The Joy of Cooking method produced an edible capon; the skin was the most delicious, crisp & flavorful I’ve ever tasted on a roasted bird. The breast meat, however, was dry. I should’ve checked with a thermometer before the cooking time was up; when I did test, at the end of the time, the thermometer shot straight to 190 degrees. Woe. Way too hot.
Next time I’ll try the Julia Child method, which gives a blast of heat at the beginning and much turning of the bird during roasting. It’s fussier, no doubt. But as I’m there, in the kitchen, anway, what’s the difference?
For the record, I was in the kitchen from 3pm, when I started making the stuffing & washing and seasoning the capon, until 8:30 pm, when the final dish was washed and dried. I did sit down, for perhaps 20 minutes, to eat the meal—which also included gravy, mash potatoes, and fresh green bean almandine.
I also made homemade dressing for the first time. I learned that “stuffing” was once considered too vulgar a term for the Victorians, which is why it is also called dressing. I enjoyed making the stuffing-dressing and found it a rather aromatic, if crumb-producing process.
The stuffing recipe from the Joy of Cooking called for parsley. I didn’t have any of that in the fridge, so I used cilantro. I figured well, that’s Mexican parsley, right? And, whether or not the stuffing turned out, I had the joy of standing there, inhaling the scent of the freshly chopped cilantro. That is the joy of cooking, right there. It isn’t called the Joy of Eating, after all.
I should do cilantro therapy every day.
The cilantro-stuffing produced a clean, fresh, slightly non-traditonal taste, but it was an experimental evening.
Now, the best part, the absolute best part of roasting any sort of large bird, or indeed, of even buying one of those rotisserie chickens from the grocery store, is picking the bird clean of meat to be used in a chicken pot pie the following day. I use Nigella Lawson's recipe from the section in How to Eat that deals with feeding children. So I was happy to hear yesterday at lunch, my three-year-old exclaim “I LOVE this pie!” The combination of soggy-cripsy crust, seasoned bechamel, peas & carrots, & leftover capon was so comforting, such happy-child fare. A little daily kitchen magic.
10:46:24 AM 
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