No Churn Green Tea w/Jasmine Ice Cream & Agar Agar jelly (kanten)

Oyl of Violets (Violet Oil)

Quince and Rosewater Jelly and Quince Paste 

Spiced apples and pears Chiquart's 'On Cookery’, 1420

Sugar and Gum Arabic Preserved Flowers 

Sugar Plate and Manus Christi - Medieval Candy

Trayne Roste - Mock "Entrails"  - Dried Fruit and nuts spit roasted (or fried) with batter

To candy any roote, fruite or flower

To candy any roote, fruite or flower - English Housewife, 1615

To make white leach of creame - A Closet for Ladies and Gentlewomen (1602) - Medieval Jello

To Make Candied Orange Peel, Le Menagier de Paris, 1393

To make Marmalade of Damsins or Prunes, The treasurie of commodius conceits (1573) - Prune Paste/Cheese 

To Make Muscadines, Commonly called Kissing Comfits

To make Manus Christi - A Closet for Ladies and Gentlevvomen, 1602 - Medieval Candy

To Make Syrupe of Violets (Violet Syrup)

To preserve Oranges, after the Portugal fashion - Sir Hugh Plat 1609- Whole Preserved Orange Peels Stuffed with Orange Marmalade  

Violet Syrup 

Vyolette (Violet Pottage)