Deaf Pagan Crossroads

“On the Fourth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me four colly birds…”

Yes, folks…it is actually colly birds, not calling birds. Somehow the word got messed up over the years, and now people tend to sing the song saying “calling birds” rather than the original colly birds.

So just what is a colly bird? It’s a blackbird. In England a coal mine is known as a colliery, and colly is a derivation of this – basically meaning “black as coal.”

In days of old, blackbirds were considered a game bird and actually hunted for food. It was common then for many game birds to be cooked in a pie – in fact, savory pies were a convenient way to serve and eat a meal…since forks had yet to be invented. It was actually in the British colonies of America that pies evolved from being a main course to becoming dessert.

Of course, this brings to mind the old nursery rhyme that many of us learned as children:

Sing a song of sixpence

A pocket full of rye

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.

When the pie was opened

The birds began to sing

Wasn’t that a dainty dish

To set before the king?

No matter how dainty a dish it might have been, I doubt one can find blackbird pie these days.

What one can find is those little black ceramic birds that one can use when baking pies. Basically they are pie funnels, used to prevent the pie from boiling over in the oven. By allowing the steam created when the pie filling is cooking to escape, it keeps your oven clean and makes for a more attractive, well baked pie.  To use a pie bird, one lines the pie dish with pastry, places the bird in the center and pours the filling in around it, then places the upper crust on top, allowing the pie bird to stick out of a hole in the pastry . The bird will release steam through his mouth “vent” during baking and help to prevent juices from boiling over in the oven.

Pie birds can pretty much be used with any type of pie that has an upper crust, whether it be a sweet apple pie or a savory chicken pot pie.

I’ve always been a pie person – given a choice I would prefer pie over cake. As a child my family didn’t eat a lot of desserts and my mother wasn’t much of a baker (although she did make great biscuits for Sunday breakfasts.) When Mom did bake desserts, they were almost always pies. There was of course the traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, but that didn’t get an upper crust. For a two-crust pie, I would say the most common that came out of the family kitchen was apple, since that was my father’s favorite. I do remember that our neighbor, a sweet gray-haired old lady, had a rhubarb patch and would sometimes bring over a rhubarb pie, which we also enjoyed.

However, I cannot say that I ever saw these pie birds being used. Nobody in my family ever used them, and I can’t recall that anyone I knew did either. But being a lover of pies, I’m kind of curious to give them a try. I just might order myself a bird or two from one of the cooking websites and see how well they work.

If I do, I might make a nice chicken pot pie for my meal…as I’ve always enjoyed those. We ate them quite a bit when I was a kid, although interestingly my mother never made them herself – they were the small individually-sized frozen ones she got from the supermarket. Still good, but I’d like to try making one from scratch. Then I’d follow up with a cherry pie for dessert. That would have to be my favorite two crust pie…a nice cherry pie, bursting with the sweet juices, but with still a touch of tartness to it. I know some cooks prefer to bake their cherry pies with the attractive lattice strips on top, but I’ll make it easy and just stick a bird in there.

Chicken and cherry pies… I think that makes a pretty good meal that would bring the birds a’flocking, wouldn’t you agree?

“On the Third Day of Christmas my true love gave to me three French hens…”

First of all, I would like to dedicate this day to my cousin Liz. In her office Liz has a special calendar titled “Chickens of the Month.” That’s right – chickens. Apparently my youngest cousin has a thing for designer fowl. These aren’t your ordinary birds, but rather fancy looking chickens, such as the Crevecoeur or the Houdan, both of which are French breeds.

There actually are quite a few poultry breeds which originated in France, most of which do not appear to be very common here in America. The Crevecoeur itself is one of the oldest French breeds, named after the village in Normandy from which it comes. They are usually black, with interesting plumage around their head. Although in the past it was raised for its meat and eggs, today the Crevecoeur is considered mainly a designer breed, kept for decoration or show. They are in fact endangered in their native country, and thus not found in the same numbers as in the past.

The first of our Three French Hens – a Crevecoeur female chicken 

Another French breed is the Marans chicken, which was first bred in the marshy areas of France. Although there are a number of color variations for this bird, a black and white speckled coloring known the “Cuckoo” is the most common. They also come in an attractive Black Copper coloring – with a black body and copper colored feathers on the neck and head. This breed is especially known for its dark brown chocolate colored eggs, which are something of a novelty item when placed alongside standard white or tan colored eggs.

The dark chocolate brown eggs of Marans chickens, as compared to a standard white egg

The second French Hen – a Cuckoo Marans female 

Finally, we have the Houdans. While this is just another of the many French breeds that are out there, I thought it worth mentioning here at the Crossroads, especially since I was able to find pictures of them on a website operated by Sunni, The Crazy Chicken Lady. Obviously Sunni likes chickens, and the Houdan appears to be the only French breed she raises. There were a number of pictures of her Houdan hens on her website, and they all have names – Copernica, Giselle, and Estelle. It was hard choosing one picture for this post, as all three photographs were nice (there was especially a nice head shot of Copernica), but since this is the THREE French Hens, I had to make a decision…

The third French Hen – this is Giselle, a white Houdan. 

Special thanks to Sunni, the Crazy Chicken Lady. 

There you have it, folks. The Three French Hens.

While I don’t necessarily advise that you go running after Giselle or her fellow chicken models with an axe (I suspect Sunni would come after you with a shotgun if you tried), this is supposed to be a culinary post after all, utilizing various dishes to celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas. So what could we eat for the third day?

A french chicken dish, of course.

There are a variety of chicken dishes which herald from France – Coq au Vin, which is chicken cooked in wine (usually red wine such as a burgundy); Chicken Fricassee, which describes a  dish of chicken cut into pieces and then stewed in a gravy usually made of white wine and cream; or chicken roasted with various herbs, such as tarragon (Chicken Tarragon); rosemary, oregano and thyme (Chicken Provencal); or forty cloves of garlic. There’s Blancs de Poulet au Fromage (Chicken Breasts Covered with Cheese) or Poule au Pot (Chicken in a Pot).

Coq au Vin 

Paupiette de Poulet au Fromage Frais

Chicken Cordon Bleu, a boneless chicken breast stuffed with ham and cheese is commonly referred to as a French dish, but it is actually an American invention, although it does have a French influence.

In any case, the French – being the expert cooks they are – have many mouth-watering poultry dishes from various regions of France. It shouldn’t be too hard to find one that appeals to your taste buds. So enjoy the day and Bon Appetit!