2005-02-22 - 3:44 p.m.
Unidentified Mongol cookbook, or Ibn Battuta
" Catch many of the mice of the Hairy Tail (gerbils 1 tan clean), finely ground coriander (one liang), onions (ten stalks), spices (five ch’ien). Apply [coriander, onions and spices] uniformly to ingredients and roast. One may dress the hairy mice in a thick flour with fuang and steam-roast until done in a cage; this is also possible. One may dress the hairy mice with liquid butter combined with flour, and brazier cook in a brazier; this is also possible.”
... “Mice of the Hairy Tail meat is best in fall, when they are fat for the long sleep. It is rich, brown and crackles when fried. It supplements the center and augments ch’i. It is beneficial eaten broiled dipped in salt broth water and roots. Of the white foods best with airag."
1 tan: 133 lbs or 317 cubic inches, take your pick. Think 1 gerbil, dressed, 1 ounce. Thems is lotsa gerbils, yo.
Platina, On Honest Pleasures 4.38
38. On Chicken Roll
Divide crests of chickens in three pieces, livers in four,and leave testicles whole. Cut lard into bits, but do not pound. Cut up finely two or three ounces of veal fat, or, instead of fat, add beef or calves marrow. Use as much as will be enough of ginger, cinnamon, and sugar. Mix all these with about forty dried sour cherries; then put in a roll made suitable for it from finely ground meal. It can be cooked in an oven or under cover on the hearth. When it is half-cooked, put over it two beaten egg yolks and a bit of saffron and verjuice.
Chicken livers I can handle, pureed with good schmaltz, a little garlic and maybe some cognac. The rest, not so much.
De Nola, Libro de Cozina, ,1529
Roast Cat as It Should Be Prepared
Take a cat that should be plump: and cut its throat, and once it is dead cut off its head, and throw it away for this is not to be eaten; for it is said that he who eats the brains will lose his own sense and judgment. Then skin it very cleanly, and open it and clean it well; and then wrap it in a clean linen cloth and bury it in the earth where it should remain for a day and a night; and then take it out and put it on a spit; and roast it over the fire, and when beginning to roast, baste it with good garlic and oil, and when you are finished basting it, beat it well with a green branch; and this should be done until it is well roasted, basting and beating; and when it is roasted carve it as if it were rabbit or kid and put it on a large plate; and take the garlic and oil mixed with good broth so that it is coarse, and pour it over the cat and you can eat it for it is a good dish.
That's one way to keep them from scratching ther furniture...
