The Medieval Layering Technique That We Still Use When Cooking Today - Tasting Table

"Stuffing one food with another food is an age old tradition that has given us plenty of delicious results. Everything from a calzone to a burrito could be considered a type of stuffed dish. But not all kinds of stuffing are made equally, and the techniques involved can vary considerably. There's a big difference between stuffed French toast and the medieval technique of engastration, for instance. One produces a sweet but simple treat, while the other results in a complex dish like a turducken."

"Engastration means "inside the stomach." Recipes date back to the 13th century and include birds stuffed inside lamb. Some Inuit communities also eat kiviak, a dish made from stuffing sea birds in a seal carcass. The Romans even had a dish called the Trojan Pig: A whole cooked pig stuffed with other animals and sausages, arranged to resemble intestines when carved. That one dates to the 5th century, so humans have been playing with this idea for a long time."

"Engastration is as much about flavors as it is about presentation. It's making a spectacle of a meal. Think of your initial reaction to learning about the mythical turducken, a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. It's over the top, a conversation starter, and surely a centerpiece of any dinner. The same was true back in medieval times. Of course, back then a chef might go to the next level and sew the top of a chicken to the back end of a pig to make a whole new animal, at least on the plate."

Stuffing one food with another is an age-old culinary tradition that produces a wide range of dishes from calzones to burritos. Engastration, literally "inside the stomach," is a medieval technique of stuffing whole animals within other animals and dates to at least the 13th century, with examples like birds inside lamb. Cultural variations include Inuit kiviak and Roman dishes such as the Trojan Pig. Modern examples include turducken, which requires deboning and use of stuffing or forcemeat between layers to add flavor, moisture, and structure. Engastration emphasizes spectacle and presentation as much as flavor.

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