Spiced Capons Served Cold with Sliced Lemons Above

"The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi"; Book 2, Recipe 123

ORIGINAL RECIPE

"Caponni sopramentati serviti freddi con limone sopra"

RECIPE TRANSLATION

Translated by Terence Scully in his book, “The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): The Art and Craft of a Master Cook” (page 198).

123. To boil and prepare the capon "sopramentato"

When the capon is plucked and drawn, whether stuffed or empty, boil it in a meat broth or else in water with a piece of proscuitto and crushed pepper. When it is done, take it out of the broth and let it drain. Then make several slashes across the thighs, body, and breast. Sprinkle it all over, especially in the slashes, with a mixture of sugar, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and fennel flour. Let it cool. When you wish to serve it, do so with it cold, with cut-up lemons over it. Before sprinkling it, you can also splash it with rose vinegar.

Redaction

Serves 8

** To make a visually appealing presentation, use chicken breasts (instead of the whole capon). Pound the chicken breasts flat, powder them with the spice mixture, roll them up, tie each breast with twine, then bake. To serve, slice each chicken breast to get chicken "pinwheels" and cover the sliced chicken with thinly sliced lemon.

1 capon or 8 boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 lemon, sliced

Spice mix:

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon powdered clove

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon powdered fennel

1. Slice chicken breasts in half and pound flat. Place in bowl.

2. Mix spices together.

3. Sprinkle spice mix over the chicken breasts. Roll up and tie or pin with toothpicks.

4. Preheat oven to 350° F.

5. Place chicken on baking sheet.

6. Cook for 30 minutes.

7. Remove from oven.

8. Garnish with lemon slices.

Note: this dish may be served hot or cold.

Additional notes:

February menu from Scappi:

"Capponi sopramentati serviti freddi, con fiori di bugolossa sopra"

Secondo Servitio

Collatione fatta all'ultimo di febraro a Monte cavallo, nella sala dell'Illustriss. & Reverindiss. Card. Bellaia, a un'hora di notte doppo che fu recitata una comedia in lingua Francese, Bergamasca, Venetiana, & Spagnolo, con quattro servitii, servita a otto piatti; con otto Scalchi, e otto Trincianti.

April menu from Scappi:

"Capponi sopramentati serviti freddi con caparetti sopra"

Primo servitio de credenza

Cena con il medisimo ordine del pranzo

(Pranzo alli VIII d'aprile con due servitii di credenza & un di cucina servito a due piatti con due Scalchi, & due Trincianti)

Also from "The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi"; Book 2

121. To boil all sorts of capon and serve them with various mixtures over them.

...

or with lemon juice topped with pomegranate seeds and sugar; or with yellowdish, topped with sugar and cinnamon.

122. To boil a boneless capon

For this dish the capon needs to be big and fleshy, and of middle age rather than old. As soon as it has been killed, it needs to be plucked dry: that is done because after plucking in water the skin does not stay strong and cannot stand up to the cooking; but if you do pluck in water, watch that the skin does not break. Draw the capon, leaving its neck and feet on. Wrap it in pure white linen and, with a wooden pestle, crush its bones; then very adroitly remove those bones, turning the capon inside out so you can clean it out thoroughly. Mind that the skin on uts wings does not tear, because it is difficult to remove the bones of the wing joints. YOu can remove the capon's bones another way: when it is plucked, cut it along the spine and, skinning the back, adroitly remove the back and breast bones, leaving the flesh attached to the skin; remove the thigh bones similarly. In a case where the back is to be split open, you will not draw the bird until it has been skinned.

When the capon is prepared in either of the above ways, get the flesh from the breast of another uncooked capon, and a pound of proscuitto and pork fat together, and beat those two finely with knives, adding in half an ounce of common spices, a handful of finely chopped herbs, two egg yolks and two ounces of grated cheese. Stuff the capon with that mixture, pushing it into the wings and thighs; sew it up so the stuffing cannot come out. With its wings and thighs trussed, put the capon into an ample earthenware or copper pot with cold water and put that on the fire, shaping the capon in it with your hand. Bring the pot slowly to a boil until the capon is blanched, being careful to bind its feet together because if they were not bound it would not turn out with a very good shape. When it has been blanched you can boil it or stew it in all the ways mentioned above. When you want to serve it, remove the binding carefully. Serve it hot.

If you want to roast the capon on a spit, when it has been blanched, deboned, and stuffed, take it out of the broth and cool it in cool water. Take it out, wrap it around with strips of pork fat sprinkled with fennel flour, salt, pepper, cloves, and cinnamon, and around that a sheet of royal paper which has been greased with rendered fat. Put it on a spit and cook it over a low fire. Instead of using pork fat and the paper, you can wrap the capon in a caul. Again, instead of a caul, you can lard it with fine lardoons, setting it to cook as above. When it is done, serve it hot, dressed with its sauce which is mnade from rose vinegar, sugar, raisins, pepper, cinnamon, and cloves. Be careful that the capon that is to be roasted still has its feet and neck on, and that it is stuffed with that mixture that roasts are stuffed with in Recipe 115.

124. Various ways to spit-roast a capon

Whenever a capon is young, it will always be better for roasting than an old one. But if you want to roast an old one, you will have to hang it a while. When it has been plucked and drawn, whether it will be stuffed or empty, blanch it in boiling water, then take it out and stick it with fine lardoons of pork fat. If it is stuffed, though, it does not need that larding. Then put it on a spit and cook it over a moderate fire at the outset; as it begins to drip, give it a sprightly fire so that the cooking will not dry it out. If it is not larded, baste it with melted rendered fat or lard. When it is done, serve it hot with orange juice or lime juice over it.

125. To spit-roast a capon after it has been half cooked by boiling.

This treatment is rarely done and only when there is good need for it. When the capon is half-boiled in salted water, whether stuffed or empty, take itout and mount it, hot like that, on a spit. Roast it over a moderate fire, basting it with melted rendered fat or hot lard, and sprinkling it right away with sugar, cinnamon, flour, grated bread, and fennell flour. When it has browned enough, serve it hot with cut-up limes over it.