Jean B. > wrote:

[snippage throughout]

> Paging through Venus in the Kitchen or Love's Cookery Book by
> Pilaff Bey (pseudonym of Norman Douglas), I came across the
> following: Rôti Sans Pareil. Going from the smallest item to the
> largest, we have
[snip]
> This was apparently an abbreviated form of a recipe that was in
> A. T. Raimbault's Le Parfait Cuisinier (1814). Douglas points out
> some problems, like the impossibility of stuffing larger birds
> into smaller ones (e.g., stuffing a lapwing into a plover).
[snip]

I am sure you have read "South Wind through the Kitchen" by Elizabeth
David, which is included in the "Omelette and a Glass of Wine". There,
she makes it clear that Douglas, in his book, never suggests that he
regards the recipes he includes as anything more than a jovial
diversion.

Victor