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This recipe is from a book titled Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book Elizabethan Country House Cooking by Hilary Spurling. This book was published in 1986 from an original family book of recipes handed down in the Fettiplace maternal line, with the bulk of the recipes dated to 1606 or earlier, with some adaptations and additions made later. The book does not give modern measurements for all the recipes; in fact, it does not usually rewrite the recipes into modern English, either.
Original recipe:
Take a peece of mutton and boyle in water and salte, scum it cleane
then put into it a peece of sweete butter and a handfull of the best lettuse
you can gett with some large mace, and Reasons of the sunne, then put in
the Chickens and lett them boyle well therein, when you dish it upp take
the yelkes of three eggs and a little vergis with some sugger, beate it
well together and put it into your Chicken broath, Lett it boyle noe more
after you have put in these thinges, but serve upe yor Chickens on sippets.
The modern version:
Gently simmer one chicken in the stock with a handful each of raisins and lettuce leaves, and a few blades of mace or a pinch of nutmeg, and a "knob" (about 1 tbsp?) of butter. If using a roasting bird, cook about one hour. If using a boiling bird, cook about two hours. BE SURE NOT TO OVERCOOK or all the flavor will be in the broth and not the chicken. Gently remove the chicken.
Beat the lemon juice with the egg yolks and brown sugar. Add gradually to the hot broth with a "nut" (about 1 tsp?) of butter and stir constantly until the sauce thickens. To serve, place pieces of the chicken on toast triangles and top with sauce.
Verjuice was a vinegar made of crabapples or unripe grapes. A modern substitute would be lemon juice or white wine vinegar with a little sugar added.
Sippets were the vestigal remains of bread trenchers. They were often served with gravies or sauces to soften them, as well as hide the fact that they were stale.
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