[Sca-cooks] washing birds...

[Stefan li Rous]

  Sayyida Halima al-Shafi'i replied to me with:
> The towel serves to "massage" the chickens helping to clean them and
> serves as a buffer while the chickens are agitatin.
Ah. Okay, this helps explain why the chicken doesn't get battered too 
much. As well as the fact that the birds would stay submiraged and not 
actually get hit with high pressure sprays as might happen in the 
"cooking fish in the dishwasher" method. Do you wrap each chicken/bird 
in a towel? Or just toss in a towel with a load of birds?
> We used to do this
> every year when butchering.  I don't give advice or suggest things 
> based
> on theoretical knowledge unless I clearly state it is theoretical.
Sorry, I've not seen you post here long enough to know such details 
about you or how you post. But even knowing this, I would probably 
still want to ask many of the questions I did. By temperment and 
training I'm an engineer.
>   Comparing it to a "stunt" and picking it to pieces certainly doesn't
> seem like a courteous ay to ask for further information to me-it feels
> like ridicule.
Again, my apologies. I realized upon reading your reply that "stunt" 
was probably a poor choice of words and pushed a button or two. But I 
still don't have a good way otherwise to describe the "cook the fish in 
the dishwasher" method. While a few people have tried that after the 
initial news reports got posted various places, I doubt anyone does 
this on a regular basis. People do it just to see or show that it can 
be done. And I wasn't directly comparing the two procedures, rather the 
effect that hearing about them has on people.

Both do raise questions about sanitation and food safety. These 
concerns may be shown to have no validity upon further examination, but 
it is wisest to consider them rather than to simply decide they are or 
are not a problem without looking into it. There was a similar concern 
recently raised here about cooking foods, especially meats, for long 
periods in crockpots. A couple of folks quickly gave replies that put 
these concerns to rest.

As others have pointed out, asking multiple questions is often how I 
approach things. Its much more economical to learn from someone else's 
mistakes than to make my own. Then at least mine are original. Whether 
I believe or agree with something or not, I will often ask questions. I 
have found that I often ask questions that other folks, for one reason 
or another, are not willing to ask. I've made a fool of myself enough 
here that one more "stupid" question is not going to make much 
difference. If you read Admiral Rickover's (the creator of the US 
nuclear navy) autobiography you will find that he operated on much the 
same methodology. And often that "stupid" question that I thought would 
result in a simple one line answer has resulted in a rather complex 
thread and we find out there *wasn't* a simple answer after all.

And yes, I will often try to find unusual items for the Florilegium. 
People seem to be drawn to them more so than more common things. But 
while they are there looking at the oddities in the Florilegium they 
might just find some other less unusual info that will be of use. Just 
as an example of some of the weird stuff in the Florilegium, here are a 
few examples.
chasity-belts-msg (14K)  9/12/97    Chasity belts in the Middle Ages.
Narfing-Iron-art  (12K) 10/23/00    "A Brief Beginner's Guide to 
Documentation"
                                        by Lady Jehanne de Huguenin.
teething-toys-msg (22K)  1/ 5/01    Period and SCA teething toys for 
infants.
ear-wax-msg        (3K) 10/ 3/00    Use of ear wax in period.
urine-uses-msg     (6K) 10/ 6/99    Period uses of animal and human 
urine.
eunuchs-msg        (6K)  3/30/00    Eunuchs and castration in period. 
References
dance-par-art     (12K)  1/20/92    What the future might think of 20th 
dance.
fish-skin-tan-msg  (4K) 11/25/01    Info on Icelandic fish skin tanning.
birth-control-msg (33K)  7/20/01    Period birth-control.

Well, I guess you get the idea.

Again, I'd still like to discuss this method of cleaning butchered 
animals. I've only been part of butchering one animal, and that was a 
sheep at Phlip's class near Pennsic. When I cut up a chicken, the parts 
often don't seem to come out the way they do when you buy fried chicken 
in the box. So, I'll readily admit that there's a lot I could learn on 
this subject.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****