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

[aastg.livejournal.com]

Yes, only it was a duck. I love ze duck, and heads and feet can be cut off.

Sure, some people may squig out (someone always manages to) but if you warn them in advance they can make their own choices. I would be surprised if you lost many attendees to that issue.

[catagon3.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I had to learn to stop ordering things with shrimp in France (Nice) because I couldn't deal with the whole beast appearing on my plate. I think the issue is how much unfamiliar/icky stuff do I personally have to do to get to the parts I want to eat?

[dame-cordelia.livejournal.com]

I haven't ever been served a whole bird, but a whole fish [gutted, that is]is no problem for me.

If people are warned ahead of time and there's a trash bowl immediately available to place said extra parts, I think it would be fine.

[patsmor.livejournal.com]

I was serving a feast once and was handed platters where the cornish game hens were sitting up as you describe, with heads, at least. I made them tell me how it was done before I would serve them (i.e., were the entrails still there, etc?) -- I wanted to be able to answer questions. Turns out the heads had been preserved in (gug) acrylic floor wax and dried out like little heads on wooden skewers and were separated from the bird by a piece of waxed linen.

I suspect that if you refrigerated the heads upright, and then did the separation with the linen it would be OK for your "customers."

I'd cook a bird with the head on but otherwise cleaned and prepared as normal to see what the result looks like. If you want the feathered heads, you may have to make a deal with a game seller.

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

You may want to ask this question on a wider-read LJ; the West community, if there is one, for example, or the SCA LJ community. Because you're going to get mostly answers from people who are self-sorted to like your approach to things, being your friends and all. ;)

Sheep

[metageek.livejournal.com]

I once ate sheep's head. Not the whole head, but meat carved off the head, which I had seen cooking in the pot. Not a problem. (I didn't like it, but that was just because the meat was too fatty.)

This was in a market in Mexico.

[ldyanna.livejournal.com]

When I roasted the whole pig, there were quite a few people that had a bad reaction to the head, tail and feet on it. But that was only while I was cooking it. The huge piggie was almost completely picked over at the end of the dinner, so the initial "yuck" factor didn't keep most of the people from eating it.

As for the fish, weren't we covering those those with a pie crust? That might lessen the problem, making it look less real.

[roswtr.livejournal.com]

I'm weirdly squeamish, but it depends a lot on the circumstances -- I just hate to be surprised by my food. In this instance, I don't think chickens with their heads and feets on would squick me, but I'm already prepared for it. I think, were I sitting at the table and suddenly presented with an apparently intact chicken, I might feel differently.

[helblonde.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't bother me.