Editing Hors d'oeuvre (section)

===French service===
[[File:Hors-d'oeuvres by Claesz.jpg|thumb|left|{{center|''Hors-d'oeuvres'' (1623) by [[Pieter Claesz]]}}]]

During the [[Middle Ages]] formal French meals were served with [[entremets]] between the serving of plates. These secondary dishes could be either actual food dishes, or elaborate displays and even dramatic or musical presentations. In the 14th century, recipes for entremets were mostly made with meat, fish, pork and vegetables. By the 15th century the elaborate display and performances were served up between courses, and could be edible or displays of subjects relevant to the host, created in [[butter sculpture]] or other types of crafted work.<ref name= oxsug /> With the introduction in the 17th century of ''[[service à la française]]'', where all the dishes are laid out at once in very rigid [[symmetrical]] fashion, entremets began to change in meaning but were still mainly savoury. Along with this came elaborate silver and ceramic table displays as well as [[Pièce montée|pièces montées]]. The entremets were placed between the other dishes within the main work of the meal.<ref name= oxsug />

At about this time in the 17th century, smaller dishes began to be served by being placed outside the main work of symmetrically placed dishes. These were known as hors d'oeuvre.<ref name="Smith2007" /><ref name= oxsug /> Hors d'oeuvres were originally served as a [[canapé]] of small toasted bread with a savoury topping before a meal.<ref name="AdamsonSegan2008" /> The first mention of the food item was by [[François Massialot]] in 1691, mentioned in his book: ''Le cuisinier roial et bourgeois'' (The Royal and Bourgeois Cook) and explained as ''"Certain dishes served in addition to those one might expect in the normal composition of the feast"''.<ref name="WillanCherniavsky2012">{{cite book |author1 = Anne Willan |author2 = Mark Cherniavsky |title = The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes That Made the Modern Cookbook |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=oDNFbocxamEC&pg=PA134 |date = 3 March 2012 |publisher = University of California Press |isbn = 978-0-520-24400-9 |page = 134 }}</ref> In the French publication ''Les plaisirs de la table'', Edouard Nignon stated that hors d'oeuvres originated in Asia. He went on to state that the French considered hors-d'oeuvres to be [[wikt:superfluous|superfluous]] to a well cooked meal.<ref name="Ezra2000">{{cite book |author = Elizabeth Ezra |title = The Colonial Unconscious: Race and Culture in Interwar France |url = https://archive.org/details/colonialunconsci00ezra |url-access = registration |year = 2000 |publisher = Cornell University Press |isbn = 0-8014-8647-5 |page = [https://archive.org/details/colonialunconsci00ezra/page/118 118] }}</ref> ''Service à la française'' continued in Europe until the early 19th century.<ref name="Smith2007" /><ref name=oxsug /> After the 19th century the entremet would become almost exclusively a sweet dish or dessert with the British custom of the "savoury" being the only remaining tradition of the savoury entremet.<ref name= oxsug>{{cite book |title = The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=R1bCBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA240 |date = 1 April 2015 |publisher = Oxford University Press |isbn = 978-0-19-931361-7 |pages = 240–241 }}</ref>

The style of formal dining changed drastically in the 19th century, becoming successive courses served one after the other over a period of time.<ref name="Smith2007" /><ref name="Connell2014" /> Some traditional hors d'oeuvres would remain on the table throughout the meal. These included olives, nuts, celery and radishes. The changing, contemporary hors d'oeuvres, sometimes called "dainty dishes", became more complicated in preparation. [[Pastry|Pastries]], with meat and cream sauces among other elaborate items, had become a course served after the soup.<ref name="Smith2007" />