[Sca-cooks] a Well-Dressed Peacock and a Golden Calf (was on topic: Healthy Feasts)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

Rob Downie wrote:

>I am very grateful for the translation of the passage about the guilded 
>birds sewn into the calves belly.  
>
The birds are not gilded.  The calf is gilded.

>I love these little tidbits about 
>presentation style!  I'm a bit curious as to the meaning of "the right 
>kind of scarf for a peacock to wear to a feast"?
>
>Faerisa - just back from an event this weekend
>
Villena says that there are two ways to serve a roast peacock in its 
finery.  The first is to roast it whole, with the still-attached tail 
and neck wrapped in damp napkins to keep them from scorching.  The other 
was is to remove the tail and cut off the neck, then re-attach them to 
the roasted bird with splinters of wood.  For extra elegance (and 
presumably to cover the marks of decapitation), the peacock's neck is 
draped with a "mantellina" (little mantle or scarf) of velvet or 
cloth-of-gold, painted with the king's arms.

-- 

Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
Robin Carroll-Mann *** rcmann4 at earthlink.net