To boile a capon in white broth with almondes
Take your Capon with marie bones and set them on the fire, and when they be cleane skummed take the fattest of the broth, and put it in a little pot with a good deale of marie, prunes, raisons, dates whole maces, &a pinte of white wine, then blanch your almondes and strain them, with them thicken your potte & let it seeth a good while and when it is enough serve it uppon soppes with your capon.
(from The Good Huswife's Jewell)
- 2kg chicken pieces or a large whole chicken
- 2L or more of chicken broth (enough to cover the chicken in the pot)
- 500mL semi-sweet white wine
- 2 tblsp chopped dried dates
- 2 tblsp chopped dried prunes
- 2 tblsp currants
- 2 tblsp dried raisins
- 200g almond meal
- 1 tsp mace (whole or roughly chopped)
Simmer the chicken pieces in the broth until it's cooked.
Take two cups of the broth and add all the remaining ingredients. Simmer until it thickens and looses some of its almond grittiness. You can save some time by pre-soaking the almond meal in the wine. Before serving, taste it and check whether it has a bitter aftertaste. If it does, add some sugar. Using a semi-sweet wine should help you avoid this in the first place.
You'll notice that this redaction doesn't include marrow bones. That's because I didn't have any when I cooked it. Feel free to add marrow if you have it available.
When I've made this dish at camping events I've used chicken thigh fillets cut into about two or three chunks, then cooked the sauce in the same pot as the chicken by simply straining off the unwanted broth and adding all the sauce ingredients into the pot.