[Sca-cooks] Thumiyya - Andalusi Garlic Chicken

[Philip & Susan Troy]

>I'm planning to make Thumiyya from the Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook.
>I have a couple questions - and i wondered if anyone else has cooked
>this dish.

<snip>

>My two questions:
>1) What comes out of the chicken? Its innards of course, However,
>what is to pounded up with the garlic? Liver of course; heart and
>gizzard maybe, probably; intestines and/or other guts as well?

Well, if the chicken was once alive, yes. There'd be the usual pluck
of liver, heart, gizzard, plus lungs, kidneys, intestines (do
chickens have spleens and pancreases? probably nothing culinarily
significant) and reproductive organs. I'd be sure and remove the gall
bladder from the liver, though, if you're actually drawing a
freshly-killed bird.

The semi-whole birds we used for Chinese New Year only included the
liver, the heart, and the gizzard. The neck was there, but not
included with the giblets because the chicken was still using it to
keep its head in place. Feet, too. On the other hand, they were
actually selling trays of what appeared to be chicken
ovaries/oviducts, looking vaguely like intestines, but labeled
"chicken uterii" [sic], nonetheless.

You know what? You're probably just fine with grinding the liver,
heart, and gizzard. By the time it's ground finely enough (see the
instruction to make it like brains), no one will know "Oh, my gosh!
There's no ovaries in this!" You might invest in a little extra liver
or gizzards to make up the difference.

>2) The manuscript as it is published in His Grace, Duke Cariadoc's
>Cook book compendium, includes a comment by Charles Perry as to the
>similarity between this recipe and the French Chicken with 40 cloves
>of garlic. If memory serves me, in the latter, the chicken is stuffed
>with the whole cloves of garlic.

Not unprecedented in medieval English recipes, either. In this case,
the similarity presumably lies in the combination of ingredients and
the sealed braising process.

>          My interpretation of the above recipe would be that the
>chicken is left whole, but the seasonings, including the garlic
>smashed with whatever set of internal organs and fried, are just put
>in the pan around or coating the chicken.
>          Personally, i would like to use the chicken cut up and mixed
>with the seasonings, as in my experience the chicken meat will be
>more flavorful.

Probably a trade-off. I'm inclined to agree with you, but many would
argue that a whole bird is juicier.

>  But perhaps the chicken is just meant to be "baked"
>whole and the seasonings make a sauce. The recipe doesn't really say
>whether the chicken is to be cut up or left whole. In any event, it
>doesn't appear to me that the Andalusian recipe calls for the chicken
>to be stuffed with the seasonings as the French recipe does.

Assuming Perry's translation is accurate, he suggests the other stuff
is to be mixed with the chicken, which suggests to me that the
chicken may be cut up. That may not be the original author's
intention, but if it were to be left whole, I, as a translator, would
have used another word.

Adamantius