ABSTRACT
The pleasures of the table held a prominent place at the German courts, and the chronicles describe in great detail the feasts, the number of dishes served and the luxury of the plate displayed. Although in the eighteenth century a few courts were renowned for their exceptional frugality, the majority of them indulged in orgies at which the thin veneer which disguised German barbarity quickly disappeared. In the magnificent German palaces created in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and entirely appointed in the French manner, the princes tried to re-create French life with its gaudy splendours and its charming seductions. Very German, too, were the spectacles where the princes liked to see wild animals tearing each other to pieces. In Germany only very strongly spiced dishes were appreciated; they were garnished with piquant sauces unsuited to delicate palates or weak stomachs.
