Pots de Creme Nots..
We want to show you examples of cups that are frequently confused with pot de creme cups.
There simply is not a lot of history available about porcelain objects to always
determine their specific role as part of the dining room place setting. Given
that, sometimes it simply not clear what the function of the object may be.
Porringers
A porringer is a small, shallow bowl, with a
lid and a short handle. The original use for this was to serve porridge.
Without going into an inordinate amount of detail, porridge is a term use to describe a
number of cooked grains, vegetables, or pulses. The most common use of the word
refers to hot oatmeal cereal. Porridge descends from "pottage", a sort of
"water pudding" eaten by the English laborers in the 18th century. We show an
example of a beautiful Dresden porringer below. Porringers are also commonly seen
fashioned from silver or pottery.
Dresden porringer. Photo by:
keystrokes!
Marmite Cups
A marmite is a tall cooking pot with straight
sides that comes from France. It is used for cooking soups and stews. The
small version, referred to as a "petites marmites" is what we commonly see
confused as a pot de creme cup. The little vessel is normally used to serve soup.
This is an example of small marmite pots:
French marmite cups
Pate Pots
Made by Apilco. Given their straight
sides, no handles and overall utilitarian appearance these little pots are probably either
pate or cheese pots. Apilco currently makes a pot they sell as a pot de creme which has
small "lions head" handles, similar in shape to the marmite cups shown
above but we've never seen anything so "plain" be deemed a pot de creme cup.
Sake or Tea
We are not experts at Asian pieces but our
best guess here is that these are either sake or tea cups, but most likely tea cups given
the size and the cover. The cups measure 3 1/2" high x 2" wide. Pictured below
Tea or Sake cups with lids
Resource Credits
The Oxford Companion To Foods by Alan Davidson |
