Le Viandier de Taillevent - Translation - Meat Roasts

HERE FOLLOW THE MEAT ROASTS

31. Roast pork.

Eaten with verjuice. Some make a sauce (to wit, add garlic, onions, wine and verjuice to the roast drippings in the pan). In a pie; eaten with verjuice.

32. Veal.

Parboiled, larded, and roasted; eaten with Cameline [Sauce]. In a pie, add some Spice Powder, pork fat and saffron; eaten with verjuice.

33. To make calf mesentery that one calls charpie.

Take your meat when it is completely cooked, cut it up very small, and fry it in lard. Crush ginger and saffron. Beat some raw eggs, and thread them onto your meat in the lard. Crush spices and add some Spice Powder. However, some do not wish any Spice Powder in it, and eat it with Green Verjuice [Sauce].

34. Roast mutton.

Eat it with fine salt, Cameline [Sauce] or verjuice.

35. Kids, lambs.

Refresh them in boiling water, pull them out soon, brown them a bit on the spit, lard them, and roast them. Eat them with Cameline [Sauce].

36. Stuffed piglet or pig.

Scald it, wash it well, and put it on the spit. The stuffing is made of pork pluck, cooked pork meat, some egg yolks, harvest cheese, cooked peeled chestnuts and good Spice Powder. Put everything in the piglet's belly, stitch up the slit, and put it to roast. Baste it with a spoon, while turning the roast, with vinegar and good boiling drippings. Eat it hot with Yellow Pepper [Sauce]. Some lazy persons eat it with Cameline [Sauce].

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37. Roast geese and goslings.

Eaten with White Garlic [Sauce], Green Garlic [Sauce], Black Pepper [Sauce] or Jance [Sauce]. Some eat them with Saint Merry Sauce (to wit, soak garlic in goose stock, or in any other stock you have).

There are some good epicures who, when the goose or goslings are roasted, carry them to the Saint Merry goose roasters or to Saint Sevrin square or to the Baudes gate for the goose roasters to cut up. They cut them into bits so that each bit has skin, flesh and bones; and they do it very nicely.

38. Pullets and chicks.

Roasted; eaten with Cold Sage [Sauce]. In a pie; eaten with Green Verjuice [Sauce] in summer, or plain in winter.

39. Roast capons, young female chickens, young male chickens.

Eat them with Must Sauce in summer, with Poitevin [Sauce] in winter, or with Jance [Sauce]. In winter one can make a sauce similar to Must [Sauce] (to wit, boil wine and sugar together).

40. Rabbits, young rabbits.

Parboil them, lard them, and roast them; eat them with Cameline [Sauce]. In a pie, parboil them, lard them, add them whole or in large pieces, and add some Spice Powder. Eat them with Cameline [Sauce] or verjuice.

41. Fatted capons.

In a pie, without larding. Empty the fat onto a plate, and make the Dodine [Sauce] for it (to wit, boil the fat in an iron pan with some parsley, wine and verjuice). Make some sops for it in long, flat or other little shapes, without toasting.

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42. Roast hares.

Without washing it, lard it and roast it; eat it with Cameline [Sauce] or Saupiquet [Sauce] (to wit, add some finely chopped onions, wine, verjuice and a bit of vinegar to the drippings in the pan). Throw it on the hare when it is roasted, or put it in bowls. Some baste them when they are roasting with the same sauce as for a Bourblier of Boar. In a pie, parboil them in large pieces and lard them. Eat them with Cameline [Sauce].

43. Bourblier of fresh boar.

Put it into boiling water, remove it very soon, roast it, and baste it with a sauce made of spices (to wit, ginger, cassia, cloves, grains of paradise and some grilled bread soaked with wine, verjuice and vinegar). When it is cooked, [cut it into bits and boil] everything together. It should be clearish and black.

44. All fresh venison.

Roast it without basting; eat it with Cameline [Sauce].

45. Pigeons.

Roast them including the heads but without the feet; eat them with fine salt. In a pie; eat them with fine salt, wine, or scallion, with the fat from the pie.

46. Small birds like larks, quails, thrushes and others.

Pluck them dry, without water, boil them a bit, and spit them including the heads and feet (crosswise and not lengthwise). Put some slices or cracklings of pork fat or sections of sausages between each pair. Eat them with fine salt. In a pie, with harvest cheese put in the belly.

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47. Plovers and woodcocks.

Pluck them dry, leave the heads and feet, spit them lengthwise, and eat them with fine salt. Others wish Cameline [Sauce] with them. In a pie without adding cheese; eat them with fine salt.

48. Partridges.

Pluck them dry, refresh them in boiling water, lard them, remove the heads and feet, and roast them; eat them with fine salt. In a pie; eat them with fine salt.

Some cut them up, slice them into small bits, put them between two plates with some cold water and salt, heat them on the coals until the water boils, and eat them. They say that it is a very good sauce.

49. Turtledoves.

Pluck it dry, refresh it in boiling water, and roast it without larding; eat it with fine salt. In a pie, without the head. If you wish, glaze it. Split it (to the heart) in the throat from the head to the shoulders. Eat it with Yellow Pepper [Sauce].

50. Peacock, swan.

Kill it like goose, leave the head and tail, lard or bard it, roast it golden, and eat it with fine salt. It lasts at least a month after it is cooked. If it becomes mouldy on top, remove the mould and you will find it white, good and solid underneath.

51. Pheasants.

Pluck it dry, button or bard it, refresh it in hot water if you wish, and roast it, with the unplucked head and tail wrapped in wet cloths so that they do not burn. If you wish, remove the head, tail and wings, and roast it without larding if it is fat and good. When you put it on the plate, attach the head, tail and wings in their places with sticks. Eat it with fine salt.

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52. Storks.

Pluck them like goose, leave the feet, tail and head, and roast them, barded and singed; eat them with fine salt.

53. Heron.

Bleed it, split it to the shoulders like swan or peacock, prepare it like stork, and roast it; eat it with fine salt or Cameline [Sauce].

54. Bustards [and cranes].

Roast them like stork; eat them with fine salt. Cranes likewise.

55. River mallards.

Pluck it dry, put it on the spit without head or feet, and collect the fat to make the Dodine [Sauce] (to wit, add [almond] milk, wine or verjuice, with some parsley). [Make] long thin grilled sops. Eat it with fine salt.

56. Bittern.

Like stork; eat it with fine salt.

57. Cormorant.

Like heron; eat it with fine salt.

58. Spoonbills and similar river birds.

Like heron.

59. Teal.

Like river mallard.

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