To Boil a Capon
Take your Capon and boyle it tender, and take out a little of the broth and
put it in a little pipkin with whole mace and a good deale of ginger, and quartered Dates, and boyle your corance and prunes in very faire water by themselves, for making of your broth black and thicken your broth with yolks of egges and wine strained togither or a little Vergious, and let your broth boile no more when you have thickened it, for it will quail. Then cut sippits in a platter, and lay in your Capon, and laye your fruite upon it, so dooing serve it out.
You can find similar recipes for Boiled Capon, or chicken, from the same recipe book here: A Boke of Cookrye, 1591, English
To Boil a Capon:
What I did:
- Boil your capon (I ended up using a large hen, it's what I had, however some recipes state "capon or chicken")
- take a little of the broth (think I used a cup and a half but it reduced to probably less than a cup before I ended up adding the yolks)
- add whole mace (I cheated and added a bit of powdered as I do not have whole mace), a good deal of ginger (I threw in generous dashes of the stuff) and quartered dates (a nice handful)
- Boil your currants and prunes in a separate pot in water (I threw in a small hand full of each) Note: it does not say what to do with the date-broth mixture so I strained the dates from it. It also doesn't say what to do with the prune/currant mixture so I strained the water from them, keeping the fruit)
- Take your egg yolk (used approx. 2) and whisk it up with a little wine. (it also options vinegar) This is likely for more than just flavour, the wine helps break up the egg yolk further and ensures a smoother sauce. Cook this at a low to moderate temperature and don't let it stay boiling. I find a whisk helps keep it from lumping (curdling) as well.
- It does not say what to do with the sauce, interestingly
- It does say to lay down the sippits (I used toasts this time, will either make up proper sippits or use at least a nice dense bread and dish out more proportionally)
- Lay your chicken on the sippits
- Lay your fruit on the chicken
- Presumably one would lay the sauce over this as seen in other recipes with boiled chicken and sauces.
Note: I'm not sure that many people would enjoy the dry-fruity heavy sauce
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