Healths improvement: or, Rules comprizing and discovering the nature, method, and manner of preparing all sorts of food used in this nation. Written by that ever famous Thomas Muffett, Doctor in Physick: corrected and enlarged by Christopher Bennet, Doctor in Physick, and fellow of the Colledg of Physitians in London.

CHAP. 10. (Book 10)

Of the Flesh of tame Birds. (Book 10)

THat the Flesh of tame foul nourisheth more then wild foul, Isaac the Physitian proveth by three * 1.1arguments. First, because they are more usually eaten of, and so by custom (a second nature) made more agreeable to our stomacks. Secondly, where al other Birds fly from us, and are not gotten without cost and travel: nature hath caused tame Birds to converse with us, and to offer themselves (as it were) to be killed at our pleasure: which verily she would never have done, had they been of a small or a bad nourishment. Thirdly, wild foul (for the most part) especially such as flye far for a little meat, and trust more to their wings then their feet, though they are more light in digestion, because they are of a more spirituous & aiery substance; yet they are not of so abun∣dant nourishment as tame houshold Birds, which feed not at randome of what they can get, but of good corne, such as men themselves eate, and therefore most fit to nourish man.

Now of all kind of fowl, remember that the youngest is tenderest and lightest; old Birds flesh is heaviest, but they which are proceeding to their full growth are most nourishing; for ungrown Birds (and much more nest∣lers) give but a weak thin and gelly-like substance, old Birds are tough and dry; those which are almost fully grown are of a more fleshy and firm nature.

Furthermore all Birds feeding themselves abroad fat with wholesome meat, are of better nourishment then such as be cram'd in a coop or little house: for as priso∣ners

smell of the Gaol, so do they of their own dung.

And thus much generally of birds: Now let us come to every particular.

Pulli Gallenacei.

* 1.2 Chickens (saith Avicen) are so pure and fine a meat, that they engender no excrements in our bodies, having in themselves no illaudable substance: Wherefore Caius * 1.3Famius being sick of a burning feaver which had almost consumed all his flesh, was advised by his Physicians to eat of no other meat then Chickens: whereby he reco∣vered his consumption; and the eleventh year after the second Carthaginian Wars, made a Law, that nothing but Chickens or young Pullets fed in the Camp should be brought to him at his meals. The young Cockrels are counted the best in this kind, being of all flesh the most commendable, nourishing strongly, augmenting seed, and * 1.4stirring up lust: For which purpose Boleslaus Duke of Silesia did eat thirteen Cock-chickens at a meal; where∣of he died without having his purpose fulfilled, because he knew not how to use so wholsom a creature.

We doe not amiss in England to eat sodden Chickens and Bacon together, for if they were eaten first, and Bacon after, they would oversoon be digested, and if they were eaten after Bacon, they would be corrupted: but * 1.5they are best being rosted, because they are a moist meat; and if they be sawced with Sorrel and Sugar, or with a little Butter and Grape-Verjuice, they are a most tempe∣rate meat for weak stomacks (as Platina and Bucinus set down) for no man I think is so foolish as to commend them to Ploughmen and Besomers. White Chickens are found by experience to be hardest of digeston, as Gil∣bert our Countryman writ a great while since: Yet Griu∣nerius preferreth them for Hectick persons, because they are coldest and moistest of complexion. They are all

best in Summer, as contrariwise Pullets and Hens be best in Winter. Cock-chickens are best before they crow lowd, Hen-chickens before the cock offereth to tread them.

Galli.

* 1.6 Cocks Flesh, the more old it is, the less it nourisheth; but if they be young, and kept from their Hens, and di∣eted with white bread and milk, or wheat steept in milk, they recover men out of Consumptions, and Hectick fevers: and then their stones, livers, and loyns, are of excel∣lent good nourishment: being sodden they are nothing worth, for their goodness is all in the broth: as for their flesh, it is good for nothing but to dry and bind the sto∣mack. Galen saith, that as the broth of a Hen bindeth * 1.7the body, and the flesh loosneth the same; so contrari∣wise the broth of a Cock loosneth, and the flesh bindeth. They of the game are esteemed most wholsom; called of the Romans, Medici galli, Cocks of Physick, because the Physicians most commended them: Amongst which, if I should prefer the Kentish kind for bigness and sweet∣ness, I suppose no injury to be done to any Shire of Eng∣land. Chuse the youngest (as I said) for nourishment: * 1.8for if once he be two years old, his flesh waxeth brack∣ish, tough, and hard of digestion, fitter to be sodden in broth for the loosning of the belly, then any way to be dressed for encrease of nourishment.

Gallinae.

Hens are best before they have ever laid, and yet are full of eggs; they also are best in January, and cold months, because long rest and sleep in the long nights makes them then fattest. Their flesh is very temperate * 1.9(whilst they are young) of good juice, and large nourish∣ment, strengthening natural heat, engendring good blood, sharpning a dull appetite, quickning the eysight,

nourishing the brain and seed, and agreeing with all ages and complexions; for they are neither so hot as to turn into choler, nor so cold as to turn into fleagm, nor so dry as to be converted into melancholie (and yet Rhasis imagineth them to have a secret property of breeding the Gout and Hemorrhoids) but turn wholly, or for the most part into blood, making a lively colour in the face, and quickning both the eyesight and every sense. Pullets * 1.10flesh (saith Avicen) helpeth the wit, cleareth the voice, and encreaseth the seed, which is a manifest argument that it nourisheth greatly; which also Gallen confirmeth by ma∣ny other arguments; but that argument of encreasing seed is the chiefest of all, seed being the superfluity or a∣bundance of nourishment. Hens flesh is sweetest, when they are not too much fed, but dig out their meat with * 1.11their heels in a clean flour; for exercise consumeth the superfluous moisture, which else cannot but make them more unpleasant. Nevertheless the Delians used to fat them with bread steept in milk, and Platina, Apicius, and Stendelius shew many waies to fatten them; but the best way is to let them fat themselves with pure corne cast a∣mongst chaff, that by exercise of their legs in shuffl••ng and * 1.12scraping they may make their flesh to eat better, and prove more wholesome; and yet by your leave (Mr. Poulter) the fattest Hen or Capon is not wholesomest, but that which is of a middle fatness; for as in a man too much fatness is both a cause of diseases, and a disease it self, so falleth it out in their bodies; which how can they be wholesome meat unto others, when they are di∣seased in themselves?

Of a black Hen the broath is whitest, and of a black Goat the milk is purest; the most part of Hens and Hares are scurvy and leprous.

CAPI.

Capons of seven or eight months age, fatned in an o∣pen air, on a clean flour with pure meat, are preferred by all Physitians (old or modern, Greeks or Latins) before all meats. And to say the truth, what dish can any Cooks-shop afford, that can be compared with a boild or rosted Capon? which helpeth appetite, openeth the brest, cleareth the voice, fatneth lean men, nourisheth all men, restoreth sickmen, hurteth none but the idle, tasteth pleasantly, di∣gesteth easily; which is also more solid then the flesh of Pullets, more tender then Cocks, more familiar to our nature then Phesants or Partridges; not so dry as a Cock to be slowly digested, not so moist as a chicken, to be soon corrupted; but equally affected and tempered in all qua∣lities, engendring much blood and yet unoffensive, engen∣dring much seed without unnatural sharpness or heat: fi∣nally the flesh of Capons is so mild, temperate, and nou∣rishing, that Faventinus fears not to make it the ground * 1.13of his restorative electuary; yea Aloisius Mundella think∣eth him to be desperately consumed, whom Capon-gellies and cullises cannot recover.

Concerning the preparation of them, I commend them roasted for moist stomacks; but beeing boild with sweet marrow in white broth, they are of speedier, though not of stronger nourishment. Now if a Capon be so wholesome a meat, why should we not also by stitching up some veins, or searing them in the loins, try whether we may not likewise make Hen-capenets? which the Ita∣lians practise to good purpose, and make them exceeding fat; but yet in Pisanels judgment they eat too moist. One * 1.14word more of the Etymology of a Capon; which some derive from the English by an Irony, Capon; because he hath not his cap on: others from the Italian, Capone, that is to say, qua pone, set it hither, because it is an excellent

* 1.15 dish; but I like Fritagius his Etimologie best of all, Caponem dicimus quasi caput omnium: We call it a Capon saith he in th•• Latin, because it is Caput omnium, the head or chief of all other meats. And thus much of a Capon, whose excellencies had the heralds known when Dr. Ca∣pon bought his arms of them, I see no reason why they should have preferred into his Scutchions three Cocks, all being nothing equivalent to one Capon.

Galli Africani. Meleagrides.

Turkies, though they be very hardly brought up, and require great cost for their feeding, yet their flesh is most dainty and worthy a Princes Table. They were first brought from Numidia into Turky and thence to Europe, whereupon they were called Turkies. There are some which lately brought hither certain checkred Hens and Cocks out of new Guiny, spoted white and black like a Barbers apron; whose flesh is like to the flesh of Turkies, & both of them like the flesh of our hens & cockchickens, but that they be two parts hotter and moister then ours. The youngest, fatted in the fields or at the barn door, kil∣led also in Winter rather then in Sommer, and hanged a day and night before they be drest, are wholesomest to be eaten and of best nourishment. Their flesh recovereth strength, nourisheth plentifully, kindleth lust, agreeth with every person and complexion, saving such as be of too hot a temper, or enclined to rhumes or gouts; it must be throughly roasted, and if it be sticked full of cloves in the roasting, or when it is to be baked (which are the two best waies to cook a Turky) it will soke up the wa∣trishness, and make it of speedier digestion.

PAVONES.

Peacocks are (as Poets fain) the beloved Birds of Juno: which none durst kill in old time, for fear of that jealous and revengeful Goddesses displeasure. Among the Ro∣mans

Quintus Hortensius was the first that ever brought * 1.16them to the table; whose commendation made them so desired, that within a while a Peacocks egg was sold for ten pieces of silver, and his kacrsas for twenty times as much. Afterwards Marcus Lurco seeing that old and * 1.17lean Peacocks grew to such a rate, he began to cram them fat whilst they were young, and gained thereby in a short time six thousand Sesterties.

* 1.18 Leo the tenth (that noble Epicurean Pope) made their brawnes into Sausages, allowing therefore every year ma∣ny hundred Ducats. It is strange that S. Austin writes * 1.19of Peacocks flesh, namely that in a twelve month it cor∣rupteth not after it is drest: Nay Kiranides avoucheth, that a Peacocks flesh will not putrifie in thirty years, but remaineth then as sound and sweet as if it had been new killed; which whether it proceed of the toughness and si∣newy constitution, or the feeding upon Serpents (as some imagine) I will not now determin: this I onely observe, that being once above a year old, their flesh is very hard, tough, and melancholick, requiring a strong stomack, much wine, and afterwards great exercise to overcome it. It is very ill for them that are molested with the Hemor∣rhoids, and such as live slothfully.

* 1.20 Concerning their preparation, Galen appointeth them to hang upon a hook fifteen daies, but Haliabbas twise fifteen before they are drest. The Italians after they are drawn, stuff their bodies full of nettles (which softneth the hardest cheese being laid amongst them, and then they either bury it in sand, or hang it in a cold dry place, with a great weight at his heels; and so within a fornight it becomes very tender. Plutarch reports out of his countri∣ments * 1.21experiments, that an old Cock, or an old Peacock, or any hard flesh, hanging but one night on a fig-tree, waxeth very tender by morning: others ascribe as much to the

hanging of them upon a brasen hook, which I permit to trial; and wish both as true in effect, as the reasons why they should be so are learnedly disputed. As for young Peacocks, fed at home, with wholesome and pure meat (as bread corn and curds) no doubt they are very good meat, yeelding not onely a taste extraordinarily strange and pleasant, but also giving good nourishment: the older sort is best roasted with lard; the younger without lard, both should be well sowced in pure wine; for without it they are unwholesome.

Anseres.

* 1.22 Galen commendeth nothing in a Goose beside the Gi∣blets, Stomack, and Liver, sodden in broth: which whe∣ther * 1.23Scipio Metellus, or Marcus Sestius first noted, Pisanel∣lus durst not decide; but had he been as conversant in Pliny, as he might have been, he should have read, that a question was moved in Rome, who did first fatten geese: * 1.24some imputing it to Scipio and some to Sestius. But Mes∣salinus Cotta without all controversie was the first, that ever taught how to dress and use their Giblets.

* 1.25 Nevertheless sith the Kings of Egypt feed usually but on two dishes, Geese and Veal; either custome hath made them a harmless meat, or else they are not so hard, hot, aguish, and melancholick a meat as some suppose them. * 1.26Jason Pratensis saith, that the Jews have so hard a flesh, so foul a skin, so loathsome a savour, and so crook∣ed conditions, because they eat so many Geese. Indeed * 1.27their exceeding watchfulness, moody disposition, and blackness of flesh, argue a melancholick constitution; yet being taken whilst they are young, green feathered, and well fatted with wholesome meat, and eaten with * 1.28sorrel sawce to correct their malignity (if any malignity can remain after such dieting) no doubt their flesh is as nourishing as it is pleasant and sweet. But of all other a

young stuble goose feeding it self fat in wheaten fields, is the best of all; being neither of too moist nor too dry a flesh, but a middle constitution. If any Goose be eaten above four months old, it is badly digested without Gar∣lick sauce, exercise, and strong drink. Fritagius, in his Creophagia, having set down that young Geese are over∣moist, and old Geese very aguish, appointeh them to be both corrected in this sort. Before they be killed make them to receive the smoke of Borax down into their bo∣dies three or four times together; then stuff them with spices and sweet hearbs, and rost them throughly; which is a very good way to correct their superfluous moisture; but nothing available for their aguishness.

* 1.29 Savanarola maketh Geese of a very hot constitution, Albertus maketh them very cold; their flesh is hard to digest, and yet more moist (saith Galen) then of any wa∣ter-foul besides: but their natural feeding shews them to be hot and dry, as Savanarola writeth; for they drink infinitely often, delight to be in the coldest waters, and feed most gladly upon Lettice, Endiff, Purcelane, Trifoil, Ducks meat and Sowthistle. They are so tame and ob∣sequious to them that usually feed and dieted them, that (if Pliny saith truth) they were driven (like sheep) from Brabant and Picardy to Rome on foot; but I fear me whilst he did so excessively commend their obedience, he did 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, play the very Goose himself.

Cygni.

Swans flesh was forbidden the Jewes, because by them the Hieroglyphical Sages did describe hypocrisie; for as Swans have the whitest feathers and the blackest flesh of all birds, so the heart of Hypocrites is contrary to their outward appearance.

So that not for the badness of their flesh, but for re∣sembling of wicked mens minds they were forbidden:

for being young they are not the worst of meats; nay if they be kept in a little pound and well fed with Corn, their flesh will not onely alter the blackness, but also be freed of the unwholesomness; Being thus used, they are appointed to be the first dish at the Emperour of * 1.30Moscovie his table, and also much esteemed in East-Friezland.

Nevertheless I deny not but that naturally they are unwholesome, for their flesh is hard and black; and all flesh the blacker it is, the heavier it is, the whiter the lighter; and the more red the more enclining to heavi∣ness, the less red the more enclining to lightness and easi∣ness of digestion: which being once written for a gene∣ral rule, needs not (I hope) hereafter to be repeated.

Anates.

Tame Ducks feed filthly, upon froggs, toades, mud, waterspiders, and all manner of venemous and foul things: * 1.31Wherefore it is not untruly said of Gesner, that the best part of a Duck are his feathers; for his flesh is hotter * 1.32then of any tame fowl, and withall toomoist, hard, gross, of slow digestion, and very excremental; yea further∣more, * 1.33so aguish, that once or twice it brought Galen him∣self into a fever, while he desired to try the operation of it.

Nevertheless young Ducklings fed with grinded malt and cheese curds, drinking nothing but milk (or chalk∣water) * 1.34wax both white, fat, and soft in flesh, giving much good nourishment, clearing the colour of ones face, a∣mending hoarsness of throats, encreasing seed, and dis∣pelling * 1.35wind: wherein we may see, that art and diet can make that wholsome, which nature of it self hath made hurtful.

Pipiones. Columbae.

Tame Pigeons are of two sorts, the one great and ve∣ry tame, breeding monthly, kept and fed continually at

home: the other fed never at home but in Cadlock time and the dead of Winter, when they can get no meat abroad, breeding onely but twice a year, namely at the first and later seed-time. They are of a very hot com∣plexion, and dry when they are old; but whilst they are young they are hot and moist; the wilder sort is most wholesome, being killed after it hath flown a while up and down the Dove-house, for then they give a purer juice, by reason that their foggy moisture is lessened by exercise; also they must be let blood to death under the * 1.36wing, which though Dr. Hector assumed to himself as his own invention, yet it is of no less antiquity then Plinies writings. Being thus newly killed and forthwith rosted at a blasing fire, their flesh engendreth great store of blood, recalling heat unto weak persons, clensing the kidneys, quickly restoring decayed spirits, especially in phlegmatick and aged persons, for whom they are most proper. In Galens time (saith Rhasis) they onely pluckt off their heads and cast them away; but bleeding under the wing is far better, and maketh their flesh more cold and whiter; in so much that Galen is not afraid, to com∣mend them to persons sick of agues. Nay the Italians do as usually give them in agues, as we do Chickens. Pigeons of the first flight are counted better, because the latter flight is after they have eaten cadlocks, which mak∣eth them neither to eat so sweet, nor to prove so white and wholesome: when they cannot be had, home Pigeons (I mean of the greater sort) are to be taken, and to be used in the like manner.

Notes

• * 1.1

  S. partic. Diaet.
• * 1.2

  2 can. & Fen. 3. t••. 1.
• * 1.3

  Pisanel▪ de esc. & potul. ex. Plinio.
• * 1.4

  Joach. Curae∣us. in situanim
• * 1.5

  Platina lib. 6. cap. 16. Bucinus lib: 6: cap: 9:
• * 1.6

  Gal. 3. de alim▪ fac.
• * 1.7

  l. & vict. atten.
• * 1.8

  Rhas. 23. Cont. Avenz. 1. & 2. Theisir. Halya. s. theor.
• * 1.9

  Elluch. c. 2. l. 3
• * 1.10

  Rhas. 24. Con.
• * 1.11

  3 de fac alim.
• * 1.12

  Plin. lib. 10. c. 1
• * 1.13

  cap. de phthis. Dialog. 3▪
• * 1.14

  lib. Creophag.
• * 1.15

  lib. nat. histor.
• * 1.16

  Macrob. 3. sat. cap. 13.
• * 1.17

  Pli. l. 10. ••. 20.
• * 1.18

  Paul Jov. in vi∣ta Leon. X.
• * 1.19

  l. de civit. Dei.
• * 1.20

  Gal. 3 de alim. fac. Halyab: s. theo.
• * 1.21

  Plut symp. 7▪ quest. 10.
• * 1.22

  de Enchym. & Caroch.
• * 1.23

  l de. esc. & po••.
• * 1.24

  Plin. l. 10. c. 22
• * 1.25

  Diod. l. 1. ca. 6
• * 1.26

  Jas. Prat. 1. lib. Diaet.
• * 1.27

  Plut. in quest. Rom.
• * 1.28

  Lege Heresba∣chium, li. 4. de re rust.
• * 1.29

  In hort▪ san.
• * 1.30

  Lege Davi∣dem Chytr. in descript. Russiae.
• * 1.31

  lib. volatilum.
• * 1.32

  Gal. 3 de alim. fac.
• * 1.33

  Gal. de comp. in sec. gen.
• * 1.34

  Isaac. in partic. diaet.
• * 1.35

  Rhas. 2. de ali.
• * 1.36

  Rhas. com▪ 〈◊〉〈◊〉 4 aphor Aveuz. 1. &2. theisir.