SC - re-subscribe

[Karen O]

At 11:51 AM -0800 2/25/00, Ron and Laurene Wells wrote:

>We recently attended an SCA Shire Revel (where I actually WON the pot-luck
>contribution award with my bread swan!!! WOW!) and the Feast-o-crat had
>prepared a truly delicious period recipe of Chicken in Milk and Honey.  I
>do not know what the recipe was, but the flavors were simple yet alluring,
>and it was delightful to the palate.


I suggest that it might have been:

Douce Ame
  Form of Cury p. 35/A20

Take good cowmilk and do it in a pot. Take psel., sage, Hissop, 
savory, and other good herbs. Hew them and do them in the milk and 
seethe them. Take capons half y-roasted and smite them on pieces and 
do thereto pine and honey clarified. Salt it and color it with 
saffron and serve it forth.


>  Very saucy and was served over rice.
>My husband and I loved it!  MY CHILDREN WOULD NOT TOUCH IT.  Why?  Chicken
>is common enough, isn't it?  Yes.  They LIKE chicken.  And milk and honey?
>Nearly every child likes milk and honey.  Mine do too!!!  So what was wrong
>with this dish?  It "LOOKED WEIRD" to them.  As all "period" recipes seem
>to suggest, the chicken was cooked more or less whole, and the bones, etc.
>were left in the pot and all was served all together.

Note that Douce Ame, which may or may not be what you are describing 
but is a period recipe, tells you to half cook the capons, then cut 
them in pieces. Serving chicken cut up isn't particularly uncommon in 
period recipes.

>Use the boneless-skinless chicken
>breasts and boneless skinless thigh portions, cut them into recogniseable
>square cubes, and cook them in the pot this way.  I know this is NOT period
>meat preparation.


What makes you think it is not period meat preparation? There are an 
awful lot of period recipes using chicken, many of them tell you to 
cut it up, and they don't generally tell you what shape the pieces 
should or shouldn't be. Off hand I can't think of one that specifies 
skinless portions, but I wouldn't be surprised to find one.

>In my opinion as a parent who has to listen to the endless cries
>of "what's this black thing in my food? That looks weird!  I don't LIKE
>mushrooms!  Is that a tomato?" etc. etc. etc. I would really rather have a
>delicious recipe prepared in a fashion acceptable to their observational
>criticisms, and have them at least TASTE it, than to have them wail and
>grumble and not eat anything at all.


Speaking as a parent with kids who are often picky, I don't think I 
can consistently predict what will or will not make my children react 
negatively to a dish, so would be reluctant to modify a recipe in the 
hope of getting them to eat it.

David Friedman
Professor of Law
Santa Clara University
ddfr at best.com
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/