After A R MacDougall’s recipe in The Gourmets’ Almanac 1931
‘If you know any newly rich bootleggers or any racketeering parvenus who would care to
make a sensation at one of their costly dinner parties…’
Take an olive, marinaded in oil and
stuff it into the smallest bird you can –
a fig-pecker, or fat and fleshy ortolan.
Once the ortolan has been stuffed
place it in something bigger, say, a thrush;
the thrush, then is also trussed
then placed within a plump plover;
but make sure you give that a cover
of bacon, or something similar, so that over
and through it all the juices run
and mingle. Then get a fat young capon
Or pheasant (if pheasant, make sure it’s hung),
which then goes inside a goose, young and tender.
Cook it slow so that the fat will render
down, and after several hours send an
odour of plains, forests, marshes, poultry yards.
Then take each bird, unpick it, discard
the carcasses, one by one. This bit’s hard
because you want to eat them, enjoy the flavour,
the reward of all those hours waiting and labour.
But, now take the olive, pop it in your mouth –
And savour.
Saleel Nurbhai grew up in the UK and Australia. He has published short stories and poetry which have been included in The Redbeck Anthology of British South Asian Poetry and in 20/30 Vision, and he has written and performed monologues and short stories for the radio. He’s also published theatre and music reviews, academic essays and articles, and is co-author of the monograph, George Eliot, Judaism and the Novels. He now teaches part-time for Lancaster University.
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