Eating Ortolans

a french delicacy … the partridge (ortolan bunting) which is cooked by allowing the meat to begin to rot, then fried whole, and is eaten (beak, bones, claws and all) after a white napkin is placed over the diner’s head

tolan+napkin&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&scoring=d&selm=371EA671.7D67F36C%40fuckyou.co.uk&rnum=7">usenet search, 29 hits circa 2009

tolan%20napkin&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&selm=371EA671.7D67F36C%40fuckyou.co.uk&rnum=7&sa=N&tab=gw">google web search

All paradise opens! Let me die eating ortolans to the sound of soft music.

Culinary history

The ortolan is French country cuisine. Mentioned by 18th century French chef M. Massialot. Considered for centuries as the “abolute pinnacle” of French gastonomic experience.

A towel is used to fully absorb the aroma and flavors — originated by a Catholic priest and friend of epicurean Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin. [toadwarrior.com/ortolan/">recipe] [video]

My grandfather used to enjoy eating ortolans in Biarritz, sometimes in the company of Rudyard Kipling.

“My grandfather used to enjoy eating ortolans in Biarritz, sometimes in the company of Rudyard Kipling”: that’s the beginning of “tor.co.uk/the-magazine/life-and-lives/27296/small-is-beautiful.thtml">Small is beautiful," an article by Simon Courtauld published in The Spectator on Wednesday, Jan 10 2007. Courtauld explains why the woodcock is choice, and must be cooked with the head on — the brains are among the best eating.

Woodcock.

Ortolan-eating in literature

One of Benjamin Disraeli’s most oft-quoted sentences: “All paradise opens! Let me die eating ortolans to the sound of soft music.” (from The Young Duke) [99-cent kindle ed.]

Sentiment echoed by Robert Louis Stevenson: “To live reading such reviews and die eating ortolans — sich is my aspiration” (letter to W.E. Henley, mid-December 1883), from Selected Letters of Robert Loius Stevenson

Louis XVIII’s way of cooking them discussed in Romances by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet (1894) (v. 23) [PDF]

Mentioned in journal of William S. Burroughs (The Cat Inside?)

Prohibition

Now banned in “civilized” France?

(2007 upholding of law passed in 1999)

“France’s songbird delicacy is outlawed,” The Telegraph, Sep 10 2007

“Dainty morsel of songbird off the menu,” The Age, September 10, 2007

“The ortolan stirs up trouble behind a white napkin,” The Independent (London), Jan 11, 1997

“At a Secret Chefs’ Dinner in France, A Tiny Songbird Lands on the Plate,” New York Times, Dec 31, 1997

Francois Mitterand had them prepared for him (illegally) as his last deathbed meal

tolan_Bunting">Wikipedia entry

For further reading

First published on February 4th, 2009 at 2:59 pm (EST) and last modified on February 17th, 2009 at 1:26 pm (EST).