peacocks-msg - 7/12/06 Serving peacocks as sotelties with all their plumage safely. Period use of peacock sotelties. NOTE: See also the files: exotic-meats-msg, food-sources-msg, sotelties-msg, illusion-fds-msg, Warners-art, duck-goose-msg, birds-recipes-msg. ************************************************************************ NOTICE - This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday. This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with seperate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter. The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors. Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the orignator(s). Thank you, Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous Stefan at florilegium.org ************************************************************************ From: Tom Brady <tabrady at mindspring.com> Date: Wed, 16 Apr 1997 07:27:11 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - any suggestions ?? At 02:27 AM 4/16/97 -0400, Aldyth at aol.com wrote: ><< For the Investiture feast of Alaric and Nerissa as P&P of Lochac last > September we served swan to the high table. It's incredibly period and > it's interesting to try and get it to look right. The meat tastes > interesting as well, sort of a mix of turkey and duck. > Just my two cents worth>> > >Where did you come up with the swan? Good question. This reminds me of the time (which at least one listmember will remember, I'm sure) when the group I was in had an autocrat who really wished to impress visiting royalty. Having researched period sotelties, he became enamored of the idea of serving a peacock, which was cooked and served in its own skin. Splendid, yes. Practical...maybe not. The tale of how he obtained the peacock was rather amusing. He called around and located a farm that bred peacocks within two hours' drive. They explained that they made lovely pets, and what did he wish to do with them. When he explained he wanted to kill it and cook it and eat it, they hung up on him. He found another supplier. A local Laurel was kind enough to assist in the skinning and tanning of the hide, so that went fine at least. But when the time came to cook the thing, two important facts were overlooked: 1. A peacock is a game bird, and cooks differently than a chicken. 2. It was a peaCOCK, not a peaHEN, and took longer to cook because of this. When it was served to High Table, an attending knight politely suggested that the king might wish to avoid the "salmonella salad." It was taken back to the kitchen and given another hour to cook. I can't say how the meat tasted, but I seem to recall that those eating it weren't impressed. - -Duncan (...and don't even get me started on the eel stew...) - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tom Brady tabrady at mindspring.com SCA: Duncan MacKinnon of Tobermory From: "Philip W. Troy" <troy at asan.com> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 12:02:26 -0400 Subject: Re: SC - swans, eel and peacocks, oh MS MARTHA L WALLENHORST wrote: > Remember when > doing a peacock that it needs to roast slowly for many, many hours in > rose water and tightly covered. It is quite wonderful. If I > remember correctly The last time I bought one it was $25 for the bird > and $5 for cold shipping UPS. > > Annejke This would stand to reason, actually. Recipes for roasting peacocks (and to a lesser extent, swans) mention that they need to be larded, which is actually introducing added fat in strips into the meat itself, not just wrapping the meat in fat or basting it. This would seem an argument that the meat would otherwise be tough and dry. Taillevent mentions that peacocks will keep for a month, cooked, in the larder, another indication of dryness. This is not to say, though, that they couldn't be quite tasty, in spite of what some people have said. Adamantius From: Thyra Fairfax <thyra at tdn.com> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 1997 12:14:16 Subject: Re: Re(2): SC - peacocks and eels > It is my understanding that game birds (pheasant, for example) take much > longer to cook than your average off-the-shelf chicken. Also, unless spiced > some way (like roasted in rose water, as someone else suggested), you will > get a very "gamey" flavor from the meat. With most *wild* meat/poultry it depends on both the how and when the hunter gutted it, as well as what it had been eating. The age of the animal and the time of year it was killed figure in also. All game is very lean, cooking it slowly really makes a difference. If its a bird, insert some fat under the skin before cooking. It will help it not become dry. Sometimes soaking it in milk helps, if it is particularly "gamey". As far as spicing it, I would spice "as usual", it really won't make much of a difference as to how "gamey" it tastes. Over cooking it can, but any meat will taste a little gamey (even beef) if it's cooked til dry. (Another couple of pennies thrown in the pot from someone who will help skin, gut, cut, wrap and cook it - but will not kill it and prefers not to eat it :-) Thyra From: Annejke at prodigy.com (MS MARTHA L WALLENHORST) Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 10:22:31, -0500 Subject: SC - Various >Annejke lists, among her subtleties: >1980 Peacock in full Pride (real bird) >Master Chiquart (1420) advises his readers to cheat by cooking a goose and >dressing it in a peacock's skin; he says peacock doesn't taste as good. Is >that consistent with your experience? I have done two peacocks and several peahens over the years. Only one have I had come out gamey. I slow roast them all day in Rose water and have served them with fresh orange chutney and had no trouble really. Cooked this way I was taught that the grease is negliable and it roasts the meat off of the bone so it is tender. I have had friends try following Master Chirharts version with mixed results. My version was first written up by Ann Wilson in 1977/78 in a paper on historic recreations of feasts. This was her version and I have had fairly good success. Annejke Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 23:01:20 -0500From: morganna <themorrigan at softhome.net>Subject: Re: SC - PeacockLrdRas wrote:> Not to burst your bubble but peacock is usually very tough and not at> all particullarly tasty......>> RasHold the phone! :-)We have done two peacocks. It can be done to be tender and very tasty.The best of the two was soaking it overnight in milk (it was skinned). And then they slow roasted it just like a turkey with very little for spices (I think a bit of salt & pepper). The first one we did on a rotisserie and it needed to be cut apart and finished on the grill, even through this abuse it was not tough, just a bit on the dry side. What the bird was fed, and how old it is has a lot to do with the end result.Morganna Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 14:18:34 +0100 From: "Yeldham, Caroline S" <csy20688 at GlaxoWellcome.co.uk> Subject: RE: SC - Peacock > Guy asked where to get them. > > We were going to do the peacock cooked and put back in its skin for > conference next easter, but people said I would die if I ate the cooked > meat that had been inside the raw skin (hence the cockentrice - a > replacement option) and we felt (this is run by a committee) there was not > > much point killing a peacock to look at. Why? You might get salmonella poisoning (are peacocks prone to salmonella?) but that won't necessarily kill you (and there is a way around it, see below). I've done several. The one's destined to be eaten were about 2 years old, very tender, mild gamey flavour (a little stronger than turkey) and lots of breast meat. These we baked in a pastry case and put the skin on top for presentation, to prevent salmonella contamination. They were very successful. I also did one purely for presentation (TV programme) which was about 6 years old and looked very tough and gamey (much darker, stringy looking meat). Nobody ate that one, but it may be ones of that age which gave peacock its bad reputation. I suspect their edibility, like any animal, depends on age and care. > We had organised somebody who keeps peacocks to treat a fw extra nice - > good food, easy life, etc. Then you get them to come have a chat, and > have a nasty accident with a large pair of shears or a bone which twist > the wrong way in their neck... The 2 year olds were easy - I gather the 6 year old one had half a dozen adults running around after it before it succumbed! Even the stupidest birds gain a little cunning with age. Caroline Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 08:42:38 EDT From: LrdRas <LrdRas at aol.com> Subject: Re: SC - Peacock charlesn at sunrise.srl.rmit.edu.au writes: << We were going to do the peacock cooked and put back in its skin for conference next easter, but people said I would die if I ate the cooked meat that had been inside the raw skin >> <sigh> The doomsdayers strike again! First, salmonella is not a natural occuring bug in peacocks. Chickens, yes. Peacocks no. Secondly the simple act of wrapping the cooked bird in parchement paper or , for that matter, foil would have eliminated any imagined nasties present on the interior of the skin fromcoming into contact with the cooked flesh. Third the skin could have been washed inside with a bleach solution in the same way commercial chickens are washed during their processing. Ras Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 09:45:48 -0400 From: "marilyn traber" <mtraber at email.msn.com> Subject: Re: SC - Peacock As to the sanitation problems of the raw skin over the cooked carcass, line the raw skin with a goodly layer of heavy duty plastic wrap that has been sealed with a line of rubber cement to the outside of the skin[if you are really careful at skinning out a bird, the resulting opening can be very small, allowing you to snip it into a cover and remove the feathers from the perimeter in such a way that they are relatively unnoticeable.] You can put the skin back over the bird with out exposure to raw skin or juices.[Also, heavily salt the skin and place raw side down onto a towel to draw off any excess fluuids.] margali Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 10:15:29 -0400 From: "Gedney, Jeff" <Gedney.J at phd.com> Subject: RE: SC - Peacock Here's an Idea: If you want to keep the skin after the feast, in order to do this presentation regularly, or as a local "tradition", bet two birds, and take the one with the best plumage to a taxidermist. tell him you want the unmounted skin, and to stuff only the head and neck as normal. Do not expect to be able to keep the meat from the taxidermist prepared bird. Most taxidermists will not be able to save the meat from such a bird. have them dump the carcass for safety's sake, as they can be a long time in preparation before they can be refrigerated. The prepared skin would be free of Salmonella (but probably have a host of other beasties as artifacts of the tanning process. Then roast the peacock as normal. wrap the carcass with foil or plastic wrap, and draw the skin over the roasted bird and serve him forth. Done this way, it is safe, simple, and enables the re-use of the feathers as a neat traditional presentation. brandu Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 13:42:29 -0400 From: "Gedney, Jeff" <gedje01 at mail.cai.com> Subject: RE: SC - Modern sanitary concerns... bah ;) > I have a question for ya'll. I am working on a bid for the feast for > next summer's Landsknecht Musterung. I wanted to do some showy dish. > I've run across mention of peacocks redressed in their skins a couple of > times, and I think I saw mention of the same for pheasants and swans > elsewhere. I would love to try something like this, but it brings up > the problem of, well, not poisoning everyone in the hall. (Well, there > are a few... oh, never mind ;) Has anyone tried this? Does anyone know > how to treat the skins to get rid of the creepy-crawlies both on the > inside and the outside? > > Magdalena vander Brugghe > -- > Tara I remember that conversation... Several people had various ideas, such as using a barrier, like foil or saranwrap, to keep the buggies out... Chief objection to this was that the barriers are not very hermetic, and juices can flow both ways through the layers, unless you are VERY CAREFUL in the wrapping. On lady I know sewed the plucked plumage onto a piece of quilting (keeps the bird warm, as well!!!) and pasted the neck feathers onto a stuffed neck shaped protrusion attached to the quilting... I thought that it might be a good idea to get two peacocks, and cook one, and hand the other to a taxidermist to be tanned with the feathers in place, (you probably cant keep the meat from small game that you give to a taxidermist, Unless you strip the carcass yourself first, and hand it over quickly), and the head and neck stuffed with padding and an armature. Then you put a little saran wrap over the bird and lay the skin back on the bird. This allows the skin to be kept indefinitely for "repeat performances". Brandu Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 17:36:34 -0700 From: kat <kat at kagan.com> Subject: SC - Peacocks (was Modern sanitary concerns... What I did for my Above/Below the Salt feast was to cheat heinously... I had a canton member sculpt me a peacock head from Femo (artists' clay), then dressed the bird liberally in the featheriest, blue-greeniest herbs I could find (mostly dill and fennel). We then bleached the quills of a bunch of peacock feathers and threaded them into the skin at the tail. Then arranged a "tail" of long peacock feathers and sandwiched the bottom inches between two trays, serving the bird on the top tray, of course. The space between the tail of the bird and the "tail" of feathers was liberally stuffed with parsley. - kat Date: Tue, 27 Oct 1998 20:28:19 -0800 From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com> Subject: Re: SC - Peacocks (was Modern sanitary concerns... At 5:36 PM -0700 10/23/98, kat wrote: >What I did for my Above/Below the Salt feast was to cheat heinously... > >I had a canton member sculpt me a peacock head from Femo (artists' clay), >then dressed the bird liberally in the featheriest, blue-greeniest herbs I >could find (mostly dill and fennel). > >We then bleached the quills of a bunch of peacock feathers and threaded >them into the skin at the tail. Then arranged a "tail" of long peacock >feathers and sandwiched the bottom inches between two trays, serving the >bird on the top tray, of course. The space between the tail of the bird >and the "tail" of feathers was liberally stuffed with parsley... Chiquart (author of Du Fait de Cuisine, 1420) cheated too. He put the peacock tail feathers on a roasted goose; he doesn't say how he treated the skin. "And for this, I Chiquart have said before, I would like to teach to the said master who is to make it the art of the said peacock, and this to do courtesy and honor to his lord and master, that is to take a large fat goose, and spit it well and put it to roast well and cleanly and gaily [quickly?], and to recloth it in the plumage of the peacock and put it in the place where the peacock should be set, next to the fountain of love [this is part of an elaborate subtlety], with the wings extended; and make the tail spread, and to hold the neck raised high, as if it were alive, put a stick of wood inside the said neck which will make it hold straight. And for this the said cook must not flay the said peacock, but take the pinions to put on the goose and take the skin of the rump of the peacock where the feathers are held all together; and when it goes onto the goose, to make good skewers to make the said goose spread its tail as properly as the peacock if it were alive." Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook From: renfrow at skylands.net Newsgroups: rec.org.sca Subject: Re: recipe needed. Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 16:02:56 -0500 tollhase at aol.com (Tollhase) wrote: > I have just found a source for peacock and ostrich meat. Does anyone have any > medieval recipes for these. I probably can have them butchered any way I > like. > > Lord Frederich Holstein der Tollhase Hello! There's this one: Harleian MS. 4016 55 Pecok rosted. Take a Pecok, breke his necke, and kutte his throte, And fle him, [th]e 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 [th]e bone to [th]e 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 [th]e body, as he was wonte to sitte a-lyve; And whan he is rosted ynowe, take him of, And lete him kele; And [th]en wynde the skyn with the fethurs and the taile abought the body, And serue him forthe as he were a-live; or elle[3] pull him dry, And roste him, and serue him as [th]ou doest a henne. 55 Peacock roasted. Take a Peacock, break his neck, and cut his throat, And flay him, the skin and the feathers together, and the head still to the skin of the neck, And keep the skin and the feathers whole together; draw him as a hen, And keep the bone to the neck whole, and roast him, And set the bone of the neck above the broach [spit], as he was wont to sit alive; And above the legs to the body, as he was wont to sit alive; And when he is roasted enough, take him off, And let him cool; And then wind the skin with the feathers and the tail about the body, And serve him forth as he were alive; or else pluck him clean, And roast him, and serve him as thou do a hen. (Excerpt from Take 1000 Eggs or More, copyright 1990, 1997, Cindy Renfrow) Cindy Renfrow/Sincgiefu renfrow at skylands.net Author & Publisher of "Take a Thousand Eggs or More, A Collection of 15th Century Recipes" and "A Sip Through Time, A Collection of Old Brewing Recipes" http://www.alcasoft.com/renfrow/ Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 17:38:51 +1030 From: "David & Sue Carter" <drcarter at bigpond.com> Subject: Re: SC - A Parable, now peacock > The other Lord Steffan said: > > The peacock (actually 7 to 9 lb. turkey breasts, the local peacock farm > > didn't have any available at the moment. Which is too bad, because, > > peacock is very good.) > > Have you actually had peacock? There are period referances to it being a > tough bird and to substitute another bird covering that bird in the > peacock's skin and feathers. > > Steffan, I'd love to hear more comments about your experiences with > cooking peacocks. I'd like to compare notes with Steffan, too. We also cooked peacock some years ago, for a cooking competition at Midwinter of AS 23. We acquired ours from an old Italian couple who raised them in a huge aviary and ate them all the time. On their advice, we bought a young male, that is before his first flush of coloured tail, and kept him for 3-4 months in with the chickens. We were advised to feed him on standard chicken pellets, until two weeks before we wanted to kill him, them feed him lots of greens, especially cabbage. We were told this improves the meat and cleans out the gut. The bird got his nice new coloured feathers just in time for the event. We killed and pulled the bird, then removed the skin+feathers. These we salted for reconstruction at presentation. (I can give info on how we did that, too if anyone is interested) We froze the meat until just before the event, then we roasted it as per turkey, in a covered dish with lots of basting to keep the moisture up. It was important not to let the meat get too dry. Those who ate it (and Mistress Kiriel may have been one of them) said it was like turkey: a strong flavour and rather firm. No one complained it was tough or unpleasant as I have so often heard people assert. For hygiene sake we made a salt pastry dough cover for the bird that the skin+feathers were mounted on. We were going to try the roast the peacock with its feathers pulled up over its head method, but the competition was 1400km from home and the people Osgot was staying with wouldn't have appreciated dead bird and a spit in the garden. After its 2800km round trip, it made a re-appearance at a feast the following weekend. This time there was nothing under the shell and we displayed it with its tail in full array, surrounded by marzipan fruits etc. Because we were poor students at the time, we had to break it up and sell the feathers to re-coup our expenses. I've often wished we could have kept it, because the skin was well 'tanned' and with some additional treatment, could have been used several more times. It's on my list of things we should do again. Esla of Ifeld (Sue Carter) Barony of Innilgard, Principality of Lochac (Adelaide, Australia) Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 01:30:15 -0700 From: Steven Cowley <scowley at uswest.net> Subject: Re: SC - A Parable, or in Other Words, A Long Story Stefan li Rous wrote: > The other Lord Steffan said: > > The peacock (actually 7 to 9 lb. turkey breasts, the local peacock farm > > didn't have any available at the moment. Which is too bad, because, > > peacock is very good.) > > Have you actually had peacock? There are period referances to it being a > tough bird and to substitute another bird covering that bird in the > peacock's skin and feathers. > Steffan, I'd love to hear more comments about your experiences with > cooking peacocks. I have cooked peacock on two different occasions, each with slightly different methods, with the results being very similar. The first time was while I was still very new in the SCA and thus new to medieval cooking methods. At the time, (remember this is with less than a year in the society), my bible was the contents of the food portion of the Micsellany. I took part of the cooking method from the recipe "Capons Stwed", Two Fifteenth Century Cookbook. In this case, I did a really simple preparation. After washing out the cavity really well, I lightly salted the inside and stuffed it full of quartered onions. The outside was smeared with butter (yes the real thing), finely minced garlic and again a light salting. The butter I happened to be using was salted so I didn't want to over salt. It was then placed on a rack in an dutch oven. The pot was large enough that the bird fit in it very nicely. In the bottom of the pot I poured about 2 cups of a very mellow mead. I then sealed the lid with a flour paste and roasted it for about 3 hours. It took all of my patience to just let the pot sit on the coals without checking its progress. Fortunately, court that day occupied a good portion of the time. Well, this cooking method almost greated a pressure cooker environment. The meat had fallen completely away from the bones and was just as tender and juicy as could be. The sops from the bottom of the pot went great with the bread that was served. The second time, I did things a little bit differently as far as cooking was concerned. The recipe was quite different. I stuffed the bird with a stuffing made of breadcrumbs mixed together with the basic four herbs, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, which had been fimely chopped, some finely chopped onion, minced garlic, some salt and pepper and an egg (used to hold it all together). This time I painted the bird with saffron before smearing it with butter and a little salt. Again I placed it on a rack in a dutch oven, only this time I used just enough chicken stock to cover the rack in the bottom of the pot. I didn't seal the pot this time feeling that it was overkill as a dutch oven seals itself pretty well anyway. I cooked it with coals on the top and bottom of the oven, again for about 3 hours. This time the meat hadn't fallen completely away from the bones, though it was close. It made a double whammy spectacle when it was plated on a bed of parsley with its tail feathers arranged very nicely (thanks to the wonders of marzapan<sp.>). Picture a golden bird with the blues and greens of the tail feathers of a peacock being paraded in to the high table. Again the meat was very tender and juicy. It was served with the stuffing on the side and a gravy made from the drippings. In both cases, not a scrap was left, the true sign that everything was good. I have to admit, the flaver of the meat is somewhat different from most domestic poultry, though not too strong. It kind of reminded me of wild goose, though that's not quite it. It has been my observation that peacocks are kind of like turkeys, in the sense that they will eat anything, if allowed to do so. This may account for some of the references to their being a rather tough meat. The farmer here feeds them a mixture of rolled barley, corn and poultry pellets, which have of all things a high alfalfa content. This mixture produces a larger more meaty bird, without the need for steroids and growth hormones. My observation would be, that with a managed diet and not too large of an area to wander in, the peacock is a very edible as well as elegant meat to serve. Ld. Steffan of the Close Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 18:10:25 +1030 From: "David & Sue Carter" <drcarter at bigpond.com> Subject: SC - a method of preserving peacock skin - long I said: > > The bird got his nice new coloured feathers just in time for the event. We > > killed and pulled the bird, then removed the skin+feathers. These we salted > > for reconstruction at presentation. (I can give info on how we did that, > > too if anyone is interested) Lord Stefan asked: > Please do. If that noisy peacock reappears this coming spring and summer > at my mother's I may have reason to know more about these techniques. :-) > It would be shame to waste teh skin and those wonderful feathers. While I fear that the peacock in question may well be a tad tough for eating as it is obviously older, I personally can't think of a better way to honour it than to serve it :-). The following is my recollection of the main points in killing and dressing the peacock. WARNING: squeamish types should avoid the following descriptions. I assure them it was all done humanely and hygienically, but if you've never killed and dressed a bird or beast it could be distressing. Items required: lots of salt, (several kilograms of it) lots of newspaper, a cool well ventilated area that is dry and secure from animals, a scalpel or craft knife, a small sharp knife, a steel knitting needle or equivalent, as well as a clean area with large sink and running water for pulling the bird. 1. We strangled it and then bled it. With hindsight, we will cut the head off the next one (like killing geese) as I ended up having to cut the head off anyway to deal with the skull. Two things: peacocks are very strong, and they have spurs. We had the experience of my father-in-law to rely on, as a farmer who knows how to restrain and correctly slaughter all manner of beasts. It was hard to keep the blood off of the feathers, and any that got on the feathers had to be cleaned off with slightly soapy tepid water asap. 2. We slit the skin down breast and between the legs to the vent, and skinned it back from cut, moving our fingers beneath the skin to separate it. In some spots this required a knife and lots of care not to nick the skin. The special areas are the wings and the tail: we cut the wings off at the 'elbow', leaving the 'forearm' and 'fingers' in for now. The tail has a large mass of fat which the feather shafts are embedded in: it takes some care and patience to cut the flesh away from the base of the tail. If you go slowly and look before you cut you should be ok. 3. With the bird carcass now out of its skin, pull it, rinse it and bag it under vacuum (the old pour water in and let it pour out method is ok). Freeze or refrigerate or cook immediately, but someone has to get back to dealing with the skin immediately. 4. There are several things that have to happen quickly to avoid spoilage: get rid of the remaining flesh in the wings and around the tail, and deal with the head. 4a Wings: tunnel into the wing and cut away as much flesh as you can find. Turn the wing inside out as you go. Depending on how big and how 'fat' your bird is depends on how far you can get. we couldn't get the tips out. Pack these with salt 4b tail: cut and pull all the fat and flesh you can from around the tail feather shafts. A set of stainless steel dissecting forceps is ideal. The more you remove the better. Pack the area with salt 4c Head. This is the ukky bit: pierce the skull from both the base of the neck and through the roof of the mouth with the knitting needle. Macerate the contents and flush with clean water. Repeat until there's nothing there. A hooked piece of wire was useful: think of those experiments with making mummies! Pack with salt. 5. Lay the bird out on its back on lots of newspaper, in a place it wont be disturbed, ensuring the feathers are all sitting flat: this takes some arranging but the effort now will stop the feathers getting bent. Fan out the breast and the wings: now heap everything with salt, inside and out, ensuring everything is well covered 6. leave it for 6-8 hours, then change the salt: it will be absorbing all the moisture and will need changing 2-3 times a day for the first two days. This depends on how much flesh you cleaned out and how dry the air is. We put ours in my parents second lounge on a tiled floor in our winter - but our winters are mild and dry. 7. Change the salt as required, and while doing this inspect the bird for damp spots. Pick the salt out of the wings and tail and re-pack 8. IF YOU GET MAGGOTS: don't panic! If you are checking the bird regularly they won't have damaged anything, and are pointing you to an area that wasn't properly cleaned or salted. Deal with the cleaning and stuff more salt there. It was our experience that the bird took a week to be thoroughly cured, and the handling during the salt changes were enough to keep the skin pliable. To assemble the bird: I sewed the head to the neck with fine linen thread and then wired the skull with several strands of wire anchored in the skull and extending all the way out of the body. We stuffed the neck with wood wool and cotton fibre. The body was sat over a pre cooked thick pastry blank made of salt dough. I had a casserole dish that was just the right size to get the cooked bird under and the skin over so it was used as the mould. I lightly stuffed the gap between the skin and the dough to give a pleasing shape. The skin was sewn or pinned to the pastry as required. The neck wires were spread out over the pastry to give the neck some stability. We used a baby's hair brush to get the last of the salt out of the feathers. At the competition it was presented on a huge brass platter surrounded with herbs and flowers, with its tail out flat. It was lifted up to reveal the cooked bird, which was carved and served. At its second outing, it went on to the same platter, but surrounded with marchpane fruits and flowers. The tail was wired in the display position by placing a large blob of uncooked salt dough under the tail and sticking long skewers in it, then wiring the main feathers to the skewers. This was secure enough that it could be paraded down the hall to high table, then put on a smaller, decorated table that had been placed for it. After all its travelling and handling, it showed no sign of decay, and if stored in a cool dry place with the occasional application of salt, I think it would keep for months, if not years. We also used this technique on the chickens, and geese for the 12 days of Christmas, and on numerous pheasants and quail, and it never fails to score less than 10 on the spiff-wow scale. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask me! Esla of Ifeld (Sue Carter) Innilgard, Lochac (Adelaide, South Australia) Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 21:15:02 +1030 From: "David & Sue Carter" <drcarter at bigpond.com> Subject: Re: SC - a method of preserving peacock skin - long Stefan said: > Esla of Ifeld gave us a wonderful description of how she had prepared a > peacock as a soteltie. Thankyou for the compliment. > I was unclear on a few things though. I'll try to address them, point by point: > > Items required: lots of salt, (several kilograms of it) > What kind of salt did you use? Regular table salt or a coarser version > such as kosher salt? We used cooking salt, which is fine grained but doesn't have flowing agent or iodine in it, and comes in big cheap bags, not the table (ie with iodine) sort. The coarse stuff, like for putting in your salt mill is too sharp, doesn't get into all the nooks and crannies, and doesn't absorb enough moisture because of its smaller surface area to volume ratio. > > 1. We strangled it and then bled it. With hindsight, we will cut the head > > off the next one (like killing geese) as I ended up having to cut the head > > off anyway to deal with the skull. Two things: peacocks are very strong, > > and they have spurs. > > I had forgotten about these spurs. These are something to definitely avoid > getting hit by, I presume? Absolutely! They could leave a nasty wound, especially if the peacock was older, wilder and knew how to use them. Ours was placid from being in with the chooks, but my father in law still took the precaution of throwing a large hessian bag over the peacock, then firmly holding the feet before we found its neck. > > 3. With the bird carcass now out of its skin, pull it, rinse it and bag it > > under vacuum (the old pour water in and let it pour out method is ok). > > Freeze or refrigerate or cook immediately, but someone has to get back to > > dealing with the skin immediately. > > Can you detail this a bit more, please? "pull it"? I assume not out of it's > skin as you said it was already out of its skin. "bag it"? OK I got into the shorthand here, sorry: 'pull it' is the removal of the intenstines, etc. First cut into the skin and muscle all the way around the vent with a sharp knife. This gets you into the bird's body cavity but on the outside of the intestines. Reach into the cavity with your fingers and pull out the intestines, and other organs. Have lots of cold running water available and do it in a big sink OR do it somewhere outside like the compost heap! With practice it all comes out in one go, but usually I land up with two or three masses of organs. Bag it under vacuum: as the bird has lost its skin, the flesh will dehydrate rather quickly, so get it into a bag or container. Because we weren't going to cook it for a few weeks, we put it into a large plastic freezer bag, poured about 2cups of water in, then poured it out while holding the bag upside down, then tied it off. The water displaces the air, then when you pour the water out there is no air in the bag. This helps stop the meat from getting freezer burn whilst in storage. > Altogether, it sounds like a pretty complex process. Even after Phlip's > lamb butchering class last year at Pennsic, I don't think I could do > this very well. I would like to do a butchering class, because we did a kid once (for a unicorn soteltie) and found out that dealing with the carcass wasn't as easy as we thought it would be! Please don't be put off of having a go: just do what we did and have a practice on something smaller first, before the peacock we had done a couple of pheasants and a chicken. The only bit we really needed help with was the killing (to ensure we did it humanely), the rest we made up as we went along just trying to get to the described end product by methods we knew were available to a mid period cook. Esla of Ifeld (Sue Carter) Innilgard, Lochac (Adelaide, South Australia) From: "Hrolf Douglasson" <Hrolf at btinternet.com> To: <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> Date: Sun, 13 May 2001 20:19:50 +0100 Subject: [Sca-cooks] regards the recent request. I have finally located my copy of the ROYAL COOKBOOK Peacock in the feather in 1466 the enthronement of Archbishop Nevil had 104 peacocks brought in top a fanfare of trumpets the bird was first skinned and the feathered tail head and neck were laid on a table and sprinkled with cumin. the body was then roasted, glazed with raw egg yolk cooled sewn back into the skin and served as the last course. the beak would sometimes have flaming camphor. vara PS i also found mention of lamb/piglets or other young animal goat??? perhaps served covered all over in gold. The book is ISBN 0819304360 and very old Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 09:36:01 EDT From: KazOShea at aol.com Subject: Re: Peacock Re: [Sca-cooks] larding turkeys and other meats To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org jenne at fiedlerfamily.net writes: > So, is it worth it to make peacock? Are there good recipes? How many > peacocks would I need so that everyone at a 40-60 person feast would > get a taste? I have seen on one or two recipes in period for peacock and it involved skinning it so that it cold all be pulled forward in one piece, feathers and all,to just over the head and then spit roasting it until done and then pulling the skin back over the bird. I was thinking that it would look really pretty, but not food safe by our standards. I did talk to someone that did attend a "peacock banquet" they had brought in one of the top chefs in the midwest to cook these birds. He tried everything to cook these farm raised peacocks. And according to the person that attended, the best taste he could get out of it was similar in texture to a very fatty gristly porkchop. Peacock was a status dish, it was eaten because you could afford to eat it, not because you enjoy eating it. Very similar to eating swan, only the royalty could eat swan because it was a royal bird (at least in England). And from what I have been given to understand with similiar results, not very good tasting. It may be an intiguing experiment to get one, if you can get it affordably. If you cannot I wouldn't. Iago Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 10:16:51 -0400 From: Daniel Myers <doc at medievalcookery.com> Subject: Re: Peacock Re: [Sca-cooks] larding turkeys and other meats To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> On Monday, September 15, 2003, at 09:46 AM, <jenne at fiedlerfamily.net> wrote: >> Peacock was a status dish, it was eaten because you could afford to eat it, >> not because you enjoy eating it. Very similar to eating swan, only >> the royalty >> could eat swan because it was a royal bird ( at least in England). > > I've heard this before, but the statement makes me suspicious. Certainly, > all types of bird were eaten on a regular basis. And it may have been a > status animal. But you have to wonder if people are jumping to conclusions.. I also wonder about it being a "status dish". From those I've talked to who have raised them, peacocks are exceedingly easy to care for - much more so than chickens. Also, a quick search for "swan" reveals an awful lot of recipes (and this is from only four period cookbooks), so I strongly suspect that its consumption was not limited to royalty. One of the recipe notes even suggested serving swan as a side dish along with pheasants. http://www.medievalcookery.com/cgi-bin/ search.pl?term=swan&file=foc&file=lcc&file=lmdp&file=tfccb - Doc -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Edouard Halidai (Daniel Myers) http://www.medievalcookery.com/ Date: Mon, 15 Sep 2003 16:15:21 -0400 From: johnna holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu> Subject: Re: Peacock Re: [Sca-cooks] larding turkeys and other meats To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> jenne at fiedlerfamily.net wrote:snipped > So, is it worth it to make peacock? Are there good recipes? How many > peacocks would I need so that everyone at a 40-60 person feast would > get a taste? > > -- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Sara did one of these for the Midrealm Crown feast Fall 2001. So I saw one again close up. They don't dress out and yield much meat. We had trouble I recall keeping the tail feathers in place when we replaced the feathers in and around the bird. We could have used some florist wire at the last minute as I recall. They make a pleasant entertainment--- but I am not sure about cooking a huge number of them as a meat course or even as a taster course. Most this one was never touched. The best articles on them and the other great birds are still these-- all from PPC-- THE GREAT BIRDS: PART 4, PEACOCKS IN HISTORY, Joop Witteveen 32,23 THE GREAT BIRDS, PART 5: PREPARATION OF THE PEACOCK FOR THE TABLE, Joop Witteveen 36,10 See also-- PPC 24 (1986) pp 22/31, 'On swans, cranes and herons: Part 1, Swans'; PPC 25 (1987) pp 50/59, 'On swans, cranes and herons. Part 2: Cranes'; PPC26 (1987) pp.65/73, 'On swans, cranes and herons: Part 3, Herons'; See also-- http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/peacock/ and if you can find it get hold of a copy of Barbara Wheaton's article on cooking a peacock. She wrote it for Harvard Magazine 82 (1979). Johnnae llyn Lewis Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 00:32:48 -0700 From: david friedman <ddfr at daviddfriedman.com> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Re: Peacocks To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org> Leofwynn wrote: ... > What this boils down to, is if you want a really fancy presentation, > you will be paying out a lot of money for an old bird. And as we all > know, old probably = tough and stringy. That is, if you can get > someone to skin it as if you were going to have it stuffed by a > taxidermist. (Tough to do. Have you ever tried to skin out a bird's > head? Peacocks have a really pretty crest.) > > I think that what would be easiest is to talk to a taxidermist or > someone else who may have a stuffed peacock, show it around, then > take it to the kitchen and serve something out something that will > taste better; chicken, turkey, or guinea (which is period, and > available, tho pricy at gourmet groceries). Who will know? > > I bet that's what was done in period... From _Du Fait de Cuisine_, 1420, describing part of an elaborate entremet: ... and beside the said fountain is a peacock which has been skinned and reclothed. And for this, I Chiquart have said before, I would like to teach to the said master who is to make it the art of the said peacock, and this to do courtesy and honor to his lord and master, that is to take a large fat goose, and spit it well and put it to roast well and cleanly and gaily [quickly?], and to recloth it in the plumage of the peacock and put it in the place where the peacock should be set, next to the fountain of love, with the wings extended; and make the tail spread, and to hold the neck raised high, as if it were alive, put a stick of wood inside the said neck which will make it hold straight. And for this the said cook must not flay the said peacock, but take the pinions to put on the goose and take the skin of the rump of the peacock where the feathers are held all together; and when it goes onto the goose, to make good skewers to make the said goose spread its tail as properly as the peacock if it were alive. Elizabeth of Dendermonde/Betty Cook Date: Sat, 17 Jun 2006 15:26:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Marcus Loidolt <mjloidolt at yahoo.com> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sca-cooks Digest, Vol 2, Issue 85 Peafowl To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org I have it on good authority from my apprentice THL Robert Thorne, who raises and sells peafowl that indeed any cock over a year of age is practically inedible! He maintains that what MIGHT have happened in period is to use the skin of an adult cock, tanned or preserved and used to dress the carcass of another bird, perhaps a younger peafowl, perhaps something else.. Robert maintains that the musk and testosterone produced by a courting cock renders the meat very...pardon the pun, but foul!! I have helped slaughter peafowl before, as an experiment, and found this to be true! The young birds, upto 8 months of age were fine to eat, the male birds older than a year...BLAH!!!! Mature females didn't taste bad, but were of course tougher... Abot Johann medieval poultrier Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:01:00 -0400 From: John Kemker <john at kemker.org> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cooking peacocks To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org> James/Alasdair mac Iain wrote: > What would be the proper process for serving a peacock (or other bird) in > its feathers? Just skin the bird carefully, roast it, and then pull the > skin back over the carcass? Would anything special be done to the skin > while the bird itself was cooking? > > Alasdair mac iain What I, personally, would do is to cure and smoke the skin, to preserve it against decay. This is done in trapping on a regular basis to protect a fur from going nasty before it's taken to market. First, deflesh the skin, making sure there are no bits of meat or fat left on the skin. Then rub the inside of the skin with plenty of salt. This will pull moisture out of the skin, which helps prevent bacterial growth. Next, start a smoky fire using hardwood or hardwood charcoal. (You don't want the added resiny, turpentine flavor from pine or other softwoods.) Hold the skin over the fire, keeping it away from heat, but allowing the smoke to colorize the skin. You shouldn't have to smoke it very long, as you will be cooking the roasted peacock while smoking the skin, so it shouldn't need extreme long-term preservation. Probably about 1 to 5 minutes, making sure to evenly cover the skin with the smoke. If you plan on using the same peacock cape another time, then smoke the skin well, taking up to 10-30 minutes and make sure the color is even. Times given are rough estimates. They will vary with the size of the skin to be smoked, how smoky your fire is and other factors. Generally, I go by color. When the skin has gained a nice, even tan color, that's good enough for a short-term preservation. If I'm looking to preserve it longer, I'm more likely to go for an almost peanut-butter or darker color. --Cian Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:56:03 -0400 From: Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Cooking peacocks To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org> James/Alasdair mac Iain wrote: > What would be the proper process for serving a peacock (or other bird) in > its feathers? Just skin the bird carefully, roast it, and then pull the > skin back over the carcass? Would anything special be done to the skin > while the bird itself was cooking? > > Alasdair mac iain The last one that I personally saw done was in 2001. Lady Sarah nicLeod was the head cook for the Crown feast that fall. From my saved messages she wrote this about the plans on 9/24/2001: Thanks All for the very helpful suggestions. This is going to be a really interesting project. The breeder and I had already agreed as I wanted to cook the bird so he collected the tail feathers from his mature bird for me this summer and I am going to fake the tail. The young males that we were going to butcher are not feathering in like he'd hoped and still have a lot of white on them. He has also ended up with many more females then males and has decided he would prefer to keep his males. As they weren't feathered out anyway I told him I would take a female instead which are white and gold. So, I'm going to have a peacock that is white and gold on the body with a blue green tail. It should be very interesting! Hauvette has some body feathers which I may try to blend in to the body to make a smoother transition into the tail. The breeder is going to butcher the bird for me soon (wring it's neck) and I am going to freeze the carcass until next month. I have course salt to dry the skin. My plan is to stuff the skin with salt and dry it in a box covered with salt in the position I want it to set. I decided to not try to make it stand at this point. Still haven't decided weather of not to try putting it over the roast bird. Loved the idea of the bread coating over the roast bird so it doesn't dry out! Was worried about that! Sarah nicLeod So she took the feathers and skin and mounted those over a wire frame. The hen or bird was actually roasted and served separately. I gather from recent discussions on male peacocks that serving a female might have been the thing to do as the meat from a male they said was described as being far too strong. I had done the only sugarwork for that feast, so I was hanging around doing this and that until time to serve the soteltie at the end. (I needed my mold back and we couldn't get the mold to release from the sugarpiece without breaking.) I ended up helping Sarah with the peacock. We ended up putting the tray with the fake bird on a serving cart and having it served to the head table in that fashion. The one thing that we lacked when we got ready to serve it was a way to make the tail feathers stand up or display out properly. Some lightweight floral weight wire would have come in handy. They could have looked better. Also there's always the problem getting the head to display at the right angle. (I should mention that the last peacock I did was created out of marzipan and sugar icing. It was lifesize.) There's a good article on serving a peacock by Barbara Wheaton. "How to cook a peacock." Harvard Magazine 82 (1979) pp 63-65. Wheaton is the author of Savoring the Past. Also see Petits Propos Culinaires -- THE GREAT BIRDS: PART 4, PEACOCKS IN HISTORY, Joop Witteveen 32,23 THE GREAT BIRDS, PART 5: PREPARATION OF THE PEACOCK FOR THE TABLE, Joop Witteveen 36,10 http://www.coquinaria.nl/english/peacock/ laso has an article on them. Johnnae <the end> Edited by Mark S. Harris peacocks-msg 19