What on earth??

[luzula]

From The Compleat Housewife (1773):

How to Make Cock Ale: Take ten gallons of ale and a large cock, the older the better; parboil the cock, flay him and stamp him in a stone mortar till his bones are broken (you must craw and gut him when you flay him), then put the cock into two quarts of sack, and put to it three pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, some blades of mace, and a few cloves; put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find that the ale has done working, put the ale and bag together in a vessel; in a week or nine days' time bottle it up; fill the bottle but just above the neck, and give it the same time to ripen as other ale.

(I found this utterly bizarre when first reading it, but the more I think of it, the more it sounds kind of like a liquid meal, since ale has lots of calories in it. Chicken soup crossed with ale, or something.)

Comments

[sanguinity]

Wikipedia has an entry on cock ale; I don't know that it's that enlightening, but there is a second recipe and a number of period testimonials.

[luzula]

Oh, but it has two blog entries down at the bottom from some 17th century re-enactors who tried making it! : D And they went at it in a serious way, too. Apparently it was delicious, huh.

[sanguinity]

Oh! I missed the blog entries!

And huh. I guess it's kind of like using a good rich chicken stock to make a spiced, fruit ale? Which is not much done anymore, to my knowledge, but on the face of it doesn't sound completely absurd.

The part for me that is most amazing is that the chicken doesn't putrify during the part when it's soaking.