[Sca-cooks] dormice

[aruvqan]

On 2/27/2013 3:15 PM, Dama Antonia wrote:
> On 28/02/2013 4:27 a.m., Johnna Holloway wrote:
>>
>> Why would one want to buy [a dormouse]? They are not very big, so 
>> cooking one or a group of them would not yield much meat. I've 
>> suggested in the past small squirrel or chipmunks or even hamsters 
>> for a substitute.
>
>
> I don't think quantity is exactly the point.  Why would you want to 
> buy quails?  Poussins? Shrimp?
>
> At any rate, according to Wikipedia, the edible dormouse can reach 
> 19cm in length (excluding the tail), which I think compares pretty 
> well with a smallish squirrel, and would be bigger than a hamster or 
> chipmunk.
>
Fun snack sized meatlumps?

Why do we eat chicken wings? There is damn near no meat, they are mostly 
cartillage and skin.

I treat them as skin and hot sauce carriers with tidbits of meat. Well, 
actually I prefer to use them to make chicken broth on a small scale, 
they have a lovely large amount of connective tissue to turn into that 
unctuous mouthfeel that extracted gelatin produces in broth. But if I 
deep fry them, they are lovely crispy hotsauced skin carriers =)

Having made farced quail, I could see making little farced dormice quite 
easily. Small tidbits of meat, when you don't want to hork down a whole 
chicken or leg of lamb and still have room for more little dainties. 
<shrug> the same reason that assietes volonte are so popular [think 
tapas] small portions of elaborate foods so you can have 20 different 
things instead of a honking huge leg of lamb. Or part of a tasting menu 
if you please.