SC - webpage update

[Christina Nevin]

Stefan li Rous wrote:

> The other Lord Steffan said:
> > The peacock (actually 7 to 9 lb. turkey breasts, the local peacock farm
> > didn't have any available at the moment.  Which is too bad, because,
> > peacock is very good.)
>
> Have you actually had peacock? There are period referances to it being a
> tough bird and to substitute another bird covering that bird in the
> peacock's skin and feathers.
>
> I think that referance as well as others and comments on handling
> modern peacock sotelities can be found in this file in the FOOD
> section of my files:
> peacocks-msg      (24K)  3/17/99    Serving peacock sotelties safely.
>
> Steffan, I'd love to hear more comments about your experiences with
> cooking peacocks.
>

I have cooked peacock on two different occasions, each with slightly different
methods, with the results being very similar.  The first time was while I was
still very new in the SCA and thus new to medieval cooking methods.  At the
time, (remember this is with less than a year in the society), my bible was the
contents of the food portion of the Micsellany.  I took part of the cooking
method from the recipe "Capons Stwed", Two Fifteenth Century Cookbook.

In this case, I did a really simple preparation.  After washing out the cavity
really well, I lightly salted the inside and stuffed it full of quartered
onions.  The outside was smeared with butter (yes the real thing), finely minced
garlic and again a light salting.  The butter I happened to be using was salted
so I didn't want to over salt.   It was then placed on a rack in an dutch oven.
The pot was large enough that the bird fit in it very nicely.   In the bottom of
the pot I poured about 2 cups of a very mellow, mead.  I then sealed the lid
with a flour paste and roasted it for about 3 hours.  It took all of my patience
to just let the pot sit on the coals without checking its progress.
Fortunately, court that day occupied a good portion of the time.

Well, this cooking method almost greated a pressure cooker environment.  The
meat had fallen completely away from the bones and was just as tender and juicy
as could be.  The sops from the bottom of the pot went great with the bread that
was served.

The second time, I did things a little bit differently as far as cooking was
concerned.  The recipe was quite different.  I stuffed the bird with a stuffing
made of breadcrumbs mixed together with the basic four herbs, parsley, sage,
rosemary and thyme, which had been fimely chopped, some finely chopped onion,
minced garlic, some salt and pepper and an egg (used to hold it all together).
This time I painted the bird with saffron before smearing it with butter and a
little salt.  Again I placed it on a rack in a dutch oven, only this time I used
just enough chicken stock to cover the rack in the bottom of the pot.  I didn't
seal the pot this time feeling that it was overkill as a dutch oven seals itself
pretty well anyway.  I cooked it with coals on the top and bottom of the oven,
again for about 3 hours.

This time the meat hadn't fallen completely away from the bones, though it was
close.  It made a double whammy spectacle when it was plated on a bed of parsley
with its tail feathers arranged very nicely (thanks to the wonders of
marzapan<sp.>).  Picture a golden bird with the blues and greens of the tail
feathers of a peacock being paraded in to the high table.  Again the meat was
very tender and juicy.  It was served with the stuffing on the side and a gravy
made from the drippings.  In both cases, not a scrap was left, the true sign
that everything was good.

I have to admit, the flaver of the meat is somewhat different from most domestic
poultry, though not too strong.  It kind of reminded me of wild goose, though
that's not quite it.  It has been my observation that peacocks are kind of like
turkeys, in the sense that they will eat anything, if allowed to do so.  This
may account for some of the references to their being a rather tough meat.  The
farmer here feeds them a mixture of rolled barley, corn and poultry pellets,
which have of all things a high alfalfa content.  This mixture produces a larger
more meaty bird, without the need for steroids and growth hormones.  My
observation would be, that with a managed diet and not too large of an area to
wander in, the peacock is a very edible as well as elegant meat to serve.

Ld. Steffan of the Close
(: The greatest pleasure in life comes from doing that which others say we
cannot do :)