Odd and Interesting foods (was Re: SC - food bashing)

[ChannonM@aol.com]

Johann von Metten writes:
First,I remember trying to answer and address much of this question 
before, and while I am not the all answer guy in regards to this 
question (or anything else aside from my own opinion) I will try again.

EGGS COME FROM CHICKENS
  When discussing eggs we must take the breed of chicken into 
consideration first and then it's age and it's quality of feed!!!

 I raise period breeds(5 kinds,including Jungle Fowl(the original genus 
and species) of chickens and geese(1 breed so far, Old Embdens)
 I feed them period grains and foods in the attempt and aim to produce 
period eggs and flesh. I have tried very hard to research and use such 
period sources as I can find and reproduce. 

I have found that the strains of chickens which have survived to the 
present day are limited, but seem to be reletively pure coming from 
isolated communities where there was not a lot of 'improvement' in their 
breeding. 
 The size of the eggs is directly linked to the size of the chicken that 
laid it, so a small bird lays a small egg, a medium bird a medium egg 
and a large bird a large egg. 

Generally speaking from bone evidence from York and other buried cities, 
such as Pompeii and others, bantam breeds which lay those small 'pee-wee 
eggs, were not extensively developed until the late 1600's in the 
lowlands. Looking at Dorking chicken bones from York and Pompeii, we see 
a bird which is not at all distinguished from the rare bird known today.
So too the Scots Dumpy and the Persian Brahma as well as the Egyptian 
Phayoumis(the smallest of the list) all are known birds from period, all 
are sometimes rare, but exrent breeds today. All lay medium to large 
eggs today and always have.
 Granted, with the modern breeding of such birds as the Modern Leghorn 
and RhodeIslandRed and their crosses, we can have much bigger eggs than 
'normal' in period. That does not mean that they didn't have them, just 
that they were not common.  
In the past I have used the formula that as Jumbos would have been rare 
I would make the Large, Jumbo, and the Mediums, Large and so forth.
I believe this is still the most realistic way to scale, but would still 
acknowledge that Jumbos are possible from at least 4 breeds in period, 
the Langshans and the Jersey Giants, as well as possibly Turkens and the 
Cochin.

Again,when discussing eggs we must take the breed of chicken into 
consideration first and then it's age and it's quality of feed. 
 
Johann von Metten, medieval poultrier
Sternfeld

Marcus Loidolt
Indpls,IN
317-545-5704

for more info check out the following sites:
Feathersite.com   <an on-line encyclopedia of poultry)
RarePoultryBreeder at egroups.com
Poultryline at egroups.com




sca-cooks wrote:
> 
> sca-cooks        Wednesday, September 20 2000        Volume 01 : Number 2616
> 
> In this issue:
> 
>     SC - Period eggs
> Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2000 11:33:42 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Jeff Heilveil <heilveil at uiuc.edu>
> Subject: SC - Period eggs
> 
> Salut!
> I have been off in never-never orelim land again, but I was wondering if
> there are any good sources which have descriptions of period eggs.  I know
> that we have discussed this a little in the past and it was mentioned that
> the eggs should be smaller, but how much smaller?  I can get pee-wees,
> wee-pees small and medium eggs without difficulty and would be interested
> in using these to better redact period recipes (pee-wees and wee-pees
> appear to be the industry term for extra-small and extra-extra small
> respectively).
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Cu drag,
> Bogdan
> 
> ps.  I need to check the beeswaxed eggs, as there is some discoloration
> underneath the beeswax.  On the other hand, there is no smell to the eggs
> other than that of the wax.  They have been hanging around since before
> pennsic.  I'll crack one this weekend (outside) and let you know how it
> goes.  If it is fune I shall let the one other remaining egg go a little
> longer and check it later.  If the egg "seems" fine (ie no noxious
> sulfurous smell) I'll probably drag it into the lab and check for
> pathogens, since that what I do.  If it is okay that would be about 2
> months un-refrigerated without any problems, including travel to and
> residence at pennsic.
> 
> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
> 
> To fight Honorably, to Love deeply, and to Cook in great volumes.  These
> are man's finest virtues.
> _______________________________________________________________________________
> Jeffrey Heilveil M.S.                 Ld. Bogdan de la Brasov, C.W.
> Department of Entomology        A Bear's paw and base vert on field argent
> University of Illinois
> heilveil at uiuc.edu
> office: (217) 244-5115
> home: (217) 355-5702
> ICQ: 34699710
>