Wednesday 19 September 2007

Appraylere Redux!

Finally got the video from Robin today and after a little swift editing to remove the sound....it's now available for you to see. There are actually two of them to see, one a collection that shows most of the 'unveiling' process and the second showing the batter being applied.

Why remove the sound? Mainly to protect the crowd as it happens....pure filth they were, pure filth.......

....well not really, just some innocent 'end of the pier' type humor, but you nice folks don't need to hear that now do you?


I'm pretty sure that there's less shock value in these videos than the previous pictures of the appraylere.......after all....you know what's coming don't you, still the figures will tell I'm sure.

I don't think they need much explanation, well certainly not the second one. The first one does have a few odd moments in it, early on both Jorge and I were concerned that sherd's of pot or sharp bits of glaze might ping off and hit someone, hence the covering and shielding with the cloths at the start. The wiping on the board is to try to gather up all of the very fine fragments of glaze......mainly so we didn't eat them! There are also a few moments of respite during the 'action', that's where the crowd were getting a bit carried away with themselves, or at least those two nice ladies at the end were!!

Did we learn anything from it? To be honest, I'm not too sure really. Obviously the recipe (see back a few posts) is talking about making a much larger version and not quite in such a suggestive shape. It does support other peoples research that a pitcher, as well as being a term for a large jug/liquid container that pours is by implication of the name a vessel that is sealed and made waterproof by pitch rather than glaze. We had a devil of a job getting all of the glaze fragments off of the meat and in the end only tasted from the core of the meat, leaving the edges well alone.....this probably wouldn't be as much of a problem with an unglazed or organically glazed pot. As for any more, I think I'd want to try it again..........but bigger!! (although we are limited in size by the scale of our bronze cauldrons, after all it does have to fit inside one to be poached)...........Not sure when, but rest assured that you'll all know when I do.

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