[Sca-cooks] Whole chickens (was: amounts of food per person)

Terri Morgan online2much at cox.net
Wed Apr 6 20:36:59 PDT 2011


   This conversation brought to mind a feast I attended about 20 years ago -
I always remember that cook's meals as something full of glory. For our
12thNight* he served a three course meal. One of the courses featured a
whole chicken. Each table was presented with a huge platter on which was a
chicken baked in a crust (with little white caps on the feet) surrounded by
baked oranges, limes, and lemons on a bed of greens. I'd wondered about the
modern white caps on the ends of the chicken, but mostly I was eagerly
awaiting the food - he was a VERY good cook. My husband, who knows how to
carve, placed the tip of his knife at the side of the breast... and his
knife just slid through the crust as if there was nothing but air inside.
   Which is nearly what was there. The whole thing was an illusion. The
"bird" was a citrus tart of some sort covered with the shell of pastry,
while each fruit around it had been hollowed out and filled with breast meat
before the final baking. The flavors of that meat were amazing! The whole
table ended up sharing out each of 'their' fruit so we could all taste how
the citrus had infused** the meat. Personally, I thought the orange-chicken
was the best, but man-oh-man, the lime and the lemon ones were darned good
too.

I've never forgotten that dish. I don't remember much about the other foods,
but I surely remember that. I think that was the year he either made the
chocolate chess board & pieces (our Queen loved chocolate) or else the faux
stained glass window of sugar candy...but can't be sure. The 'chicken'
chased all the rest of it out of my mind.

Sadly, he doesn't play in the SCA any longer,
Hrothny


* And for those of you in Atlantia, this was back when Tir-Y-Don & Marinus
had an annual 12thNight event but the Kingdom hadn't started one yet.
**As it were. I am vocabularily challenged today.




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