🤢 Frankly Gross 1906

Roast Doe-Birds

Roast six of a bird that is now believed extinct, fifteen minutes, served rare with currant jelly.

From: The International Cook Book
Published: 1906
Yikes Scale: Big yikes

Exactly as printed, 1906

Singe, draw and truss six fine, fat doe-birds, place in a tin and arrange six slices larding pork on breast of each. Season evenly with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, lightly baste with a little melted butter, then set in a brisk oven for fifteen minutes. Remove, dress on a hot dish over six bread canapes decorate with a little watercress and serve with a little currant jelly separately.

The International Cook Book, 1906. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

This is the only recipe on the site whose ingredient may no longer exist. The Eskimo curlew was hunted commercially in enormous numbers through the late nineteenth century and is now presumed extinct.

The recipe is written the way you write about something plentiful. Six of them, fifteen minutes, currant jelly, no comment.

Notes from the 21st century

Market slang, not a species name. “Doe-bird” was what the game trade called it. That the cookbook uses the trade name tells you it arrived by the crate.
The decline was already visible. By 1900 the flocks that darkened the sky in the 1860s were gone. The book was published in 1929.
Use quail or squab. If you want the dish, work from a current recipe and a farmed supplier. Do not use these instructions as a template.

Don't take our word for it. The complete book is online, free and searchable.

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