S. Worthen | Weblog

Thanks to hairyears and cataptromancer, we've figured out what atlets are. The spelling isn't the most common variant on the word which is what held me up - and there were too many variant spelling possibilities, I figured, to go wading about in the options.

In this particular case, atlets are an assortment of roast, skewered meat, the skewers probably arranged into some elaborate form, say, by sticking them into a large loaf of bread in decorative array. They are "atlets of palates", furthermore, and while this may mean the cook is skewering animal tongue, it's equally likely that it means exactly what it says, and the cook is using palates - probably from a large animal, like a cow.

The word comes from a dense little family of related variants. Many of the words may, in fact, be used to mean the same thing, even as kebab can refer both to the skewer and to the skewered meat.

haslet - The heart, liver, and other edible viscera of an animal, especially hog viscera. (Chiefly used today in the Southern U.S. [Middle English hastelet, from Old French, diminutive of haste, roast meat, spit, perhaps from Latin hasta, spear, or of Germanic origin.] (from the American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com Unabridged, by way of here)

attelet - A slender skewer, usually ornamented at the top, used decoratively, especially in serving garnishes. [French, variant of hâtelet, from Old French hastelet; see haslet.] (from the American Heritage Dictionary, by way of here)

hatelets or atelets sauce - A sauce (such as egg and bread crumbs) used for covering bits
of meat, small birds, or fish, strung on skewers for frying.(from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, by way of here) There's a recipe for hatelets (the sauce) in George Augustus Sala's The Thorough Good Cook from 1896.

Those are all forms of the word attested to in English. Hastelet also yields a number of results in French, including that "hastelets des lapereaux", or skewers of rabbit meat, were served to Marie-Antoinette in 1788. The French form was also used by an Italian cookbook Le Re dei Cuochi, or The King of Cooks, published anonymously in 1885. The cookbook includes several recipes for Hatelets, including this one.
( Villeroy-style atlets... )

The Nonesuch was third or fourth Georgette Heyer book I read, sometime back in early December. Heyer rarely goes into detail about what food her characters eat when they sit down at a table or encounter a buffet, but in one scene in this book she does.

The repast she set before her guests was certainly enormous, consisting of two courses, with four removes, and a score of side-dishes, ranging from a rump of beef à la Mantua, wax baskets of prawns and crayfish, to orange soufflés and asparagus, and some atlets of palates: a delicacy for which her cook was famous.
(pp. 66-67 in the 2005 Arrow Books reprint)

Now it's true, I don't know what "à la Mantua" means with regard to beef, and I'm not sure quite what the wax baskets are doing with the prawns and the crayfish. But what I really wanted to know was what on earth atlets are. I asked the OED, and it had nothing to say. I web searched, and my every effort either came up empty or was foiled by atlets being both a common misspelling for atheletes, and a perfectly good word for athletes in various other languages. My exciting new copy of The Oxford Companion to Food was of no help either.

Much as the desire to know what atlets are has been with me for a month yet, it was not quite so pressing as to send me to do serious research on the subject. At least, not yet. But it might soon.

Unless, of course, one of you - dear readers - happens to know.

The Coffee-House-Man is a Kind of Publican; he sells Coffee, but most of them sell other Liquors, of which they make large Profits. For his Qualifications I refer to the Vintner's Section.

From R. Campbell, esq. The London Tradesman. Being an Historical Account of All the Trades, Professions, Arts, both Liberal and Mechanic, now practised in the Cities of London and Westminster. Calculated for the Instruction of Youth in their Choice of Business. (London: T. Gardner, 1757). Chp. 69. Sec. 10. p. 281.

Chocolate is made of Cocoa, the Product of the West-Indies. It is stripped of its Shell, or rather Husk, and wrought upon a Stone over a Charcoal Fire till it is equally mellow, and then put into Moulds, which shapes it into Cakes. To perfume it they mix it with Venello.

It is a hot laborious Business, but does not require much Ingenuity. Journey men's Wages is from Twelve to Fifteen Shillings a Week, but are not employed much in Summer. They require Heat to work with, but cold Weather is necessary to dry it.

From R. Campbell, esq. The London Tradesman. Being an Historical Account of All the Trades, Professions, Arts, both Liberal and Mechanic, now practised in the Cities of London and Westminster. Calculated for the Instruction of Youth in their Choice of Business. (London: T. Gardner, 1757). Chp. 69. Sec. 9. p. 280.