The delicious Ortolan. Recipes and methods of how to fatten kill and cook!!!

The Ortolan is a small extremely delicious European bird weighing less than an ounce. It is part of the bunting family. Its conservation status is listed as least concern. That means we should get eating!





Because eating a tiny one ounce bird is ridiculous, we humans have found a way to fatten it up and make it even more delicious. It is kept in the dark for a month( Don't worry, it is a known fact the bunting doesn't believe in ghosts and won't get scared!). This process disorients them and causes them to eat 24 hours a day. We stuff these little guys so much they triple even quadruple in weight! Nomnom! When the birds have reached almost bursting point they are then harvested.

One method of killing the birds is drowning them in Armagnac, a very tasty French brandy.



When consumed, sometimes a serviette is used to cover your face. This is YOUR private time so you can munch on your little friend away from your neighbor and those pesky prying eyes of god.



Here are some classic French recipes for preparing your perfect meal taken from The New Larousse Gastronomique.

In case you were wondering, here is where France is!



Ortolan or garden Bunting.

The small bird enjoys a high reputation as a table delicacy. Ortolans are found in central and southern Europe. They are plentiful in the south of France especially the Landes region that specializes in fattening them, and also in Spain Italy and Greece.

They can be prepared in anyway suitable for garden warblers and larks.

Gastronomes say that the only way to cook them is to roast them on the oven or on a spit and insist it shouldn't be cooked with anything but its own fat.

Ortolans à la Brissac - cut a desalted hams pope eye (this would be a cut from a fresh ham leg) from the part where the lean merges with the fat into little squares. Thread the ortolans on thin skewers alternating with pieces of ham. Put them on a spit, back to back. Cook before clear lively fire, basting continuously with clarified butter.

When nearly cooked, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and do not baste anymore to allow the birds to color well. Take off the skewers, arrange on a dish and add small croutons of bread to the ham. Peel to small baskets of mushrooms, slice them and sauté them in a glass of Aix oil (olive oil from Aix-en-Provence, France) until they acquire a golden color. Add sliced truffles and drain off all the oil. Add a piece of concentrated meat jelly about the size of a walnut, 1 tablespoon Espagno Le Demi-glacé and a dash of lemon juice. Pour in the middle of Ortolans and serve.

Ortolans à la carême - stuff the Ortolans boned through the back, with a little foie gras encrusted with a piece of truffle. Wrap each one in a piece of muslin and tie with a string at both ends. Plunge them into boiling port and poach for five minutes. Drain and unwrap.

Arrange each in a tartlet case, baked blind and fillies with a salpicon of lambs sweetbreads, truffles and mushrooms, bound with chicken velouté sauce boiled down with the port and a little cream.

Ortolans in cases á la Royale - Bone the ortolans through the back. Stuff each with a piece of foie gras encrusted with a slice of truffle, seasoned with spiced salt and sprinkled with Brandy.

Reshape the Ortolans. Brown then quickly in butter. Put each into a frilly paper case or individual ovenproof dishes on 1 tablespoon truffles shredded into julienne strips. Sprinkle with melted butter and cook in the oven for five or six minutes and serve.

Cold Ortolans - all the methods of preparation given for quail, thrushes, and larks are applicable to Ortolans. Ortolans, however, served hot or cold should be prepared in the simplest manor and roasted.

Ortolans à la landaise - Arrange the Ortolans in rows in a dripping pan and stand it in a big open fireplace before a great log fire. They cook in their own melting fat. Salt and spice them with one turn of the pepper mill.

Ortolans à la perigoudine - heat 2 tablespoons butter in a earthenware casserole and put in six trussed Ortolans. Brown them quickly in the sizzling butter. Cover them with 12 thick slices of truffles. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the casserole and cook in the oven for about eight minutes, basting the birds with one generous tablespoon of Armagnac which has been set alight. Serve in the same casserole.

Ortolans à la Provençal - Twenty Ortolans would be enough for an entrée. Cut 24 thick oval-shaped croutons. Hollow out on one side, put one ortolan on each crouton, then placed in a sauté pan which you have put some fine olive oil, spiced with a pounded 1/2 clove of garlic. He TOL with the croutons and the Ortolans, then place in the oven.

As soon as the croutons begin to color lightly, remove from the pan from heat, drain them on a cloth to wipe off the oil, and arrange on a dish. Prepare a truffle Ragoût and Parisian sauce, add to it anchovy butter made from two desalted anchovy fillets, put in 1 tablespoon of cold olive oil and the juice of 1/2 lemon, Poor this in the middle of the dish containing the Ortolans, and serve.

Orlotans Rotîs - Truss the ortolans and wrap in vine leaves. Pack them in rows, fairly tightly, in a pan moistened with a little salted water. Roast in a very hot oven for about 5 minutes. Arrange each on a croûton fried
in butter. Serve with lemon halves. Cooked in this way, the birds don't lose their fat, which is greatly enjoyed by gastronomes.

Ortolans on skewers. Brochette d'ortolans - Wrap the trussed ortolans in thin rashers of fat bacon. Thread on skewers, 4 birds to a skewer, separated from each other by little croûtons, cut to look like cocks' combs and lightly fried in butter. Put the skewers into a roasting pan in which a little butter has been heated. Cook briskly in a hot oven for about 5 minutes.
Arrange the skewers on a long dish. Garnish with water-cress and quarters of lemon. Pour the pan juices over the birds.

Now that you have the recipes! Go get cooking!!! Remember to fatten your birds for the best results!!!

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

Seems like an awful lot of work for a tiny bit of food. I could be mistaken upon tasting however...I imagine it is fowl!

It is kept in the dark for a month( Don't worry, it is a known fact the bunting doesn't believe in ghosts and won't get scared!). This process disorients them and causes them to eat 24 hours a day. We stuff these little guys so much they triple even quadruple in weight! Nomnom! When the birds have reached almost bursting point they are then harvested.

Kind of puts the whole American experiment in perspective.

Sorry to derail abit, I'm bored.

What the actual hell? Is this for realz?

I hate to admit that it feelz like we shall all get very real, very quickly. So...


[sarcasm] Thanks.[/sarcasm]

I think? Not sure...

What liquor goes best with the sweet, tasty little Ortolan?

a reply to: JinMI

Here, read Anthony bourdains experience eating this fella. And if it tastes good, it's never too much work!

Anthony and his ortolan

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

We wait for the sizzling flesh and fat before us to quiet down a bit. We exchange glances and grins and then, simultaneously, we place our napkins over our heads, hiding our faces from God, and with burning fingertips lift our birds gingerly by their hot skulls, placing them feet-first into our mouths – only their heads and beaks protruding.

Doesn't sound odd at all! Too bad they are endangered and illegal to harvest. Black market bird dealing may be calling me!

a reply to: kosmicjack

Oh, it's real baby!

a reply to: JinMI

a reply to: JinMI

Only the French ones are "endangered". Which means the birds stopped flying into France. They are a fairly common bird elsewhere.

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

So they're Francophobes? Well then, bon appetite!

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

From the Wikipedia

European Union member states prohibit:[16]
deliberate killing or capture of these birds by any method;
deliberate destruction of, or damage to, their nests and eggs or removal of their nests;
taking their eggs in the wild and keeping these eggs;
deliberate disturbance of these birds particularly during the period of breeding and rearing, insofar as this would have a significant negative effect on the birds;
keeping birds, the hunting and capture of which is prohibited;
sale, transport for sale, keeping for sale and the offering for sale of live or dead birds and of any readily recognizable parts or derivatives of these birds.

Perhaps I'll respond to one of those African prince emails and see if they want to make some deals!

a reply to: JinMI

French chefs have been lobbying the French government to get it back on their menu.

Check out this article

Please eat me. I'm delicious and a waste of space

That's a tweety bird, there wouldn't be much left of it when you shoot it with a twelve gauge

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

OR...they are Ornithoterrorists....? I mean, what exactly would happen if a feline killed one of these? Would there be outrage from little old ladies or would they grab their forks?

originally posted by: rickymouse
That's a tweety bird, there wouldn't be much left of it when you shoot it with a twelve gauge

Just read the article above your post. They trap them, fatten them, then drown them (in wine).

Can't be much better than a local pheasant!

originally posted by: kosmicjack

What the actual hell? Is this for realz?

I hate to admit that it feelz like we shall all get very real, very quickly. So...


[sarcasm] Thanks.[/sarcasm]

I think?

Not sure...

What liquor goes best with the sweet, tasty little Ortolan?

I would say a toss up between how starved you are and the most potent form of alcohol you could get your hands on to want to eat this little bird?

a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

2 threads about food back to back. It must be a sign because I'm hungry now.

originally posted by: JinMI

originally posted by: rickymouse
That's a tweety bird, there wouldn't be much left of it when you shoot it with a twelve gauge

Just read the article above your post. They trap them, fatten them, then drown them (in wine).

Can't be much better than a local pheasant!

And we bitch about corporate farms in the USA..,

a reply to: kosmicjack

To some folks, there will never be a humane way to kill an animal. I understand that. Probably shouldn't have the lobster discussion.

originally posted by: knowledgehunter0986
a reply to: TheAlleghenyGentleman

2 threads about food back to back. It must be a sign because I'm hungry now.

Here you go, order this tonight. It will be worth it. The small 10-20lb guy will fit in your oven

Feeding knowledgehunter through good quality products

a reply to: JinMI

There is no humane way to kill, but I think what matters more is how you treat it before you kill it.