Coq au Vin

[greyfields]

We followed the River Cottage Meat Book recipe (amazon.co.uk by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall) last night and did two chickens. We used some of our older homegrown meat birds. The preparation is nearly identical to this version:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2001/nov/25/foodanddrink.shopping

All I can say is wow. I've had it in restaurants before, which was great. But, doing it yourself is also amazing. It was probably 3.5 hours from start to end.

 

[debilorrah]

Because I am a ding bat, what does 40g of butter measure out to? And 200g of mushrooms?

Thanks!

 

[Buff Hooligans]

Hey Debi, us Americans don't know squat about metric, so I use this handy website to convert different measurement systems:

In this case, I'd type in 40 g of butter and then ask it to say how much it is in ounces...
http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_all.htm

The answer is 1.4 ounces, so a little less than 1.5 ounces.

 

[greyfields]

Yeah we have a chart on our fridge. Nearly all our cooking books come from England, so you eventually get the hang of it.

 

[redhen]

Quote:
debi, i have a small cheap food scale from walmart.(big diet plan, gone bad...

..)..and i believe it has grams on it for measuring...good luck, Wendy

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
That is an interesting chart. I have to brag for a moment - I made banana bread this weekend - WITH NO MEASURING SPOONS! It came out great.

 

[greyfields]

You'll just find in general that everywhere in the world uses weights in their recipes, whereas the US holds stubbornly to cups and teaspoons. :0

 

[debilorrah]

And I for one am thankful for that. My poor brain couldn't take it.

 

[mirecipes]

It's not that bad once you have a decent scale

I originally bought my scale for weighing lye in soapmaking..But recently my roomate was diagnosed with diabetes..So the scale is extremely handy these days!! So glad I invested in it

 

[warhorse]

Quote:
3.5 hours? I had seen a recipe somewhere else that had a week's preparation of marinating, etc. I was actually looking for something to do with mature roosters and came across "coq au vin". I have always enjoyed Alton Brown's show on the Food Network, so I looked up his version and was sadly disappointed. The origin of the recipe is for using older roosters, and using storebought fryers just doesn't capture the essence of it. I emailed Alton Brown and told him so. "Coq" translates to "rooster". I am curious to see if it is actually possible to prepare the mature rooster as per this recipe and have it turn out well. Has anyone sucessfullly used mature roosters?