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European cuisine (also known as Continental cuisine) comprises the originating from the various countries of Europe.
The cuisines of European countries are diverse, although some common characteristics distinguish them from those of other regions.Kwan Shuk-yan (1988). Selected Occidental Cookeries and Delicacies, p. 23. Hong Kong: Food Paradise Pub. Co. Compared to traditional cooking of East Asia, meat holds a more prominent and substantial role in serving size.Lin Ch'ing (1977). First Steps to European Cooking, p. 5. Hong Kong: Wan Li Pub. Co. Many dairy products are utilised in cooking.Kwan Shuk-yan, pg 26 There are hundreds of varieties of cheese and other fermented milk products. White wheat-flour bread has long been the prestige starch, but historically, most people ate bread, flatcakes, or porridge made from rye, spelt, barley, and .Alfio Cortonesi, "Self-sufficiency and the Market: Rural and Urban Diet in the Middle Ages", in Jean-Louis Flandrin, Massimo Montanari, Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, 1999, , p. 268ffMichel Morineau, "Growing without Knowing Why: Production, Demographics, and Diet", in Jean-Louis Flandrin, Massimo Montanari, Food: A Culinary History from Antiquity to the Present, 1999, , p. 380ff Those better-off would also make pasta, and Pastry. The potato has become a major starch plant in the diet of Europeans and their diaspora since the European colonisation of the Americas. Maize is much less common in most European diets than it is in the Americas; however, corn meal (polenta or mămăligă) is a major part of the cuisine of Italy and the Balkans. Although flatbreads (especially with toppings such as pizza or tarte flambée) and rice are eaten in Europe, they are only staple foods in limited areas, particularly in Southern Europe. (cold dishes with uncooked or cooked vegetables, sometimes with a dressing) are an integral part of European cuisine.
Formal European dinners are served in distinct courses. European presentation evolved from service à la française, or bringing multiple dishes to the table at once, into service à la russe, where dishes are presented sequentially. Usually, cold, hot and savoury, and sweet dishes are served strictly separately in this order, as hors d'oeuvre (appetizer) or soup, as entrée and main course, and as dessert. Dishes that are both sweet and savoury were common earlier in Ancient Roman cuisine, but are today uncommon, with sweet dishes being served only as dessert. A service where the guests are free to take food by themselves is termed a buffet, and is usually restricted to parties or holidays. Nevertheless, guests are expected to follow the same pattern.
Historically, European cuisine has been developed in the European royal and noble courts. European nobility was usually arms-bearing and lived in separate manors in the countryside. The knife was the primary eating implement (cutlery), and eating steaks and other foods that require cutting followed. This contrasted with East Asian cuisine, where the ruling class were the court officials, who had their food prepared ready to eat in the kitchen, to be eaten with chopsticks. The knife was supplanted by the spoon for soups, while the fork was introduced later in the early modern period, ca. 16th century. Today, most dishes are intended to be eaten with cutlery and only a few can be eaten with the hands in polite company.
Milan in Italy is home to the oldest restaurant in Italy and the second in Europe, the Antica trattoria Bagutto, which has existed since at least 1284. The diet of a commoner would have been much simpler. Strict poaching laws prevented them from hunting, and if they did hunt and were caught, they could have parts of their limbs cut off or they could be killed. Much of the commoners' food would have been preserved in some way, such as through pickling or by being salted. Breads would have been made using rye or barley, and any vegetables would likely have been grown by the commoners themselves. Peasants would have likely been able to keep cows, and so would have access to milk, which then allowed them to make butter or cheese. When meat was eaten, it would have been beef, pork, or lamb. Commoners also ate a dish called pottage, a thick stew of vegetables, grains, and meat.
The discovery of the New World, the establishment of new trade routes with Asia and increased foreign influences from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East meant that Europeans became familiarized with a multitude of new foodstuffs. that previously had been prohibitively expensive luxuries, such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger, soon became available to the majority population, and the introduction of new plants coming from the New World and India like maize, potato, sweet potato, chili pepper, Cocoa bean, vanilla, tomato, coffee, and tea transformed European cuisine forever.
Though there was a great influx of new ideas, an increase in foreign trade and a Scientific Revolution, preservation of foods remained traditional: preserved by drying, salting, and smoking or pickling in vinegar. Fare was naturally dependent on the season: a cookbook by Domenico Romoli called "Panunto" made a virtue of necessity by including a recipe for each day of the year.Romoli, La singolar dottrina, Venice, 1560. Everywhere both doctors and chefs continued to characterize foodstuffs by their effects on the Humorism: they were considered to be heating or cooling to the constitution, moistening or drying.
There was a very great increase in prosperity in Europe during this period, which gradually reached all classes and all areas, and considerably changed the patterns of eating. Nationalism was first conceived in the early modern period, but it was not until the 19th century that the notion of a national cuisine emerged. Class differences were far more important dividing lines, and it was almost always upper-class food that was described in recipe collections and cookbooks.
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