Cassolette

A cassolette (from the diminutive form of the French word cassole, a small container) is a small porcelain, glass, or metal container used for the cooking and serving of individual dishes. The word also refers to dishes served in such a container:

Cassolettes ambassadrice: A ragoût of chicken livers with a duchesse potato border.
Cassolettes bouquetière: creamed vegetables topped with asparagus tips and cauliflower florets.
Cassolettes marquise: Crayfish tails à la Nantua to which diced truffles and mushrooms have been added with a border of puff pastry.
Cassolettes Régence: a salpicon of chicken breast and truffles in a velouté sauce, topped with asparagus tips with a border of duchesse potatoes.

It may also refer to a box or vase with a perforated cover to emit perfumes and enhance the natural scent of a woman.^[1]^[2] Linked with this meaning, Ian Kerner in She Comes First - the thinking man's guide to pleasuring a woman states that cassolette refers colloquially to that natural woman's scent itself, including the strong scent of the vulva, and notes that Napoleon was a particular aficionado of that of Josephine.^[3]

References

Larousse Gastronomique (1961), Crown Publishers (translated from the French, Librairie Larousse, Paris (1938))
Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9 édition.
Elizabeth David, French Country Cooking, decorated by John Minton, published by John Lehmann (1951)

Notes

^ 2015, Peter Golden, Wherever There Is Light: A Novel, Simon and Schuster (ISBN 9781476705583), page 234 "Don't you like the word cassolette, Julian?" He supposed Thayer thought she was being clever. Cassolette was also a reference to the natural fragrance of a woman. People were clustering closer to them. "I practice using 'cassolette' in ...
^ 2015, Christopher Buckley, But Enough About You: Essays, Simon and Schuster (ISBN 9781476749525), page 234 'I know you're in a hurry to find out about cassolette, but please first note that "if you use your palm, rub it over your own and your partner's armpit area first." At points as these, the text seems to intersect with the script of the movie A Fish Called...'
^ Kerner, Ian (2004). She Comes First - the thinking man's guide to pleasuring a woman. Harper Collins. p. 67. ISBN 9780061792649.

[1] 2015, Peter Golden, Wherever There Is Light: A Novel, Simon and Schuster (ISBN 9781476705583), page 234 "Don't you like the word cassolette, Julian?" He supposed Thayer thought she was being clever. Cassolette was also a reference to the natural fragrance of a woman. People were clustering closer to them. "I practice using 'cassolette' in ...

[2] 2015, Christopher Buckley, But Enough About You: Essays, Simon and Schuster (ISBN 9781476749525), page 234 'I know you're in a hurry to find out about cassolette, but please first note that "if you use your palm, rub it over your own and your partner's armpit area first." At points as these, the text seems to intersect with the script of the movie A Fish Called...'

[3] Kerner, Ian (2004). She Comes First - the thinking man's guide to pleasuring a woman. Harper Collins. p. 67. ISBN 9780061792649.

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See also

References

Notes