[Sca-cooks] Peacock

Daniel Myers dmyers at medievalcookery.com
Tue Apr 5 08:54:36 PDT 2011


> -------- Original Message --------
> From: Deborah Hammons <mistressaldyth at gmail.com>
> 
> It appears I might have two peacocks gifted for me to prepare for Coronation
> Feast.  Any suggestions on what a really GOOD recipe/presentation would be?

In Du fait de cuisine (France, 1420), Chiquart recommends serving a
roasted capon dressed in a peacock's skin (with feathers) - apparently
because it's fancy and tastes a lot better than the actual peacock.

He also suggests roasting the peacock and dressing it dressed in the
capon's skin, so that the lord of the manor can have it served as a joke
to whoever he chooses.

The cookbook search comes up several recipes (data dump follows).
http://www.medievalcookery.com/search/search.html?term=peacock&file=all

Pecokkes and Parteriches schalle be parboyled, and larded, and rosted
and eten with pouder of gynger.
[Ancient Cookery (England, 1425)]

At a feeste roiall pecokkes shall be dight on this manere. Take and flee
off the skynne with the fedurs (feathers), tayle, and the nekkc, and the
hed theron; then take the skyn with all the fedurs, and lay hit on a
table abrode; and strawe theron grounden comyn ; then take the pecokke,
and roste hym, and endore (baste) hym with rawe zolkcs of egges; and
when he is rosted take hym of, and let hym coole awhile, and take and
sowe hym in his skyn, and gilde his combe, and so serve hym forthe with
the last cours (course).
[Ancient Cookery (England, 1425)]

11. And to give understanding to him who will make the sauce which goes
with the peacock, of what and how it will be made: let him take the
liver of the peacock and some capon liver and wash and clean them very
well, and then put them on a spit and put them to roast over the coals;
and let him take bread and roast it on the grill well and properly so
that it is well browned, and then put it to soak with the best claret
wine which he can obtain and a little vinegar; and then take the said
livers and bray them very well in a mortar, and then afterward take your
bread and bray it with them. And then take your spices, that is white
ginger, cinnamon, grains of paradise, and a little of cloves and nutmeg,
and put it all together, and moisten it with wine and a little vinegar;
and be careful that there is not too much. Then put it to boil in a fair
pot and put in sugar in proportion, and taste that it does not have too
much of anything, neither salt, spices, vinegar nor sugar, so that it is
sweet and sour. And then serve it where the peacock will be eaten.
[Du fait de cuisine (France, 1420)]

All swans, peacocks. Firstly take out the blood by the heads all seen,
after this cut thereunder the back near the shoulders and gut them, and
then put them on a spit with the feet and the heads; Then grind saffron
and white bread tempered with wine, and grind yolks of eggs and saffron,
and paint on the birds with the feather, and cast with powder thereon,
which is of all spices, strong zedoary and hart-wort. And when the swan
and the peacock are cooked and pressed, then wrap them in a towel, and
then take them to the tables after, and give to the lord the neck and
head, and the wings and the thighs and everything else.
[Enseignements (France, ca. 1300)]

NOTA. XX.VII. VII. Pokok and Partruch shul be parboiled. lardid and
rosted. and eten with gyngeuer.
[Forme of Cury (England, 1390)]

IV - Pecokys and Partrigchis. Pecokys and Partrigchis schul ben
yparboyld and lardyd and etyn wyth gyngenyr.
[Forme of Cury (England, 1390)]

A pecoke. Cut hym yn necke and skald hym cut of þe fete & hede cast hym
on a spete bake hym well the sauce ys gynger.
[MS Pepys 1047 (England, ca. 1500)]

For pekokys and pertrikis. Pekokys and pertrikys perboylyd schyn be,
Lardyd, rostyd, eton, levys me, With gyngere, payndmayn paryd clene And
groundyn in a morter, þat is schene, Temperid up with venegur gode,
With powder of gyngere and salt, by þo rode, And draw3en þorowghe a
streynour mylde, Servid forthe with pekok and pertrik wylde.
[Liber cure cocorum (England, 1430)]

7. TO MAKE SAUCE FOR PEACOCK. For five dishes, take a pound of toasted
almonds, and grind them well in a mortar, and take the livers of the
peacocks or capons or hens, which should be cooked in a pot, and grind
them with the almonds, and then take a crustless piece of bread which
should be soaked in orange juice or white vinegar, and the bread must be
toasted; and then grind it all together with the livers and with the
almonds; and after everything is ground, thin this sauce with two egg
yolks for each dish, and then strain it through a woolen cloth with the
said fine spices; and when it has been strained, put it into the pot
with the sugar, and taste it or sample it for sourness, which should be
moderate, and then cook it until it is done to a turn; and when it is
cooked, prepare dishes, and put sugar and cinnamon upon the sauce.
[Libre del Coch (Spain, 1520)]

49. Barding for Peacocks or Capons. After the peacocks or capons are
half-roasted on the spit, take good fatty bacon and make wide slices the
size of the peacock or capon breasts, and put this slices on the breasts
in such a way that they cannot fall off. And after they are
well-fastened, return them to the fire to roast; and before you put it
on the fire, put the head of the capon in such a manner that it will not
burn. And put the head with the beak stretched out lengthwise inside the
carcass; you can cover peacock and capons with white paper well-fastened
over the bacon.
[Libre del Coch (Spain, 1520)]

77. THIN Sauce from the juice of sour pomegranates. Take a cup of the
seeds of sour pomegranates and thoroughly extract the juice from them;
and then take a roasted hen's liver, and grind it well in a mortar with
eight egg yolks; and when it is all well-ground, strain it through a
woolen cloth; and when it has been strained, put it in the pot or an
earthenware casserole. And take an ounce of cinnamon, or cast in the
spice according to the quantity which you desire to make, and let it be
ground and blended with the said juice; and cast four ounces of sugar on
it, and then set it on a fire of coals and cook it until it begins to
thicken; and this sauce is good for all fowls in place of sauce for
peacock; and it is made very quickly.
[Libre del Coch (Spain, 1520)]

X To make a sauce for peacocks. If you want to make sauce for a peacock,
take liverings and black grapes with them, of good size every one, and
good spices, ginger and fine cinnamon and cloves and a few nutmegs and
four grains of pepper with a little galangale and a little cassia, and
temper these things with good Varnaccia wine and greek wine with good
vinegar, and this sauce one wishes to give cooked in a vat of fat that
fell from the roast, and a little sugar, and enough for a dog make so
the sauce.
[Due Libri di Cucina - Libro B (Italy, 15th c.)]

Pecok rosted. Take a Pecok, breke his necke, and kutte his throte, And
fle him, the skyn and the ffethurs togidre, and the hede still to the
skyn of the nekke, And kepe the skyn and the ffethurs hole togiders;
drawe him as an hen, And kepe the bone to the necke hole, and roste him,
And set the bone of the necke aboue the broche, as he was wonte to sitte
a-lyve, And abowe the legges to the body, as he was wonte to sitte
a-lyve; And whan he is rosted ynowe, take him of, And lete him kele; And
then wynde the skyn with the fethurs and the taile abought the body, And
serue him forthe as he were a-live; or elle3 pull him dry, And roste
him, and serue him as thou doest a henne.
[Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books (England, 1430)]

Peacock, swan. Kill it like goose, leave the head and tail, lard or bard
it, roast it golden, and eat it with fine salt. It lasts at least a
month after it is cooked. If it becomes mouldy on top, remove the mould
and you will find it white, good and solid underneath.
[Le Viandier de Taillevent (France, ca. 1380)]

To roast a peacock. Pluck the peacock in such a way that the head keeps
its feathers and the neck also to the shoulders, and the tail remains
intact. Boil the body in such a way that head nor tail are spoiled. Then
lard it and put it on a spit. Then take a cloth to cover the tail and
another cloth to cover the head and neck. Make fire proper to roast the
body and nothing else. When it is roasted fix it on a bread with a
broach, remove the cloths and then carry [the peacock] thus to the
table.
[Wel ende edelike spijse (Dutch, late 15th c.)]

- Doc




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