Rooster and Hen – these guys might be a little old to be considered chickens.

Ba-dum.

Chicken, and it’s grown up over-grown soprano brother were been paired with asparagus throughout the 17th century in England.

Chickens and capons are different growth stages of the same bird. We now call them all chicken, but how the birds are raised and how they grow is so different from the 17th to the 21st centuries…think of the Julia Child episode where she had all the little birds lined up – pullets, chickens, fryers, roasters, and the old stewing hen. These are all growth stages, different sizes being better for different usages.

Recipes also have growth stages – persistence as they carry over time, precedence as on come before another, each with clues of flavor profile, status, commonality.

Because it’s not just the food it’s the ways.

To boyle Chickens with Sparagus.

Boyle your Chikens in faire water, with a little whole mace, put into their bellies a little parsley, and a little sweete butter, dish them vpon sippets and powre a little of the same broath vpon it, and take a handfull of  sparagus being boyld, and put them in a ladle full of thicke butter, and stir it together in a dish, and powre it vpon your chickens or pullets, strew on salt, and serve it to the Table hot.

-         1621. John Murrell. A Delightful daily exercise for ladies and Gentlewomen. Falconwood Press: 1990. p. 33.

1.  A chicken is a young bird, and are often referred to in the plural in recipes. Young would be small, tender, and a little bland by 17th century standards.
2. Why have we stopped boiling? Roasted birds do look prettier….but boiled chicken sure tastes good.
3. Parsley in the belly of a bird is always a good thing – take it out, mince it fine, add a little butter and instant sauce, even if you nothing else.
4. Boil the asparagus separate from the chicken. Boiling it in chicken broth is a nice touch. Chicken takes much longer to cook then asparagus.
5. Sippets are little sops. If there is broth there is also most always sippets. Or sops.
6. Thick butter is also know as drawn butter. More on that latter.

The Poultry Dealer (after Cesare Vecellio)

To boil a Capon or Chicken with Asparagus.

Boil your capon or chicken in fair water and some salt, then put in their bellies a little mace, chopped parsley and sweet butter; being boiled, serve them on sippets and put a little of the broth on them; then have a bundle or two of asparagus boiled, put in beaten butter and serve it on your capon or chicken.

-         1654. Mrs Cromwell’s Cookery Book (1983)p. 57.

1. Now there is an option – little tender chickens or big, also tender capon.
   
2. Again, parsly in the belly. Again, mace. Again, butter.
3. Again, cook the asparagus separately.
4. Again, sippets.
   
5. Beaten butter is another, other name for thick butter or drawn butter.

Day old baby chick – a little too little to be called a capon

To boyl a Capon with Asparagus

Boyl your Capon, or Chicken in fair water, and some salt, then put in their bellies a little Mace, chopped Parsley, and sweet Butter; being boyled, serve them on Sippets, and put a little of the Broath on them: Then have a bundle or two of Asparagus boyled, put in beaten butter, and serve it on your Capon, or Chicken.

                        – 1675 Hannah Woolley. The Accomplish’d lady’s delight in preserving, physick, beautifying, and cookery.

1.  Capon or chicken, boiled again.
2. Bellies full of mace, parsley and butter.
3. Sippets.
4. Boil the asparagus.
5. Beaten butter.
6. 54 years of essentially the same recipe.

I found the Hannah Wooley recipe on the Gastronomy Archaeology blog (which is now on the blog-roll, check it out) when I realized that ‘sperage’ and ‘sparagus’ show up in almost as many references as ‘asparagus’….she’s the one who clued me into the Richard Brome play, The Sparagvs Garden which led me to this
website Richard Brome Online .

Asparagus was supposed to be quickly done…..and now there’s butter sauces….

* My Uncle Al couldn’t let a cold day go by without saying,”It’s so cold, even the chicken has a capon.”  When I became a Pilgrim he would also say, “She’s so old, that even this chickie has a cape on.” 

Vaudeville isn’t dead, it just moved to the suburbs.