''Compendium ferculorum, albo Zebranie potraw'' (''A Collection of Dishes'') is a cookbook by

Stanisław Czerniecki (; '' fl.'' 1645–1698) was a Polish soldier, property manager, chef and writer, best known as the author of '' Compendium ferculorum, albo Zebranie potraw'' (''A Collection of Dishes''), the first cookbook written originally in the Polish lang ...

. First put in print in 1682, it is the earliest known cookery book published originally in Polish. Czerniecki wrote it in his capacity as

head chef A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant or hotel. A chef patron (feminine form ''chef patronne'') (French for ''boss chef'') or executive chef i ...

at the court of the

house of Lubomirski A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air ...

and dedicated it to Princess

Helena Tekla Lubomirska Princess Helena Tekla Lubomirska ''née'' Ossolińska (died 1687) was a Polish noblewoman Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal fami ...

. The book contains more than 300 recipes, divided into three chapters of about 100 recipes each. The chapters are devoted, respectively, to meat, fish and other dishes, and each concludes with a "master chef's secret". Czerniecki's cooking style, as is evident in his book, was typical for the luxuriant

Polish Baroque The Polish Baroque lasted from the early 17th to the mid-18th century. As with Baroque style elsewhere in Europe, Poland's Baroque emphasized the richness and triumphant power of contemporary art forms. In contrast to the previous, Renaissance sty ...

cuisine, which still had a largely medieval outlook, but was gradually succumbing to novel culinary ideas coming from France. It was characterized by generous use of vinegar, sugar and exotic spices, as well as preference for spectacle over thrift. The book was republished several times during the 18th and 19th centuries, sometimes under new titles, and had an important impact on the development of

Polish cuisine Polish cuisine ( pl, kuchnia polska) is a style of cooking and food preparation originating in or widely popular in Poland. Due to Poland's history, Polish cuisine has evolved over the centuries to be very eclectic, and it shares many similariti ...

. It also served as an inspiration for the portrayal of an Old Polish banquet in ''

Pan Tadeusz ''Pan Tadeusz'' (full title: ''Mister Thaddeus, or the Last Foray in Lithuania: A Nobility's Tale of the Years 1811–1812, in Twelve Books of Verse'') is an epic poem by the Polish poet, writer, translator and philosopher Adam Mickiewicz. The ...

'', the Polish national epic.

Context

Czerniecki was an ennobled burgher who served three generations of the

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

house of Princes Lubomirski as property manager and head chef. He began his service in ca. 1645, initially under Stanisław Lubomirski until 1649, then under the latter's eldest son, Aleksander Michał Lubomirski, and his grandson,

Józef Karol Lubomirski Prince Józef Karol Lubomirski (1638–1702) was a Polish noble. He was owner of Dubno, Wiśnicz, Tarnów and Zesław, Koniuszy of the Crown since 1683, Court Marshals of the Crown since 1692, Grand Marshal of the Crown in 1702, Starost of ...

. Although Czerniecki's book was first published in 1682, it must have been completed before Aleksander Michał Lubomirski's death in 1677. The original publication of ''Compendium ferculorum'' came three decades after the French cookbook entitled ' (''The French

ale Ale is a type of beer brewed using a warm fermentation method, resulting in a sweet, full-bodied and fruity taste. Historically, the term referred to a drink brewed without hops. As with most beers, ale typically has a bittering agent to bal ...

Cook'', 1651), by

François Pierre de La Varenne François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, King o ...

, started a culinary revolution that spread across Europe in the second half of the 17th century. In this new wave of French gastronomy, exotic spices were largely replaced with domestic herbs with the aim of highlighting the natural flavours of foods. Polish magnates often hired French chefs at their courts and some also held copies of ' in their libraries (including King

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( pl, Jan III Sobieski; lt, Jonas III Sobieskis; la, Ioannes III Sobiscius; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobie ...

who was married to the French Marie Casimire d'Arquien). ''Compendium ferculorum'', written in Polish and promoting traditional domestic cuisine, which maintained a largely medieval outlook, may be seen as Czerniecki's response to the onslaught of culinary cosmopolitanism.

Content

Title and dedication

Although the book is written entirely in Polish, it has a bilingual, Latin and Polish, title. ''Compendium ferculorum'' and both mean "a collection of dishes", in Latin and Polish, respectively; these are joined by the Polish conjunction ''albo'', "or". The work opens with Czerniecki's dedication to his "most charitable lady and benefactress",. Princess ''née'' , recalling a famed banquet given to

Pope Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII ( la, Urbanus VIII; it, Urbano VIII; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death in July 1644. As po ...

by her father, Prince , during his diplomatic mission to Rome in 1633. Ossoliński's

legation A legation was a diplomatic representative office of lower rank than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an ambassador, a legation was headed by a minister. Ambassadors outranked ministers and had precedence at official events. Legations ...

was famous for its ostentatious sumptuousness designed to show off the grandeur and prosperity of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi- confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Poland and Lithuania ...

, even to the point of deliberately fitting his mount with loose golden horseshoes, only to lose them while ceremoniously entering the Eternal City. The dedication, in which Czerniecki pointed out he had already served the house of Lubomirski for 32 years, also mentions Lubomirska's husband, , and their son, , wishing the whole family good health and good fortune. The author was well aware that his was the first cookbook in the Polish vernacular, which he made clear in the dedication. "As no one before me has yet wished to present to the world such useful knowledge in our Polish language," he wrote in his opening line, "I have dared, ... despite my ineptitude, to offer the Polish world my ''compendium ferculorum'', or collection of dishes." Polish bibliographer maintained that ''Compendium ferculorum'' was preceded by ''Kuchmistrzostwo'' (''Cooking Mastery''), a 16th-century Polish translation of the Czech cookbook ' (''Cookery'') written by in 1535. However, no copies of this supposed translation have survived, except for

facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of ...

s of two

folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

s, published in 1891, of uncertain authenticity. Whatever the case, Czerniecki's work is without a doubt the oldest known cookbook published originally in Polish.

Inventory

The dedication is followed by a detailed inventory of food items, kitchenware, as well as kitchen and waiting staff, necessary for hosting a banquet. The list of food items begins with meats of farm animals and game, including sundry game birds, from

snow bunting The snow bunting (''Plectrophenax nivalis'') is a passerine bird in the family Calcariidae. It is an Arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere. There are small isolated populations on a few h ...

great bustard The great bustard (''Otis tarda'') is a bird in the bustard family, the only member of the genus ''Otis''. It breeds in open grasslands and farmland from northern Morocco, South and Central Europe, to temperate Central and East Asia. European ...

. Different kinds of cereals and pasta are followed by an enumeration of fruits and mushrooms which may be either fresh or dried. The list of vegetables includes, now largely forgotten,

cardoon The cardoon, ''Cynara cardunculus'' (), also called the artichoke thistle, is a thistle in the family Asteraceae. It is a naturally occurring species that also has many cultivated forms, including the globe artichoke. It is native to the west ...

Jerusalem artichoke The Jerusalem artichoke (''Helianthus tuberosus''), also called sunroot, sunchoke, wild sunflower, topinambur, or earth apple, is a species of sunflower native to central North America. It is cultivated widely across the temperate zone for it ...

and turnip-rooted chervil, or ''popie jajka'' (literally, "priest's balls"), as Czerniecki calls it. Under the heading of "spices" come not only

saffron Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of ''Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma (botany), stigma and stigma (botany)#style, styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly ...

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in di ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is a herbaceous perennial which grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of ...

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus '' Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, brea ...

cloves Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands (or Moluccas) in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring or fragrance in consumer products, ...

, nutmeg, mace and

cumin Cumin ( or , or Article title
) (''Cuminum cyminum'') is a

powdered sugar Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar, or icing sugar, is a finely ground sugar produced by milling granulated sugar into a powdered state. It usually contains between 2% and 5% of an anti-caking agent – such as corn starch, p ...

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and ''Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...

, "large" and "small"

raisin A raisin is a dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, the word ''raisin'' is reserved for the d ...

citrus ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is nati ...

fruits such as

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

limes Limes may refer to: * the plural form of lime (disambiguation) * the Latin word for ''limit'' which refers to: ** Limes (Roman Empire) (Latin, singular; plural: ) is a modern term used primarily for the Germanic border defence or delimitin ...

and

oranges An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae (see list of plants known as orange); it primarily refers to ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related ''Citrus × ...

, and even smoked

ham Ham is pork from a leg cut that has been preserved by wet or dry curing, with or without smoking."Bacon: Bacon and Ham Curing" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 39. As a processed meat, the term "ham ...

and smoked

beef tongue Beef tongue (also known as neat's tongue or ox tongue) is a cut of beef made of the tongue of a cow. It can be boiled, pickled, roasted or braised in sauce. It is found in many national cuisines, and is used for taco fillings in Mexico and for ...

, which were also used as seasonings.

Advice

Next, the author presents his views and advice regarding the role of ''kuchmistrz'', or "master chef". Czerniecki clearly took pride from his role as a chef, which he understood as incorporating those of an artist and a mentor to younger cooks. According to him, a good chef should be "well-groomed, sober, attentive, loyal and, most of all, supportive to his lord and quick.".

He should be neat and tidy, with a good head of hair, well-combed, short at the back and sides; he should have clean hands, his fingernails should be trimmed, he should wear a white apron; he should not be quarrelsome, he should be sober, submissive, brisk; he should have a good understanding of flavor, a sound knowledge of ingredients and utensils, together with a willingness to serve everyone.As quoted in

Czerniecki concludes these introductory remarks with an admonition against sprinkling food with

bread crumbs Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thicke ...

and by avowing to focus on "Old Polish dishes". to let the reader experience domestic cuisine before moving on to foreign specialties.

Structure

The main part of the book follows a well-thought-out structure. It is divided into three chapters, each containing one hundred numbered recipes, followed by an appendix (''additament'') of ten additional numbered recipes and an extra special recipe called a "master chef's secret" (''sekret kuchmistrzowski''). Thus, ostensibly, each chapter consists of 111 recipes, giving a total of 333. The first chapter, opening with a recipe for "Polish broth" (''

rosół Rosół () is a traditional Polish soup based primarily on meat broth. Its most popular variety is the ''rosół z kury'', or clear chicken soup. It is commonly served with capellini pasta. A vegetarian version can be made, substituting meat wi ...

polski''), is devoted to meat dishes. The second contains recipes for fish dishes, including one for beaver tail, which was considered a fish for the purposes of Catholic dietary law. The final chapter is more diverse and presents recipes for dairy dishes, pies, tarts and cakes, as well as soups (omitted from the chapter's title). Compendium ferculorum, p 82

The actual number of recipes deviates from that claimed by the author. On the one hand, there may be more than one recipe under a single numbered heading. For example, under number 4 in chapter 1, there are three disparate recipes, one for stewed meat in saffron sauce, one for a thick sauce of sieved vegetables and one for boiled

meatball A meatball is ground meat rolled into a ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as bread crumbs, minced onion, eggs, butter, and seasoning. Meatballs are cooked by frying, baking, steaming, or braising in sauce. There are many types ...

s, as well as a tip to add raisins only to those dishes that are meant to be sweet. Chapter 2 opens with five unnumbered recipes for sauces to be used with fish. On the other hand, some of the numbered headings are not followed by any actual recipe, serving only to reiterate that various dishes may be prepared using the same basic technique. For instance, in chapter 3, the recipe for a puff-pastry

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

tart, is followed by eleven numbered headings saying, "

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...

tart likewise", "

woodland strawberry ''Fragaria vesca'', commonly called the wild strawberry, woodland strawberry, Alpine strawberry, Carpathian strawberry or European strawberry, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the rose family that grows naturally throughout much of the Northe ...

tart likewise", "

sour cherry ''Prunus cerasus'' (sour cherry, tart cherry, or dwarf cherry) is a species of ''Prunus'' in the subgenus '' Cerasus'' ( cherries), native to much of Europe and southwest Asia. It is closely related to the sweet cherry (''Prunus avium''), but h ...

tart likewise", and so on for

fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

prune A prune is a dried plum, most commonly from the European plum (''Prunus domestica''). Not all plum species or varieties can be dried into prunes. A prune is the firm-fleshed fruit (plum) of '' Prunus domestica'' varieties that have a high so ...

date Date or dates may refer to: *Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (''Phoenix dactylifera'') Social activity *Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner ** Group dating *Play date, a ...

gooseberry Gooseberry ( or (American and northern British) or (southern British)) is a common name for many species of ''Ribes'' (which also includes Ribes, currants), as well as a large number of plants of similar appearance. The berries of those in th ...

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non- ...

plum A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes. History Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found ...

, currant and

quince The quince (; ''Cydonia oblonga'') is the sole member of the genus ''Cydonia'' in the Malinae subtribe (which also contains apples and pears, among other fruits) of the Rosaceae family. It is a deciduous tree that bears hard, aromatic brigh ...

tarts.

Approach

Writing

The instructions in ''Compendium ferculorum'' are succinct and often vague, lacking such elements of modern culinary recipes as lists of ingredients used, measurements or proportions, and cooking times. The underlying assumption is that they are to be used by a professional chef rather than a person with little cooking experience. The recipe for stewed meat in saffron sauce, cited below, is typical is this regard. All recipes are written in the second-person

singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar ...

imperative, a grammatical form that would not have been used to address a person of high rank. The instructions were most likely meant to be read aloud by the chef or one of senior cooks to junior members of the kitchen staff, who would carry them out. This style contrasts with the less direct, impersonal way of addressing the reader, characterized by

infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all languages. The word is de ...

verb forms, used in 19th-century Polish cookbooks.

Cooking

Czerniecki's cooking style, as presented in his book, is characterized by aristocratic lavishness, Baroque pageantry and fiery combinations of contrasting flavours. When it comes to spending, the author cautions against both waste and unnecessary thrift. Pieprzno i szafranno

A banquet was meant to overwhelm the guests with lavishness and flaunt the host's wealth and munificence. Abundant use of expensive spices was one way to accomplish this. Black pepper, ginger, saffron, cinnamon, cloves, mace and nutmeg were added to most dishes by kilograms. Czerniecki counted sugar among spices and used it as such; his book contains few recipes for desserts, but sugar is used profusely in recipes for meat, fish and egg dishes. Vinegar was also used in copious amounts. Such fusion of excessively piquant,

sweet and sour Sweet and sour is a generic term that encompasses many styles of sauce, cuisine and cooking methods. It is commonly used in East Asia and Southeast Asia, and has been used in England since the Middle Ages. Dickson Wright, Clarissa (2011) ''A Histor ...

tastes, which modern Poles would likely find inedible, was typical of Old Polish cuisine, described by Czerniecki as "saffrony and peppery".. A dish that succeeded to puzzle or surprise the diners was considered the greatest achievement of culinary sophistication. The "secrets", divulged at the end of each chapter, provide examples of such recipes. One is for a capon in a bottle; the trick was to skin the bird, place the skin inside a bottle, fill it with a mixture of milk and eggs, and put the bottle into boiling water. As the mixture expanded in heat, it produced an illusion of a whole capon fit inside a bottle. Another "secret" is a recipe for an uncut pike with its head fried, its tail baked and its middle boiled; it was made by spit-roasting the fish while basting its head with oil or butter and sprinkling it with flour, and pouring salted vinegar on cloth wrapped around the middle part. The last recipe is for a broth boiled with a string of pearls and a golden coin, which was supposed to cure the sick and those "despairing about their health".. Czerniecki's goal was to present what he called "Old Polish dishes" as opposed to foreign recipes. He did, however, reference foreign influences throughout the book, particularly from

French cuisine French cuisine () is the cooking traditions and practices from France. It has been influenced over the centuries by the many surrounding cultures of Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium, in addition to the food traditions of the r ...

and from what he referred to as "Imperial cuisine", that is, the cooking styles of Bohemia and

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

, then both part of the

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

. He displays an ambivalent attitude to French cookery; on the one hand, he dismisses French ', or creamy soups, as alien to Polish culture and criticizes the use of wine in cooking. "Every dish may be cooked without wine", he wrote, "it suffices to season it with vinegar and sweetness.". On the other hand, Czerniecki does provide recipes for ', dishes seasoned with wine, as well as other French culinary novelties, such as puff pastry (still known today in Poland as "French dough".), arguing that a skilled chef must be able to accommodate foreign visitors with dishes from their own cuisines. In fact, the author included more French recipes than he was ready to admit; even the "secret" recipe for a capon in a bottle was adapted from a similar recipe found in '.

Legacy

Culinary

For over a century after its first edition, ''Compendium ferculorum'' remained the only printed cookbook in Polish. It was only in 1783 that a new Polish-language cookbook – ''Kucharz doskonały'' (''The Perfect

Cook'') by Wojciech Wielądko – was published. Its first edition was little more than an abridged translation of ''La cuisinière bourgeoise'' (''The Urban emaleCook'') by Menon, a popular French cookbook, first published in 1746. One part of ''Kucharz doskonały'', however, was based directly on Czerniecki's work. Wielądko chose not to translate the glossary of culinary terms included in Menon's book; instead, he appended to the cookbook his own glossary, which explained the culinary terms (and, in some cases, quoted entire recipes) found in ''Compendium ferculorum''. This way, ''Kucharz doskonały'' combined French cuisine, which was then storming into fashion in Poland, with Old Polish cookery, exemplified by Czerniecki's book. In the third edition, in 1800, Wielądko included even more time-honoured Polish and German recipes, creating an amalgam of national culinary tradition and new French cuisine, and thus laying the groundwork for modern Polish cookery.

Literary

Kazimierz Mrówczyński, Soplicowo - Arcyserwis

In 1834, ''Compendium ferculorum'' served as an inspiration to

Adam Mickiewicz Adam Bernard Mickiewicz (; 24 December 179826 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish ...

for his nostalgic description of "the last Old Polish feast" in ''

'', a

mock heroic Mock-heroic, mock-epic or heroi-comic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic ...

poem set in the years 1811–1812, which has come to be revered as the Polish

national epic A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation—not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group with a ...

. In his account of the fictional banquet in Book 12, the poet included the names of several dishes found in the oldest Polish cookbook, such as "royal

borscht Borscht () is a sour soup common in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. In English, the word "borscht" is most often associated with the soup's variant of Ukrainian origin, made with red beetroots as one of the main ingredients, which g ...

", as well as two of the master chef's secrets: the broth with pearls and a coin, and the three-way fish. To underscore that the feast represents an exotic bygone world of pre- partition Poland, Mickiewicz added to this a list of random dishes, ingredients and

additives Additive may refer to: Mathematics * Additive function, a function in number theory * Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation * Additive set-functionn see Sigma additivity * Additive category, a preadditive category with f ...

, whose names he found in ''Compendium ferculorum'' and which had already been forgotten in his own time: ''kontuza'' (soup of boiled and sieved meat), ''arkas'' (sweet milk-based jelly), ''blemas'' (

blancmange Blancmange (, from french: blanc-manger ) is a sweet dessert popular throughout Europe commonly made with milk or cream and sugar thickened with rice flour, gelatin, corn starch, or Irish moss (a source of carrageenan), and often flavoured wi ...

), ''pomuchla'' (

Atlantic cod The Atlantic cod (''Gadus morhua'') is a benthopelagic fish of the family Gadidae, widely consumed by humans. It is also commercially known as cod or codling.civet A civet () is a small, lean, mostly nocturnal mammal native to tropical Asia and Africa, especially the tropical forests. The term civet applies to over a dozen different species, mostly from the family Viverridae. Most of the species diversit ...

), ''piżmo'' (

musk Musk ( Persian: مشک, ''Mushk'') is a class of aromatic substances commonly used as base notes in perfumery. They include glandular secretions from animals such as the musk deer, numerous plants emitting similar fragrances, and artificial s ...

), ''dragant'' (

tragacanth Tragacanth is a natural gum obtained from the dried sap of several species of Middle Eastern Fabaceae, legumes of the genus ''Astragalus'', including ''Astragalus adscendens, A. adscendens'', ''Astragalus gummifer, A. gummifer'', ''Astragalus br ...

), ''pinele'' (

pine nut Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), pignoli or chilgoza (), are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are trade ...

s) and ''brunele'' (prunes). This is followed by a similar enumeration of various kinds of fish, whose names are likewise taken from the inventory at the beginning of Czerniecki's book. A description of a white-apron-clad chef and a reference to Prince Ossoliński's banquet in Rome, both found in Book 11, are also clearly inspired by Czerniecki's characterization of a master chef and his dedication, respectively. What is intriguing about this literary link between the oldest Polish cookbook and the national epic is that Mickiewicz apparently confused the title of Czerniecki's work with that of Wielądko's ''Kucharz doskonały'', both in the poem itself and in the poet's explanatory notes. Whether this is a result of the author's mistake or

poetic license Artistic license (alongside more contextually-specific derivative terms such as poetic license, historical license, dramatic license, and narrative license) refers to deviation from fact or form for artistic purposes. It can include the alterat ...

, remains a matter of scholarly dispute. According to the poet's friend,

Antoni Edward Odyniec Antoni Edward Odyniec (25 January 1804 – 15 January 1885) was a Polish Romantic-era poet who penned the celebrated "Song of the Filaretes". Said to be an imitator of his friend Adam Mickiewicz, Odyniec made his mark as a translator of works by ...

, Mickiewicz never parted with an "old and torn book". entitled ''Doskonały kucharz'', which he carried in his personal traveling library.

Stanisław Pigoń Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, a coastal village in Kherson, Ukraine * Stanislaus County, Cali ...

, a historian of Polish literature, has suggested that it was actually a copy of Czerniecki's book, which happened to be missing its title page, so Mickiewicz was familiar with the contents of ''Compendium ferculorum'', but not with its title, and confounded it with Wielądko's cookbook.

Publishing history

The original edition of 1682 was the only publication of Czerniecki's cookbook during his lifetime. After his death, however, ''Compendium ferculorum'' was republished about 20 times until 1821. Some of the later editions were published under new titles, reflecting a broadening of the target readership. The second edition, published in 1730, was very similar to the first, with only minor revisions. Both editions were printed in

blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norweg ...

type and in

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

book format; later editions were printed in

roman type In Latin script typography, roman is one of the three main kinds of historical type, alongside blackletter and italic. Roman type was modelled from a European scribal manuscript style of the 15th century, based on the pairing of inscriptional c ...

and in

octavo Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...

. The third edition, published in Wilno (now

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

, Lithuania) in 1744, was the first to be printed outside

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 159 ...

. It was also the first edition to be given a new title, ''Stół obojętny, to jest pański, a oraz i chudopacholski'' (''The Indifferent Table, that is, Both Lordly and Common''). The

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Provi ...

edition of 1784, under the latter title, was expanded with forty new recipes for sauces, gingerbread, vinegar and other condiments. This addition, copied from ''Compendium medicum'', a popular 18th-century Polish medical reference book, differed in both writing and cooking style from Czerniecki's original work, and did not reappear in subsequent editions. Editions from the first quarter of the 19th century, published in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

and Berdyczów (now

Berdychiv Berdychiv ( uk, Берди́чів, ; pl, Berdyczów; yi, באַרדיטשעװ, Barditshev; russian: Берди́чев, Berdichev) is a historic city in the Zhytomyr Oblast (province) of northern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center ...

, Ukraine) use yet another title, ''Kucharka miejska i wiejska'' (''The Urban and Rural emaleCook''). These changes in title indicate that the cooking style promoted by the Lubomirskis' head chef, originally associated with fine dining at a magnate court, eventually became part of the culinary repertoire of housewives in towns and countryside throughout Poland. Renewed popular interest in Old Polish cuisine has resulted in reprints being made since the turn of the 21st century, including a limited bibliophile edition of 500 numbered leather-bound volumes published in 2002 in Jędrzejów. In 2009, the

Wilanów Palace Wilanów Palace ( pl, Pałac w Wilanowie, ) is a former royal palace located in the Wilanów district of Warsaw, Poland. Wilanów Palace survived Poland's partitions and both World Wars, and so serves as a reminder of the culture of the Polish ...

Museum in Warsaw published a critical edition with a broad introduction by food historian Jarosław Dumanowski presenting Czerniecki's life and work.

List of editions

* * * (2nd ed. 1775, 3rd ed. 1782, 4th ed. 1788) * * (2nd ed. 1757, ) * Enlarged with 40 additional recipes. * (2nd ed. 1804, 3rd ed. 1806 in Berdyczów, 4th ed. 1811, 5th ed. 1816, 6th ed. 1821) * (2nd ed. 2004) * Limited bibliophile edition. * (2nd ed. 2010, 3rd ed. 2012) * Photo-offset reprint of the 1682 edition. *

Translations

In the late 17th century, ''Compendium ferculorum'' was anonymously translated into Russian as ' (''Cookery Book''). This translation was never published and is only known from a manuscript held at the

Russian State Library The Russian State Library (russian: Российская государственная библиотека, Rossiyskaya gosudarstvennaya biblioteka) is one of the three national libraries of Russia, located in Moscow. It is the largest librar ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

(another manuscript Russian translation of Czerniecki's work is possibly held at the

National Library of Russia The National Library of Russia (NLR, russian: Российская национальная библиотека}), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked amo ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

). In 2014, an English version of the Wilanów edition was published; the publication of a French translation is also planned.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * in . * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Compendium ferculorum
a complete scan of the first edition a
Polona.pl
a digital library run by the

National Library of Poland The National Library ( pl, Biblioteka Narodowa) is the central Polish library, subject directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. The library collects books, journals, electronic and audiovisual publica ...

{{Authority control 1682 books Early Modern cookbooks Polish cuisine