Food Sites for June 2017
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Peacock (Pavo cristatus), wandering freely at the Bronx Zoo.
We’ve included the peacock, above, not because peacocks are food (‘though they certainly have been in the past), but because—amazingly enough—this is the TWO-HUNDRETH issue of these newsletters! The bird’s combination of pride and gaudy excess seemed somehow apt.
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This month’s quotes (from On the Table’s culinary quote collection) feature at least two pretty questionable recipes.
Pecok Rosted: Take a Pecok, breke his necke, and kutte his throte, And fle him, the 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 the bone to the 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 the body, as he was wonte to sitte a-lyve; And whan he is rosted ynowe, take him of, And lete him kele; And then wynde the skyn wit the fethurs and the taile abought the body, And serue him forthe as he were a-live; or elle pull him dry, And roste him, and serue him as thou doest a henne. Recipe from the kitchens of Henry VIII.
Redressed Peacocks Which Seem Living; and How to Make Them Breath Fire Through Their Mouth: You should first kill the peacock with a feather, driving it upon its head, or else drain its blood from under its throat as with a pig; but it is better to take out its tongue and then to slice it under its body—that is, from the top of its breast to its tail—slicing only the skin and removing it gently so that it is not damaged; when you have skinned it, pull the skin back right up to the head, then cut away the head, which will remain attached to the skin; do the same with the legs, and likewise the tail, taking out the leg bones so that the iron will make the peacock stand up will not be seen; then take the skinned carcass and set it to roast stuck with lardonns, or else baste it with grease often enough that it will not burn… hang the Peacock by the heels upon a Spit, having stuffed him with sweet Herbs and Spices, and roast him, first sticking Cloves all along his brest, and wrapping his neck in a white Linnen Cloath, alwayes wetting it, that it dry not. When the Peacock is rosted, take him off from the Spit, and put his own skin upon, him, and that he may seem to stand upon his feet, make some Rods of Iron fastned into a Board, made with leggs, that it may not be discerned, and drive these through his body as far as his head. Some to make sport and laughter, put Wool with Camphir into his mouth, and they cast in fire when he comes to the Table. Also you may gild a rosted Peacock, strewed With Spices, and covered with leaves of Gold for your recreation, and for magnificence. The same may be done with Pheasants, Grains, Geese, Capons, and other Birds. Cuoco Napoletano, late fifteenth century
Here is a kitchen improvement, in return for Peacock. For roasting or basting a chicken, render down your fat or butter with cider: about a third cider. Let it come together slowly, till the smell of cider and the smell of fat are as one. This will enliven even a frozen chicken. Sylvia Townsend Warner
Gary
June, 2017
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---- the new sites ----
(historic agricultural information preserved by the National Endowment for the Humanities)
(Clarissa Wei, at Munchies, on the traditional dishes of the Hui and the Uyghurs)
(Claire Uziel, at Jewish Food Experience, remembering Washington’s old DGS—District Grocery Stores)
(John Rees on the online collection of the US National Library of Medicine, and their usefulness to food scholars)
(Carolyn Phillips, at Munchies, on attempts to make gastronomic sense of a culture when “No monolithic Chinese cuisine exists”)
(Yanko Tsvetkov, at Atlas of Prejudice, on gastronomic xenophobia, complete with delightful maps)
(academic paper that examines two very different ways of combining flavors)
(Marguerite Preston, at Eater, on the rebirth of patisserie in the Big Apple)
(according to the Rambling Epicure’s Jonell Galloway, it’s not easy)
(Dwight Furrow asks the right questions at Edible Arts)
(Chang-rae Lee’s Korean-American culinary memoir in the New Yorker)
(Yiyun Li’s Chinese culinary memoir in the New Yorker)
(Nicole Welk-Joerger, at Nursing Clio, on the history—and future—of milk tasting)
(Susan Strasser, in The New York Times, on the history of, and social changes brought on by, this ubiquitous appliance)
(just-food’s Victor Martino on the causes, and effects, of changes to the three-square-meals paradigm)
---- inspirational (or otherwise useful) sites for writers/bloggers ----
---- yet more blogs ----
---- that‘s all for now ----
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The Resource Guide for Food Writers, Update #200 is protected by copyright, and is provided at no cost, for your personal use only. It may not be copied or retransmitted unless this notice remains affixed. Any other form of republication—unless with the author‘s prior written permission—is strictly prohibited.
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