Chicken in the French Fashion
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| Chicken in the French Fashion, Robert Bay, 1665 |
To boil
Capons, Chickens, Pigeons, or any Land Fowls
in
the French Fashion
(Chicken in the French Fashion)
16th-17th Century, England/France
Original:
Either
the skin stuffed with minced meat, or boned, & fill the vents
and
body; or not boned and trust to boil, fill the bodies with any
of
the farsings following made of any minced meat, and seasoned with
pepper,
cloves, mace, and salt; then mince some sweet herbs with
bacon
and fowl, veal, mutton, or lamb, and mix with it three or four
eggs,
mingle all together with grapes, gooseberries, barberries, or
red
currans, and sugar, or none, some pine-apple-seed, or pistaches;
fill
the fowl, and stew it in a stewing-pan with some strong broth,
as
much as will cover them, and a little white wine; being stewed,
serve
them in a dish with sippets finely carved, and slic't oranges,
lemons,
barberries, gooseberries, sweet herbs chopped, and mace.
[The
Accomplisht Cook, Robert May, 1665]
Translation:
Take
a Whole or Boned Fowl. Either stuff the skin or stuff the body with
minced meat or take the boned chicken along with the minced meat and
boil it. To make the minced meat seasoning, take Pepper, Cloves,
Mace, and Salt. Combine Sweet Herbs with Bacon and Fowl, Veal,
Mutton, or Lamb and mix it with three or four eggs and combine it
with Grapes, Gooseberries, Barberries, or Red Currants and Sugar, or
none, some Pine Nuts, or Pistachios. Fill the Whole Fowl with the
Minced Meat or combine the Boned Fowl with the Minced Meat in a pot,
cover with a Strong Broth and a little White Wine and stew it. Serve
with Sippets, Sliced Oranges, Lemons, Barberries, Gooseberries,
Chopped Sweet Herbs, and Mace.
 |
| Minced Meat ready to be stuffed into the Chicken |
Ingredients:
1
Whole Fryer (Chicken)
½
lb Ground Beef
3 slices Bacon (Diced)
4
tbsp Sweet Herbs (Basil, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Saffron,
Turmeric)
1
tsp Pepper
1/8
tsp Cloves
¼
tsp Mace
1
tsp Salt
3
eggs (Beaten)
1
small bunch Grapes (Cut into
quarters, about ¼ cup)
¼
cup Red Currants
¼
Cup Pine Nuts
1
quart Chicken Broth (Approx. w/ Wine enough to cover Chicken in pot)
1
cup White Wine (Approx. w/ Broth enough to cover Chicken in pot)
Sippets
(Toasted Bread)
Oranges
(Sliced)
Chopped
Sweet Herbs
Mace
Redaction:
Combine
the Ground Meat with Diced Bacon, Basil, Parsley, Rosemary, Sage,
Thyme, Turmeric, Pepper, Cloves, Mace, Salt, Eggs, Grapes, Currants,
and Pine Nuts. Mix ingredients well. Stuff the Minced Meat into the
body of the Chicken and close over the opening. Place Chicken in a
pot and cover with Broth and Wine. Stew until done. Serve with
Sippets, Oranges, Currants, and Herbs.
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| Chicken stuffed with Minced Meat ready to be put into the pot |
Notes:
I
came across Chicken in the French Fashion on the website for
Plimoth Plantation. They posted the recipe from Good Huswifes
Handmaide for the Kichin (1594). I looked up other variations of
the recipe and found Robert Bay's variation from The Accomplisht
Cook (1665). This is the variation that I decided to work from.
The Madrone Culinary Guild has this recipe in Dining on the Edge
Vol.1 from their Feudal Gourmet series. After I
translated and redacted the recipe, I compared my ingredient list
with theirs and used their amounts as a baseline for the Minced Meat.
I was originally going to stuff the Chicken with Ground Beef and
Ground Lamb, but the butcher did not have any Ground lamb in stock.
I decided to use just the Ground Beef. I was unable to locate
Gooseberries or Barberries locally, but Currants are a good
substitution for both, so I upped the amount of Currants. I
originally planned to use three eggs, but my wife left me with only
two eggs after breakfast this morning. Two it is! In stuffing the
Chicken, I found I had more Minced Meat than could fit in the body.
I went ahead and stuffed the rest under the skin. I decided to use a
Crockpot instead of a pot on the stove. I placed the Chicken in the
Crockpot and found that one quart of Chicken Broth and one cup of
White Wine would not cover the Chicken. I added one more cup of
White Wine and a little bit of water to fully cover the Chicken. I
found that the chicken did not cook quickly enough in the Crockpot.
After two hours, I moved the chicken to a pot on the stove to finish
cooking.
