Mi Casserole es Su casserole

I came across a little book recently called "A Flummery of Food Feasts for Epicures" printed in the UK. (2005) One of the recipes is as follows:

Roti Sans Pariel.

Take a large olive, stone it and stuff it with a paste made of anchovy, capers and oil.



Put the olive inside a trussed and boned bec-figue (garden warbler).



Put the bec-figue inside a fat ortolan.



Put the ortolan inside a boned lark.



Put the stuffed lark into a boned thrush.



Put the thrush inside a fat quail.



Put the quail, wrapped in vine-leaves, inside a boned lapwing.




Put the lapwing inside a boned golden plover.



Put the plover inside a fat, boned, red-legged partridge.



Put the partridge inside a young, boned and well-hung woodcock. (I think they meant aged by well hung).



Put the well aged woodcock, rolled in bread-crumbs, inside a boned teal.




Put the teal inside a boned guinea-fowl. (Stupidest bird in the known universe)




Put the guinea-fowl, well larded, inside a young and boned tame duck.




Put the duck inside a boned and fat fowl ie; chicken.




Put the fowel inside a well aged pheasant.




Put the pheasant inside a boned and fat wild goose. Well, not so wild but pretty cranky.



Put the goose inside a fine turkey.




Put the turkey inside a boned bustard.



Having arranged your roast after this fashion, place it in a large sauce pan of a proper size with onions stuffed with cloves, carrots, small squares of ham, celery, mignonette, (sauce of capers and vinegar), several strips of bacon well seasoned, pepper, salt, spice (?), coriander seeds and two cloves of garlic. (obviously NOT ENOUGH GARLIC!)

Seal the saucepan hermetically by closing it with pastry. Then put it in for ten hours over a gentle fire and arrange it so that the heat penetrates evenly. An oven moderately heated would suit better than cooking on the hearth. Before serving, remove the pastry, put your roast on a hot dish after removing the grease, if thre is any, and serve.

Taken from "Venus in the Kitchen or Love's Cookery Book".

That is SEVENTEEN birds, all to be boned and a few that I am sure are on the endangered species list. Of course this recipe comes from when Passenger Pigeons filled the sky and they were sick of coming up for recipes for them.

And then you cook it at 350 degree oven for TEN hours. I'm guessing it takes at least five hours to bone and assemble the birds. After you send the entire population of a small village out to hunt down the feathered ingredients. Epicure, indeed.

Sure beats the stuffin' out of Turduckin.