[Sca-cooks] English Food

[Barbara Benson]

On Thu, Jul 3, 2008 at 10:17 AM, euriol <euriol at ptd.net> wrote:
> I just did a Strawberry Pottage from Two Fifteenth Century Cookery books
> that got a lot of good feedback.

Hmmm, I will look at that, can you get away with frozen strawberries -
I failed to mention that this event is in September, not exactly
Strawberry season.

> Other things to try - Roasted Chicken. If doing Tavern style, I'd suggest
> getting leg quarters and butchering them to the drumsticks and thighs. You
> can get the leg quarters pretty cheap at Wal-Mart (47 cents a pound the
> last time I bought a month ago). You can there make a couple of sauces to
> go with the chicken.

I have been thinking about doing spatchcocked chickens divided along
the center line so that it is prepared and served as half chickens. I
thought the visual of it would be akin to doing whole chickens without
the annoying prospect of trying to cook whole chickens without
over/under cooking any of them.

I found this recipe in 2 15th Cen Cookbooks (my translation because
the original has too many funny characters that will probably go
phlooey in many people's mail):

Capons Stewed – Take parsley, Sage, Hyssop, Rosemary and thyme, and
break it between thy hands, and stuff the Capon therewith; color them
with Saffron, and couch them in an earthen pot, or of brass, and lay
splentes underneath and all about the sides, that the Capon touch no
thing of the pot; strew good herbs in the pot, and put there-to a
pottle of the best wine that thou may get, and none other liquor; heal
the pot with a close lid, and stop it about with dough or batter, that
no either come out; And set it on the fair charcoal, and let it seethe
easily and long till it be enough. And if it be an earthen pot, then
set it on the fire when thou takest it down, and let it not touch the
ground for breaking; And when the heat is over past, take out the
Capon with a prik; then make a syrup of wine, Raisins of Corance,
Sugar and saffron, And boil it a little meddle powder of ginger with a
little of the same wine, and do thereto; then do away the fat of the
sewe of the Capon, And do the Syrup to the sewe, and powder it on the
capon, and serve it forth

And other than the fact that it says the word "Stewed" in the title -
I can see this making a good roasted chicken recipe if you don't put
too much wine in it. Has anyone played with this recipe? Has anyone
spent a lot of time with Hyssop?

> Another recipe that is likely to go over well is "Guissell" again from Two
> Fifteenth Century Cookery books, an interpretation of it is akin to Stove
> Top Stuffing... which would be a nice side to roasted chicken.

I will look into this, I was considering Rastons as an option.

Thank you for your thoughts!

--
Serena da Riva