merryb wrote:
> On Feb 18, 3:49 pm, "Jean B." > wrote:
>> 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
>>
>> a large olive stuffed with a paste of anchovies, capers and oil;
>> a trussed and boned garden warbler;
>> a fat ortolan;
>> a boned lark;
>> a boned thrush;
>> a fat quail;
>> a boned lapwing;
>> a boned golden plover;
>> a fat, boned, red-legged partridge;
>> a young, boned, well-hung woodcock rolled in crumbs;
>> a boned teal;
>> a boned, well-larded guinea-fowl;
>> a young, boned, tame duck;
>> a boned, fat fowl; a well-hung pheasant5;
>> a boned, fat, wild goose;
>> a fine turkey; and
>> a boned bustard.
>> 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). You
>> can compare Douglas's rendition with that on page 92 of
>> Raimbault's book via goog1e, assuming you can read French:
>>
>> <http://books.google.com/books?id=rtNqrNGoXEwC&printsec=frontcover&sou...>
>>
>> or
>>
>> http://tinyurl.com/b5beend
>
> LOL- I have that book also! One of the lines cracks me up- a well hung
> woodcock??
> I wonder if all of those birds are still around.

Yes, I liked that line too, since these recipes supposedly act as
aphrodisiacs.