In the 17th and 18th century, Matelotage (MAT – loo- taz) was the term used for a same-sex civil union among sailors, in particular pirates! Since this dish is roasted in a spiced rum, I thought it fitting to tell about the true story of The real Pirate Captain Henry Morgan. Besides this is such a fantastic dish that is perfect for the changing weather!
Chicken thighs, pan roasted in a creamy rum sauce will warm yer “timbers” and offer a great topic of dinner conversation about a history you were never told about.
Ingredients
4 chicken thighs
Kosher salt to taste
2 TBS olive oil
3½ oz mushrooms
4 TBS flour
½ cup Spiced Rum
1 can evaporated milk
⅔ C chicken stock
1 TBS butter
1 TBS plain Greek-style yogurt
2 tsp chopped rosemary or sage
½ tablespoon finely chopped parsley, to finish
Directions:
Set the chicken out to come to room temperature, about 30 mins and sprinkle with corn starch to dry out the skin. Season the chicken thighs aggressively with salt.
Set a Dutch oven over medium high heat, and swirl the olive oil into it. Add the chicken to the pan, skin-side down. Let them cook until a golden brown, crisp on one side and just kissed by the heat on the other, approximately 30 minutes total. Remove the meat to a plate.
Rinse the mushrooms well and let dry while the thighs cook.
Discard all but 2 TBS of fat in the pan and add the mushrooms, tossing to coat them with fat. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms just begin to soften, approximately 3-4 minutes, then sprinkle with flour. Stir well to coat. Add the spiced rum, and cook it on very low heat until the alcohol has evaporated and the mushrooms are glossy.
Scrape the mushrooms to the sides of the pan, then return the chicken pieces, arranged in a single layer if possible. Pour the can of evaporated milk around the chicken. Lower heat to medium, allow the mixture to come to a low simmer, then put a lid on the pan and allow the mixture to cook slowly until the meat has cooked through, approximately 15 minutes.
Remove the lid from the pan, and transfer the chicken pieces to a platter to rest. Turn the heat to medium high, and allow the liquid to reduce by 1/3, then add the chicken stock and stir to incorporate. Let this mixture simmer for a minute or 2 until it starts to thicken, and swirl again to combine.
Continue cooking the sauce until it can coat the back of a spoon, approximately 2-3 minutes more, then stir in the butter, yogurt and chopped sage and stir to combine. Turn the heat off, stir one more time and then return the chicken pieces to the pan. Spoon some sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with the parsley and serve.
Serve this with some roasted green beans and maybe green peas.
Avast ye buccaneers, as ye eat, remember to honor yer fallen breathern.
Tomorrow we sail for adventure and booty! Arrrrr. Them's that die are the lucky ones!
So honored to be serving my captain, Master Indy.
For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGWs1HK8iDU Last Farewell
socialslave
To satisfy and restore.
To nourish, support and maintain.
To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,
to nurture, assist, and sustain
…..I cook!
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Swashbuckling Gay Pirates
Matelotage (MAT – loo- taz) was a same-sex civil union among sailors, in particular pirates, in the 17th and 18th century. An economic partnership, "matelots" would agree to share their incomes, and inherit their partner's property in the case of their death.
The lesbian and gay pirates of the 17th century lived believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. They even had a form of health insurance! Piracy was a world apart, and one where homosexual couples may have been the norm, not the exception.
Same-sex action and the sea have long gone together. Captains on navy and merchant ships must have accepted, if not engaged in, gay sex. But technically it was illegal in many navies. Britain’s Royal Navy punished ‘sodomy’ or ‘buggery’ with lashes and even hanging.
Piracy offered a release from sexual restrictions alongside society’s other rules. Pirates consciously separated themselves from the rest of society. Some engaged in salt-water baptisms, gave themselves new names or toasted each other with seawater to mark their new life together. And they embraced the all male world they joined.
Most of our modern pirate myths stem from the Golden Age of Piracy, from the 1650s to the 1730s. It was born on the island of Hispaniola (which is nowadays Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in the Caribbean.
By 1605, Spain had abandoned its colonies in the impoverished north of the island. So runaway slaves, mutinous soldiers and sailors, almost anyone who had a reason to hide, could find safe haven there. Initially they hunted pigs and cattle, which they smoked over a wooden fire called ‘boucan’. That earned them the name ‘buccaneers’.
It was an almost entirely male society, so they lived in same-sex couples.
Eventually, the Spanish persecution forced the buccaneers to move to the smaller island of Tortuga, off the north coast of Hispaniola. This was more defensible but had even fewer natural resources. So piracy became their main source of income.
The real Captain Henry Morgan was a privateer – a state-sponsored pirate. And before he attacked Panama in the 1670s, he drew up an amazing contract for his crew. If they lost a hand or foot in the battle, they would get 600 pieces of eight compensation. Both legs were worth 1,800 pieces of eight, 200 for one eye and 2,000 if they became totally blind.
But they didn’t just have health insurance. A form of same-sex civil unions, called matelotage, was also common.
Buccaneer Alexander Exquemelin wrote: ‘It is the general and solemn custom amongst them all to seek out… a comrade or companion, whom we may call partner… with whom they join the whole stock of what they possess.’
Your partner was called a ‘matelot’, which can also be translated as bunkmate. It’s possible the relationships started with one man selling their services to another, to satisfy debts, get food or for protection. But it went deeper than that. If one matelot died, his partner inherited his property and share of the booty. Pirates respected matelotage enough that they wouldn’t interfere with the relationships.
The contemporary writer Captain Johnson, who may be the same person as Daniel Defoe, records the depth of these pairings. He says one pirate turned privateer drowned rather than abandon his partner on a sinking vessel.
In 1666 Morgan was made Colonel of the Port Royal Militia and elected Admiral by his fellow privateers. The ‘king of the privateers’ was then appointed Commander-in-chief of all Jamaican forces in 1669, and by 1670 he had 36 ships and 1800 men under his command.
In 1671 he led an attack on Panama City, the capital city of Spanish America and reputed to be one of the wealthiest cities in the world, a great prize for privateers. Although outnumbered by the Spanish, Morgan’s reputation preceded him; the defenders fled and the city fell, burning to the ground.
Even the “Dreaded Private Roberts” had a famous affair with a surgeon called George Wilson who volunteered to join the pirates when they took his ship.
When separated for about five months, both men were excited by this reunion. Witnesses later said Wilson was ‘very alert and cheerful’ to see Roberts. And he borrowed ‘a clean shirt and drawers’ to look smarter for the pirate captain.
Once on Roberts’ ship, Wilson got himself elected senior surgeon and became intimate with the captain. One account says: ‘They two often said that if they should meet with any of the Turnip Man’s ships [English King George I] they would blow up and go to hell together.’
There were plenty of other same-sex couples in the pirate world.
The history is rarely told. “They” have tried for centuries to hide all traces of gay people from us growing up. But the romanticized idea of gay pirates continues to inspire us.
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