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Birds
(Arrosto di uccelli) The best way to cook birds, and that nearly always used by the Italians, is roasted at the spit. They must be spitted with a small slice of bread between each bird. Also wrap each bird in very thin slices of bacon, in such a way that it can be spitted with this covering. Mind to slice the bacon almost as thin as paper. Pass some oil-only once-over when they begin to brown, using a brush or a feather, and salt only once, moderately. Put on the fire when near to be served, otherwise they may get dry and lose much of their flavor. The cooking is rapidly done if on a good fire. 133
A spit recipe for small game birds, written for an open wood or charcoal fire. The whole method rests on speed and fat: thin bacon and a single pass of oil keep birds that weigh a few ounces from drying out in the minutes they need.
- Which birds, and the lawThe original names no species, and most likely assumes thrushes, larks and other small birds of the kind netted in Italy at the time. Songbirds are protected in the United States under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and across the EU under the Birds Directive; buy farmed quail, or squab if you want something larger. Four to six quail serve two people as a course.
- Bacon, not modern streakyThe bacon here is most likely unsmoked pork fatback, lardo or pancetta, used purely as barding fat. Sliced paper-thin it melts over the breast; modern sugar-cured smoked bacon will scorch and dominate the flavor. Ask for fatback or lardo shaved as thin as it will go -- the recipe wants it almost as thin as paper.
- The bread between the birdsThe slices are not garnish but drip-catchers, threaded on the spit so they absorb rendering fat and juices. Use a firm country loaf, cut about half an inch thick, and serve them under the birds.
- Oil and salt once onlyRepeated basting with oil washes fat and juice off into the fire and steams the skin. One brushing at the point of coloring, one moderate salting, and nothing more.
- Fire and timingThe recipe gives no times, only that cooking is rapid over a good fire. On a rotisserie over a hot charcoal bed, expect roughly 12 to 15 minutes for quail and perhaps 20 minutes or so for squab, checking early. Small birds overcook fast; pull them when the breast reads 160-165F for quail and hold no longer than a few minutes.
- Without a spitBarded and trussed birds roast well on a rack in a hot oven, 450F, turning once, for about the same times. Uncover the breast for the last three minutes to crisp the skin if the fat has not fully rendered.
- "Put on the fire when near to be served"This is the hinge of the recipe. These birds do not rest and do not wait; time the fire to the table rather than the other way round.
Arrosto di uccelli belongs to a long Italian tradition of eating small birds taken in autumn migration, cooked whole and eaten more or less entire, with the bread beneath them counted as part of the dish. Maria Gentile's The Italian Cook Book (1919) was compiled for American readers, and the recipe names no species: whatever came home in the bag went on the spit. Bird-netting on that scale has since been curtailed by conservation law across Europe, and the surviving version of the dish in Italian restaurants is usually made with farmed quail. The technique itself — barding lean meat with paper-thin fat, basting once, and roasting hot and fast — is older than the book and still the correct treatment for any bird small enough to cook in a quarter of an hour.