Free Shakespeare's Kitchen by Francine Segan Page A

ready-made foods.
In this modern version, the sauce ingredients are used to create a spicy stuffing for the capon.
1 capon (about 6 pounds)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
1 tablespoon butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon cold butter
2 large Vidalia onions, small diced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons red wine
3 cups cubed whole-wheat crusty country bread
Zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
½ tablespoon five-color peppercorns, coarsely ground
1 cup Renaissance Stock
    1.     Sprinkle the skin and cavity of the capon with the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Brush the skin with the melted butter.
    2.     Preheat the oven to 400°F. Sauté the onions in the olive oil over low heat for 20 minutes. Raise the heat to high and cook for 2 minutes, or until the onions are golden brown. Add 2 tablespoons of the wine and cook for 1 minute, or until the wine is absorbed. Remove from the heat and fold in the bread cubes, lemon zest, orange juice, and peppercorns. Season with salt and spoon the stuffing into the capon.
    3.     Place the capon on a lightly buttered roasting pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, depending on the weight of the capon, or until the leg juices run clear. Baste with the pan juices every 10 minutes for the final 30 minutes.
    4.     Deglaze the pan with the remaining ½ cup red wine. Cook on medium-high heat for 5 minutes, or until reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and return to the pan. Add the Renaissance Stock and cook for 5 minutes, or until reduced to about ½ cup. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cold butter.
    5.     Place the capon on a serving platter and serve the sauce in a small side dish.
ORIGINAL RECIPE:
Sauces for a roast Capon or Turkie
To make an excellent sauce for a roast Capon; you shall take Onions and having sliced and pilled them, boile them in faire water with pepper, salt, and a fewe bred crummes: then put unto it a spoonfull or two of Claret wine, the juice of an Orenge, and three or fowre slices of Lemmon pill; all these shred together, and so powre it upon the Capon being broke up.
THE ENGLISH HUSWIFE, 1587
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Romans introduced the practice of gelding to England, changing chickens into tender, plump capons. In The Castle of Health, William Elyot wrote, “The capon is above all other fowles praised for as much as it is easily digested.”
The carving term for a capon was to “sauce” it, a much prettier term than some of the others for cutting fowl, such as “disfigure that peacock,” “spoil that hen,” “dismember the heron,” “unbrace the mallard,” and “thigh that pigeon.”
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Chicken with Wine, Apples, and Dried Fruit
SERVES 4
     … Thou best of gold art worst of gold:
Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
Preserving life in med’cine potable …
    KING HENRY IV, PART II, 4.5
     G OLD WAS A commonly prescribed curative and thought to “[conserve] the youth and health.” The original recipe is rather elaborate and was obviously intended for the rich, as “a peece of Golde” is placed between each section of chicken. The lid was then sealed shut with pastry to keep all the moisture and juices in the meat. This modern version omits the gold but keeps all the other rich flavors.
4 chicken legs and thighs
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
¼ cup whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups dry white wine
¼ cup currants
½ cup dried plums
½ cup pitted dates
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tart apple, cored and quartered, skin on
    1.     Cut apart the chicken legs and thighs. Sprinkle the chicken pieces with salt, pepper, and flour. Heat the olive oil in large sauté pan over high heat and brown the chicken on all sides. Remove the chicken from the pan. Add ¼ cup of the wine to the pan and stir to