ALMODROTE QUE ES CAPIROTADA
42. ALMODROTE (31) WHICH IS CAPIROTADA (32)
You shall take partridges and after they have been well-plucked, put them between the embers; and when they have been there for the space of a Paternoster (33), take them out and clean everything off them, and roast them, and baste them sufficiently with your bacon fat; and when they are roasted, cut them as if to make portions of them, and then grate good cheese of Aragon that is fine; and take two whole heads of garlic roasted between the embers and then peel them very well and cleanly, and grind them in a mortar; and then put the cheese in the mortar, and resume grinding it all together; and while you are grinding them, cast a good spoonful of lard into the mortar, with some egg yolks, and grind it all together; and when it is all well-ground, blend it with good mutton broth that is half cooled, because if it were very hot it would consume the cheese; and then make slices of bread and toast them, and scrape off the burnt parts, and then scald or soak these toasted slices of bread with good mutton broth in an earthenware bowl or a deep plate; and then take them out and put them on a large plate, all around, in this manner: a layer of bread slices, and another of partridges, and in this manner fill up the plate with a platform of bread slices and another of partridges; and when the plate is full, cast the almodrote on top of it all and then take melted lard and scatter it over the plate.
This recipe is from "Libre del Coch", 1529, by Ruperto de Nola, English translation by Robin Carroll-Mann."
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6 comments:
how big are partridges?
That sounds entirely yummy.
how long is a "Paternoster"? It sounds as if you are supposed to sear the partridges directly on the coals or am I reading it wrong? It does sound very yummy.
Partridges are between quail and pheasants in size.
And a paternoster isn't long. My reading of it is that you sear the bird in the coals for 2-3 minutes, then clean any icky bits from the coals off and continue cooking. Possibly a searing in the juices type of thing.
The translator's comments are avalible at http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MANUSCRIPTS/Guisados1-art.html if you'd like to see them.
I spoke with a coworker who raises chickens and his opinion is that the searing in the embers for a paternoster is to burn off any hairs that may remain in the skin, which seemed reasonable to my way of thinking.
That was my interpretation of the use of the coals as well.
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