[Sca-cooks] Clay-Pot Chicken

[el2iot2 at mail.com]

for those of you in the Namron area, I have 2 sizes of these clay cookers that I would be willing to loan or maybe even sell.  I have never used these pieces.  though have used others of this design.  I have more kitchen gadgets then I could use in 47 lifetimes.

Joy
Radei
----- Original Message -----
From: Phlip <phlip at 99main.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Clay-Pot Chicken
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 02:37:11 -0400

> 
> 
> Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...
> 
> > Vincenzo gave a clay-pot chicken recipe:
> > > I remember doing clay pot cooking and seeing the chicken
> > > done to perfection, moist and falling apart.
> > >
> > > That was with the oven set to 480 for 80 minutes ... but
> > > I had no way of telling how hot it was inside the clay pot.
> > >
> > > Remember that type of cooking starts with an unglazed clay
> > > pot soaked in water; generally the ingredients all go in
> > > together; don't preheat the oven; cook for the specified
> > > time; use heavy gloves to move the pot from the oven to a
> > > safe non metallic surface.
> > >
> > > Here's an example recipe ...
> > >
> > > "Roast Chicken with Brown Rice Stuffing" serves 4-6
> > >
> > > 1           roasting chicken (4~5 lbs)
> > >    3/4 cup   sherry
> > > 1 3/4 cups  chicken stock
> > > 1     cup   raw brown rice
> > > 2 tbsp      butter
> > >              Arrowroot
> > > <snip>
> >
> > Thanks for posting this. This sounds like it could be rather
> > interesting, leading to a moist, flavorful chicken. I've saved this
> > recipe to try sometime.
> >
> > 1) What do you use for this clay pot? Is this something you need to buy
> > at a kitchen utensil place? I think I may have seen such an item, but I
> > don't remember it being big enough to hold a chicken.
> 
> Stefan, there is currently a commercial item that's all the rage, called, I
> believe, a "Romertopf". It's basicly an unglazed clay roaster, shaped
> somewhat similarly to the more common, metal roasting pan.
> 
>   Or do you use an > unglazed flower pot from the nursery? But I thought
> those had a
> > drainage hole in them, and I suspect you want to contain the steam in
> > the pot.
> 
> You can. Necessity is the mother of invention... You don't really need all
> of the high dollar yuppy tools in order to duplicate certain traditional
> cooking techniques, and this is one of them. Plugging the hole(but not too
> tightly) would likely be a good idea- tinfoil works, so would a bit of clay.
> 
> > 2) Could this technique be used over a bed of coals on a fire with more
> > hot coals placed around it and on top, rather than an oven? Or will
> > that let dirt through the porous pot or keep something (air?) from
> > passing through that you want passing through?
> 
> If I were doing it over an open fire, that's how I'd do it. Really, in this
> case, you want a sealed environment without too high a heat, or else you
> need a vent. I take great exception to my firepit exploding.
> 
> > 3) Any evidence of this technique being used in medieval Europe or the >
> Middle East?
> >
> > Stefan
> 
> I think, if you look through the Florilegium, you'll find several examples
> of foods being placed in damp clay and cooked in a crust of earth- that's
> simply a way to do the same thing, without using a specific cooking
> implement for the process. The modern method is a bit more hygenic, but an
> old hunter's trick is to gut an animal, plaster it with clay, and roll it
> into the fire- clam bakes and luaus are simply a variation of this. Using
> the clay, after the meat has had time to cook, you break the shell, and all
> the feathers or fur goes away with the shell, leaving you with, ideally,
> tender and juicy meat. In modern times, since our animals are already
> skinned or defeathered, and since we usually cook in expensive, heat
> controlled appliances that we want to keep reasonably clean, covering a
> critter with clay and shoving it in the oven would make more of a mess than
> I would prefer to clean up ;-)
> 
> If you're interested in the technique, Stefan, and if you make it to
> Pennsic, I'll make a point of getting some appropriate clay-ey earth, and
> demonstrating for you. Rob says there's a clay bank on the farm, so I can
> just bag up enough, and bring it with me (don't want to dig holes in
> Cooper's property, never mind, who knows how many sumps, with Gawdknowswot
> drained in them have been dug in our campsite).
> 
> Saint Phlip,
> CoD
> 
> "When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
>   Blacksmith's credo.
> 
>   If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
> cat.
> 
> Never a horse that cain't be rode,
> And never a rider who cain't be throwed....
> 
> 
> 
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joy

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