Cockentrice is a dish consisting of a suckling pig's upper body sewn onto the bottom half of a capon or
turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
. Alternately, the front end (head and torso) of the poultry is sewn to the rump of the piglet to not waste the other half. Other animal combinations were also used. The cockentrice was basted with a mixture of egg yolk and saffron during the roasting or covered with gold foil; it was also filled with a similar mixture to have a gilded inside. The dish originates from the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and at least one source attributes the
Tudor dynasty
The House of Tudor was a royal house of largely Welsh and English origin that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd and Catherine of France. Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and it ...
of the
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England (, ) was a sovereign state on the island of Great Britain from 12 July 927, when it emerged from various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, until 1 May 1707, when it united with Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
On 1 ...
as its originator.
Nomenclature
Cockentrice, at times also spelled ''cockentryce'', is only one version of the dish's name. The original name was ''cokagrys'' or ''cotagres'', a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordssuckling pig. Other spellings from the period include ''koketris'', ''cocagres'' and ''cokyntryche''.
See also
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Engastration
Engastration is a cooking technique in which the remains of one animal are stuffed into another animal. The method supposedly originated during the Middle Ages. Among the dishes made using the method is turducken, which involves placing chicken me ...
Kiviak
Kiviak or kiviaq is a traditional wintertime Inuit food from Greenland that is made of little auks (''Alle alle''), a type of seabird, fermented in a seal skin.
Up to 500 whole auks are packed into the seal skin, beaks and feathers included. A ...
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List of meat dishes
This is a list of notable meat dishes. Some meat dishes are prepared using two or more types of meat, while others are only prepared using one type. Furthermore, some dishes can be prepared using various types of meats, such as the enchilada, whic ...