SC - Chicken usage

[Philip & Susan Troy]

In a message dated 97-05-20 12:52:23 EDT, you write:

<< Do you mean that chickens were not eaten by peasants, or that they were
not
 common in upper class cuisine?  The first, I have little information on;
 but the second is patently false.  Chicken is the single most common form
 of flesh in 13th to 15th century English recipes; the only thing that comes
 close to rivaling it is pork.   >>

Because the majority, if not all, of period recipe books were written for
noble households, would not the proliferation of chicken recipes indicate
that they were in fact not a common food item? Case in point would be the
nobleman's desire to impress his guests with his wealth by serving  as many
exotics as possible. What better way than to serve chicken. Just a tho't but
, IMHO, not an unreasonable one. Conversely the less often an item is
mentioned, the more "common" it may have been. Responce?

Lord Ras (Uduido at aol.com)