The Decadent Cookbook by Jerome Fletcher Alex Martin Medlar Lucan Durian Gray Read Free Book Online Page B

mixture, hold it in the palm of your hand and hollow it out with a finger, making the walls as thin as you can. Stuff some filling into this shell, close up and mould with wet hands to what shape you will. Repeat till pan and bowl are empty.
    Simmer your creations for 5 minutes in salted water, drain well, then fry in hot oil until brown and crisp.
R OAST H EDGEHOG

    There are two ways of doing this. You can use a real hedgehog, or make one of your own. The first recipe comes from Bartolomeo Scappi (chef to the Grand Inquisitor).
P ORCHETTO RICCIO

    Either skin the hedgehog or remove its bristles with hot water, then extract the innards and roast the animal on the spit or in the oven following the recipe for porcupine [see here ]. Hedgehog is in season from April to the end of Autumn, but fattest in July and August.
M OCK H EDGEHOG

    1 LB EACH OF MINCED BEEF, PORK AND VEAL
    8 OZ CHICKEN LIVERS
    4 RASHERS UNSMOKED STREAKY BACON
    8 OZ MUSHROOMS
    1 LARGE ONION, GRATED
    10 CRUSHED JUNIPER BERRIES
    3 CLOVES GARLIC
    1 EGG
    SALT, PEPPER
    1 TEASPOON EACH THYME, ALLSPICE
    2 BAY LEAVES
    ROSEMARY
    WALNUT HALVES
    1 BLACK OLIVE

    Chop the mushrooms and chicken livers very finely and fry them softly for 5 minutes. Leave to cool. Combine the minced meat in a bowl with the onion, garlic, juniper berries, thyme, allspice, salt & pepper, egg, mushrooms and chicken livers. Mix. Transfer to a roasting tin, adding a little oil if the mince is very lean. Sculpt the mixture to look like a hedgehog. Stripe the beast with bacon and bay leaves, and stud with nuts. Use pieces of olive for eyes and nose. Scatter some rosemary over its back. Roast in a hot oven for 15 minutes, then in a medium oven for another 75 minutes. Serve in its own gravy.
N O H OLDS B ARRED
(R ÔTI S ANS P AREIL )

    This is a more ambitious dish, which we first encountered in Venus in the Kitchen by Norman Douglas, who says he took it from A T Raimbault’s Le Parfait Cuisinier . The recipe was also found among the papers of Grimod de la Reynière, who added comparisons of the birds’ tender flesh to the complexions of famous actresses. It requires a special combination of dexterity and brute strength - but no ‘sculpting’ as such.

1 CAPER
1 QUAIL
1 CHICKEN *
1 ANCHOVY
A FEW VINE
1 DUCK *
A FEW DROPS OF
LEAVES
1 GOOSE *
OIL
1 GOLDEN
1 TURKEY
1 LARGE OLIVE **
PLOVER *
1 BUSTARD *
1 BECCAFICO OR
1 LAPWING *
GARDEN
1 PARTRIDGE *
* BONED
WARBLER *
1 WOODCOCK *
** STONED
1 ORTOLAN
1 TEAL *
1 LARK *
1 PHEASANT
1 THRUSH *
1 GUINEA-FOWL *

    Make a paste of the anchovy and caper, and stuff the olive with it. Then, proceeding in order down the list, stuff each ingredient into the one below. Put the assembled ‘thing’ into a big pot with a clove-studded onion, some pieces of ham, bacon, celery, carrots, coriander seeds, garlic, salt and pepper. Seal down the lid with pastry and cook in a slow oven for ten hours. Serve with chips and frozen peas.

    Cyril Connolly, in Shade Those Laurels, gives a similar recipe, but says it should be cooked for 24 hours, not 10. He adds this serving suggestion:
    ‘Now listen carefully - we’re getting to the holy of holies of cooking! We have here the quintessence of forest, marsh, plain and farmyard, all these juices and emanations are being stealthily volatilised and united and blended into the most exquisite whole, a unique gastronomic experience - but meanwhile this quintessence has penetrated to the very heart of the whole matter, that is to the olive. So you carve open the bustard very carefully and throw it out of the window or give it to the dogs if you have any; same treatment for the turkey, the goose,… the chicken, the guinea-fowl, the teal, the woodcock, the partridge, the plover, the quail, the ortolan, the poor little beccafico, until finally in a spirit of true gratitude and admiration we serve … the olive.’
K AROLY E CLAIRS

    This is a trick recipe, guaranteed to please. Make some éclair cases with choux pastry. Cook some liver