SC - Practical Anthropology: Reducing Bones

[Catherine Hartley]

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
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com