[Sca-cooks] Boiled, Stuffed and Roasted Chicken Recipe

[Stefan li Rous]

Aislinn asked:
  <<< Is there any cooking technique like this during the Middle Ages  
in the
Arabic countries? I haven't tried this recipe, although it sounds like a
terrific way to make sure the chicken is cooked at feast. This would
even
work for Saxon-style cooking over a campfire, boiling the chicken first
then skewering it and toasting the outside.

Boiled, Stuffed and Roasted Chicken Recipe

Boiling the chicken first produces a moist and succulent chicken.The
stuffing is like having an extra meal out of the chicken! Experiment
with
your favourite spices. Imperial ounces are used for this. This recipe
comes from A New Book of Middle Eastern Food.>>>

So far, I've found one that boils and then frying it. I think saw  
another that said boil and then roast, but I had gotten mixed up and  
was looking for boiled and then fried, not roasted. There are also  
some possible ones in Middle English, with no translation, so I'm not  
sure if I'm reading them right or not.

Check this file in the FOOD-MEATS section of the Florilegium:
chicken-msg      (163K) 10/ 8/04    Period and SCA chicken recipes.
.
==========
Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2000 19:31:47 -0800
From: Kerri Canepa <kerric at pobox.alaska.net>
Subject: SC - A Chicken dish from al-Baghdadi

Recently I was able to procure pomegranates at an insanely cheap  
price (for
Alaska) and went looking for recipes that included the seeds or  
juice. A friend
(with whom I cook with every other week) had pulled out a chicken and  
so I was
on the quest for a pomegranate and chicken dish. Al-Baghdadi was just  
the thing.
The recipe that resulted is sort of a hybrid dish composed of various  
parts of
several chicken dishes.

The original:
CHICKEN DISHES - Boil the chicken, then quarter it. Fry lightly in fresh
sesame-oil, with dry coriander, mastic and cinnamon. If desired sour,  
after
frying make a broth either with sumach-juice or pomegranate-seed, or  
lemon-juice
or grape-juice, or the two last mixed, or vinegar and sugar as for  
zirbaj. Peel
sweet almonds, grind small, mix with water, and throw into the  
saucepan. Spray
with rose-water, and rub over the pan some sprigs of dry mint. If not  
made a la
zirbaj, omit mint. If made a la masus, fry lightly in sesame-oil  
after boiling,
adding celery and vinegar coloured with saffron: some garnish with  
poached eggs.
If made a la mamqur, after frying lightly throw on vinegar and murri  
mixed in
equal parts with alittle of the boiling-water. If made a la mutajjan,  
throw on a
little of the boiling-water and some old murri: when removed from the  
fire
squeeze on it fresh lemon-juice but first fry in sesame-oil until  
growned. If
made maqlu, fry in sesame-oil, throw on a little of the boiling-water  
and
garnish with poached eggs. If made a la isfidbaj, boil the chicken  
with mastic,
cinnamon and salt: then grind small sweet almonds, mix with water,  
and add,
together with a handful of chick-peas, peeled and soaked, and a ring  
of dill.
....

(Kind of) Zirbaj Chicken

1 whole chicken
1/2 cup gomegranate juice (the juice from 1 baseball sized fruit)
2/3 cup crushed almonds
1 cup water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp dried coriander
salt
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
sesame oil
water
vinegar

Put chicken in large pot, cover with water, add salt (about 2 tsp) or  
not, cover
and boil until done (about 45 minutes). Remove and cool. Cut into  
pieces.

Heat sesame oil in pan until hot. Add chicken pieces and sprinkle  
with spices.
Fry on both sides to coat with oil and spices, about 5 minutes.  
Remove to plate.
Add to pan pomegranate juice, water and almonds and heat until gently  
boiling.
Add drained, rinsed chickpeas and cook until reduced and thickened.  
Sprinkle
with vinegar and salt to taste, and serve over chicken pieces.

NOTE: There's no cumin mentioned in the recipe but I like it in  
combination with
dried coriander. Salt is only mentioned once in the whole listing of  
recipes and
mastic is something I didn't have and couldn't find in this area. I  
didn't do
the finishing, the rosewater and mint, because there wasn't any of  
either where
I was cooking. The 1/2 cup of pomegranate juice was not enough to  
make it sour
so I'd increase the amount to a whole cup. The addition of vinegar  
and chickpeas
is not specified in zirbaj  but common enough in the other dishes.

This dish is very fragant even without the rosewater and mint. With more
pomegranate juice, it would have been more sweet and sour tasting,  
but had an
engaging enough flavor for the non-SCA roommate to eat it with gusto.  
Except for
the difficulty and expense of obtaining pomegranates, this dish would  
be easy
enough and tasty enough to use on a feast menu.

Cedrin
============

Okay, I *think* this original has you boil a chicken or goose, stuff  
it and then roast it. This from this file:
roast-chicken-msg (39K)  8/31/00    Period and SCA baked or roasted  
chicken.

===========
From: jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Lothar and pot lucks
Date: 17 Nov 1993 20:57:53 GMT

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

Rosaline Weaver asks,
 >I was thinking of bringing a roasted stuffed goose.  Would that be
 >alright (I'm avoiding turkey)?  Does anyone know how it would be
 >stuffed or trimmed in period?  What spices would be used?  My
 >traditional poultry recipe would require sea salt, white pepper,
 >sage, thyme, fruit juice and butter for the seasoning of the bird
 >and the basting.  What do those better informed than I suggest?

Here's a recipe from Austin's _Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks_,
taken from Harlein MS 279 (in the section titled Leche Vyaundez,
recipe 35, on page 41 of Austin, which is the lower right hand
quarter of page 60 in volume 1 of Cariadoc's collection of period
cookbooks).

Capoun or gos farced

       Take Percely, & Swynys grece, or Sewet of a schepe, & parboyle
hem to-gederys til they ben tendyr; than take harde zolkys of Eyroun, &
choppe for-with; caste ther-to Pouder Pepir, Gyngere, Canel, Safroun, &
Salt, & grapis in tyme of zere, & clowys y-now; & for defawte of grapis,
Oynons, fyrst wil y-boylid, & afterward all to-choppyd, & so stuffe  
hym &
roste him, & serue hym forth.  And zif the lust, take a litil Porke
y-sode, & al to-choppe hit smale a-mong that other; for it wel be the
better, & namely for the Capoun.

(Baffling "z"s, especially initial ones, tend to represent youghs, a
letter no longer in our alphabet; in initial position, it tends to
be a "y" today; elsewhere, it is often "gh".)

A modern version, with amounts:

3 lb frying chicken (or double for a goose)     1/4 tsp cloves
tops from 12 sprigs parsley               3/4 tsp cinnamon
2 T butter (instead of fat)               2 pinches saffron
7 egg yolks (hard boiled)                 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper               1 cup green grapes
1/2 tsp ginger                            1 cup red or black grapes

1.  Saute parsley in butter if you feel like it; otherwise, melt butter
and add to parsley.
2.  Mix remaining ingredients.
3.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
4.  Stuff bird.
5.  Put bird in oven; immediately turn temperature down to 350.
6.  Roast about 20 minutes to the pound, basting at about 20 minute  
intervals.

-- I have tried this with pork; I like it better without.  The grapes  
come out
absolutely luscious.  When you mix it, it looks like you have too  
many grapes,
but when you eat it, you decide there aren't enough.  (Use seedless  
grapes.)
The amounts are very flexible.

I've made it with both chicken and goose.  It's wonderful either way.

If you'd like period recipes for soppes, to compare with the Jeff  
Smith one,
let me know.

Enjoy!
-- Angharad/Terry

From: jtn at nutter.cs.vt.edu (Terry Nutter)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Lothar and pot lucks
Date: 17 Nov 1993 21:05:24 GMT

Greetings, all, from Angharad ver' Rhuawn.

I just posted:
 >Capoun or gos farced
 >
 >     Take Percely, & Swynys grece, or Sewet of a schepe, & parboyle
 >hem to-gederys til they ben tendyr; than take harde zolkys of  
Eyroun, &
 >choppe for-with; caste ther-to Pouder Pepir, Gyngere, Canel,  
Safroun, &
 >Salt, & grapis in tyme of zere, & clowys y-now; & for defawte of  
grapis,
 >Oynons, fyrst wil y-boylid, & afterward all to-choppyd, & so stuffe  
hym &
 >roste him, & serue hym forth.  And zif the lust, take a litil Porke
 >y-sode, & al to-choppe hit smale a-mong that other; for it wel be the
 >better, & namely for the Capoun.

OK, I'm dim.  I'm so used to these, I didn't stop to think.  Here it is,
in slightly more modern English:

Stuffed Capon or Goose

       Take parsley, and swine's grease or sewet of a sheep [note: you
could use lard, but I have substituted butter, and it works just fine],
and parboil them together until they are tender.  Then take hard  
[boiled]
yolks of eggs, and chop them in.  Add in ground pepper, ginger,  
cinnamon,
saffron, and salt, and grapes in season, and enough cloves; and for
default of [i.e. if you do not have] grapes, onions which have first  
been
well boiled, and then chopped.  And so stuff him [the bird] and roast  
him,
and serve him forth.  And if you like, take a little boiled pork, and
chop it small [and mix it in] with the other; for it will be better,
and namely for the capon [i.e., this is particularly good with capon as
opposed to goose].

Sorry.  It's not _that_ long since Middle English was a different  
language
for me; I should know better.

Cheers,
-- Angharad/Terry
============

Hmmm. Maybe the stuffing is being boiled, rather than the chicken.

There is also this one, but unfortunately Ras doesn't give the  
original recipe.
======
From: Uduido at aol.com
Date: Fri, 11 Apr 1997 22:36:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: sca-cooks Roast Chicken

<< But, now, after being on this list (gosh, has it only been since
  Wednesday??!) I would like to make this a "period" chicken.  Any  
and all
  suggestions and/or  receipts will be appreciated!  (but i will NOT  
hang it
  upside down under my crabapple tree! ;-) >>

Stuf chicken with prunes. Parboil your chicken for 15 mins. in water  
to cover
with 12 Tbsps of Lemon Juice. Drain. Remove and save prunes. Place  
chicken in
a oven at 350 degrees f. until well-browned.

Mash prunes. Add to liquid that chicken was boiled in. Add pepper, a  
1/2 tsp.
cinnamon, 3 cloves, salt to taste. Boil until reduced to 2 cps. Pour  
over
chicken and serve.

Lord Ras
=======

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 ****