Capon in Orange Sauce
				Redaction by THL Dagonell

ORIGINAL:
_To boyle a Capon with Orenges after Mistress Duffelds Way_
"Take a Capon and boyle it with Veale, or with a marie bone, or what your fancy
is.  Then take a good quantitie of that broth, and put it in an earthen pot by 
it selfe, and put thereto a good handfull of Currans, and as manie Prunes, and 
a fewe whole maces, and some Marie, and put to this broth a good quantitie of 
white Wine or of Clarret, and so let them seeth softlye together: Then take 
your Orenges, and with a knife scrape of all the filthinesse of the outside of 
them.  Then cut them in the middest, and wring out the broth with the rest of 
your stuffe.  Then slice your Orenges thinne, and have uppon the fire readie a 
skillet of faire seething water, and put your sliced Orenges into the water and 
when that water is bitter, have more readie, and so change them still as long 
as you can find the great bitternesse in the water, which will be five or seven 
times, or more.  If you find need: then take them from the water, and let that 
runne cleane from them: then put close orenges into your potte with your broth,
and so let them stew together till your Capon be readie.  Then make your sops 
with this broth, and cast on a little Sinamon, Ginger, and Sugar, and upon this 
lay your Capon, and some of your Orenges upon it, and some of your Marie, and 
towards the end of the boyling of your broth, put in a little Vergious, if you 
think best."
-- The Good Huswives Handmaid


EXPLANATIONS:
A capon is a sterilize rooster.  There's no difference in taste between a 
rooster, a capon or a hen.  There is however, a difference between a factory 
raised hen and a farm raised one, so I buy my free-range chickens from the 
farm down the road from me.  A marie bone is a marrow bone.  I buy my beef by 
the cow, so I always have a good supply of them on hand.  My beef is also 
free-range.

Anything sold as cooking wine should never be used in cooking.  It's far too 
salty for my tastes.  I cook with real wine, sometimes I even put it in the 
food!  I used Bully Hill's Fish Market White Wine for this recipe.  Verjuice 
(Vergious) is sour grape juice, not quite to the vinegar stage.  I skipped it 
for this recipe, you can use cooking sherry as a replacement for it if you 
want.

Medieval oranges are thick-skinned and bitter, hence the extensive instructions 
for boiling them into orange juice.  Modern oranges are much sweeter, so you 
can skip all these steps. Sops are pieces of toast which have been soaked or 
'sopped' in broth or gravy.


REDACTION:
1 free-range chicken	1 lb. egg noodles
2 marrow bones		1/8 teaspoon mace
1 cup white wine	1/2 teaspoon rosemary
1 cup currants		1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup prunes		1/4 teaspoon minced ginger
4 oranges		1 teaspoon sugar
4 slices toast

Boil the chicken and marrow bones in a large pot with just enough water to 
cover them.  Juice three oranges and pour the juice and the pulp into a second 
pot.  Add the wine, currants, prunes, and spices.  When the chicken is boiled, 
add two cups of the broth to the orange sauce.  Bring the sauce to a boil and 
then lower the heat to simmer.  We used the rest of the chicken stock to make 
a delicious homemade soup.

Peel the chicken off the bone, shred the meat and add it to the orange sauce.  
Mix well.  Simmer for about an twenty minutes.  Toast the bread, and boil the 
noodles.  Drain the noodles and lay them out in a large casserole dish.  Cut 
the toast along both diagonals and lay the toast points on top of the noodles.  
Spread the chicken and orange sauce over the toast points. Garnish with orange 
slices from a fourth orange. Serve hot.