Close-up view of the reconstructed potager, featuring six fire pits and their grates, Hameau de la Reine, Palace of Versailles.
Many 18th-century recipes, including those for chocolate or coffee creams, specify that the mixture should be cooked in a double boiler. So you need a flame. All right. A flame… which means a fire…
But wait, where was this fire? In the middle of a room? In the fireplace? Or was it a campfire?
No! On the potager, or a stove, the ancestor of our modern stovetops. In modern French, a potager is a vegetable garden, which renders this all the more confusing.
The 18th-century potager was used to reheat soups, from where its name perhaps comes, and stews. Two restored potagers can be seen at the Palace of Versailles: one in the kitchen of the Petit Trianon and another in the réchauffoir of the Queen’s Hamlet.
On the right, a close-up view of the reconstructed potager at the Hameau de la Reine. In the center, an overview of the réchauffoir at the Hameau de la Reine. On the left, the potager with six openings at the réchauffoir in the Petit Trianon in Versailles. Personal photographs.
You can see “holes” with grates where flames would come out. The fire was kept burning underneath, where the iron doors are located. The Encyclopédie by d’Alembert and Diderot specifies that these potagers and stoves were masonry structures built of bricks, stones, and iron pieces. The brick masonry structure was sturdy, withstood heat, and therefore did not burn. However, once built, it could not be moved. To me, this is the precursor to today’s built-in kitchens.
But how do we know it was also used for sweet dishes?
Thanks to recipes like those by Menon in La Cuisinière bourgeoise from 1746, which calls for placing a pan of honey “sur un fourneau, ” or on a stove.
Or thanks to the Encyclopédie by d’Alembert and Diderot (who, it must be admitted, did an incredible job), which describes and illustrates the stove in the Confiseur section. Theirs is set in a confectioner’s workshop, where there is a triple stove located under a hood. We can see how the stove is constructed (Figures 10, 11, 12) and a cross-section of the firebox (Figure 13).
Should I build a potager in my kitchen to assist in my recreations? I’m not sure my landlord or my home insurance would approve.
« Confiseur, Confiture Fourneau », Encyclopédie, Collection of Plates, pl. I, 1763. Details of the triple stove: figs. 11–13. Print held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France; Gallica.
Sources
- Diderot et d’Alembert. “Encyclopédie, « potager ».” 1765.
- Diderot et d’Alembert. “Encyclopédie, « fourneau ».” 1757.
- Diderot et d’Alembert. “Encyclopédie, « office ».” 1765.
- Alembert et Diderot. “Encyclopédie, Recueil de planches.” Confiseur, Confiture Fourneau, 1763.
- Joseph Menon. La Cuisinière bourgeoise, suivie de l’Office. Vol. chapitre XVI. 1746.
- Dictionnaire portatif de cuisine, d’office et de distillation. Lottin le Jeune, 1772.
- Annick Heitzmann. Le réchauffoir du Hameau, Une cuisine pour Marie-Antoinette à Trianon. Vol. N°3. Versalia, 2000.
- Alembert et Diderot. Le Confiseur, Encyclopédie. XVIIIe siècle.
