[ed. note: This is part of our fantasy dinner series]
UC#4’s fantasy meal is to recreate the menu from “Babette’s Feast”.
Babette’s Feast (Danish: Babettes Gæstebud) is a 1987 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel. The screenplay, written by Axel, was based on the 1958 story of the same name by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). It was produced by Just Betzer, Bo Christensen and Benni Korzen, with funding from the Danish Film Institute.
Babette’s Feast was the first Danish cinema film of a Blixen story. It was also the first Danish film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
In a remote village in 19th century Denmark, two elderly ascetics – sisters Martine and Philippa – are devoted to serving the poor and upholding the teachings of their deceased father. The sisters renounced suitors and all forms of finery, so they dress in drab clothing and subsist on dried, salted fish and thick ale-bread soup.
One day, Babette, a French refugee, arrives on their doorstep, with a letter from Philippa’s former suitor, recommending her as a housekeeper . Though the sisters’ devout lifestyle would normally preclude them from having any servants, they take her in.
Fourteen years go by and Babette is notified that she has won the lottery and will receive ten thousand francs! She offers to cook a genuine French dinner to commemorate the sisters’ father’s 100th birthday. And what a meal Babette prepares. A veritable feast!
In the short story, Babette flees to a small mountain town of Berlevaag, Norway. In the movie, the setting is set in a small village on the remote west coast of Jutland, Denmark.
“Babette’s Feast” is based on a short story of the same name written by Isak Dinesen (the pen name of Danish author Karen Blixen). The original short story is indeed set in Norway. The film adaptation, however, takes place in a Danish village on the Jutland peninsula. The change in location was made by the filmmaker, Gabriel Axel, when adapting the story to the screen.
chatGPT
The Story and the Author
Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (born Dinesen; 17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962) was a Danish author who wrote in Danish and English. She is also known under her pen names Isak Dinesen, used in English-speaking countries; Tania Blixen, used in German-speaking countries; Osceola, and Pierre Andrézel.
Blixen is best known for Out of Africa, an account of her life while in Kenya, and for one of her stories, Babette’s Feast. Each has been adapted as films and each won Academy Awards. She is also noted, particularly in Denmark, for her Seven Gothic Tales. Among her later stories are Winter’s Tales (1942), Last Tales (1957), Anecdotes of Destiny (1958) and Ehrengard (1963). The latter was adapted as a romantic comedy film Ehrengard: The Art of Seduction, directed by Bille August and in association with Netflix, which released it on streaming in late 2023.
Blixen was considered several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, but did not receive it because judges were reportedly concerned about showing favoritism to Scandinavian writers, according to Danish reports.
Lots of Babette-related links, including recipes, at Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Fineckeweb site.
The Lottery
So how much did Babette win in the lottery? She won 10,000 French fracs (₣).
How much is that? That, it turns out, is a very hard question to answer. For one thing, we don’t know exactly when the film was set, but let’s say 1881.
Another complexity was that France was on both the gold standard and the silver standard, and the relative value of the two metals was not constant.
And what is the reference for purchasing power? Chickens? Eggs? Silicon diodes? Flour? Boots?
But most estimates put the amount between $30K and $60K. The website estimator by Prof. Rodney Edvinsson, Stockholm University, puts the value of ₣10,000 (1881) at $ 49,219.270966460266 USD. (pretty cool web site)
Semi-Sequitur: Turtles
A large sea turtle (uncredited) features prominently in the movie Babette’s Feast.
Sea turtles also feature prominently in Survive the Savage Seas.
If you want to read a harrowing and true memoir of six people in life-boat survival story, check out Survive the Savage Seas. Eating raw sea turtles turned out to be the difference between life and death.
Interpersonal relationships became a little strained.
Daniel Rogov (Requiescat in Pace) posted detailed recipes in June of 2005.
Mr. Rogov has a detailed description of the recipes from Babette’s Feast. You will immediately recognize the complexity and involvement of the recipes.
To give you an order-of-magnitude comparison, to the left are the details for the soup (Potage A La Tortue), second course (Blinis Demidoff), main course (Cailles En Sarcophage), and dessert (Kuglehopf).
Photo: Mogens Engelund
Also served are a variety of cheeses, fruits, wines, brandies….
The Hungry Browser
Bill, a commentator at The Hungry Browser, presents the menu more traditionally:
Potage a’la Tortue (Turtle Soup) § Blini Demidoff au Caviar (Buckwheat cakes with caviar) § Caille en Sarcophage avec Sauce Perigourdine (Quail in Puff Pastry Shell with Foie Gras and Truffle Sauce (literally, Quails in Coffins)) § La Salade (Salad Course) § Les Fromages (Cheese and Fresh Fruit) § Baba au Rhum avec les Figues (Rum Cake with Dried Figs) § Caviar! § And Champagne! § Dinner ends with a fabulous rum cake with glaceé and fresh fruits.
Culinary Adventures with Cam
For mere mortals, Camilla Mann (blogspot and new site at Culinary Cam) has a very manageable mock turtle soup. Camilla hosted a Food ‘n Flix collaborative adventure back in 2014.
My mission at Culinary Cam: culinary inspiration. By sharing the processes behind recipes, I want to inspire people to get into their kitchens and cook fearlessly.
The 1,122-square-kilometre (433 sq mi) municipality is the 100th largest by area out of the 356 municipalities in Norway. Berlevåg is the 339th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of 908. The municipality’s population density is 0.8 inhabitants per square kilometre (2.1/sq mi) and its population has decreased by 11.4% over the previous 10-year period.
In November 1944, the village was completely burned down and the inhabitants evacuated by force as part of the scorched earth strategy of the Germans. In the aftermath, the Norwegian government wanted to relocate the inhabitants to nearby Kongsfjord because of a better harbour, but they refused, and the village was rebuilt. As there are absolutely no trees in Berlevåg, many of the houses in Berlevåg were built by the help of the wooden planks in the “tarmac” and runway of the previous German airfield.
By Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-102-0893-13A / Fraß / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de By Maltesen from Copenhagen, Denmark – Berlevåg, CC BY 2.0 By Jørgen Hans Maltesen – Maltesen, CC BY-SA 2.5
Berlevåg is way up there….
Berlevåg Harbor Museum
The harbour in Berlevåg is a term all northerners know. The story of this harbour and the breakwaters is one of storms and rough seas, a mammoth undertaking and several setbacks. The result is impressive.
Aker Clean Hydrogen and Varanger Kraft’s project to build a green hydrogen and ammonia plant in Berlevåg in Northern Norway is stepping forward towards decarbonizing arctic shipping and off-grid power plants.
The companies [Aker Clean Hydrogen and Varanger Kraft] announces that they are working on plans to build one of the first commercial production plants for green ammonia with production potentially starting in Northern Norway before the end of 2024.
The planned plant is to be located north of the Arctic Circle in Berlevåg municipality. It would be well situated to become one of the first providers of alternate fuels to aid in the decarbonization of the arctic and according to Rolf Laupstad, mayor of Berlevåg, will help the area to become a center for green development.
In Berlevåg, north of the Arctic circle, Aker Horizons and Varanger Kraft are developing a green ammonia production facility to provide shipping industry and off-grid communities in the Arctic with clean energy.
Through their co-owned joint venture, Green Ammonia Berlevåg, the two partners are planning to build a 100 MW green ammonia facility in the first phase, using renewable power from Varanger Kraft’s adjacent wind farm on Raggovidda.
The power generated at the local wind farm in Berlevåg is to be used to produce hydrogen and green ammonia. Industry developers believe the far northern town will develop into a hub for renewable energy that ultimately can offer zero emission fuel to ships operating in northern waters.
Jutland is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It stretches from the Grenen spit in the north to the confluence of Elbe and Sude in the southeast. The historic southern boarder river of Jutland as a cultural-geographical region, which historically also included Southern Schleswig, is the Eider. The peninsula, on the other hand, also comprises areas south of the Eider: Holstein, the former duchy of Lauenburg, and most of Hamburg and Lübeck.
Jutland’s geography is flat, with comparatively steep hills in the east and a barely noticeable ridge running through the center. West Jutland is characterised by open lands, heaths, plains, and peat bogs, while East Jutland is more fertile with lakes and lush forests.
The folks at Cambridge use this example to teach our Chinese friends the use of “jut”:
chatGPT’s Currency Conversation
To estimate the present value of 10,000 French francs from the 19th century, we can use the same approach as before, taking into account average inflation rates. Given the information provided, assuming the average inflation rate of 2.5% over the years, we can use the formula:
Calculating this will give us an approximate value in today’s dollars. Please note that this is a rough estimate, and the actual value may vary due to factors such as changes in inflation rates and economic conditions.
In 1890, the price of silver varied, and it is challenging to provide an exact figure as it fluctuated based on factors such as market demand and supply. However, historical records suggest that the average price of silver in the late 19th century was roughly around $0.60 to $0.65 per troy ounce.
Keep in mind that these are approximate values, and the actual prices could have varied based on specific market conditions and geographical locations. If you need a more precise figure or have a specific context in mind, you may want to consult detailed historical records or financial archives from that period.
In the late 19th century, many countries, including France, were on the bimetallic standard rather than a strict silver or gold standard. The bimetallic standard allowed for both gold and silver to be used as official legal tender. In the case of France, the French franc was convertible into a specific amount of both gold and silver.
France formally adopted the gold and silver bimetallic standard in the 1803 Law of the Franc Germinal. However, over the years, there were shifts in the balance between gold and silver in the French monetary system. France eventually moved towards a gold standard in the 1870s.
By 1890, the French monetary system was effectively on the gold standard. The transition to the gold standard was a part of broader international trends during that time. The move towards gold was influenced by factors such as the stability of gold-backed currencies and the desire for a more uniform and reliable international monetary system.
