BERNARD SMITH on wed 28 oct 98
A friend recently asked me about something called beggar's chicken,
apparantly popular in the Orient.
A chicken is wrapped in various extras and then sealed inside clay
and slow cooked.
Does anyone know the particulars about the recipe, the type of
clay used (food safe concerns come immediately to mind), how long to
cook, at what temp, etc,etc.
TIA
barney smith
in Minnesota where the leaves have covered up my gravel driveway, it
never looked better.
Paul Lewing on thu 29 oct 98
Spice the chicken however you like, wrap in several thicknesses of
aluminum foil, wrap in slabs of clay, and sculpt them however you
like. Put them in your electric kiln, five hours on medium with the
lid just a bit ajar. We've done this several times for parties with
the Washington Potters' Association, and I hear that great clay/food
group, Lee Arts Center in Arlington, VA, has too.
Paul Lewing, Seattle
hal mc whinnie on thu 29 oct 98
at a penland copnference a few years ago paulus berensohn made beggers
chicken for the whole graoup of over 100. we all sealed a chicken in wet
clay which had been wraped in foil when finished we all painted the
outside of our chicken with paints and they were served at dinner. easy
to do forget about receipe and timeing , cook until the clay breaks.
On Wed, 28 Oct 1998 09:09:44 EST BERNARD SMITH
writes:
>----------------------------Original
>message----------------------------
> A friend recently asked me about something called beggar's chicken,
>apparantly popular in the Orient.
>
> A chicken is wrapped in various extras and then sealed inside clay
>and slow cooked.
>
> Does anyone know the particulars about the recipe, the type of
>clay used (food safe concerns come immediately to mind), how long to
>cook, at what temp, etc,etc.
>
>TIA
>barney smith
>in Minnesota where the leaves have covered up my gravel driveway, it
>never looked better.
>
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Liz Willoughby on thu 29 oct 98
Hello Barney, Years ago I was at a pottery meeting at someone's home. We
had begger's chicken and it was absolutely delicious.
The chicken was stuffed with herbs, butter, and an onion. It was then
completely wrapped in parchment paper, and then encased in a slab of
earthenware, placed on a cookie sheet, and baked for 2 hours at 350. The
clay did become hard enough during the cooking to break away neatly. Must
admit that I have never tried it.
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> A friend recently asked me about something called beggar's chicken,
>apparantly popular in the Orient.
>
> A chicken is wrapped in various extras and then sealed inside clay
>and slow cooked.
>
> Does anyone know the particulars about the recipe, the type of
>clay used (food safe concerns come immediately to mind), how long to
>cook, at what temp, etc,etc.
>
>TIA
>barney smith
>in Minnesota where the leaves have covered up my gravel driveway, it
>never looked better.
Liz Willoughby
R.R. 1
Grafton, Ontario
Canada. K0K 2G0
e-mail lizwill@phc.igs.net
Kirk Morrison on thu 29 oct 98
In a message dated 10/28/98 2:42:02 PM Eastern Standard Time,
b.smith@nr.cc.mn.us writes:
> Does anyone know the particulars about the recipe, the type of
> clay used (food safe concerns come immediately to mind), how long to
> cook, at what temp, etc,etc.
>
Use any clay as the clay will dry and fall completely off, this is a common
camping cooking technique, I have never had any clay really stick any that
remains can be brushed off. This works great for rabbit, squirrel, and other
fairly small critters. Oh yes fish is great cooked this way also. Just make
sure the clay is fairly moist but not watery. And make sure it is really clay
and not dirt. Cook over a hot bed of coals with no real flame. take coals and
place food on it add more coals and then dirt and let it cook for a couple of
hours ( fish of course less maybe an hour depending on size and how thick).
Kirk
Paul and c2 on thu 29 oct 98
As far as I can recall, Beggar's chicken is made by marinating the
chicken in a bunch of sauces, then wrapped in a lotus leaf, then wrapped
in aluminum foil (quite tightly so that the juice or poisonous elements
from the clay does not touch each other). I don't know what kind of clay
they use, but it is yellowish, like the clay pot used for cooking in here
Hong Kong (the ones you see in the Chinatown grocery stores), so must be
high in sandy grog. It is baked in either an oven or on top of coal for
hours. In the restaurants here, you have to order Beggar's chicken a day
in advance. I think they cook it for a very long time, almost all day.
Very succulant and delicious. I suspect the clay is not food safe, but
people here don't eat it often either. The last time I had one was
probably about 10 years ago!
Caroline Cheng
The Pottery Workshop
2, Lower Albert Road
Hong Kong
Gavin Stairs on fri 30 oct 98
Cooking in clay is not uncommon in "primitive" societies. The simplest
methods involve taking a fresh caught fish or fowl, eviscerate through a
small opening (anus, mouth, gills), stuff with herbs (optional), wrap in
wet clay. Then prepare the oven: dig a hole in the ground, in inorganic,
mineral soil: build a fire in the hole, and burn until the coals are well
up toward the top. scoop out about half of the red coals, line the hole
with fresh herbs over the rest of the coals (again somewhat optional),
place the clay blob in the middle, cover with more herbs and the rest of
the coals. Top it off with some of the soil from the hole. This should
start out as a small heap. As the remaining coals burn out, it will
subside somewhat. Leave for a while, depending on the size and type of
food. Then dig it out and break open the clay, which will be hard. The
result is rather like a poached fowl or fish, with some smoke and flavour
from the herbs and coals. In some methods, the skin of the fish, or the
feathers of the fowl come away with the clay, leaving the flesh open before
you. This is really just a variation on ash cooking, in which you bury the
food in the hot ashes of an open fire. This is probably one of the
earliest forms of cookery. You can cook almost anything this way: breads,
roots, meats. Wrapped in leaves, you can also cook grains and herbs. A
more modern variant is bean in a hole. Prepare your favorite baked bean
recipe in a pot with a tight fitting lid (a tin can in most recipes), and
cook as above. If you use a metal can, beware of lead soldered seams.
Leave overnight, if possible.
One word of caution: Don't use prepared clay bodies for this if there is
any chance of amendment with toxins. Use any riverbank clay or mineral
soil that will form a ball, and which is not polluted.
Gavin
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