To the recipe with introduction and illustrations

Capon à la braise with caper-sauce.
(print-out version recipe september/october 2002, 2 pages A4, © Christianne Muusers) 
The original recipe from Keukenboek by Henriëtte Davidis (1868, 2nd impr.), on pages 78, 19/20 and 162/3. To make this dish you have to consult several recipes.

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Braised "capon" with caper-sauce

1 poularde, rubbed with salt
to do the braising:
150 gram (1/3 pound) bacon or porkfat in slices of 30 gr.
some extra, thin slices bacon
100 gram (1/2 cup) chopped suet
15 black peppercorns
8 cloves
5 slices of gingerroot
1 onion, sliced
some sprigs of estragon
some roots of parsley
some chicken broth (optional)
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Preparation in advance: Cover the bottom of a heavy casserole with a layer of thick slices of bacon. Cover this with the suet, herbs and spices. Place the chicken on top of this, and cover the bird with thin slices of bacon (optional). Close the lid, place the casserole on a slow fire to melt the fat, then put it in the oven 175EC/350EF). Let the chicken simmer for an hour, basting it now and then with the molten fat. If the contents of the casserole are too dry, add some chicken broth.
To make the sauce: Simmer the broth for the sauce with lemon peel, pepper, cloves and bayleafs for twenty minutes. Strain the liquid. 
Preparation: Make a roux: melt the butter, or use three tablespoons of the drippingfat of the chicken (only when no broth was added). Sauté the shallots, add the flour in one go. Stir with a flat wooden spatula, let simmer on a very slow fire for five minutes. Keep stirring. Now add the strained broth, starting with a small amount. Keep stirring until all the liquid has been absorbed by the roux. Add the next amount of liquid when the roux starts boiling again (keep stirring ...). When all the broth is used, add wine, mace, capers and caperliquid.
You have now a sauce. Henriette Davidis made a more luxurious sauce by finishing it off with two eggyolks and some cold butter. The yolks are mixed with a little of the warm sauce. Then more sauce is added, until the yolks are warm themselves. Then you can add them to the sauce without danger of curdling. Keep the sauce from boiling, for then it will curdle after all. The cold butter stirred in hgives the sauce a nice velvety shine.
To serve: Remove the chicken from the casserole, remove the bacon from the bird. Have a decorous servingdish ready to put the chicken on. Surround it with slices of lemon and/or lime. Show it to your guests at the dinner-table, then bring it back to the kitchen to cut the chicken in portions. Arrange these on the serving-dish and pour some sauce over the pieces of chicken. Use a saucier for the rest of the sauce.
In the nineteenth century the capon was cut at the table by the host. To know how to cut various kinds of roasts, fowls et cetera was part of a gentleman's education.

If you want to prepare a real capon, you have to double the other ingredients, and put the bird into the oven for one and a half to two and a half hours (depending on the weight of the beast).

Enjoy!