Day: July 16, 2011

Todd Farm Flea Market in Rowley is always a lot of fun. Many Cape Ann citizens (and even a few GMG contributors, like Alicia) are regulars at the Flea Market. We know a good thing when we see it. If you happen to be over there tomorrow morning, stop in and say hi. There might even be a free cup of coffee in it for you! I’m on twitter @therovinghome if you want to have a flea market tweet-off tomorrow or need to track me down…

That we can get into some very lofty discussions over here at Madfish Wharf on Rocky Neck?  This morning Wendie Demuth and I were talking about cooking bluefish, after Adam Bolonsky said he was going bluefishing and would bring us one if he was successful.  I said I had only cooked bluefish once, baked with mayonnaise and capons.  Wendie said there was no such thing as a capon, except to describe a superhero after he has gotten dressed, and I must have meant capers, which is what I had meant.  But in fact, capons are roosters that have been castrated to improve the quality of their flesh for food. 

Caponization is the process of turning a rooster into a capon, and can be done by surgically removing the rooster’s testes, or may also be accomplished through the use of estrogen implants. With either method, the sex hormones normally present in roosters are no longer effective. Caponization must be done before the rooster matures, so that it develops without the influence of sex hormones.  Capons, due to the lack of sex hormones, are not as aggressive as normal roosters. This makes capons easier to handle, and allows capons to be kept together since their reduced aggressiveness prevents them from fighting.

The lack of sex hormones results in meat that is less gamy in taste. Capon meat is also more moist, tender, and flavorful than that of a hen or rooster, which is due not only to the hormonal differences during the capon’s development but is also because capons are not as active as roosters, which makes their meat more tender and fatty.  Superman is protecting this rooster from caponization.

Capers on the other hand are the unripened flower buds of Capparis spinosa, a prickly, perennial plant native to the Mediterranean and some parts of Asia. Their use dates back beyond 3000 B.C. where they are mentioned as a food in the Sumerian cuneiform Gilgamesh, an ancient retelling of a great flood and ark legend.  The small, green herb buds lend a piquant sour and salty flavor to salads, dressings, sauces, vegetables and a variety of main dishes. They add a nice flavor to bluefish, and probably to capons too, and can be enjoyed by superheroes everywhere, with our without their capon, and whether or not they are trying to solve capers.

E.J. Lefavour

www.khanstudiointernational.com

Hi, Joey,
As an ex-gloucesterman and artist I look at thousands of local pictures and maps.  I know that the East Gloucester Ferry ran from the railways on Rocky Neck to about where the Coast Guard Base is today.  But I’ve never seen a picture of the Ferry which someone told me was Little Giant.  Wonder if any of your eaders could send in one to GMG?  Also, there are a number of sizable granite piers on Lobster Cove in Annisquam and I know it was frequented by coasting and fishing schooners in the past.  I’d like to now when the wooden(now footbridge) was built and, it it originally had a span that opened.  I hope one of your readers can answer that too.
Bill Hubbard
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Doug Silva manager at The Topside Grille writes us that you can go in and ask for a free raffle ticket to win two front row Nascar tickets for tomorrow at Laconia.

Joey,
You’ve had some great blogs thes past few weeks especially the Fiesta pictures.
Hers’s my latest painting.  It’s based on a 1909 post card that was titled, Coasting schooner in Gloucester Harbor.  I could not recognize the local from the picture but it was probably around the head of the harbor and it does look familiar.
Bill Hubbard
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Visit my artists website at:
http://bill-hubbard.fineartamerica.com