Eating the Birds of America: Audubon's Culinary Reviews of America's Birds
154 points by Morizero 10 months ago | 95 comments- KineticLensman 10 months agoWhy stop at birds? The Victorian William Buckland [0] had a personal mission to eat one of every kind of animal in existence. He was also appointed Dean of Westminster and, like Charles Darwin, belonged to the Glutton Club. Mice on toast were a particular favourite, apparently.
[0] https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/08/26/victorian-zoologis...
- Loughla 10 months agoI was into it until he ate a mummified human heart.
- standardUser 10 months ago> Inside the locket was a piece of the mummified heart of King Louis XVI. On being shown the artifact, Buckland promptly ate it.
I admire the dedication! Though question the immediate destruction of a unique artifact.
- standardUser 10 months ago
- greggsy 10 months agoMice are the sardines of the mammal world.
- ThePowerOfFuet 10 months agoI'm going to have to remember that one.
- ThePowerOfFuet 10 months ago
- jojohohanon 10 months agoI think Roald Dahl had one story about a man who went to great lengths to eat a ghost.
- JetSpiegel 10 months agoYou mean that Aardman film with Darwin the badguy who wants to eats the dodos is based on real life?
- gerdesj 10 months agoJust riffing on the Roman thing: Mice - glires.
Remarkable Italian invention ...
Nothing is new
- djtango 10 months agoThanks for sharing, thoroughly enjoyed that read
- perihelion_zero 10 months ago[flagged]
- Loughla 10 months ago
- burcs 10 months agoOf course our national bird would be "veal in taste and tenderness." The Bald Eagle truly is the modern day forbidden fruit.
- alaxsxaq 10 months agoI live in an area where there are plentiful eagles and I never heard of anyone eating one. I kayak around some islands in a nearby river where eagles nest and frequently encounter people at boat landings inquiring about eagle feathers. The laws around that stuff are pretty harsh - I always figured them to be under-cover Feds.
- xattt 10 months agoI don’t believe there are carnivorous and scavenger birds that are eaten for food.
- cmrdporcupine 10 months agoWe eat omnivorous birds though (chickens, esp)
- technothrasher 10 months agoCrows are carnivorous scavenger birds that are actually eaten by quite a lot of people, at least here in the Northeastern US.
- cmrdporcupine 10 months ago
- lazide 10 months agoWell, it is a felony with significant levels of enforcement - not likely something someone is going to brag about and get away with for long.
- kbelder 10 months agoReminds me of an old joke about sick eagles that ends with the punchline "ill eagle feathers!"
- xattt 10 months ago
- dwcnnnghm 10 months agoJapan’s national bird (green pheasant) is, IIRC, the only national bird that’s also a game bird. There’s not many stories or symbolism with green pheasants (as opposed to, say, cranes) and it’s mostly known in the country as food. I’ve seen it argued that it was selected because it’s delicious (though the official line seems to be their ability to recognize earthquakes)
- paranoidrobot 10 months agoThe animals on Australia's coat of arms: Emu and Kangaroo, are both able to be eaten. The Emu is our national bird.
I don't know if they're technically game meats but I can buy them both commercially. Kangaroo meat is in most supermarkets, and Emu in speciality butchers.
- technothrasher 10 months agoWhen I was in Namibia and saw oryx on the menu at a restaurant, I ask them if they really ate their national animal. The waiter's response was, "oh, heck, no. These oryx are from South Africa!" Touché.
- sien 10 months agoYou can get a 'Coat of Arms Pizza' at the Australian Heritage Hotel in Sydney
"half emu & half pepper kangaroo, slow roasted tomato, charred peppers, lemon myrtle mayo"
It was good the last time I had it.
- technothrasher 10 months ago
- seszett 10 months ago> Japan’s national bird (green pheasant) is, IIRC, the only national bird that’s also a game bird
France's national bird is the rooster, it's not really a game bird but it's definitely eaten.
- Ichthypresbyter 10 months ago>Japan’s national bird (green pheasant) is, IIRC, the only national bird that’s also a game bird.
Pakistan and Gibraltar both have national birds that are partridges (the chukar and the Barbary partridge respectively).
- yongjik 10 months ago(Off-topic?) Not talking about the pheasant, but I once read that the Japanese used to eat cranes (presumably the same kind shown in JAL logo), and even offered them as delicacy to a group of Korean ambassadors, who were horrified, because cranes were considered a symbol of Confucian virtue in Korea and nobody ate them.
- darth_avocado 10 months ago> Japan’s national bird (green pheasant) is, IIRC, the only national bird that’s also a game bird.
India’s national bird is the Peacock. It is a type of pheasant and was historically a game bird that was a common delicacy, especially for the rich. It is now illegal to hunt peacock in India, but people still get it in the black market.
- paranoidrobot 10 months ago
- saalweachter 10 months agoThere's a reason the Bald Eagle won out over the Turkey for national bird.
- jfengel 10 months agoI'm skeptical. Eagles have well-worked muscles, which are usually tough. And they're carrion eaters, which are rarely delicious.
I haven't tried one, of course, so perhaps reality differs from theory. But I wonder if somebody's not telling the truth here (him, or his cook).
- KineticLensman 10 months agoLots of eagles eat freshly caught fish, not carrion
- exhilaration 10 months agoTrue. In Alaska, bald eagles swarm fish boats the way seagulls will swarm your picnic at the beach. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLMa1DO-x5g
- exhilaration 10 months ago
- KineticLensman 10 months ago
- alaxsxaq 10 months ago
- jihadjihad 10 months agoI'm reminded of the Ortolan Bunting, a bird prized in French cuisine and with a most unforgettable method of preparation and consumption.
They're caught with nets, force-fed with grain, drowned in Armagnac, seasoned, and then cooked in their own fat. When you eat one, you hold onto its head and place it feet-first into your mouth, all while wearing a towel or napkin on your head to "shield from God's eyes the shame of such a decadent and disgraceful act" [0].
0: https://web.archive.org/web/20210303221803/https://www.teleg...
- AdmiralAsshat 10 months agoFirst the foie gras, now this. Are there any other "Torture the creature before eating it" French dishes we should know about?
- dfxm12 10 months agoWhy single out France or foie gras? When you look at factory farms across the globe, force feeding ducks is just one of many ways we torture the animals we eat.
- codetrotter 10 months ago> Why single out France or four gras?
Because foie gras is defined as the liver of a duck or goose fattened by force feeding.
If the animal wasn’t force fed, it literally wouldn’t be foie gras.
Most other forms of animal cruelty in food production is because of industrialization. We could clean up many of those and still sell the products without so much mistreatment.
Foie gras can only be made by mistreating the animal. So it’s gonna be specifically called out.
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- codetrotter 10 months ago
- standardUser 10 months agoSouth Korea has that covered. There's a (presumably minor) tradition of eating things like fish, squid and octopus while they are still alive.
Similarly, I ate drunken prawns in China, though I can't say for certain if those shrimp were stunned or actually dead.
- dgacmu 10 months agoNot french per se, but the victorians also ate "slink veal" - an unborn calf either spontaneously aborted or removed from the carcass after slaughter. Not too popular (or legal) today.
- wazoox 10 months agoSnails are put to diet for a few days, then kept in salt and vinegar to "slime out" for 24 to 48h -- probably quite unpleasant for them.
- alnwlsn 10 months agoLobster?
- AdmiralAsshat 10 months agoI'm not aware of any recipes that force the lobster to gorge itself before killing it? Most lobster recipes usually involve bisecting the lobster's head with a sharp knife (killing it instantly), or dunking it into boiling water (which is probably incredibly painful for the duration, but ostensibly kills it within 10 seconds or so).
- AdmiralAsshat 10 months ago
- dfxm12 10 months ago
- rwmj 10 months agoUnfortunately not a historic curiosity. I know somehow who ate one in France a decade or so ago.
- JumpCrisscross 10 months ago> know somehow who ate one in France a decade or so ago
Technically banned for over a decade, FYI [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortolan_bunting#Legal_status
- MisterBastahrd 10 months agoI remember reading this article in Esquire about Francois Mitterand and his last great meal:
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a4642/the-last-meal-05...
- MisterBastahrd 10 months ago
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- JumpCrisscross 10 months ago
- wepple 10 months agoI recall reading about this in “The Scavengers Guide to Haute Cuisine”. In it. Steven Rinella creates a feast from Escoffier’s classic book. Excellent read.
- az226 10 months agoAnd eaten with bones and all in one bite.
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FF 10 months agoEvidence for solipsism, I say!
- BoingBoomTschak 10 months ago"Brutal."
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- AdmiralAsshat 10 months ago
- alnwlsn 10 months agofrom Wikipedia - "Carolina parakeets were probably poisonous – Audubon noted that cats apparently died from eating them, and they are known to have eaten the toxic seeds of cockleburs."
Interesting that this apparently didn't stop him from eating one.
- sharpshadow 10 months agoI think toxins distribute in various areas with different amounts in the body. Eating the flesh should have less than some organs I guess. Cats probably eat everything and they are quite small.
After a while the toxins wear off.
- pasquinelli 10 months agoif anything, a cat might eat the organs and leave the rest.
- pasquinelli 10 months ago
- sharpshadow 10 months ago
- simonw 10 months agoMy partner works in conservation and goes to a lot of wildlife conferences. One of her favourite ice-breaker questions is "have you ever eaten your study animal?"
- federalfarmer 10 months agoWe did some pest control on the farm this year and thinned out the pigeon population. A delicious bird, tasted like steak. I understand why they remain a delicacy in France and Vietnam.
A shame that some of these less delectable birds are still extinct.
Thanks for sharing!
- jmalicki 10 months agoThey're also a delicacy in the US, just marketed as squab to avoid the ick factor many might feel. Appears on many a Michelin star menu.
- perihelions 10 months agoAlso in the Maghreb! I believe that's where France imported the concept from (but I'm not sure).
- rsynnott 10 months agoUnlikely; breeding pigeons for meat in Europe goes back to, at least, the Romans, so the French likely got it from them if they weren’t previously doing it.
- federalfarmer 10 months agoPigeon pie is now a bucket list delicacy.
- rsynnott 10 months ago
- Loughla 10 months agoWe live near some bridges that attract pigeons. We have purposely built roost areas and leave grain out to bring them in to shoot. Not sure it's super legal to do that though.
They're delicious.
- jmalicki 10 months ago
- office_drone 10 months ago> When they feed on grasshoppers and strawberries, Upland Sandpipers are “truly delicious.”
In our era where foodies exist and some number of them have effectively no spending limit, I wonder if any business raises sandpipers for use in a truly rare dining experience.
- foreigner 10 months agoThis is the plot of "The Freshman", which is an excellent movie. Starring Matthew Broderick, and featuring Marlon Brando parodying himself in The Godfather!
- bwestergard 10 months agoThey are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty, and in the U.S. under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
- office_drone 10 months agoThat just means that certain permits may be needed, and only in two countries out of the bird's natural range of two dozen.
- msrenee 10 months agoThree countries, but your point stands.
- msrenee 10 months ago
- office_drone 10 months ago
- foreigner 10 months ago
- jojohohanon 10 months agoNo songbirds drowned in cognac, eaten whole with a napkin over your head?
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- sebmellen 10 months agoHow interesting that Audubon, so often associated with conservation and protection of birds, was such a voracious bird consumer! Wild!
- shagie 10 months agoThe National Audubon Society (founded 1905) is about c̶o̶n̶v̶e̶r̶s̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ (accursed auto incorrect) conservation of birds. (thank you!)
John James Audubon (1785 - 1851) was a very different person. He was a naturalist, painter, and studied ornithology... and his ethics were from that age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon#Art_and_met...
> Audubon developed his own methods for drawing birds. First, he killed them using fine shot. He then used wires to prop them into a natural position, unlike the common method of many ornithologists, who prepared and stuffed the specimens into a rigid pose. When working on a major specimen like an eagle, he would spend up to four 15-hour days, preparing, studying, and drawing it.
I recall a story with an eagle where he was trying to asphyxiate it with smoke (so that he wouldn't damage it) - the means and the time it took to do that would be considered by today's standards to be quite cruel.
- pvg 10 months agoconversation of birds
over a delectable meal of birds, no doubt.
- lioeters 10 months agoNaturally the conversation turns to the Persian poem, The Conference of the Birds (or Speech of the Birds), where the birds of the world gather and travel in search of the legendary Simorgh, the sovereign of birds.
- lioeters 10 months ago
- pvg 10 months ago
- FergusArgyll 10 months agoOld fashioned conservation (Teddy Roosevelt etc.) was often Human centered, We should see nice animals/places, general ecosystem health etc.
-Wikipedia conservation movementRoosevelt believed that the laissez-faire approach of the U.S. Government was too wasteful and inefficient While Muir wanted nature preserved for its own sake, Roosevelt subscribed to Pinchot's formulation, "to make the forest produce the largest amount of whatever crop or service will be most useful, and keep on producing it for generation after generation of men and trees.I get the feeling that todays version is more "ethical" in nature, saving animals for their own sake etc.
I'm obviously painting in very broad strokes
- gottorf 10 months agoI'm told that hunters drive quite a bit of conservation efforts for other animals as well.
- JumpCrisscross 10 months ago> hunters drive quite a bit of conservation efforts
Hunters are generally exquisitely knowlegeable about the local flora and fauna. That sort of knowledge rarely accumulates without an element of respect. Some of the most effective conservation efforts in the world arose from environmentalists and hunters allying against developers and ranchers. (And by extension, some of the biggest conservation losses from the latter driving a wedge between the former.)
- wepple 10 months agoWhilst hunting might involve the killing & taking of an animal, it 100% relies on there being a healthy population to begin with.
Not to mention, hunting is actually very difficult (contrary to a lot of belief). You end up spending a phenomenal amount of time learning about animals, their habitat, and behavior. There ends up being deep admiration.
Not all hunters of course, some are dipshits. But such is true for any group of people.
- bbarn 10 months ago| Not to mention, hunting is actually very difficult (contrary to a lot of belief).
This always bothered me. The attitude that you just walk up to some defenseless deer and shoot it and that's some unskilled cruel thing.
In reality it's hours or days in a row in a short amount of time a season is open sitting in miserable weather where hopefully the research you've done or the attempts to attract them might outweigh the fact that they can smell you from a mile away and are skittish at every sound in the world. Oh, and the practice and training you've had to do with whatever method you're using to hunt with.
Then there's the expense. Licenses, weapons, gear, time off work, you name it. I quit doing it simply because I don't have the time to invest in it as an adult.
- genocidicbunny 10 months agoOne of my family members used to have a home out in a forested area, with access to a lake that had lots of fish in it. Not long after the fall of the soviet union, someone bought one of the nearby properties, and started fishing the lake with explosives. Within several years the lake had basically no fish left because of how indiscriminant the fishing method was. The family member and some of the other people who had access to the lake finally managed to drive out the dynamite-laden arsehole, but by then the damage was done. Even 20+ years later the fish population in the lake hasn't recovered.
- bbarn 10 months ago
- JumpCrisscross 10 months ago
- cjensen 10 months agoIn Audubon's time, the only way to accurately paint a bird in detail was to shoot it, examine it, then paint it. It's also why so many of his paintings are of birds in unnatural positions.
Even today, museums and universities sometimes pay for non-rare birds to be collected by shotgun. Collections are needed for certain types of comparative analysis when trying to sus out whether two birds are different species or just variety within a species.
- shagie 10 months ago
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- diegoeche 10 months agoThere's a graphic novel I liked about the life and work of Audubon. For anybody interested...
Audubon, On The Wings Of The World
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- ilamont 10 months agoHis anecdotal observations are accurate. This entry on Canadian Geese is right on the mark based on behavior I have seen in some flocks near the St. Lawrence and Charles rivers at dusk:
Although on these occasions they move with the greatest regularity, yet when they are slowly advancing from south to north at an early period of the season, they fly much lower, alight more frequently, and are more likely to be bewildered by suddenly formed banks of for, or by passing over cities or arms of the sea where much shipping may be in sight. On such occasions great consternation prevails amoung them, they crowd together in a confused manner, wheel irregularly, and utter a constant cackling resembling the sounds from a disconcerted mob.
I was also unaware how long his writings on birds were - the entry about Canadian Geese is over 5000 words long:
https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/canada-goose
Regarding TFA, there is a dark humor looking back on the behavior of eating practically every animal he studied - including owls, sandpipers, and eagles - but balked at a few species such as cormorants:
The fishermen and eggers never gather their eggs, they being unfit for being eaten by any other animals than Gulls or Jagers; but they commit great havoc among the young, which they salt for food or bait. The old birds are too shy to be killed in great numbers, otherwise their feathers, although they smell strongly of fish, might be turned to account. I have never eaten Cormorant's flesh, and intend to refrain from tasting it until nothing better can be procured.
https://www.audubon.org/birds-of-america/double-crested-corm...
- chasebank 10 months agoFunny this popped up on hn. A friend of mine in Montana has been hunting crane lately. Said they’re dubbed “ribeye of the sky”. Can’t wait to try one!
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- ForOldHack 10 months agoObligatory:
The Endangered species cook book:
https://elizabethdemaray.org/2015/06/07/recipes-from-the-end...
- birbLover 10 months ago[flagged]