with their heads tucked underneath their wings

[ppfuf]

So, about this feast/class I'm trying to put together for collegium. Yesterday, bonacorsi pointed out that in 1480 small birds such as chickens would have been served at table with their heads and feet on. I skimmed through the tiny number of pictures I have where plates of birds are visible on the table, and while feet might be an un-resolvable question, they do seem to have their heads. In one picture, the birds are "sitting up" in the bowl almost like they were placed to resemble a nest. Now I'm wondering, if I tried to serve headed and footed birds at the collegium feast/class would it be too scary? I don't want the feast/class to be too modern, but we're already planning a few things that might be (cumulatively) too weird, even for a willing audience.

Has anybody out there ever been unexpectedly served a bird that still looked like a bird? If yes, what was your first reaction? Did you eat it (eventually)?

Comments

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

We're also serving whole (clean, gutted, fins snipped off but heads on) fish at the Collegium feast/class. I'm worried the cumlative effect of "period table service" is going to freak some people out.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I would be having a huge internal battle in my head over "but it's good for them to be freaked out by Real Animals On A Plate" and "I want people to Looove my feasts!"

Good thing I'm not a head cook (haha).

[ppfuf.livejournal.com]

Exactly! I really want to make this as period as possible, and that means serving with head and feet. But pile that on top of the carvers touching the food with their dainty fingers, sharing drinking cups, fish with heads on and I think the take-away message of the class becomes Ew! Germs!

Fish

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

A fish is much easier to deal with if you leave the fins on. That way you can pull the fins off the cooked fish at the table and a lot of bones go with them. The spine is a separate part, of course.

I learned how to eat a whole fish from English relatives and don't get bones in my mouth any more.

You want me to be a server?