I have seen many occasions (mostly in old TV, movies and cartoons) where people are preparing a bird to be cooked, and they would stick those little white things over the "feet”, or the base of the legs. They resembled socks, or perhaps tiny little white chef hats.
Some questions here:
1.) What do you call those things?
2.) What purpose did (do) they serve?
3.) Does anyone still use them?
No idea.
Decorative, I believe.
I’ve seen them in supermarkets occasionally (usually around Christmas) so I assume there are people out there using them.
I don’t know, but I’ll try to find out.
They were merely decorative–they hide the ends of the leg bone, which are somewhat grisly-looking, if you think about it.
You can probably still buy them, but I’ve never seen them used outside of cookbooks from the '50s or earlier.
You know I used to sell them but I can’t for the life of me remember the actual name.
In answer to your second and third question they were used purely for appearance sake. The bone which protrudes from the meat in a chicken or a turkey or crown roast or rack of lamb (the tips are used on all of them) is less that attractive so they were contrived to cover up the ugly bits.
They are still sold in better cooking shops and catalogs. Pretty much anyplace that sells Emile Henry (and pronounces Emeel Onrie or Arnry) and Mauviel Cuprinox cookwear should have them. They are usually made of butcher paper and bought by four or a dozen.
According to this site they are called “poultry frills.”
As to what they are called and whether anyone still uses them, that’s up for grabs.
When it comes to why, I believe this relates closely to why so many of my girl friends have required me to remove the fish’s head before serving it at table.
The “socks” serve to conceal the glaring fact that the feet are no longer attached to the fowl in question. We will ignore for now that neither is the head, but that is neatly concealed by the upside down position of the bird.
In short, they cover up the nasty looking exposed ankle joints and any tendons or other viscera. There may be the remotest chance that the use of these “socks” date back to the time when it was still accepted practice to grab the cooked appendage in question and begin gnawing. In that case, the “sock” kept your hand from getting greasy.
Please refer to why cooks continue to place “socks” or olives on the exposed bone ends of a standing rack of lamb. I am confident that the same reasons apply.
Just trying to disguise the fact that we are serving the carcass of a bird who was minding his own business and bothering no one.
I always like sailor’s comments: Acerbic, but not mean.
My Grandmother used to put them on the lamb when she’d make rack of lamb. From what I could tell, they were purely decoration. She called them, oddly enough, “panties”.
sailor, have you ever lived next to someone that had chickens, roosters especially?
Bothering no one? Harrumph!
>> roosters especially??
So, not content with killing the bird we now humiliate him by making him wear those things.
I can imagine the satisfaction of the chickens who had been bullied around by the rooster: “You remember Bill who was always so cocky and pushing us around? Ha, ha, if only you would have seen him after the farmer’s wife was done with him! That oughta teach him a lesson!”