Larks

Ingredients

• twelve larks
• slices of bacon
• an oiled paper

Method

1. 1

   Bed the larks on some farce in a silver dish or braising-pan, cover with bacon and oiled paper, and bake in an oven.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The spirit of cookery (1895) by Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Thudichum, page 319. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

LARKS 507 town they are sometimes caught in numbers. They are only two-thirds of the size of larks, but when in good condition they are so fat as to resemble a small lump of butter. They may be roasted or baked in oiled paper cases, each case taking two little birds, and some minced and prepared mushroom. Larks afford, like quails, a remarkable illustration of the differences in the views of things at which men may arrive under different circumstances. In this country, and on the Continent, many persons strongly object to the killing and eating of larks, while in the South of Europe these birds are such a nuisance at certain times, that they have to be killed in numbers in order to reduce the damage which they inflict on agriculture. Migratory birds, they collect in the southern peninsulas which project into the Mediterranean, and are dying, or being killed by birds of pi'ey and men, in enormous numbers. The ancient- Athenians ate many larks, as do the southern Spaniards of the present day, when quails are not plentiful. They were preserved, and it was forbidden to kill them on the island of Lemnos, as it was erroneously believed that they had saved it from the locusts. The lark in the French language has a commonplace name besides a special culinary one ; it remains an aloiiette until it is plucked, trussed, and ready to be spitted, and then it becomes a mauviette. The English physician Lister, of the time of Queen Anne, laid it down as a principle concerning the culinary use of larks, that unless of twelve larks each did weigh at least 7 drachms, they were not eatable; if they weighed as much they were passable, and if they weighed together 100 drachms, or 12i oz., or more, they were excellent. The preparations of larks are roasting in the plain or egged and crumbed state, fnjing and braising in the stuffed or empty state. A good mode is to bed the larks on some farce on a silver dish or in a braising-pan, to cover them 5o8 THE SPIRIT OF COOKERY with slices of bacon and an oiled paper

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.