[Sca-cooks] RE:capon-neck sausage

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Also sprach Stefan li Rous:
>  > 34.  Pudding of Capon neck.   Take Parsley, gizzard, & the liver and the
>>  heart, & parboil in fair water; then chop them small, & put raw yolks of
>>  Eggs two or three thereto, & chop forthwith.  Take Maces & Cloves, & put
>>  thereto, & Saffron, & a little powdered Pepper, & Salt; & fill him up & sew
>>  him, & lay him along on the capon's Back, & stick/skewer him thereon, and
>>  roast him, & serve f[orth].
>
>This bothers me some. I don't really see any filling other than
>the liver and the heart. It says fill him up, but it doesn't seem
>like the liver and gizzard from one chicken would be enough to
>fill up the neck from the same chicken. Maybe the egg yolks help
>fill it out some, but still doesn't seem like much stuffing.

Well, you don't know how much parsley is involved, either. Also, a
capon liver is pretty large. While not force-fed as some ducks and
geese are/were, a capon has been fattened by its particular hormonal
situation, and the liver stores a fair amount of fat if the animal is
fat. You've got to figure the liver would weigh at least three ounces
or so, the heart (not the gizzard, which is the stomach) maybe one
and a half (I'm guessing here), plus three egg yolks (yolks in period
were smaller; what, maybe another one-and-a-half to two ounces?)
That's six ounces of protein-y stuff in there, plus the parsley,
which, being parboiled, could be used like spinach often is now in
stuffings, rather than just as an aromatic herb. This could easily
mean a modern-sized bunch of parsley, maybe more, possibly two or
three ounces or more, cooked and drained. We may be up to half a
pound.

I could see this becoming a reasonably substantial sausage. And don't
forget it's supposed to be augmenting the bird, not served separately
in this case.

I'm reminded of English and Irish recipes I've seen, probably dating
from the nineteenth century, which involve stuffing a turkey with two
stuffings, usually a bread and/or chestnut stuffing for the main body
cavity, and a sausage stuffing for the neck skin, which is left
attached to the body at the head end.

Adamantius