alimentum tamen exhibent, nec [294] multum, nec duraturum multum quippe ex tenui sanguine constat, ac fluxili, labilique ut et cito inde abire possit, damneturque praeterea podagricis, ut alia, quae fluxilis sanguinis generatione facile affectis, ideoque imbecillioribus partibus incurrunt, vel mixta, vel attracta.

nevertheless they offer food neither in abundance nor very durable since it is constituted by a little thin and fluid blood, and so flowing that it can quickly pour out, and which in addition is disapproved for those are suffering from gout, as are disapproved the other things which because of generation of a fluid blood easily penetrate, either mixed, or attracted, into the diseased areas and therefore weaker.

Sunt qui ad mensae usum, et pro febricitantibus Gallinas castratas[1] pullastris cum maribus tum faeminis praeferant. Apud nos[2] Gallinas castrare insolens est. Gallo vesci, maxime provectae aetatis dedecus, etsi rusticis usurpatum, utpote ingrato nobilium palatis; nam, ut ait Baptista Fiera[3] medicus, ac Poëta.

Prandia si dederit, Veneris documenta protervus

 Nesciat: hinc sicca est, et male grata caro.

 Sit puer, aut {Cybelis} <Cybeles> poenas pro nomine falso

 Pendat, et execto sit tibi teste Capus.

 Sic praepinguis erit, sic iam dormire licebit,

 Et pariet raucae fercula larga gulae.

 Sic humens Gallina vices huic cedet honoras

 Vel nigra, vel partus sit licet indocilis.

 Sic cerebrum, Veneremque fovet: minus ignea pullo

 Vis est: sub sicco hic sit mihi {coena} <caena> cane.

 Maxima, testiculis positis tibi gloria, Galle,

 Somno, alvo, Veneri gratus es, et {Cybeli} <Cybelae>.

There are some people preferring castrated hens to both male and female young chickens for table and for feverish patients. Among us - in Bologna - it is unusual to castrate hens. To eat a rooster, especially if old aged, it is unbecoming, although this is done by country folk, and to eat it is extremely disagreeable to the palates of noblemen; in fact, as Giovanni Battista Fiera physician and poet says:

If he will give dinner parties, the wanton fellow doesn't have to know the teachings of Venus: from roosters a dry and unpleasant flesh is coming. Let him be a young one, or let him to pay the penalties of Cybele under a false name, and take a capon with cut off testicle. Thus he will be very fat, so by now he will be allowed to sleep, and he will produce hoarse throated abundant courses. Thus a damp hen will replace him in a stately way, and she has to be or black, or possibly unable to lay eggs. Thus she heats the brain and the sexual appetite: in a spring chicken there is a smaller fiery power: let him be for me a course in a dry summer. The greatest glory to you, rooster, because you lost testicles, you are pleasant to sleeping, bowel, Venus and Cybele.

Apud veteres inter caeteras, quas saginabant, saginatas Gallinas magni faciebant, ut C. Fannius legem ferre coactus fuerit, qua volucres mensis apponere prohiberet, praeter unam Gallinam, eamque quae non esset altilis. Si autem altiles apponebantur, ars culinarum erat, ut ab uno pede {laceratae} <dilatatae>[4] tota repositoria occuparent: inde illud Satyricum[5]:

 Quo gestu Lepores, {vel} <et> quo Gallina secetur <.>

Among ancients, with other birds they fattened, they held in great esteem fattened hens, so that Caius Fannius was forced to issue a law by which he prohibited to dish up birds, except only one hen, and which had not been fattened. But if fattened birds were dished up, the art of cooking consisted in the fact that stretched beginning from a leg they filled the whole tray: hence that satirical expression of Juvenal:

With what a gesture the hares and with what a hen is quartered.

Lex vero de altili Gallina ante tertium bellum Punicum undecim annis lata fuit, teste Plinio[6]: Hoc primum, inquit, antiquis coenarum interdictis exceptum invenio iam lege C. Fannii <consulis> undecim annis ante tertium Punicum bellum, ne quid volucrum poneretur, praeter unam Gallinam, quae non esset altilis: quod deinde caput translatum per omnes leges ambulavit. Inventumque diverticulum est in fraudem earum, Gallinaceos quoque pascendi lacte madidis cibis, multo ita gratiores approbantur. Haec ille.

Really eleven years before the third Punic War - on 161 BC - a law was drawn up regarding the fattened hen, as Pliny testifies who says: Among ancient prohibitions regarding courses, for the first time still in the law of the consul Caius Fannius, drawn up eleven years before the third Punic War, I find the prohibition to dish up no birds, except only one not fattened hen: this article was subsequently resumed and passed from law to law. A loophole was found to deceive these laws in raising also roosters with foods soaked in milk, so they are regarded as much more tasteful. Thus far Pliny.

Erant autem communia praecepta, et adhuc quotidie traduntur, qua ratione tenerescant, ut proprio a nobis allato capite[7] de saginatione monstratum est. Absque vero longa saginatione tenerescet, si Horatio[8] credimus.
Si vespertinus subito te oppresserit hospes<,>

Ne Gallina malum responset dura palato,

Doctus eris vivam musto mersare {falerno} <Falerno:>

Hoc teneram {facies} <faciet>.

On the other hand there were also common precepts, and they are still handed down daily, in what way they are softened, as I pointed out in the proper enclosed paragraph about fattening. But she will become tender also without a long fattening, if we believe Horace:

If suddenly an evening guest will overtake you, in order that the hen doesn't come out unpleasantly hard for the palate, you will be crafty in dipping her alive in new Falernian wine: this will soften her.

Idem praestabis imposita in anum ficu, unde Gallum immolatum Herculi recentem tenerum et pene friabilem cum quam inter obsonia obtulisset[9], tam {citis} <cutis> teneritudinem ficui acceptam retulisse legitur. Etsi tamen ita tenerae factae sint Gallinae, nonnulli eo libidinis devenerunt, ut vel unam tantummodo partem avis ad esum admitterent: unde quoque apud Plinium legimus, mox cum de saginatione harum avium locutus esset[10], nec tamen in hoc mangonio quicquam totum placet, {hic} clune, alibi pectore tantum laudatis. Haud iuste itaque Pertinacem Imp. Capitolinus[11] nimium illiberalem forte vocaverit, quod amicis aliquando lumbos Gallinaceos miserit: crediderim enim id gulae causa factum.

You will accomplish the same purpose placing a fig in the anus, hence we read that having indeed presented among dishes a rooster just immolated to Hercules tender and almost friable, he referred such a tenderness of the skin as due to the fig. However even though hens are softened in such a way, some people came to such a point of longing that accepted that only a part of the bird was eaten: hence also in Pliny we read, soon after he spoke about fattening these birds, nevertheless, in such a manner of embellishing courses, not everything is equally pleasant, since the leg is praised, elsewhere only the breast. Then Iulius Capitolinus perhaps has not rightly defined as too much stingy the emperor Pertinax because sometimes he was serving his friends with chicken’s backsides: for in my opinion this happened because of gluttony’s reasons.

Etsi autem in dorso carnis parum sit admodum, pellicula tamen ipsa, maxime in altili Gallina, pinguis est, et apprime delicata: ita et Matron apud Athenaeum[12].

Sic factus est, rident alii, moxque afferunt

Gallinas altiles in argenteis patinis

Deplumes, aetate pares, dorso laganis similes,

hoc est, ut ego expono, dorso gratas, non autem ruf{f}escente dorso, ut alii exponunt: siquidem lagana non ruf{f}escunt, sed albescunt.

But although at the back there is very little flesh, nevertheless the skin itself, especially in a fattened hen, is fat and very delicious: also Matron of Pitane in Athenaeus is expressing himself in this way:

Thus it happened, others smile, and immediately they bring forward fattened and plucked hens in silver platters, of same age, similar for the back to fritters made with honey, flour and oil,

that is, as I understand, appreciated because of the back, but not with reddish back, as others interpret: in fact those fritters are not reddish, but whitish.

Cristae etiam, et palearia privatim a quibusdam eduntur ex iure, vel assae super prunas, et dein addito pipere, et succo aurantii: nos testes etiam adiungimus, maxime die sancto Pellegrino sacro, idest, calendis Augusti, quo tempore Bononiensibus Galli castrantur. Sunt qui difficulter coqui asserant, parumque nutrire, utpote siccae naturae: attamen Galenus[13] cristas Gallinaceorum, et paleas medio loco habet, non probandas nimirum, nec improbandas. In maximis etiam apud Romanos delitiis cristas fuisse historia traditum invenimus, viri alioqui gravis invento. Eas Messalinus Cotta Messalae oratoris filius cum palmis pedum {et} <ex> Anseribus torrere, atque patinis condire reperit.[14]

Especially by some also combs and wattles are eaten in broth, or roasted on coals and then with addition of pepper and orange juice: we also add the testicles, especially on the feast of St. Pilgrim, that is, on August first, when the roosters are castrated by Bolognese people. Some are affirming that they are digested with difficulty, and that are of little nourishment, being of dry nature: nevertheless Galen is placing combs and wattles of roosters in a middle way, that is, they are not to be praised nor condemned. We find handed down by history that also among Romans the combs belonged to the biggest delights because of the finding of a though important man. Messalinus Cotta, son of the orator Messala, invented the recipe of roasting and seasoning them in frying pan with geese's legs.