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who'd have thunk it? plus chicken clay bake

updated sat 9 oct 04

 

L. P. Skeen on fri 8 oct 04


Janet! ;)

For those of you who own _Clayart Cooks_ , there is a recipe complete with
photographs on how to do a chicken in clay. :)

L
----- Original Message -----
From: "Janet Kaiser"

This is an attempt to reduce the number of posts about seasonal poultry
bakes which are due any day now °!° It adds to various recipes in the
Clayart archives.

Janet Kaiser on sat 9 oct 04


Slightly OT but...

I spent a day washing out various glass decanters back in mid
August. Had an idea to make a "glass shelf" with all the cut
glass we own, but with an eye to "functional" beyond some
possibly hold cut flowers. Found we had half a dozen decanters or
flasks with stoppers. I ended up with one large with the for
guests sherry (cooking lives in the kitchen), one fancy Victorian
flash with handle to hold rum and the smallest one of unknown age
but not very high quality pressed-glass to keep the malt vinegar
for table use. Holds a generous quarter pint when three-quarters
full.

Anyway, making biscuits (cookies) today I needed 2 cl rum. Apart
from it having evaporated more than I would have expected from a
narrow neck and ground glass stopper well bunged home, it was
fine. The decanter was too... No obvious etching, etc.

HOWEVER when I removed the stopper from the one holding the
vinegar, a large piece of glass just came away between my
fingers. Then I looked at the bottom of the stopper and it was
missing! Looking in the dregs of vinegar at the bottom, I see
chunks of glass! Well, that is truly a first for me. Self
distructing glass! Anyone ever had that happen to them or heard
of it happening? So glad it happened when I was messing around
and not when serving a fish supper! Imagine how embarrassing that
would have been to serve guests with glass sprinkled onto their
food!

Of course it serves me right! My mother always warned me about
"cheap" glassware especially from the 1920-1930s. The style of
this piece would indicate the Art Deco period. Certainly pre-war.
I suppose we had better return to using her vinegar bottle...
Which means using the rum first. Good job I am baking/cooking
mood. I think perhaps chocolate rum pots!

Oh, whilst I think about it, the following "Chicken Cooked in
Clay" recipe comes from a cookbook translated from Italian:

Ingredients:
1 chicken about 3lbs or 1 1/2 kg
mix of juniper berries, sage, bay leaf, thyme (all finely
chopped) and peppercorns
salt
4 oz 100 gr bacon or prosciutto slices

Method:
Wash chicken well. Put a teaspoon full of the chopped mix and
salt inside and tie up (truss) with string. Rub the remaining
mixture all over the skin on the outside. Cover with the
bacon/prosciutto and wrap in aluminium foil, sealing it well.
Spread a layer of clay not less than a half inch all over the
outside of the wrapped bird. Put in over 240 =B0C (475=B0F, Mark
9) until the clay begins to crack*. Break the clay, remove the
bird and open the wrapping when you serve. The chicken can also
be cooked in the aluminium foil without the clay in over 200=B0C
(400F, Mark 6) for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until tender.

* Sorry, but there is no indication how long it takes until the
cracking begins!

This is an attempt to reduce the number of posts about seasonal
poultry bakes which are due any day now =B0!=B0 It adds to
various recipes in the Clayart archives. With and without clay,
in ovens, kilns and pit fired cooking! Of course the turkey
follows the pumpkins here, unlike our colonial cousins. Next pot
full will be Pumpkin Chutney... At least I know those glass
serving pots and their lids will not disintegrate! They have been
doing their job since my Grandmother married around a hundred
years ago!

Sincerely

Janet Kaiser -- just back from celebrating our 20th wedding
anniversary! As wife mark three, this is an "historic" occasion!


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