[Sca-cooks] the undead chicken and eggs

[Philip Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Thu, 2011-04-07 at 01:29 -0500, Stefan li Rous wrote:
> <<< The last time I had whole chicken served to my table, I pointed out the
> problem to the cook (who is now our Baron).  He was attempting to present
> the chicken sitting on a nest with eggs.  It was an interesting
> presentation, but it would have been better done had the chicken been
> prepared for disjointing.
> 
> Carving in the kitchen cuts waste, so I'm all in favor.
> 
> Bear >>>
> 
> How would you pre-carve a chicken yet be able to present it as a (whole) chicken sitting on a next of eggs? Do you pre-cut the chicken into separate pieces and then piece them together with wires or wooden sticks to create the looks of a complete chicken? Or are you talking about just partially cutting through the pieces so that they can be easily cut or torn apart?

One thing you could do, if you were really careful, would be to
carefully remove the breast halves, carefully slice them with a sharp
knife so they remain moire or less assembled, and pat them back into
place on the bones, and (or possibly do this part first) go in with the
tip of a pair of poultry shears and snip the joints' connective tissue
without cutting through the meat or any more of the skin than necessary.

So, for service, all you do is lift off slices and gently pull off wings
and legs.

I remember once doing a feast for a Transylvanian-themed event (we used
a number of Rumpolt's Hungarian recipes, as I recall) and presented a
whole roast chicken with head and feet, splayed and impaled in realistic
death throes on a little wooden stake on a platform we had made...

In the minutes immediately prior to the first service we raised a loud
fuss in the kitchen to simulate all hell breaking loose, and then at
service time I went out and apologized for the fuss, explaining that
there had been a... disruption, but that we had dealt with it in... the
traditional manner...

Adamantius