Editing Roasting (section)

===Early use of the term===
Among the earliest texts in Western Europe to include recipes for roast meats and fowl is ''[[Le Viandier]]'' (c. 1300), which includes twenty-nine recipes for various roasts, placed under the heading "''Rostz de chair''" (roast meats) in some manuscripts.{{sfn|Scully|1988|pp=81–112}}  Similar recipes under the heading "''Rost de char''" also appear in ''[[Le Ménagier de Paris]]'' (1393), which also includes menus{{efn| name = menu}} with roasts in the second and third stages of the meal.{{sfn|Brereton|Ferrier|1981|pp=174–81, 225–30}}

In the later ''Petit traicté auquel verrez la maniere de faire cuisine'' (c. 1536), more widely known from a later edition titled ''Livre fort excellent de cuisine'' (1542),{{sfn|Hyman|Hyman|1992|pp=66–68}} in a collection of menus at the end of the book, the meal is presented in four stages: the ''entree de table'' (entrance to the table), ''potaiges'' (foods boiled or simmered "in pots"), ''services de rost'' (meat or fowl "roasted" in dry heat), and ''issue de table'' (departure from the table).{{sfn|Tomasik|2016|pp=239-244}}{{sfn|Albala|Tomasik|2014|pp=210–27, 238–48}}

The terms ''entree de table'' and ''issue de table'' are organizing words, "describing the structure of a meal rather than the food itself".{{sfn|Jurafsky|2014|p=22}}  The terms ''potaiges'' and ''rost'' indicate cooking methods but not ingredients.  The menus, though, give some idea of both the ingredients and the cooking methods that were characteristic of each stage of the meal.

The meat and fowl considered appropriate for roasting included domestic fowl, feathered game, small furred game, suckling pig, and, less commonly, lamb.  Roasts were rarely of other butcher's meat, large furred game, or organ meats.{{sfn|Flandrin|2007|pp=65–66}}

Other dishes were often served alongside the roasts, including sauced and stuffed meats and meat pies.  The roasts themselves might be accompanied by a sauce, but the sauce was served separately from the roast itself.{{sfn|Flandrin|2007|pp=62, 64}}

The arrangement of dishes in the ''Livre fort excellent'' is very similar to that of the menus in the ''[[Ménagier de Paris]]'', written 150 years before the ''Petit traicté''.  One notable difference is that the roast fowl and meats in the Ménagier were often followed by roast fish, a practice not evident in the ''Livre fort excellent''.{{sfn|Flandrin|2007|pp=59, 61–65}}