Comments on: Coq au Vin Recipe http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/chicken-recipes/coq-au-vin-recipe/ You Have To Eat, So Learn To Cook & Eat Well Thu, 09 Feb 2012 00:39:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: Cissy http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/chicken-recipes/coq-au-vin-recipe/comment-page-1/#comment-104156 Cissy Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:13:44 +0000 http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/?p=536#comment-104156 Here's this farmer to settle your curiousities surrounding Coq au Vin. There were no designation as to age of the chicken in a number of the recipes because in 1913, they were ALL old! and, lurking around the time of WWI and II... was a shortage of food which produced the need make what they had edible! Why were they all old? Chickens work like this--- a graph moving left to right, vertical axis is age, horizontal axis is tenderness/flavor . Lower left corner is day one, just born. As we move to the right with every day, so we must move up the flavor and tenderness chart. The older a chicken gets, the more flavor it has, but the tougher the meat is. Modern chickens are genetically engineered to grow abnormally large breasts AND to do it in record time, 6 weeks. (A 6 week old chicken is as tender as it gets, though has comparitively little flavor.) Before these chickens and high protein 'pushing' of food on them, were 'invented', they were regular chickens that took 14 weeks to amount to any size at all, before 14 weeks the chickens were little bigger than a pigeon! So, there you have it--- most All chickens big enough to eat were tough, so no need to specify a rooster to hold up to the long hours of boiling! <em> Very interesting Cissy. Thanks for sharing that information with me. - RG</em> Here’s this farmer to settle your curiousities surrounding Coq au Vin. There were no designation as to age of the chicken in a number of the recipes because in 1913, they were ALL old! and, lurking around the time of WWI and II… was a shortage of food which produced the need make what they had edible! Why were they all old?
Chickens work like this— a graph moving left to right, vertical axis is age, horizontal axis is tenderness/flavor . Lower left corner is day one, just born. As we move to the right with every day, so we must move up the flavor and tenderness chart. The older a chicken gets, the more flavor it has, but the tougher the meat is. Modern chickens are genetically engineered to grow abnormally large breasts AND to do it in record time, 6 weeks. (A 6 week old chicken is as tender as it gets, though has comparitively little flavor.) Before these chickens and high protein ‘pushing’ of food on them, were ‘invented’, they were regular chickens that took 14 weeks to amount to any size at all, before 14 weeks the chickens were little bigger than a pigeon! So, there you have it— most All chickens big enough to eat were tough, so no need to specify a rooster to hold up to the long hours of boiling!

Very interesting Cissy. Thanks for sharing that information with me. - RG

]]> By: RG http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/chicken-recipes/coq-au-vin-recipe/comment-page-1/#comment-82925 RG Sun, 16 Aug 2009 13:11:59 +0000 http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/?p=536#comment-82925 Good points, especially how a "recipe is like a snapshot...of one moment in time". Good points, especially how a “recipe is like a snapshot…of one moment in time”.

]]> By: Jenni http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/chicken-recipes/coq-au-vin-recipe/comment-page-1/#comment-69281 Jenni Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:26:53 +0000 http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/?p=536#comment-69281 I think this debate is a debate of semantics. Recipe versus technique. There is no doubt in my mind that folks have been tenderizing tough birds in wine for hundreds of years. Culinary history is very murky, at best, and I really think it might be good for the "sport" and less intimidating for novices if we all just relaxed a little. A recipe is like a snapshot--a portrait of one moment in time. Just as the girl in the picture existed before the picture was taken and will continue to live afterwards, surely dishes have been made to one standard or another both before and after the publishing of a particular recipe--one cook's way of doing something on that particular day. I think this debate is a debate of semantics. Recipe versus technique. There is no doubt in my mind that folks have been tenderizing tough birds in wine for hundreds of years.

Culinary history is very murky, at best, and I really think it might be good for the “sport” and less intimidating for novices if we all just relaxed a little.

A recipe is like a snapshot–a portrait of one moment in time. Just as the girl in the picture existed before the picture was taken and will continue to live afterwards, surely dishes have been made to one standard or another both before and after the publishing of a particular recipe–one cook’s way of doing something on that particular day.

]]> By: RG http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/chicken-recipes/coq-au-vin-recipe/comment-page-1/#comment-69269 RG Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:40:25 +0000 http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/?p=536#comment-69269 Hi Peter, I read your article on coq au vin and found it very interesting and very informative. Thank you for bringing it to my attention however I'm still a little confused as why you don't think the dish was around more than 100 years. You bring up a good point though, is a recipe officially a "recipe" only after it is published in a cookbook? For example, if farmers were stewing their old roosters in wine for hundreds of years, is it only Coq au Vin after it is published? Hi Peter, I read your article on coq au vin and found it very interesting and very informative. Thank you for bringing it to my attention however I’m still a little confused as why you don’t think the dish was around more than 100 years. You bring up a good point though, is a recipe officially a “recipe” only after it is published in a cookbook? For example, if farmers were stewing their old roosters in wine for hundreds of years, is it only Coq au Vin after it is published?

]]> By: Peter Hertzmann http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/chicken-recipes/coq-au-vin-recipe/comment-page-1/#comment-68866 Peter Hertzmann Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:36:31 +0000 http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/?p=536#comment-68866 RG: you need to dig a little deeper in coq au vin history. The dish is less than 100 years old and was not originally prepared with a rooster or old hen. That interpretation probably came about from a cook not knowing the origins. The name was just meant to be colorful. See http://xrl.us/bedtc9 RG: you need to dig a little deeper in coq au vin history. The dish is less than 100 years old and was not originally prepared with a rooster or old hen. That interpretation probably came about from a cook not knowing the origins. The name was just meant to be colorful. See http://xrl.us/bedtc9

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