Thankss, Jen. What a spread!
Wattlebirds used to appear regularly as an eating bird in the
markets.Their usual name at the time is Gillbird, and I recall that one
of the boys went shooting them in "Seven Little Australians". They were
at their best in autumn-early winter, when they were very fat. Probably
eaten on toast, like Quails and Snipe.
Prof. McCoy at one of these dinners recognized from the shell or bones
that the Turtle Soup on offer had been prepared from the Murray
Tortoise. He wisely declined a serve. The creature stinks in
self-defence and has to be very carefully cleaned before eating.
Anthea Fleming
wrote:
Hi all,
Thought that at this time of year someone may be interested in a menu for the family
christmas dinner. This is PART of the menu for the 1864 annual dinner of the Australian
"Acclimitisation Society". For space reasons I have edited out the imported
stuff like the rabbit and chicken dishes.
The first “Acclimatization Society” was set up in Victoria in 1861. The aim of
the Society was to import species for propagation and use. Two of the earliest imports were
the Blackbird and the Starling followed by other European natives such as the fox and the
rabbit.
The "Bill of Fare" for the societies annual dinner in 1884 was:
Sydney rock
oysters.
Soups: turtle, oyster, Australian wild turkey, kangaroo tail, bisque of Murray lobster.
Fish: boiled Murray cod and shrimp sauce, fillet of whiting au gratin, fillet of
soles a la orlis, grilled mullet a la maitre d'hotel, matelote of eels, guard fish, Gippsland
perch a la Nanteuse, Yan Yean eels a la Tartare, Murray perch a la Chambord, boiled butter
fish with sauce genoise, flounders a la Normande, fillet of trumpeter au turban, John Dory.
Entrees: vol-au-vent of frogs, chartreuse bronze-winged pigeon, fricondeau of wombat
and spinach, fillet of black duck (with) sauce orange, curried bandicoot, parrequeet patties,
salmis of teal aux truffes.
Cold: aspic of native pigeon.
Roasts: Cape Barren goose, wood duck, saddle of kangaroo.
Game: native companion (brolga), wood duck, bandicoot, teal, wattlebird,
wild
turkey, black duck, plover, wombat, widgeon, mallee hen (and) quail; with vegetables in season,
Queensland yams, sweet potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes.
Personally, I think the parregueet patties sound the most intriguing. But
wattlebird? slim picking there I would have thought..
Yum, Enjoy
Jen
------------------------------------------------------------------------
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
