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Peafowl, Larded and Roasted
Choose a young bird, lard it closely over the breast and legs, fill it with a good veal forcemeat--but the forcemeat may be omitted--truss it firmly, and roast before a clear fire for an hour or an hour and a half, according to the size of the bird. When done enough, take off the buttered paper which was round the head (see PEAFOWL, TRUSSED), trim the feathers, glaze the larding, and serve the bird on a hot dish, with a little clear brown gravy under it. Garnish the dish with water-cress, and send bread-sauce to table in a tureen. Probable cost, uncertain. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A survival from the era of spit roasting, written for a bird almost nobody now cooks. Most of the technique transfers directly to turkey or a large capon-sized chicken.
- Sourcing the birdPeafowl are farmed in small numbers and can occasionally be bought dressed from game dealers, but the price is high and the meat is lean and dry. A 6-8 lb turkey or a large free-range chicken behaves much the same way under this treatment.
- "Roast before a clear fire"This is spit roasting in front of an open fire, with the bird turning and a dripping pan beneath. In an oven, use 400F for the first 20 minutes to set the larding, then drop to 350F for the remainder.
- LardingThreading strips of pork back fat through the surface with a larding needle. Back fat is available from butchers; otherwise cover the breast and legs with thin sheets of unsmoked fatback or streaky bacon and remove it near the end so the skin colours.
- Timing and donenessAn hour to an hour and a half assumes fierce radiant heat and a young bird. Judge by a thermometer instead: 165F in the thickest part of the thigh, away from bone, then rest 15-20 minutes.
- Veal forcemeatA stuffing of minced veal, suet, breadcrumbs, herbs and egg. Ground veal is expensive and often hard to find; ground pork or a pork-and-chicken mix gives the same effect. Stuffing packed inside the cavity slows cooking; the original simply says the forcemeat may be omitted, without giving a reason.
- The head and feathersThe bird was trussed with the head on, wrapped in buttered paper to keep it from scorching (the recipe cross-refers to PEAFOWL, TRUSSED), and the remaining feathers trimmed before it went to table. Purely theatrical, and no modern dressed bird arrives in a state to allow it.
- Glazing the lardingBrushing the larded surface with reduced, well-seasoned stock so it takes on gloss. A few spoonfuls of the gravy, reduced until syrupy, does the job.
- AccompanimentsBread sauce is milk infused with onion and clove, thickened with fresh breadcrumbs and finished with butter. Serve it separately as directed; the clear brown gravy is a plain reduced roasting-pan stock, not thickened.
- YieldFive or six as written, which reflects a bird served alongside several other dishes. A turkey substitute of similar weight will stretch further as a single main course.
Peacock was the great display bird of medieval and Tudor feasting, roasted and then re-dressed in its own skin and plumage, the beak sometimes gilded, and carried to the table as a centrepiece rather than as good eating. It is often said to have been tough and dry compared with a capon or a swan, and turkey is generally held to have displaced it at English tables, though the timing is uncertain. That Cassell's still gives it a full entry in the late nineteenth century says more about the dictionary's ambition to be complete than about what appeared on Victorian dinner tables; the frank admission that the cost is "uncertain" may perhaps suggest the compilers knew few readers would ever price one, though that is speculation. The buttered paper around the head and the trimmed feathers are the last remnant of the medieval spectacle, reduced to a garnish.