Introduction:
A dish from the second course of the Taming of the Shrew event.
The following dish did not appear in any of the sample menus, although the recipe was found in Scappi. That said, several capon dishes and other dishes of stewed meat were included in the various menu’s second and third courses, so I thought this was a reasonable choice.
Of course, buying capons in the modern world is quite an expensive challenge, so this dish was cooked with ordinary dark meat chicken, along with gooseberry preserves which worked as a substitute for the fresh berries called for. Gooseberries are tart, so with the broth from the chicken and the sugar from the preserves the entire effect was a sweet and sour sauce over the chicken, which was falling apart when served.
Book 2, recipe 120:
If you want that capon dismembered, though, you will not stuff it. When it is plucked and clean, cut it up and saute the pieces in melted rendered fat or beaten pork fat. Then add in enough meat broth to cover them, and finish cooking them in that broth. Half of a quarter hour before you want to serve it, put in gooseberries and a handfull of herbs. If you want to thicken the broth, you can do it with clean almonds ground in a mortar, not forgetting, though to put in the seasonings used above.
Discussion
- I wasn’t able to track down fresh or frozen gooseberries. Preserves are common, though. This may have given the dish a sweeter note than expected by Scappi; on the other hand given the number of otherwise savory dishes that are topped by sugar I’m not sure that he’d hate it.
- Scappi didn’t call for onions, but I suspect that his broth may have contained them, and in any case they added needed flavor to a cheaper cut of meat that needed whatever help it could get.
- As I hadn’t worked with gooseberries previously, my redaction started from a modern recipe that was similar to Scappi’s instructions in order to more quickly arrive at plausible quantities.
Stewed Capon with Gooseberries
4
servingsIngredients
1.5 lbs Chicken Thighs
1 large white onion
Chicken broth (as needed)
1/2 cup gooseberry preserves
1 3” sprig rosemary
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Cinnamon
Directions
- Prep chicken by trimming loose skin and salting generously..
- Dice onions.
- Sear chicken
- Heat pot which will be used to cook chicken – once hot, add olive oil to lightly cover bottom of pan.
- Sear both sides of chicken thighs, in batches, deglazing pan with water if necessary to prevent scorching.
- Stew chicken
- Add diced onions to pan, with a bit more olive oil if necessary to prevent scorching. Cook until translucent – browning is optional for this.
- Return batched chicken to pan, with not quite enough broth to cover (chicken will release juices, if you start with too much broth the final dish will be watery).
- Add rosemary, cinnamon, and pepper to taste – I used about a 4:1 ratio of pepper to ginger, it should be more savory and less like apple pie.
- Bring to gentle simmer, cook until chicken is falling apart – probably 45 minutes, but you can cook longer without too much risk of causing problems, as long as it’s gentle (too high of a boil can cause the proteins to toughen).
- Add gooseberries and serve.
- Remove the rosemary springs/stems. (The leaves may be scattered through the dish, you can avoid this by making a cheesecloth packet for the rosemary but it’s not entirely necessary.)
- Add preserves to sauce – it may be easier to integrate by adding hot broth to a cup or bowl with the preserves and stirring to dilute, then adding back to the pot.
- Taste for seasoning, serve.
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