SC - Portion sizes-meat

[Phil & Susan Troy]

LYN M PARKINSON wrote:
> 
> Ras,
> 
> >>Boneless, skinless chicken breasts are certainly convenient but the
> fact is
> that the highest nobility would have insisted on the necks, tails and
> wings of
> any birds.  The breast would have went to diners of less status.<<
> 
> I really want to see THAT documentation, Ras.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Allison, raising a skeptical eyebrow
> 
> allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA
> Kingdom of Aethelmearc

Maybe some clarification is in order: the portions of a roast or boiled whole
bird traditionally reserved for "great lords" would be, very much, as Lord
A'aql suggests, or at least I recall reading it somewhere. Also the head, BTW.
Apart from that, the general dictum for a carver was to include the less-used
part of any bird, so the wings of a land bird like a chicken, but the legs of
a thrush or lark (yeah, I know they're so small as to make this nearly
pointless, but you get the idea) as the more desirable portions for the
above-the-salt types.

The wing tips, the feet, neck, head, and tail (which do contain meat, but
might also have been seen as delicate because of their size and relatively low
proportion of edible meat) are also parts which wouldn't be overworked, in
theory, on a flightless _or_ a flying bird, and so are safe at any speed, if
you know what I mean.

Hey, I don't make the rules, I just remember 'em. Badly. ;  )

Adamantius  
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================