Dish of Chicken or Whatever Meat You Please
Chicken sausages made with nuts, lavender, & honey - contributed by L. J. Spencer, Jr.

Original recipe from The Andalusian Cookbook/A Collection of Medieval and Renaissance Cookbooks Vol. II, David Freidman:

If it is tender, take the flesh of the breast of the hen or partridge or the flesh of the thighs and grind it up very vigorously, and remove the tendons and grind with the meat almonds, walnuts, and pinenuts until completely mixed, throw in pepper, caraway, cinnamon, lavender, in the required quantity, a little honey and eggs, beat all together until it becomes one substance, then make with this what looks like an 'usba' made of lamb innards and put it in a lamb skin or sheep skin and put it on a heated skewer and cook slowly over a fire of hot coals until it is browned, then remove it and eat it, if you wish with murri and if you wish with mustard, if God so wills.


Modern recipe:

  • 2 LB Boneless chicken breast or thighs
  • 2 1/2 oz. Almonds 
  • 2 1/2 oz. Walnuts
  • 2 T. Pinenuts 
  • 1 tsp. Caraway seed, ground 
  • 1/2 tsp. Black pepper, ground 
  • 1/2 tsp. Lavender, dried and crushed
  • 2 T Honey
  • 2 Eggs
  • Sausage casings - see Note
  • Skewers
Grind chicken on coarse. Mix almonds, walnuts, pinenuts, caraway, pepper, lavender, honey and eggs into chicken. Grind again with medium blade. Then force into sausage casings tying off into links. Grill on skewers over charcoal until browned and cooked through. Serve with murri or mustard. Serves 8.

Notes on the Recipe:

The original clearly was enclosed in a bag of skin and roasted whole. I choose to use sausage casing to gain better portion control and because it is more readily available. There are examples of sausages in the original manuscripts.

Metric, Celsius, & Gas Mark Equivalencies

L. J. Spencer, Jr. lives in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where is an active and long-time member of The Society for Creative Anachronism. His SCA feasts are well-known for being both delicious and authentic, and he is a major contributor to the SCA-Cooks Discussion Group.

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Dish of Chicken or Whatever Meat You Please © 1999 L. J. Spencer, Jr. | This page © 2000 James L. Matterer

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