[Sca-cooks] Re: Cruel food

[Robert Downie]

Susan Browning wrote:

> Can't quote you the source, but I have seen a recipe on how to cook a
> chicken/goose? alive, and start to eat it while it is still living.
>
> Eleanor

Thesewere convieniently located on the Gode Cookery website:
Faerisa

A Goose roasted alive - from Magia Naturalis:
A Goose roasted alive. A little before our times, a Goose was wont to be
brought to the table of the King of Arragon, that was roasted alive, as I have
heard by old men of credit. And when I went to try it, my company were so
hasty, that we ate him up before he was quite roasted. He was alive, and the
upper part of him, on the outside, was excellent well roasted. The rule to do
it is thus. Take a Duck, or a Goose, or some such lusty creature, but he Goose
is best for this purpose. Pull all the Feathers from  his body, leaving his
head and his neck. Then make a fire round about him, not too narrow, lest the
smoke choke him, or the fire should roast him too soon. Not too wide, lest he
escape unroasted. Inside set everywhere little pots full of water, and put Salt
and Meum to them. Let the Goose be smeared all over with Suet, and well Larded,
that he may be the better meat, and roast the better. Put the fire about, but
make not too much haste. When he begins to roast, he will walk about, and
cannot get forth, for the fire stops him. When he is weary, he quenches his
thirst by drinking the water, by cooling his heart, and the rest of his
internal parts. The force of the Medicament loosens and cleans his belly, so
that he grows empty. And when he his very hot, it roasts his inner parts.
Continually moisten his head and heart with a Sponge. But when you see him run
mad up and down, and to stumble (his heart then wants moisture), wherefore you
take him away, and set him on the table to your guests, who will cry as you
pull off his parts. And you shall eat him up before he is dead.

Porta, Giambattista della. Magia Naturalis.
<http://members.tscnet.com/pages/omard1/jportac14.html> (June 9, 2001)

To make a Chicken be Served Roasted - from The Vivendier:

To make a Chicken be Served Roasted. Get a chicken or any other bird you want,
and pluck it alive cleanly in hot water. Then get the yolks of 2 or 3 eggs;
they should be beaten with powdered saffron and wheat flour, and distempered
with fat broth or with the grease that drips under a roast into the dripping
pan. By means of a feather glaze and paint your pullet carefully with this
mixture so that its colour looks like roast meat. With this done, and when it
is about to be served to the table, put the chicken's head under its wing, and
turn it in your hands, rotating it until it is fast asleep. Then set it down on
your platter with the other roast meat. When it is about to be carved it will
wake up and make off down the table upsetting jugs, goblets and whatnot.

Scully, Terence. The Vivendier. Devon: Prospect Books, 1997.