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Extracts of Matters of Historical Interest from "The Huissier, News For and About the Fortress of Louisbourg Heritage Presentation Staff" By The Fortress of Louisbourg Heritage Presentation Staff

THE HUISSIER

(July 19, 2002/September 14, 2005)

The Potato,
By Blaine Aitkens

[July 19, 2002]

During the 18th century the French considered the potato as being distasteful, rather than poisonous. As an English traveller in Paris at the end of the 17th century observed, by this point the potato had certainly not yet become a staple in France as it had in England:

"...one scarcely finds any potatoes at market - those wholesome and nourishing roots which make up so great a resource for the people of England." (Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Savoring the Past, p.84, 1982).

"Although the potato eventually became an important part of the French diet, it gained slow acceptance after its introduction as a food plant in the late sixteenth century". (Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Savoring the Past, p.82, 1982).

"It was in the reign of Louis XV that some of our provinces adopted it, but first it gained only a moderate acceptance in France... In time, however, the potato was accepted in the capital, and even, astonishingly, became fashionable. Physicians analysed its principles; authors wrote to extol its virtues... One saw it appear with distinction upon the best tables. But this moment of favour, so little deserved, passed quickly. The pasty flavour, the natural insipidity, the unwholesome quality of this food, which like all unleavened starches, is windy and indigestible, brought about its rejection in delicate houses, and sent it back to the common people, whose coarser tastes and more robust stomachs are satisfied by everything which is capable of appeasing hunger". (Pierre Jean Baptiste Le Grand d'Aussy, Histoire de la vie privée des françois, 1:143-45, 1782).

The French judged the potato insipid & pasty, not poisnous,
By Blaine Aitkens

[September 14, 2005]

Although not common in France in the 18th Century the French considered the potato as being merely distasteful, not poisonous. As an English traveller in Paris at the end of the 17th century points out, by this time the potato had certainly not yet become the common staple in France that it had become in England: “...one scarcely finds any potatoes at market - those wholesome and nourishing roots which make up so great a resource for the people of England.” (Barbara Ketcham Wheaton, Savoring the Past, p.84, 1982). It can be noted, however that, “Although the potato eventually became an important part of the French diet, it gained slow acceptance after its introduction as a food plant in the late sixteenth century”. (Ibid. p.82, 1982).

The following excerpt (translated from French) was taken from a book on the history of the lifestyle of the French (la vie privée), published in 1782. The author, obviously a member of the 18th Century French upper class, offers a glimpse into what was likely a common attitude towards the tuber at the time:

“It was in the reign of Louis XV that some of our provinces adopted it, but first it gained only a moderate acceptance in France... In time, however, the potato was accepted in the capital, and even, astonishingly, became fashionable. Physicians analysed its principles; authors wrote to extol its virtues... One saw it appear with distinction upon the best tables. But this moment of favour, so little deserved, passed quickly. The pasty flavour, the natural insipidity, the unwholesome quality of this food, which like all unleavened starches, is windy and indigestible, brought about its rejection in delicate houses, and sent it back to the common people, whose coarser tastes and more robust stomachs are satisfied by everything which is capable of appeasing hunger”.

(Pierre Jean Baptiste Le Grand d’Aussy, Histoire de la vie privée des françois, 1:143-45, 1782).

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