a collective name for sweet dishes considered suitable for the last course of a meal, including cakes, ice creams, creams, raw and cooked fruit, puddings, pastries, and pies. Cheese may also be included amongst desserts. In Britain, ‘dessert’ is sometimes regarded as an elegant synonym for the words ‘pudding’, or ‘sweet’, which are used in the same collective sense.
The word derives from French desservir, meaning to remove the dishes, or clear the table. Originally ‘the dessert’, singular, denoted a course of fruit and sweetmeats, either placed on the table after the meal, or served at a separate table; in English, it replaced the word banquet, an older name for a similar course, during the 18th century. The change in emphasis from the 18th-century French ‘dessert’ to the 20th-century miscellany of sweet ‘desserts’ appears to have taken place in N. America. The word had a wider meaning for Americans as early as the end of the 18th century, whereas this usage was not common in England until the 20th century.
Originally, dessert, apart from providing something sweet to nibble, was designed to impress. Mrs Beeton (1861) lists numerous fresh fruits considered suitable, and refers to ‘choice and delicately-flavoured cakes and biscuits’ served with ‘most costly and recherché wines’; plus candied fruits and other morsels such as chocolate (following French fashion). She devoted many words to presenting and garnishing the dessert in china, silver, and glass, and commented that ‘as late as the reigns of our two last Georges fabulous sums were often expended upon fanciful desserts’.
The latter probably owed much to French inspiration, where, during the early to mid-18th century, the dessert comprised impressive pyramids of fruit and sweetmeats, displayed in rococo style on tables decorated with flowers and tall candelabra. Finishing touches were provided by setpieces resembling anything from a Greek temple to a Chinese pavilion, modelled out of more or less edible ingredients.
A formal dessert in the old sense is now a rarity. One interesting survival is the Provençal gros souper on Christmas Eve, which finishes with a ritual presentation of les treize desserts, the 13 desserts, based on local fruits, nuts, baking, and confectionery. Elisabeth Luard (1990) quotes a Provençal woman talking about these:
We dried our own apricots, made quince paste, and we always had les mendiants, the four begging orders of friars: almonds for the Dominicans, figs for the Franciscans, hazelnuts for the Carmelites, dried currants for the Augustines. We made the dark nougat at home with hazelnuts and honey, and it was so hard you needed a hammer to break it. But we always bought the white nougat, which is a factory-made speciality of Montélimar.
Other possibilities include local orchard fruit; enriched breads such as pompe à l'huile (a brioche-type bread enriched with oil); imported oranges; and sweet or savoury panade (tarts). Traditions vary between areas and families, but there are always 13 items, and they are said to represent Christ and the twelve apostles.
Laura Mason has written about several aspects of British food in books including Sugar Plums and Sherbet (1998), Farmhouse Cookery (2005), and Traditional Foods of Britain (1999), which she co-authored with Catherine Brown.
Beeton, Isabella (1861), Beeton's Book of Household Management, facsimile of 1st edn, London: Chancellor (1982).
Luard, Elisabeth (1990), European Festival Food, London: Bantam Press.
