June 24

Maria Leczinska's Birthday
 

When Louis XV of France was fifteen years old, he was engaged to a five year old Infanta of Spain, a golden-haired little girl who followed him around the palace like a puppy. This was an embarrassment to Louis for many reasons, the primary being that he would have to wait ten years to consummate the marriage. This presented a serious potential political problem to his advisers. If Louis took a mistress at such an impressionable age, she could exercise a dangerous influence on him

The choice of a queen was to be made by the Duc de Bourbon whom Louis had allowed to act as informal regent. The Duc tried to choose someone that over whom he could exercise some influence. The surprising choice was the Polish princess, Maria Leczinska, the daughter of the penniless, exiled King of Poland, Stanislas Leczinski (October 20). Poor, plain ,and unsophisticated,  Maria was also a religious fanatic and sexually frigid.

 Maria Leczinska

Although they consummated their marriage on the wedding night and the fertile Maria eventually gave Louis ten children, she hated sex. Maria tried to avoid her marital responsibilities whenever possible .She spent most of her time embroidering altar cloths and praying. This coupled with her dislike of sex eventually caused some serious problems in the royal marriage.  Because she was so religious, the King was not allowed to have sex with her on major saints' feastdays. The number of saints kept increasing until Louis was kept out of her bed because it was the feastday of some Polish saint so obscure that even the Cardinal didn't know who the saint was.

Rather than keep being refused sex with his wife,  Louis began to find mistresses, eventually leading to the prominence of Madame de Pompadour and Madame du Berry at the French  court. However,  Maria had two things to her credit. She never put up any major fuss about the King's love affairs, and she was an excellent cook. Her father was one of the great gourmet cooks of the eighteenth century and Maria shared her father's passion for good food. Maria devised one of the classics of French cuisine, Poulet a la riene, which has maintained it's popularity for over two hundred years.
 

Poulard a la reine
(The Queen's Chicken)
 
Ingredients
 
1 4-lb to 5-lb roasting chicken
1 cup cooked chicken, cubed
1 cup cooked pork, cubed
1cup cooked chicken skin, chopped fine
1 medium onion, chopped fine
1 cup white glace de viande*
2 egg yolks
 

3 TB butter
3 leeks, cut into a julienne
3 carrots, cut into a julienne
3 celery stalks, cut into a julienne
1 cup parsley sprigs
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
 
Instructions
 
  1. Preheat oven to 375º F.
  2. Mix chicken, pork, chicken skin, onion, 1/4 cup glace de viande, nutmeg, salt, pepper, and egg yolks in a bowl. Remove mixture and stuff chicken. Place a piece of foil over stuffing to cover hole. Truss and butter chicken.
  3. Place leeks, carrots, celery and parsley in bottom of large covered pot.
  4. Add salt, pepper, sherry and remaining glace de viande. Cover pot with foil and then with lid. Cook for 90 minutes.  Remove lid and foil. Cook for 30  more minutes.
  5. Remove chicken to platter and surround with vegetables. Quickly reduce pan juices by 50% and serve with chicken as a sauce

Serves 4

*Refer to Appendix A