The Chafing Dish

Abstract

On page 38 of the first issue of Petits Propos Caroline Cookson posed questions about the role of the chafing dish in 17th and 18th century cookery. The questions were accompanied by an illustration of what was described as a chafing dish. In fact it wasn't a chafing dish. It was a sort of preserving pan on three legs; and the picture on which the illustration was based was originally published in Le Jardinier François (first edition Paris 1651) before being used by John Evelyn in The French Gardiner. Karen Hess here throws welcome light on the whole history of the chafing dish. The drawing below, by the artist Soun, is after a detail of a painting in the Prado by F. Ykens (1601-1693) and shows a 17th century chafing dish in use /or cooking a fish, besprinkled with olives.