Queen bites
And it is to Marie Leczinska (1703-1768) that we owe the recipe for Bouchées à la Reine.
During the first nine years of their marriage, Louis was a model husband, thanks to his religious upbringing and his normal youthful timidity.
When he met her for the first time, young Louis liked her very much, and he quickly fell in love with her. He was only 15 and she was 22!
“I find the queen the most beautiful,” he proclaimed as a transfixed lover, although she was not particularly pretty.
In 1733, when he was 25, the king took his first mistress. This relationship was kept secret for several years. In 1737, the queen had her tenth and last child. Since that time, Louis treated his wife with a cold politeness...
She then ordered a dish from the kitchens to arouse her husband's enthusiasm. That's how she got the idea for the queen bites!!!
Marie asked her cook to concoct a recipe with aphrodisiac virtues, which would awaken and bring back her husband's ardor.
Described by historians as a fine gourmet, the queen worked with her inspired chef on the savory and individual adaptation of the puff pastry.
The salpicon, a preparation of meat and small vegetables, was added to a round and smaller dough for its aphrodisiac properties.
The Versailles-style bite-sized recipe therefore originally included:
- sweetbreads
- lamb brains
- rooster combs and kidneys
- “amourettes”, i.e. animal testicles, often of lambs
- chicken dumplings
- truffles
- green olives
This menu did not have the desired effect on the royal couple, since King Louis XV accumulated infidelities until the end of his life. Madame de Pompadour, Madame du Barry…
The recipe, on the other hand, is widely passed down in posterity.
The Duke of Lorraine, his father, Stanislas, contributed to his popularity in the buffets of the nobility of Lorraine, and the queen's bites are today an essential dish of French gastronomy, in the same way as the Lorraine pâté or the quiche. Lorraine.
