Food Preservation in Prehistory

The practice of food preservation is much older than the term garde manger. Long before humans created organized societies, they already knew how to preserve food. In medieval times, manors and castles were equipped with underground larders, or cold food storage rooms. On French estates, the larder was called the garde manger. Thus, one meaning of the culinary term garde manger is “a place in which cold foods are prepared and stored.” Another meaning is “the person in charge of cold foods preparation and preservation.” A third meaning is “the craft, or profession, of cold foods preparation.” Garde manger, with all three of its meanings, is now part of culinary English, and is pronounced gahrd mawn-ZHAY.