Finally, another post XVII Capons or hens stuffed (aka cheesy bacon chicken)

[allvenicechannel]

 wound up being up later than anticipated, but I think a night of experimenting with historical food and teaching was also food for my soul.

I had a father (Edmund) & son (Ambrose), and P3H (Isebel) show up and jump in with enthusiasm. The dish was proclaimed delicious and would be a great (although fairly labor intensive) addition to a feast. I'll document what we did, and then what I think we should have done/ what I'll try next.

XVII.   Caponi ouer polastri impliti.
Se tu voy fare doy caponi per XII persone, toy doy casi freschi e XII ovi, e toy doy onze de specie dolze fine, toy meza libra de lardo fresco e toy li caponi ben lavati e mondi e fali alessare. Quando sono ben cocti, spoiali tutti e trane fura le ossa e servali, e bati le polpe con alquante foglie de presemolo, e menta, e persa, e de le ditte specie, e de caxo che tu a’ ben pesto, e de le oui che tu a’ tanto che bastano e de queste cosse fa uno bono batuto fino, e morbido, e ben zallo, e ben possiente de specie; e togli trite queste osse e revestelli zascheuno per si segondo che li choga in parte de questo batuto, e fai zaschuno per si in raisella de porche e frize in lardo. E quando sono sofriti, polveriza de le specie ditte, e toy torli overo bianchi de oui e specie, e zafarano destemperato, e sugo de uva ranze o de agresta o del brodo de li caponi, e di queste cosse fane uno bono brodeto, e mitilo a bolire. Quando vole metige queste osse repiene in questo brodeto a bolire; quando è fatto dallo per scutelle e li caponi per tayeri. Questa vivanda vole essere ben zalla e agra de agresta; se tu voy fare per piú persone o per meno, toy le cosse a questa mesura  medesma.
XVII Capons or hens stuffed
If you want to make two capons for 12 persons.  Take two fresh cheeses and 12 eggs and take two ounces of sweet spices, half a pound of fresh lard and take the capons well washed and skinned and let them boil.  When they are well cooked, strip all (of the flesh off) and pull out the bones and reserve.  And beat the meat with some leaves of parsley, and mint and marjoram, and of the said spices, and the cheese that has been well mixed to a paste, and enough of the eggs (to bind the paste).  Of these things make a good batter, fine and soft and well yellow, and good presence of spices.  Take chopped (broken up) these bones and redress each one for it is according that it nails in part of this batter (reform the meat paste around the bones).  And put each in rashers of pork and fry in lard.  And when they are fried, powder with the said spices.  Take strained egg yolks and whites and spices and saffron, temper with juice of grapes crushed or with verjuice or with the capon broth, and of this stuff make a good sauce, and put it to boil.  Then you want to put these bones stuffed in this boiling broth, when it is done serve it in a bowl and the capons in platters.  This dish wants to be well yellow (giallo) and sour of verjuice.  If you want to make it for more persons or for less take the things of this measure by same proportion.

Because I didn't know how many people I'd be having I chose to go with chicken legs for consistancy and ease of serving as opposed to two whole chickens. This seemed to work fantastically. I also used two variations of meat to wrap it in as historically bacon often wasn't nearly as fatty as what we're used to today. We used both bacon and canadian bacon/ ham to test for flavor and workability differences.
Ingredients (what we actually used):
12 chicken legs = 3.44 lb bone in
2 "fresh cheeses"=1/2 lb Quark, 1 lb Ricotta
6 eggs
1 oz fresh italian parsley
1/4 oz fresh mint
1/4 oz dried margoram
1/2 oz sweet spices
1/2 pound bacon / 1/2 pound canadian bacon or ham                  
14 oz lard to fry in

Instructions as done: 
Skin and boil chicken (we reserved the skins to make broth)
once boiled shred chicken and mix with fresh cheeses, chopped herbs, sweet spices  
Take the chicken, cheese and spice batter and wrap in bacon, pin closed with toothpicks if needed. Fry in lard until done (outside is sufficiently browned and the inside reaches at least 160 by meat thermometer), this took approximately 10 minutes per side on my stove at about medium temperature. Allow to drain a bit, then serve hot with sauces on side










Sauce ingredients (as used for  both variations): 
2 cups liquid (homemade broth or verjuice) of which 1/3 cup each was held back for tempering
3 eggs separated into yolks and whites (the recipe calls for both, but that they be separated)
1/4 tsp fine spice mix for each
1/4 tsp sweet spice mix for each
1/16 oz saffron each

Instructions as done: 
Add separated eggs to reserved liquid. Broth blended better than verjuice. Add egg mix slowly to hot liquid while whisking constantly. Increase heat. Broth thickened quickly, verjuice became frothy. Plate and serve quickly with hot chicken.

The verdict:
Delicious and worth doing again. The flavor and mouth feel were both great. There was an even split on which version of the sauces were better with some favoring the zing of the verjuice over the meatier and more mellow broth, but everyone agreed they could do with more of the fine & sweet spice mixes, by about double. If considereing for a feast the broth version might be more cost effective, and there was one suggestion of doing it without the bone as a version of Cordon Blu, but I love the illusion food aspect of this recipe.  

What I'd do differently: 
I tried a new kind of historical cheese (Quark) that while wonderful, wasn't the best choice for this recipe. In the future, I'd stick with options like Ricotta, fresh mozarella, and cheve that are fresh and fairly soft, but not too soft. I think the batter would have possibly been better with fewer eggs as well as firmer cheese as it was a struggle to get it to stay in the wraps because of the consistancy. 

For the sauces, we had too much for the ratio of meat. I'd cut down the liquid volume to 1 cup which would also make for a thicker sauce, unless we also reduced the amount of  eggs. I'd also double the amount of spices used, except for the saffron which seemed to be spot on.  

I've also been working on recipes from this manuscript with the Madrone Culinary Guild and just haven't had time to update here with progress. The theme for their next Baronial Banquet will be Venetian using this manuscript and they asked me to come help research and test it! I may be posting recipes out of order for a while as we work through possible menu options!! I'm so excited!