The Decadent Cookbook Read Online Free PDF Page B

meat is not much eaten either, although I have on occasion cooked it.
P ORCUPINE
COOKED IN VARIOUS WAYS

    Catch the porcupine at its fattest in the month of August, but avoid it from October to January, when its meat has a miserable smell. Let the meat hang for four days in winter, one and a half days in summer. Remove the skin and cut the body in half, crosswise. Lard the rear half by studding it with pieces of fat rolled in pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt. The pieces should be quite big and cover the meat completely. Add some garlic, cloves and rosemary to take away the bad smell, then roast the meat on a spit, collecting the juices. Serve hot with a sauce made of cooked grape-must, rosé vinegar, pepper, cinnamon, cloves and the roasting juices.
    Alternatively you can spit-roast porcupine whole, or stuff it as you would a baby goat* and roast in the oven. The fore-parts can also be used to make a rich, fatty broth by adapting the recipe for goat.**
    Another method is to cut the meat in pieces and boil it, then fry in lard with chopped onions and serve with a sauce of strained green grape-juice, pepper and cinnamon. The innards, apart from the liver, are inedible. You can prepare fresh porcupine livers as you would goat’s - remove the membrane and fry in lard or roast on a spit, either whole or in pieces (if spit-roasting pieces, stuff them in a caul first).

    * B ABY G OAT: make the stuffing with fat, chopped ham, liver and other offal, prunes and dried morello cherries (or, in summer, gooseberries, green grapes or any underripe fruit), unsalted cheese, and eggs.
    ** G OAT: wash the meat with wine and water, strain the washing liquid into an earthenware or copper pot. Add the meat, then pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, fat, diced ham, a few leaves of sage, some raisins, cooked must or sugar, prunes and dried morello cherries. Cook on a low heat with the pot tightly lidded for one and a half hours, and serve hot. You can also add ground almonds or whole onions which have been previously half-cooked in embers.
G UINEA-PIGS AND DORMICE

    Some people call the coniglio d’India [literally, India-rabbit] a ‘piglet’, because it has a pointed snout, small round ears, a light skin and hairs which are more reminiscent of a pig’s bristles than wool. To roast a guinea-pig on the spit, remove the hairs with hot water, take out its innards, and stuff it as you would a baby goat - using a mixture of fat, pounded ham, offal (which should be well washed), spices, prunes and dried sour cherries, fat unsalted cheese and eggs. In summer you can use gooseberries, verjuice or musk pears, or any under-ripe fruit instead of the prunes and cherries. Finally, spit and roast on a slow fire.
    Guinea-pigs can also be roasted without a stuffing, on a spit or in the oven.

    This method also suits dormice, which are small animals with long, hairy tails, pointed faces and very sharp teeth. They live in chestnut and walnut trees, eating the fruit. Their season is from October to the end of February, which is when they are fattest. This is the same season as the guinea-pig, although in Rome and other parts of Italy you can find both animals all year round.
P EACOCK

    The peacock is well known for its beautiful feathers. It has a purple neck, a small crest on its head, a long tail marked with purple eyes, and large black feet. Some peacocks are white. Peacock meat is black but tastier than that of any other bird.
    To roast a peacock on a spit, take an old bird in season (October to the end of February) and hang it after death for eight days without plucking or removing its innards. It is best to pluck peacocks dry rather than using water, which spoils the taste and breaks the skin. After plucking the bird, take out the innards, leaving the neck and the feet with their feathers on. Cut off the wings, clean the blood from the inside of the body with a white linen cloth, then pass a hot iron poker through the hole where the innards were extracted,