SC - SC sotelties - cockatrice

[Christine A Seelye-King]

>>Does anybody know of documentation for the practice of sewing 
>different
>>bits of animals together, or is it just folklore?
>>
>>Charles Ragnar

There is also a kid's book called "A Medieval Feast" by Aliki, that I got
at Pennsic many years ago.  It is all about a manor house that is
expecting the King and Queen for a visit.  They go into detail as to the
animals hunted, the preparations for the feast, and the service of the
feast as well.  There is a couple of pages in there where they are sewing
the back and front half of a suckling pig and a chicken together to make
two cockentrices.  
	Way back when I was just a lowly apprentice chef, I was entered
in a student's food show.  I did a competant hors d'oerve platter, and I
also did a cockentrice.  The pig we got was larger than a suckling pig,
so I ended up having to use a turkey instead of a chicken.  I cut out a
'loaf' from the center of the forcemeat stuffing the body, and sliced it,
layed it back into the hole it came out of, decorated it with choid-froid
and truffles, covered the whole thing with aspic, and displayed it with
carved vegetables.  I thought (and still do thnik) that it looked
wonderful.  Unfortunately, by the time I got everything to the hall, I
had been up working on it for 36 hours straight, and neglected to put
anything down on the form except "Cockyntrice" and left.  Needless to
say, the judges had no idea what to make of my entry, and made absolutely
no comments on it at all!  (My other platter got an honorable mention.) 
Since then, I have learned the value of good documentation (especially
when dealing with judges who may not know what you are going for)  and
look back and sigh for what could have been. 
	We also did some cockyntrices at an event once, where we took
rabbits and chickens and did the Frankenstein thing to them.  We also
endored them, boy, were those some weird looking critters!  Unlike my
food show entry however, these were edible. (For displaying an entry on a
mirror for three days, the forcemeat had about 4 pounds of cornstarch
mixed into it, and then the whole thing was aspic'd to within an inch of
it's life).  
	I took lots of pictures of both processes, and have used them to
show folks what is entailed.  Lots of fun, I might even do it again some
day, for an appreciative audience!

Mistress Christianna MacGrain, OP, Meridies



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