WEBVTT - From the Vault: A Monsterous Feast 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.600 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.879 name is Robert Lamb, and we have another vault episode 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:15.320 for you. Since this is a holiday week for us, 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.560 this is going to be a Monstrous Feast, which originally 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:23.200 published eleven, twenty one, twenty twenty four. So yes, this 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:26.000 is our this is our feast themed episode, and it's 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:30.840 going to get into some questionable recent inventions of the 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:37.360 culinary variety and also some monstrous dishes of the past. 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.239 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:50.720 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:51.199 name is. 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.160 Robert Lamb and I am Joe McCormick. Hey, what are 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:55.240 we talking about today. 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:59.120 Rob, Oh, we're getting into feasting season here, Joe. So 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:00.960 we're going to do what we've done in the past, 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:05.160 devote an episode to food, but not just you know, 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.200 just any food. In the past, we've talked about dangerous foods. 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:11.119 We did several episodes on that. You can find those 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:14.880 if you go back into the archives. But this time 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:19.840 we're going to be talking particularly about some various feast dishes, 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.560 some outrageous feast dishes, and then also some sort of 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.200 related tangential subject matter that's sort of swirling around those dishes. 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:31.640 Now, I am salivating at the thought of the beauties 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:33.520 and the grotesqueries to follow. 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.640 Yes, historic dishes of over indulgence, you might call them, 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:41.280 and such dishes exist throughout the history of human feasting. 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:46.240 As long as human populations have even periodically experienced surplus 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.840 and or inequality, there's been room for dishes that simply 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.880 go above and beyond what seems reasonable. Decadent delicacies occupied 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:57.760 the tables of the ancient Romans. We'll mention a few, 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:01.160 and of course still to this day we find such 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:02.760 dishes on our tables. 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.240 Okay, but I know you got crankin' on this topic 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.240 because you were interested in one particular example from history, right. 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:13.400 That's right, one that you know I think I've had 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.440 like a vague familiarity with for a long time because 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:20.440 I feel like I've seen depictions of it before. I'm 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.160 really struggling to figure out if I've actually seen a 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:27.040 depiction of this in a film or TV show. But 0:02:27.120 --> 0:02:30.640 it's possible because it's a great way to sort of 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.520 center what's going on in your setting. But yeah, we're 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.600 going to turn to fifteenth century Europe, So the Middle 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.760 Ages are giving way to the first stirrings of the Renaissance, 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:44.960 and it's just prime time to sew a suckling pig 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.919 and a chicken together and serve it to a bunch 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:51.080 of nobles and royals. A lot of great things come 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.520 out of the Renaissance, yes, but there are some. There 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.640 are some real clunkers that come out of it as well. 0:02:57.400 --> 0:02:59.080 And this and this, I don't know. This could be 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:01.880 one of them. I have not tried it, I will 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.680 not be trying it, but it is not impossible that 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:06.720 some of you out there have tried it. The addition 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:10.960 question is the cock and trice not to be confused 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.480 with another word that you may find not in a 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:19.360 menu from a tutor England, but more likely in a bestiary. 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.160 That's right, So this other word is cock a trice 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.320 rather than cock en trice. It's easy to confuse the two. 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:30.840 They are phonetically similar, spelled similarly, but different things altogether. 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.000 Now I'm not going to go extremely deep here because 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.680 the cockatrice subject will have some overlap with our past 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:41.560 discussions of the mythical monster known as the basilisk. These 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.640 creatures were in many cases, not all, but in many 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:49.320 cases treated as the same thing. A cockatrice is sort 0:03:49.320 --> 0:03:53.800 of a loosely defined monster, usually combining Avian and reptilian 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:59.840 features or associations. Sometimes it is kind of straightforwardly a wivern. 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:02.960 It's like a dragon with two legs, no little t 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:05.800 rex arms, just the two legs and then two wings, 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.560 and then a rooster's head. It appears in this form 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:14.680 or roughly this form in some medieval manuscripts and some heraldry, 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:18.719 but in other cases it's described as a kind of 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:24.520 fantastically venomous serpent, or as a serpent that hatches from 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:29.280 a cock's egg, sometimes after like a cock egg, is 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:34.600 incubated by a reptile or a toad. Generally, a cockatrice 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.320 is bad news. It is a venomous monster or a 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.240 monster that kills everything around it. Though there is an 0:04:42.240 --> 0:04:45.760 interesting literary history of this word, because if you go 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:50.000 reading the King James translation of the Bible, you will 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:53.800 find lots of references to the cockatrice as a kind 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.840 of beast or venomous monster. A couple of examples I 0:04:56.920 --> 0:05:00.520 dug up. One is from the Book of Isaiah, chapter 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:04.680 fifty nine, verses four to five, which say none calleth 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:07.880 for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth. They trust in 0:05:07.960 --> 0:05:12.120 vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:17.080 They hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spider's web. He 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:20.479 that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:24.640 crushed breaketh out into a viper. Common theme you will 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.400 get in some of the Old Testament books of the prophets, is, 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:33.320 you know, comparing wickedness and sin and lack of moral 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:38.320 virtue to venomous animals and predatory animals, dangerous beasts. 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:42.040 So no hatching cockatrice eggs. That's what I'm taking for 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:42.760 the scripture. 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:45.719 That's not a good thing to do. You bring forth iniquity. 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:48.680 Another good one I found just this one was a 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:52.040 little pithier. This is from the Book of Jeremiah, chapter eight, 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:56.560 verse seventeen, again the King James translation. It says, for behold, 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.400 I will send serpents cockatrices among you, which will not 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.480 be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord. 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:06.760 Oh wow, let's say to the point. 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:10.000 They shall bite you. Now. The word cockatrice does not 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:15.680 appear in later translations of the Bible that are better 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:19.080 informed about what the original Greek and Hebrew words that 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.839 are being translated usually mean. The English usage of cockatrice 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:26.040 in the Bible traces back to John Wickliffe's English translation 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.120 of the Old Testament, in which a Hebrew word that 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:32.919 probably originally referred to like a snake of venomous reptile 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:37.160 is taken as referring to this strange monster which was 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.560 already sort of in consciousness, in part derived from stories 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:43.320 that go back to plenty of the Elder and I 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.000 think we've actually talked about these stories before in our 0:06:46.040 --> 0:06:49.800 episodes on the Basilisk. But the cockatrice also has some 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:55.159 interesting etymological confusion in its history because the English word 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.839 cockatrice is recorded as far back as Late Middle English. 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:03.200 It's derived from an Old French term cockatrice, which in 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:08.080 turn comes from the Latin calcatrix. So it's not actually 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.119 related to the English word or the French word cock, 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.040 which meaning like you know, a rooster, which that's the 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.320 imagery we see in like this heraldry, where it's a 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.119 dragon with a rooster's head or somehow a cock's egg 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:26.560 that is hatched in conjunction with reptile interference. Instead, it 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:30.600 goes back to the Latin calcatrix, which means she who treads. 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.280 The Latin verb here is calcare, meaning to tread, So 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:39.440 a calcatrix is a female entity who treads. So there's 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.640 some more word confusion for you, but the main point 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.400 being that a cockatrice is a monster and a cockin 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.480 trice is something completely different. It is the food that 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:49.520 we're about to talk about. 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.440 Yeah, and I can't promise that the word is just 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:56.160 going to get any easier to digest, but yeah, the 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.040 cock and trice, to be clear, is a composite dish. 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:01.680 So in the front you have a suckling pig and 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.920 in the back a turkey or capon. Capon is a 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:09.240 neutered male chicken. So the result is a feast item 0:08:09.280 --> 0:08:12.200 of intrigue, as if the folks present for the meal 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.000 are being served not an animal of the mundane world, 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:20.320 but rather some fantastic hybrid that you know belongs, perhaps 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:24.160 in a bestiary alongside the cock a trice. 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.160 Yeah, make you monsters out of our food, a tradition 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:29.120 that is not entirely gone. By the way, I'm sure 0:08:29.160 --> 0:08:32.760 many people listening have seen like viral images of this 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:36.920 sort that get shared around the internet. One that very 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.800 much sticks in my mind is whoever first had the 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.959 idea to make a face hugger from the Alien series 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:45.920 out of like a turkey's body with some crab legs 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:47.920 on the side, and then a tail made out of 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:49.040 like a stuffed sausage. 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:52.760 Yeah, he's send me that photo. It's quite horrifying. 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.040 Yeah, it makes you want to eat them, you know. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.520 And you know even you know, vegans and vegetari get 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.160 in on the action as well. I know in my 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:05.600 household it has become a tradition. On Halloween we make 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:08.079 a dish that is known by a few different names. 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:10.839 You and I, I think both know it as feet 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.800 of meat. It has also been called feet loaf. I 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.400 know Amy Sedaris calls it as such, but essentially it 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.560 is meat loafer. In our case, we was like, you know, 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:25.880 imitation meat that takes the form of one or two 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:27.400 disembodied bloody feet. 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:29.360 Beautiful. That's so nice. 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:31.880 So you know, I can't be too judging about all 0:09:31.960 --> 0:09:36.319 this because I totally do it as well. Now, as 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:40.439 for the cockin trice here, I looked up some more 0:09:40.440 --> 0:09:44.280 info on this in a book from Terry Breverton called 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.440 The tutor kitchen, and he goes into a little more 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.600 detail here mentions that the way you make one of 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:53.520 these things is that you first of all, you of 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:57.000 course butcher the two animals in question, and then once 0:09:57.040 --> 0:09:59.640 you've butchered them, you know you've removed everything. You know, 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:01.720 you don't need to be part of the finished meal, 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:05.240 you know how butchering works. You stitch these together, then 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:07.920 you stuff it as you would often stuff, you know, 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:13.120 various feast items, as turkeys are still stuffed to this day, 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:17.520 you know, for Thanksgiving in America. And then you roast 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.400 it on a spit per, you know, the usual treatment 0:10:20.480 --> 0:10:25.480 of the day. Now. Originally the dish, according to Breverton, 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:31.960 was known as cocka gris in this or perhaps catt agris, 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.040 and this is combining the words for cock and gris 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:39.520 a suckling pig. That being said, it does I mean, 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:42.840 I couldn't find much where people are really talking about 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:47.760 the the the comparison between these two words. It seems 0:10:47.800 --> 0:10:49.920 to me that if the word for the monster cock 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:54.199 a trice is at all in some form like floating 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:58.480 around in one's vocabulary, then cock in trice is some 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:00.880 sort of an allusion to that but I couldn't find 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:03.680 any hard answers on that. There are also various other 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.680 spellings for the food item here the cock and trice, 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:11.360 as well as fifteenth century recipes that lay out the 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:17.000 steps to produce one. And this has long been a novelty. 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:19.320 It was a novelty when it was served on the 0:11:19.360 --> 0:11:22.120 tables and Tutor England. And you can look around. You 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:26.040 can find various videos online of modern chefs and you know, 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:32.160 amateur chefs and streamers recreating it for entertainment purposes and 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:34.920 for exploration purposes, like there's nothing you know, there's nothing 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.800 you know you know off the board occurring in the 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:43.079 creation of this dish. I was looking around at various 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.840 people that were either talking directly about it or sometimes 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:50.360 just invoking it. As an example of the latter, I 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:52.640 saw a work by a writer by the name of 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:56.320 Karen Robber who described or raper, who describes it as 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.520 performing meat, which I thought was an interesting phrase, like 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:01.880 the meat eat in this case is not just here 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:05.160 for your consumption, one would assume it is also supposed 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.319 to taste good. But on top of that, it is 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.400 like the sheer performance of the presentation, which you know 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:13.360 that's gonna be president a lot of meals, but like 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.000 it becomes part of the forefront in a case like this. 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.920 Yeah. I might have some different terminology that we could 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:23.680 apply to this category later in the episode, but I'd 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.320 say I primarily think of this as stunt food. 0:12:26.640 --> 0:12:27.600 Stunt food is good. 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.720 Yeah, Yeah, it's food that's not just to be eaten, 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:33.320 it's also to be admired as an act. 0:12:33.960 --> 0:12:48.600 Yes. So, Reverenson's book contains numerous other, at least from 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.880 my vantage point, strange Tutor dishes. We can all disagree 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:56.560 on this, and you know, and ultimately I'm sure there 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:00.720 are examples of similar dishes in various culinary and cultures 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.040 where it's like totally not weird for you to eat it. 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.480 Oh yeah, I mean what is weird in terms of 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:08.640 food is totally a matter of social and cultural expectations. 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:10.320 It's like what's familiar to us. 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:12.320 Yeah, So when I say it sounds weird to me, 0:13:12.440 --> 0:13:17.160 it's weird because I'm imagining the Tudors eating this. But 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:21.960 this particular book includes references to such dishes as sliced 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:29.080 cow tongue, pie, boiled badger, boiled viper, swan with blood, 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:30.160 and entrail sauce. 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:31.520 Oh delicious. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.760 This one really gave my wife pause. Cow's utters in 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:40.200 mustard sauce. I'm not sure where like that one kind 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.120 of hits in various ways, like when it's the utters, 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.160 but then also the mustard sauce. I really have a 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:46.320 hard time picturing. 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:48.760 This cow's utters in sweet and sour sauce I think 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:49.480 would work better. 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:56.320 And then also multiple peacock recipes, yes, peacocks. 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.520 Now wait, now that I'm thinking about it, why don't 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.120 any like these fast food chains have a dipping sauce 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.680 for your nuggets that is blood and entrail sauce. 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.880 I mean they could with the right market, you could 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:11.680 call it that and people would go nuts for it. 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.880 But these peacock recipes, oh my goodness. I think in 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:19.120 the past I'd run across examples of people eating peacocks 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:20.840 as a feast food, but I often forget about it 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:22.720 because I end up. You know, you see peacocks everywhere 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.800 they've spread. They've been introduced rather all over the world 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:31.160 from the Indian subcontinent, so most of you, I think 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.680 I've probably seen one. You know, they walk around the 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.800 males of the species, the peacocks, you know, look dazzling 0:14:37.880 --> 0:14:39.680 with their feathers, and then of course you have the 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.880 pea hens, the females. More on the particulars in just 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:48.120 a second, but yes, recipes for this include the gilded peacock. 0:14:48.400 --> 0:14:51.560 This is a sixteen sixty one recipe that calls for 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.880 the spit roasted bird to be covered with gold leaf 0:14:55.360 --> 0:14:59.280 and recovered in the peacock's skin and feathers. After it's 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.880 been for the you butcher it, you set aside those 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.880 gorgeous feathers and its skin, and then you put it 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:09.240 all back together with gold leaf. Quote for recreation and 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:14.200 for magnificence. According to doctor John Wex, there's eighteen books 0:15:14.240 --> 0:15:17.600 of the Secrets of Art in Nature from sixteen sixty one. 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.520 That sounds like a book by like John d Or Yeah. 0:15:22.480 --> 0:15:25.520 Yeah, it sounds like it would be alchemical in nature 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.840 and not about eating a peacock. 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:29.960 Not about how to have fun with peacock corpses. 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.000 Yeah, I mean, I guess it makes sense. If you 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:35.360 can eat the peacock, you want to admire the feathers. Yes, 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:40.320 so the pa foul is we may more accurately describe 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:44.120 these creatures consist of three different species. There are two 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:48.200 asiatic peacocks native to the Indian subcontinent, and there's also 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.920 a congo p fowl that is apparently actually not a 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.760 true pea fowl. The Indian pfowl is the key species 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.800 for our concerns here, notable for the splendid mating displays 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.200 made by the male peacocks that truly everyone has seen. 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.920 The bird was introduced as a novelty into Europe, traditionally 0:16:06.000 --> 0:16:10.560 held as being introduced by the Macedonian general Alexander the 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.200 Great during the fourth century BCE, but something it might 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:18.120 have occurred earlier than that. It's an interesting bird in 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.440 its own right, and we could probably devote an entire 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.640 episode to it, no doubt, exploring its place, for example, 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.680 in the history of evolutionary theory, one of the many 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.680 animals that ends up being invoked in scientific discourse of 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:33.080 the day. Instead of all that, though, I want to 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:37.800 cut right to some interesting religious contexts for the peacock 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:41.480 from Indian traditions, and for this I turned once more 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.520 to Krishna's Sacred Animals of India. This is from Penguin Press. 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:48.680 I'm not going to go through everything that the author 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:50.680 shares here, but I want to hit some of the 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.040 key points. So first of all, the peacock. This is 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:55.840 not really religious at all, but the peacock is a 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.280 national bird of India. Getting into religious traditions, the peacock 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:04.080 is held does the animal form of the sky god Indra. Also, 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.880 it said that Indra granted the peacock its beautiful colors 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:09.720 after one of them extended its sale to hide him 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.400 during a battle with the demon king Ravna. The peacock 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:17.440 is an enemy of snakes and represents victory over evil tendencies. 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:22.639 And this is apparently based on real life because peacocks 0:17:22.640 --> 0:17:25.760 in their natural habitat do eat small snakes. And of 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.000 course this reminds me a little bit of you know, 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:30.560 talking of what we've talked about concerning the kokatrice and 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:31.320 the basilisk. 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.080 Oh. I don't think I even mentioned this at the time, 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:38.040 but some sources say that the cockatrice the monster can 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:40.960 have a couple of enemies. One is the cry of 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:44.119 the rooster, so like the rooster's call can sort of 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.800 invalidate the cockatrice's magic or banish it. And then another 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:50.399 idea is that the weasel is the enemy of the 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.000 cockatrice and can defeat it. 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:54.720 The peacock is also held to be the vehicle of 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:59.760 the war god Kartikia. The crown of Lord Krishna often 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:05.000 features peacock feathers. It's apparently just generally a common symbol 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:09.080 of beauty throughout Hindu literature, often associated with joy as 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:13.320 well as Rain and Krishna. The writer here not the 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.760 mythological figure, also mentions that some traditions hold that Sita, 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.119 the love of Rama, was born from the egg of 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:24.920 a pea hen. He also mentions that the peacock may 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:29.960 represent compassion and watchfulness in Buddhist traditions, and that in 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:34.200 Tibetan Buddhism there are also connotations of immortality which will 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:36.520 come back to in a second and a symbol for 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:41.199 the universal antidote against the poisonous human emotional states. And 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:45.199 in Jainism, the peacock feather may ward away evil and 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.480 then finally, he also mentions in passing that peacocks are 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:51.840 apparently mentioned in the Bible is an import of King Solomon. 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.120 Now during the medieval period in Europe, they were favorite 0:18:55.119 --> 0:19:00.120 inclusions in menageries and gardens, becoming important in European heraldry, 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:04.640 textiles and art, and of course, they also came up 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.560 as a prized food item. And yet even as this 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:12.720 exotic bird is selected for the dinner table, it retains 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:17.400 its novel qualities as well as some of its supernatural 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:19.600 and symbolic qualities. So you know, I guess, you know, 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:24.680 on the medieval European table and you know, into Renaissance times, 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:26.240 it's like you can have it both ways, that the 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.400 animal can be I guess, both symbolic and delicious. 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.879 So like if unicorns actually existed, you could take on 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:36.720 some of the symbolic I don't know, purity and holiness 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:38.520 of the unicorn by eating its flesh. 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:44.640 Maybe oh yeah, they would totally have spit roasted a unicorn. Now, 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.000 some select groups in India also historically ate the bird, 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:51.840 and we also have accounts that the ancient Romans enjoyed 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.800 peacock meat as well as the ostrich and various other 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:59.680 items in a Roman work titled on the subject of cooking, 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.040 a work that is attributed to a Roman by the 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:07.560 name of Apicius, though apparently there are two different Apiciuses 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:11.280 in the historical record that historians think this might have been. 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:13.400 So I'm not sure if we know with any degree 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:17.119 of accuracy, like who this was that wrote this? But 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:21.000 in on the subject of cooking. This is in translation, 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:26.840 of course, is stated entrees of peacock occupied the first rink, 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.359 provided they be dressed in such manner that the hard 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:33.800 and tough parts be tender. The second place in the 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:40.200 estimation of gourmets have dishes made of rabbit, third spiny lobster, 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:42.520 fourth comes chicken, and fifth young pig. 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:43.679 Wow. 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:50.280 So according to this source, peacock is right at the 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.520 top if you cook it right. And you know modern 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:56.560 American mainstays of chicken and pig, like, that's just down 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:59.320 the list. That's after your rabbit and your spiny lobster. 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:05.879 Beef doesn't even make the list. No love for fish, 0:21:05.960 --> 0:21:06.800 Where's my goat? 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:13.880 Whoever Apicius was? The delicacies based on peacock tongues are 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:17.199 also attributed to him. But I wonder if even the 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.800 Romans ever considered such a tudor dish as listed by 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:24.639 Breverton in his book as redressed peacocks which seem alive, 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:27.359 and how to make them breathe fire through their mouth. 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:31.600 This is one of the listings from Tutor England that 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.560 he goes over it. So Basically this is this is 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.919 very similar to the gilded peacock. I'm assuming here it 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:42.199 amounts though to a complex First of all, you know, 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:46.280 butchering and then you know, spit roasting of said bird. 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:50.679 But then it's stuffed and mounted, and its skin and 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.359 its feathers are added back. And then on top of 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.000 everything else, they use some sort of of a fire 0:21:56.040 --> 0:22:01.080 effect created via camphor, a waxy colorlesstance that burns at 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:06.439 a low temperature, So like some sort of little pyrotechnic 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.720 device inside the peacock's mouth so that as you serve 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:11.080 it, it is breathing fire. 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:14.959 Were peacock's thought to breathe fire in life? Or I 0:22:15.000 --> 0:22:16.320 wonder what this is connecting to. 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:18.119 I mean, I guess it's just it's kind of like 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:20.639 lighting the candles on a birthday cake, right, or you know, 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:23.639 a flaming drink. You know, a little fire makes it 0:22:23.720 --> 0:22:26.040 even more exciting. And so yeah, if you're going to 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:28.399 have an animal with its head on it, why not 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:29.760 have that head spitting fire? 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.880 Okay, yeah, blow out the peacock, honey. Yeah. 0:22:33.080 --> 0:22:36.400 Now this leads us to another aspect that we kind 0:22:36.400 --> 0:22:39.080 of touched on very briefly. We mentioned how the Romans said, Okay, 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:41.480 peacock flesh is the best, but you got to dress 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.160 it right, you got to cook it right so that 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:46.119 you don't have to deal with the heart and the 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:49.040 tough parts. You can make those parts tender. There does 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.159 seem to be a lot of discussion about just how 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.840 tough peacock meat can be. And this gets into this 0:22:56.000 --> 0:23:01.080 idea that you also see sort of reverberating through even 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:06.200 ancient literature, the idea that the peacock's flesh did not rot, 0:23:06.359 --> 0:23:07.919 that it was incorruptible. 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:10.480 This is getting more and more unicorn by the moment. 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:11.040 It is. 0:23:11.119 --> 0:23:14.240 Really these are attributes you would expect to be applied 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:17.920 to the unicorn or something like that, and not a peacock, 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:20.359 which you know, it's like I grew up knowing people 0:23:20.359 --> 0:23:23.199 who had peacocks wandering around their homes like it didn't 0:23:23.600 --> 0:23:26.359 seem weird at all. It didn't seem like a magical creature, 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:28.280 you know. I mean, it's impressive, but not magical. 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.960