[Sca-cooks] Re: Peacocks

[david friedman]

Leofwynn wrote:

...
>What this boils down to, is if you want a really fancy presentation, 
>you will be paying out a lot of money for an old bird. And as we all 
>know, old probably = tough and stringy.  That is, if you can get 
>someone to skin it as if you were going to have it stuffed by a 
>taxidermist. (Tough to do.  Have you ever tried to skin out a bird's 
>head?  Peacocks have a really pretty crest.)
>
>I think that what would be easiest is to talk to a taxidermist or 
>someone else who may have a stuffed peacock, show it around, then 
>take it to the kitchen and serve something out something that will 
>taste better; chicken, turkey, or guinea (which is period, and 
>available, tho pricy at gourmet groceries).  Who will know?
>
>I bet that's what was done in period...

 From _Du Fait de Cuisine_, 1420, describing part of an elaborate entremet:

... and beside the said fountain is a peacock which has been skinned 
and reclothed. And for this, I Chiquart have said before, I would 
like to teach to the said master who is to make it the art of the 
said peacock, and this to do courtesy and honor to his lord and 
master, that is to take a large fat goose, and spit it well and put 
it to roast well and cleanly and gaily [quickly?], and to recloth it 
in the plumage of the peacock and put it in the place where the 
peacock should be set, next to the fountain of love, with the wings 
extended; and make the tail spread, and to hold the neck raised high, 
as if it were alive, put a stick of wood inside the said neck which 
will make it hold straight. And for this the said cook must not flay 
the said peacock, but take the pinions to put on the goose and take 
the skin of the rump of the peacock where the feathers are held all 
together; and when it goes onto the goose, to make good skewers to 
make the said goose spread its tail as properly as the peacock if it 
were alive.

Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook