This morning I'm cooking a capon. It's a bird that I bought right after Christmas, when the supermarkets around Saint-Aignan often put capon, chickens, turkeys, or guinea hens on sale for half price. This one weighs three kilograms, or about 6½ lbs. It's been in the freezer since December. A capon is a chicken — a large chicken — and it looks like this. Once it is cooked, it can be cut up into pieces that can be re-frozen. So we'll have food for days.
This was supposed to be the chicken we would cook before going on our road trip up to the Baie de Somme region, north of Paris on the English Channel coast, and take with us. We stay in rentals with kitchens when we go on such trips, and we take food with us. That way, we can have dinners in the rental house, which is a lot easier than going to restaurants with Tasha the Sheltie. We had to cancel that trip because of the coronavirus pandemic. We figured we might as well go ahead and cook the capon now. I'm just roasting it in the oven.
I'm sure it will be delicious...And sometime you and Walt will get to go on your Baie de Somme travels.For quite a long time we could not buy capons for some mysterious interstate trade law, but not for several years we've been able to. I'm the only one who eats meat here but I like your idea of cooking it and then freezing what was not eaten right away. I'll look for some bargains - when I can go to the store myself again.
ReplyDeleteKen... I always understood a capon to be a castrated cockerel... or is that just a UK thing??
ReplyDeleteIt's the same in France, and in the U.S., if by "cockerel" you mean a young rooster. In France, le chapon est un jeune coq châtré et engraissé. Isn't "chicken" our generic term in English for Gallus gallus domesticus? A capon is a chicken, not a duck, turkey, goose, pigeon, or some other species of bird. However, there are also guinea fowl capons (chapons de pintade), at least in France.
DeleteThanks... "chapons de pintade".... I've seen those in the "pub" at New Year... one year, we might have one... but, boy, are they expensive!! And more so if you get one from our local fois gras people [they have a small flock of Guinea Fowl]
DeleteWe usually buy our holiday bird, be it a turkey, a capon, or a guinea fowl, from our local poultry vendor at the Saint-Aignan market. I buy the much less expensive birds from the supermarket around New Year's and put them in the freezer for later.
DeleteWe are just finishing up a roasted chicken. I made chicken and dumplings last night. We had chicken and rice the night before, chicken sandwiches, etc. Food for a pandemic!
ReplyDeleteYes. Thanks for the good kitchen ideas. Our capon's white meat made for a pretty nice lunch today.
DeleteWow, even un-cooked it is a sight to behold -- plump, fresh-looking, ready to be turned into a treat :)
ReplyDeleteTurned into several days of good meals, I think.
DeleteAnd a soup?
DeleteYes, soup of course.
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