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

[ad]

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”: 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.

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 [amazonify]8132025288::text::::The Young Duke[/amazonify]) [[amazonify]B001PTH1N4::text::::99-cent kin­dle ed.[/amazonify]]

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 [amazonify]0300073763::text::::Select­ed Let­ters of Robert Loius Steven­son[/amazonify]

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 ([amazonify]0142000256::text::::The Cat Inside[/amazonify]?)

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

[amazonify]8132025288[/amazonify]

[amazonify]0300073763[/amazonify]

[amazonify]0142000256[/amazonify]

[amazonify]B000WRAAOW[/amazonify]

[amazonify]B000P6O0AA[/amazonify]

[amazonify]0517506629[/amazonify]

[amazonify]1568582692[/amazonify]

---