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Ortolans, Stewed, with Truffles
Take as many large even-sized truffles as there are ortolans. Make a large round hole in the middle of each truffle, and put in it a little chicken forcemeat. Cut off the heads, necks, and feet of the ortolans, season the birds with a little salt and pepper, and lay each on its back in one of the truffles. Arrange them side by side in a deep stewpan, lay thin slices of bacon upon them, pour over them in equal proportions as much good stock and Madeira as will cover them, and simmer them very gently for twenty-five minutes. Dish the ortolans and the truffles on toast, and pile them high in the dish. Strain the gravy, thicken it to the consistency of cream, and pour it over the birds. Sufficient, half a dozen for four persons.
This dish cannot be sourced legally in most of the world, and the reason is the bird itself rather than anything in the method.
- The ortolan is a protected speciesThe ortolan bunting (Emberiza hortulana) is protected across Europe under the EU Birds Directive; France banned its hunting in 1979, though the ban went largely unenforced for years before EU pressure forced the tolerated trade to be shut down. Trapping, sale, possession and consumption are offences, and populations have fallen sharply since this book was written.
- No substitute is being offered hereSmall game birds are not interchangeable in a recipe built around a bird eaten whole, bones and all, at a couple of ounces each. If you want a stewed-bird-and-truffle dish, use a current recipe written for poultry or farmed quail.
- In the US as wellNative buntings and most small migratory songbirds are covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits taking, killing or possessing them. There is no lawful commercial supply of ortolans in the United States.
- The truffle count is the other obstacleSix truffles large enough to hollow out and seat a bird in, one per ortolan, is a substantial quantity of fresh truffle. At current prices for fresh Périgord or Alba truffle this is a several-hundred-dollar garnish, which tells you what kind of table Cassell's expected here.
- What the method does tell youThe technique is a bare-simmer braise: the birds barded with thin bacon and cooked in equal parts stock and Madeira in a deep stewpan. That principle is sound and survives in modern game cookery; only the protected quarry has gone.
- "Thicken to the consistency of cream"Period shorthand for reducing the strained braising liquor and binding it with a little kneaded butter and flour, or simply reducing until it coats. It is a sauce meant to nap, not to pool.
The ortolan bunting was for centuries among the most freighted delicacies in French gastronomy: a migratory bird caught in the south-west in autumn, fattened in darkened cages on millet, and traditionally eaten whole in one mouthful, bones included, with a napkin drawn over the diner's head.