Catholic Recipe: Truffled Capon

In France after the Christmas Midnight Mass everyone gathers for bountiful Réveillon breakfast, for now the fast is over and Christmas Day is at hand. The menu includes the roasted capon. A capon is a young rooster that has been castrated and fed a fattening diet to yield tender and juicy flesh.

DIRECTIONS

Singe and clean a fine fat fowl. Make a stuffing with truffles, peeled and sliced, the chopped onions, salt, pepper, 1 finely minced clove of garlic, a bay leaf, a pinch of thyme, and the chestnuts which have been boiled until just tender in some chicken stock and drained. If too dry, moisten the stuffing with 1/2 cup of cream. Stuff the fowl, spread with a buttered cloth, and roast at 325° F., allowing about twenty minutes to the pound. A half hour before the bird is ready to come from the oven, remove the cloth, and brush 1/2 cup of cream over it. Thicken the gravy with a little flour and add more cream if necessary. Strain and add the mushrooms which have been sliced and sautéed in a little butter and the oysters, allowing the sauce to cook only until the edges of the oysters begin to curl. Serve at once.