became the first. At this point, the term "entrée" had lost its literal meaning and had come to refer to a certain type of dish, unrelated to its place in the meal. The cookbooks and dictionaries of the 17th and 18th centuries rarely discuss directly the composition of the dishes for each stage of the meal, but they routinely designate recipes or include lists of dishes appropriate to each stage. Nevertheless, entrées and the dishes of the other stages of the meal can be distinguished from each other by certain characteristics, such as their ingredients, cooking methods, and serving temperatures. The distinct characteristics of the entrée were at first loosely observed, or perhaps more accurately, the "rules" were in a formative stage for several decades. By the early 18th century, though, certain ingredients and cooking methods were increasingly confined to the entrée stage of the meal. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, entrées, on meat days, included most butchers’ meats (but not ham), suckling pig, fowl, furred and feathered game, and offal. Eggs, on meat days, were never served as entrées; they were served only as entremets. Vegetables often made up part of the sauce or garnish, but entrées were always meat dishes; vegetable dishes were served only as entremets. On lean days, fish replaced meat and fowl in every stage of the meal. Even on lean days, few entrées were composed only of vegetables. During Lent, though, vegetable entrées ("entrées en racines", encompassing all vegetables, not just "roots") were sometimes served. Moist cooking methods were characteristic of the entrée stage of the meal, typical preparations being sautés, ragoûts, and fricassées. Meat or fowl (but not fish) might be roasted, but it was first wrapped in paper, or stuffed with a forcemeat, or barded with herbs or anchovies, or finished in a sauce, or prepared in some other way to keep the dish from browning and crisping like a true roast. Savory pies and pastries were baked in dry heat, but the enclosed meat cooked in its own steam and juices. All entrées were served hot, and this was a salient feature of entrées until the 19th century. In the mid-18th century, entrées were increasingly divided into new categories based on the content and preparation of the dish. "Hors d'œuvres", which, in the late 17th century, were served at several points during the meal, were considered a type of