Entremets

entremets are today disregarded bit players in the theater of upscale French and French-influenced menus. They appear at the end of the meal and are usually sweet. In the Middle Ages, though, entremets could be either a secondary dish at a meal in a prosperous household or, at royal or ducal courts, elaborate displays and dramatic or musical performances. The late-fourteenth-century Ménagier de Paris has many recipes for entremets, but few are sweetened. They feature meat, especially pork, fish, and eggs, as well as vegetables, but sugar is uncommon, and a meal typically ended simply with nuts and dried fruit with, perhaps, wafers. See dried fruit and wafers.