SC - Documented Substitutions (Long)
Jeff Gedney
JGedney at dictaphone.com
Thu Apr 27 08:21:29 PDT 2000
Hello, the list folks:
My co-cook for the Meridian Crown list (a little over a week a way, egads!)
and I are trying an experiment. We have a couple of "not your usual feast"
items on the menu for sampling. One of the items is basically a recipe from
Terence Scully's new Book on Neopolitan Recipes where a small bird
(pigeon-although we have tried quail, squab and game hen)is soaked in
vinegar for a day and half (per the recipe)and you will find the bones
turned to jelly or some such. I will post the recipe from the book.(I am at
work and don't have it with me)
Here's the problem: According to the recipe, you should be able to slice
through the bird when it is done and find no (jellied/dissolved) bones.
Niccolo has found that no matter how long he soaks the bird, there is still
a crunch factor in the bones, and the longer the bird is soaked, the texture
of the meat is affected. The bird is supposed to be roasted after this
process, but we aren't having any success with reducing the bones and
keeping the meat edible.
I just tried the same thing with a quail and pierced the flesh to the bone
to see if that would help during the soaking process. I have looked through
all my french and italian "modern" books for reference to this type of thing
and haven't had much luck. I have a multitude of cookery (historical and
current) books and find no reference there either...
Does anyone have suggestions? Was period vinegar stonger? I have made
vinegar of varying strengths during my brewing and cooking experiments and
found that today's store bought vinegar is stonger in acetic acid than
anything I could produce myself.
I would really like to keep this on the menu...
Thanks,
Caitlin of Enniskillen
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