SC - My first feast is over. Here's what happened (part two):

[david friedman]

At 3:49 PM -0500 12/8/98, Gedney, Jeffrey wrote:
>Here is the second part of the description of the event and recipes.
>Chickyn yn gretney
>	Boyle chickens in good broth, and rese the thyys and the wyngys
>	& the brestys. Take mylke of almonds unblanched; draw up withe
>	the same brothe & poudyr of canell & a perty of wyne, sygure,
>	saffron, & salt. Do hit togedyr yn a pott; set on the fyre.
>	Stere hit when hit boyles. Sesyn hit up with poudyr of gyngyr
>	& verjus. Lay the chikenys hote yn disches. Have yolkes of
>	eyron soden hard, and fryed a lytyll; couch on aboute the
>	wyngez & the thyes.
>---------------------
>I blew it on the verjuice, I forgot to make it ahead of time, and so I left
>it out. The sauce was served in bowls on the side, and the chickens were
>roasted with lemon and rosmary and sage. It is not exactly to the original,
>but it was damn good, and people were demolishing the chickens.

As you say, your version is not exactly to the original. One comment on
that: rosemary and sage are likely additions to chicken at this time and
place; lemons are not. Lemons in England in the 14th and 15th century were
somewhere between extremely rare and non-existant; I have never seen one in
a recipe, and Anne Wilson (_Food and Drink in Britain_) says that citrus
were imported at this time, but rarely. This changes and they become more
common in England by late 16th-early 17th c.

Also, vinegar is possible as a last-minute substitute for verjuice: if you
have worked the recipe out using verjuice, you can substitute half as much
vinegar and get a similar but not identical taste.

This feast looks like it was a whole lot of work. I am usually somewhat
daunted by the idea of doing things where you have to shape individual
things for each feaster, like the aloes of beef or the hats which you did
for this feast.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook


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