I tried roasting a capon Saturday. For those of you who are wondering what a "capon" is, it is a male chicken that has been surgically castrated much like how a steer is a surgically castrated bull. Rooster meat is nearly inedible as it is usually very tough and stringy, making it undesirable from a culinary standpoint. Caponizing a rooster and raising it for meat makes the bird's flesh much more tender and palatible than that of an intact male. Capons are also larger than hens on average, so you also get a larger bird when you buy a capon. Finally, capon meat is much more delicious than that of regular chicken.

Caponizing a rooster is becoming a lost techique, as the testicles of birds are inside their body cavity, and unless a person knows what he is doing, he might end up killing the young rooster by accident. Because of this, it is becoming very difficult to find capons in the store, and when you do they are usually very expensive. Most meat counter clerks do not even know what a capon is, and will give you a blank look if you ask them about ordering one.

I found a pair of frozen capons on sale over at the St. Joseph's meat market in the nearby town of St. Joseph. They were only two dollars a pound and the usual price of capon is around $3.50 a pound so this was a good deal. They have been sitting in my freezer ever since mid-September. As I was low on food last week, I decided to roast one of them and not worry about shopping or cooking for the next five days.

The capon was a rather large bird, weighing in at around ten and a half pounds. I put the bird in the oven with my patented mixture of vegetables and set the oven temperature. The capon was still partially frozen, but it was defrosted enough that I was able to pull the paper bag of guts out that had been stuffed in the thoracic cavity of the bird by the meat packer. I put the heart in the roasting pan with the capon to be cooked with the rest of dinner and saved the entrails for Sunday breakfast.

After around five hours or so, the bird was done, so I set about scooping the potatoes and corn out of the pan and carving the capon. I attempted to cut the pelvic joint in half with the knife as I was in the mood for a drumstick, but it fell apart leaving me with a bone and a few strips of cartilage in my hand. The meat was so tender, it literally slid off of the bone. Carving the capon properly was going to be impossible as any attempt to grab a wing or leg for leverage as I cut resulted in the appendage becoming dislocated or detached. I just used a fork to stab at meat at the bottom of the pan with as there was little need for the knife at this point.

I put a few sizable pieces of capon meat on my plate along with some roasted potatoes and corn. It had been a long time since I have had capon of any type and I was immediately rewarded with the succulent taste of the bird's flesh as I happily chewed on the remains of its dismembered leg. The corn and potatoes had also been cooked to perfection, and it was an enjoyable evening overall as it went perfectly with a glass of my homebrewed ginger barkshack mead that I had opened for the occasion. Those of you who had never had capon before are really missing out.

In retrospect, I highly recommend capons as they are more delicious and larger than a traditional chicken. They are also more flavorful than your typical roast turkey and usually more tender. The only downside is that they are hard to find and they are more expensive than many other types of poultry at the store. However if you ever get a chance to order or buy one, treat yourself, The experience will be worth it.