In 1417, the papacy came full circle back to Rome ending an extended stint in Avignon. In that same year, Johannes of Bockenheim assumed his office as the cook to the papal court, though not for the pope himself. Rome was in an upsurge of cultural activity, moving steadily toward the Roman Renaissance.
The recipe featured here is for capon that has been marinated and deep-fried with a thin crispy crust. Capons and pullets were common fare on the well-to-do table in Renaissance Rome; the former were roosters that had been castrated, which enhanced plumpness, and the latter, chicks that had not yet reached laying age. The fact that they were removed from the cycle of egg laying and reproduction was a statement of elite consumption. Castration replaced forced feeding as the solution to fattening chickens when Roman sumptuary laws forbad the latter practice. But as chickens in the 16th century were rather scrawny affairs and today’s birds are bred for plumpness, the capon can be swapped out for a local, sustainably farmed chicken
