Wood Pigeon in a Rare Fowl ‘Fricase' circa 1684

One of the first posts I did on this blog was about Pumpion Pye  from Robert May’s 1684 cookbook, The Accomplisht Cook.  Nearly a year later, as Lost Past Remembered approaches its first birthday, it seems a good time to revisit Mr. May.  Elizabeth David called his book “a most beautiful piece of cookery literature”.  Alan Davidson (who compiled the Oxford Companion to Food) said in his introduction to a new edition of May’s book:  “It is the most comprehensive panorama of cookery in upper-class English households of its time”.

I knew food Historian Ken Albala was a great May fan. When I told him I was attempting to make a modern version of a rather complicated May dish, he enjoined me to do it right and not to dumb-down the recipe or balk at the ingredients… ok, one ingredient… lamb’s stones.  For the uninitiated, they are lamb testicles and not easy to come by.  I was told by Catskill Merino  at Union Square, NYC (who supplied them for me with some difficulty), that they are tossed out as waste by most slaughterhouses.  What a pity.  The great chef/author Anissa Helou gushed about them on her blog and explained how to prepare them.  You know what, they are spectacular with a creamy texture not unlike sweetbreads. I am so glad that I heeded Ken’s sage advice and obtained them (and Petunia, my Saint Bernard, is crazy about the left-overs!) and made the recipe as close to the original as I could.

And what of Robert May?  His life is laid out quite thoroughly in the introduction to  The accomplisht cook - or, The art & mystery of cookery --  written when May was in his 70’s (he may have lived into his 90’s—his date of death is a little vague):

“He was born in the year of our Lord 1588. His Father being one of the ablest Cooks in his time, and his first Tutor in the knowledge and practice of Cookery; under whom having attained to some perfection in this Art, the old Lady Dormer sent him over into France, where he continued five years, being in the Family of a noble Peer, and first President of Paris; where he gained not only the French Tongue but also bettered his Knowledge in his Cookery, and returning again into England, was bound an Apprentice in London to Mr. Arthur Hollinsworth in Newgate Market, one of the ablest Work-men in London, Cook to the Grocers Hall and Star Chamber. His Apprentiship being out, the Lady Dormer sent for him to be her Cook under Father (who then served that Honourable Lady) where were four Cooks more, such Noble Houses were then kept, the glory of that, and the shame of this present Age; then were those Golden Days wherein were practised the Triumphs and Trophies of Cookery; then was Hospitality esteemed, Neighbourhood preserved, the Poor cherished, and God honoured; then was Religion less talkt on, and more practised; then was Atheism & Schism less in fashion: then did men strive to be good, rather then to seem so. Here he continued till the Lady Dormer died, and then went again to London, and served the Lord Castlehaven, after that the Lord Lumley, that great lover and knower of Art, who wanted no knowledge in the discerning this mystery; next the Lord Montague in Sussex; and at the beginning of these wars, the Countess of Kent, then Mr. Nevel of Crissen Temple in Essex, whose Ancestors the Smiths (of whom he is descended) were the greatest maintainers of Hospitality in all those parts; nor doth the present M. Nevel degenerate from their laudable examples. Divers other Persons of like esteem and quality hath he served; as the Lord Rivers, Mr. John Ashburnam of the Bed-Chambers, Dr. Steed in Kent, Sir Thomas Stiles of Drury Lane in London, Sir Marmaduke Constable in York-shire, Sir Charles Lucas; and lastly the Right Honourable the Lady Englefield, where he now liveth.”

Coudray House Kitchen

The Dormers were great patrons, humanitarians and food lovers and May owes his career to their generosity, sending him as they did to Paris and London to broaden his horizons.   May practiced his art in kitchens like the one at Coudray House in Sussex (where he cooked beginning in 1630).  But I think his intended audience would not be his employers -- rather his professional peers.

In his preface, May acknowledged this when this he gave his reasons for writing the book: “TO you first, most worthy Artists, I acknowledg one of the chief Motives that made me to adventure this Volume to your Censures, hath been to testifie my gratitude to your experienced Society; nor could I omit to direct it to you, as it hath been my ambition, that you should be sensible of my Proficiency of Endeavours in this Art. To all honest well intending Men of our Profession, or others, this Book cannot but be acceptable, as it plainly and profitably discovers the Mystery of the whole Art; for which, though I may be envied by some that only value their private Interests above Posterity, and the publick good, yet God and my own Conscience would not permit me to bury these my Experiences with my Silver Hairs in the Grave: and that more especially, as the advantages of my Education hath raised me above the Ambitions of others, in the converse I have had with other Nations, who in this Art fall short of what I have known experimented by you my worthy Country men.”

He believed, because of the good fortune of his erudition and experience, that he had an extraordinarily rich and diverse body of work and was honor bound to share it with others so that it would not die with him.

May wrote The Accomplisht Cook or the Art & Mystery of Cooking during the Restoration. Although his cooking had roots in the English past, it was also nurtured by the cuisines of at least 3 other countries – French, Spanish and Italian (he could read in 4 languages—quite remarkable for the time). Additionally, we moderns tend to forget that through the apprentice system of the time, you could learn from someone with a direct line to recipes and techniques and stories from kitchens of the Middle Ages.  Apprenticing in 2 countries was rare.  

May drew from all of these influences as well as fresh new ones, like La Varenne’s (1615-78) 1651 cookbook, Le Cuisinier François (the first French cookbook translated into English in 1653).  He even pinched a few recipes from La Varenne and others (scholar Marcus Bell felt 8% of the recipes were ‘borrowed’ -- somewhat forgivable given the breadth of the book).   Whatever the provenance of the recipes, the vision was singular and thoroughly May’s own.

 Accomplisht Cook, 1685

The dish that caught my eye and fancy was A Rare Fricase.   Something about the unusual combination of ingredients and his reputation made me want to see what it would be like.  In this dish, May’s use of spice was muted – with only nutmeg, mace and pepper being used and not a whole battery of exotics as had been the fashion when May began cooking.  May danced to his own,  aristocratic tune. This sauce with orange and egg has a little of the feeling of hollandaise, and it is wickedly good… he was an artist.

Wood Pigeon

I was looking forward to working with pigeon after having pigeon breast in a fabulous salad in a Glastonbury, UK gastro-pub, Who’d A Thought It this summer.

As always, when I need to find something wild and wonderful, I go to D’Artagnan … in this case they had a wild Scottish Wood pigeon. Coursing through heather and Scottish forests gives it terroir on the hoof (or claw as may be).  It has the taste of place that gives it an amazing depth and flavor that a farmed bird doesn’t have. It is dark and dusky, more like venison than a bird. For my ‘peeper” I used D’Artagnan’s poussin that are only a little bigger than a chick at 3 weeks, delicate and succulent.  It’s an ebony/ivory combination.

I believe the formula would be great with Cornish hens if you can’t get the pigeon and poussin—but it’s easy to get them sent by mail from D’Artagnan. If finding ‘stones’ are a problem I understand that Middle Eastern butchers often carry them, so if you live in a large metropolitan area you may be able to find them. If you can’t, stick with sweetbreads and oysters as the fried garnishes.  Bone the pigeon as much as possible (the whole bird is the size of a baseball and the bones are very tiny - nearly like fish bones), leaving just the leg and wing attached… the breast of the pigeon is best medium-rare, over-cooking makes it ‘liverish’.  The sauce is creamy but not too thick and redolent of orange and warm spices… really lovely. 

Cooking in Europe 1650-1850

You can try carving your orange if you wish to be authentic.  Should you make the original with 12 birds, the carved fruit would be in the center of the platter with gold leaf, “gooseberries, cockscombs, ratafia biscuits, comfits and lemon slices”, says Ken Albala.  Although there are a few steps and unusual ingredients, it really isn’t that difficult to make and the result is so satisfying… a real taste of history!

A Rare Fricase, based on Robert May’s 1684 recipe Serves 2

1 Scottish wood pigeon

1 poussin  

½ c white wine

3 T cognac

1 c water

2 T salt

6T butter

1/3 pound sweetbreads, parboiled peeled and cubed* (Mine are from Grazin Angus Acres)

1 lamb testicle, peeled (there are 2 layers to peel, btw), parboiled and cubed (from Catskill Merino)

6 oysters

½ c flour

6 asparagus, sliced in half and parboiled

Marrow from 1 marrowbone, uncooked

2 T pistachios

1 c stock (lamb, beef or chicken)**

1/3 c white wine

¼ t nutmeg

Salt & pepper

¼ t mace

1 clove garlic

2 egg yolks, raw

¼ c verjus*** or wine vinegar

juice of 1orange

1 small orange, sliced or carved

1 carrot sliced decoratively for garnish

2 T sliced almonds

4 rounds of toast

Slice the birds in half.  Remove most of the bones from the pigeon and poussin leaving the leg and wing. Marinate the pigeon and the poussin in wine, water, cognac and salt for a few hours or overnight.  Remove from the brine and pat dry.  Sauté the birds in 3 T butter (a cast iron skillet works well for this) to brown over medium high heat, turn.  Cook the pigeon another 2-3 minutes over a medium flame and remove, let the chicken cook 4 more minutes then run them under a broiler, skin side up to brown for a few moments, then remove and tent (the poussin may require a little more time than the pigeon).

Flour the sweetbreads (reserve 1/3 for the sauce) oysters and lamb stones and season with salt and pepper.

Sauté the marrow, remove what remains, then add 3 T butter and the sweetbreads and oysters and lamb stone, fry till crisp and remove Set aside and keep warm.   

Sauté reserved sweetbread and pistachios.

Add stock to the pan you cooked the birds in with nutmeg, pepper, garlic, white wine, mace and let the flavors mingle.

Add egg yolks to verjus, blend, add to stock and heat gently.

When thickened, add orange juice and toss in the asparagus to warm.

Place rounds of toast on plates then place the birds on the toasts and add the oysters and sweetbreads.

Arrange the orange (sliced or carved), asparagus, pistachios and almonds about the birds.

Pour the sauce over the birds.

*How to cook sweetbreads 

** I took the trimmings from the pigeon and poussin and combined them with a 1½ cups of stock and ½ a Portobello mushroom (sans gills) and cooked it for 2 hours on a very low heat then strained out the solids.

*** I did a whole post about verjus HERE . Although I love my recipe for it because it is richer and more complex… you can get the more conventional version easily online HERE,.   

 Thanks to Gollum for hosting Foodie Friday