Rook Pie Tonight

[Dave55]

I shot these Branchers last week, cut the breasts out and mixed with bacon, 60/40, in order to make a pie and I must say it was very nice, even my wife liked it.

[Rim Fire]

Well done i have never tried it hope you enjoyed it

[camokid]

i once made a game pie with rook rabbit and pheasant that went down well .... good shooting

[fruity]

Well done

People lift there nose at young rook , Ive done it on the barbie couple of times and its always the first to go, I have to say usually only the shooting guys eat it though

[Mentalmac]

Well done

People lift there nose at young rook , Ive done it on the barbie couple of times and its always the first to go, I have to say usually only the shooting guys eat it though

haha that's because you tell people what it is!

I had a BBQ at mine recently after moving house and finally (After 6 months or so) finished renovating.

On the BBQ I had rabbit and chorizo burgers, diced squirrel kebabs, pigeon burgers.... all marinated with fresh herbs from my garden and basic stuff as to not take away the lovely tastes nature gives us and I didn't tell a soul what they were...

Loads of people had eaten them by the time the first question was aired.

Comedy moment for me especially after producing some of the squirrel skins I tanned for my step kids school project. :-).

(And they all actually enjoyed it after that and said they'll eat it again).

 

 

I would definitely try young rook, but don't have any near me to shoot and eat. What do they taste like?

[fruity]

I always tell people what it is mentalmac, its there choice then

Once plenty of alcohol has been consumed they try it and go Ohhh its really nice but most of it has been eaten then

[Mentalmac]

I always tell people what it is mentalmac, its there choice then

Once plenty of alcohol has been consumed they try it and go Ohhh its really nice but most of it has been eaten then

I normally do, but I stated on my invite - "Come over for a BBQ at ours, I will cook a selection of locally acquired meats, anyone who isn't keen on trying game can bring their own and I'll cook it for you" haha.

 

(I think only one person actually read it properly as he brought some beef burgers which I did, however he did also have a squizzer kebab after and enjoyed it)

[Frenchieboy]

Rook and Bacon Pie sounds quite tasty. I have to say that I have never eaten rook myself but would be willing to try it - I believe in the saying "Don't knock it till you've tried it"!

I was always led to believe that in the nursery rhyme "Sing a song of sixpence" the 4 and 20 Black Birds that were baked in the pie was refering to Rooks - Maybe someone else can confirm that or tell me if I am wrong!

[Essex Keeper]

Rook and Bacon Pie sounds quite tasty. I have to say that I have never eaten rook myself but would be willing to try it - I believe in the saying "Don't knock it till you've tried it"!

I was always led to believe that in the nursery rhyme "Sing a song of sixpence" the 4 and 20 Black Birds that were baked in the pie was refering to Rooks - Maybe someone else can confirm that or tell me if I am wrong!

Origins[edit]

 

 

The Queen Was in the Parlour, Eating Bread and Honey, by Valentine Cameron Prinsep.

The rhyme's origins are uncertain. References have been inferred in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (c. 1602), (Act II, Scene iii), where Sir Toby Belch tells a clown: "Come on; there is sixpence for you: let's have a song" and in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca (1614), which contains the line "Whoa, here's a stir now! Sing a song o' sixpence!"[1]

 

In the past it has often been attributed to George Steevens (1736–1800), who used it in a pun at the expense of Poet Laureate Henry James Pye (1745–1813) in 1790, but the first verse had already appeared in print in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London around 1744, in the form:

 

Sing a Song of Sixpence,

A bag full of Rye,

Four and twenty Naughty Boys,

Baked in a Pye.[1]

The next printed version that survives, from around 1780, has two verses and the boys have been replaced by birds.[1] A version of the modern four verses is first extant in Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus published in 1784, which ends with a magpie attacking the unfortunate maid.[1] Fifth verses with the happier endings began to be added from the middle of the 19th century.[1]

 

Meaning and interpretations[edit]

Many interpretations have been placed on this rhyme. It is known that a 16th-century amusement was to place live birds in a pie, as a form of entremet. An Italian cookbook from 1549 (translated into English in 1598) contained such a recipe:[2] "to make pies so that birds may be alive in them and flie out when it is cut up" and this was referred to in a cook book of 1725 by John Nott.[1][3] The wedding of Marie de' Medici and Henry IV of France in 1600 contains some interesting parallels. "The first surprise, though, came shortly before the starter—when the guests sat down, unfolded their napkins and saw songbirds fly out. The highlight of the meal were sherbets of milk and honey, which were created by Buontalenti."[4]

 

In The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie write that the rhyme has been tied to a variety of historical events or folklorish symbols such as the queen symbolizing the moon, the king the sun, and the blackbirds the number of hours in a day; or, as the authors indicate, the blackbirds have been seen as an allusion to monks during the period of Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, with Catherine of Aragon representing the queen, and Anne Boleyn is maid. The rye and the birds have been seen to represent a tribute sent to Henry VII, and on another level, the term "pocketful of rye" may in fact refer to an older term of measurement. The number 24 has been tied to the Reformation and the printing of the English Bible with 24 letters. From a folklorish tradition, the blackbird taking the maid's nose has been seen as a demon stealing her soul.[5]

 

No corroborative evidence has been found to support these theories and given that the earliest version has only one verse and mentions "naughty boys" and not blackbirds, they can only be applicable if it is assumed that more recently printed versions accurately preserve an older tradition.[1]

[Dave55]

It just shows you how people judge with their mind & eyes not taste buds as per mentalmac. It's obvious you guys eat your catch but I'm surprised the amount of fieldsports people I know that don't. To me there's nothing better than completing a day out by eating from the bag (not Charlie). Organic! It's lived a happy natural life not kept in the dark & fed on its cousins. Sorry I'm preaching to the converted.

I couldn't put a label on the taste of rook but I can recommend the free harvest

Regards Dave

[hawkeye]

Just like my sister in law she was at a BBQ at my place a few years ago and i had some beef steaks on the BBQ and also some venison steaks .

When i asked her what she wanted she said i don't like venison so i will have beef steak.. So being a bit of a **** taker i told her that the venison was beef and vice versa she grabbed the biggest

venison steak on the BBQ and got stuck in.

She commented later on that the beef was delicious so i said i thought you didn't like venison i thought she was going to have a heart attack, she still argues to this day that it was just beef...

[Mentalmac]

It just shows you how people judge with their mind & eyes not taste buds as per mentalmac. It's obvious you guys eat your catch but I'm surprised the amount of fieldsports people I know that don't. To me there's nothing better than completing a day out by eating from the bag (not Charlie). Organic! It's lived a happy natural life not kept in the dark & fed on its cousins. Sorry I'm preaching to the converted.

I couldn't put a label on the taste of rook but I can recommend the free harvest

Regards Dave

Amen. :-).

 

 

Just like my sister in law she was at a BBQ at my place a few years ago and i had some beef steaks on the BBQ and also some venison steaks .

When i asked her what she wanted she said i don't like venison so i will have beef steak.. So being a bit of a **** taker i told her that the venison was beef and vice versa she grabbed the biggest

venison steak on the BBQ and got stuck in.

She commented later on that the beef was delicious so i said i thought you didn't like venison i thought she was going to have a heart attack, she still argues to this day that it was just beef...

Haha :-). Another one I did was a pigeon bolognese that my family and a few of our friends had a while back when everyone came over - nobody said anything apart from that the bolognese was nice and I just thanked them for their comments. Would usually enjoy the lovely taste of a pigeon breast in better ways but had a whole bag of pigeon breasts in the fridge that didn't have long left to eat

[strangford wildfowler]

Dont know about this rook pie,but like Frenchieboy "dont knock it till you try it"

 

Just asked the old man about he said its lovely especially with a pint of Guinness. Typical everythings nice with a pint of beer

[Frenchieboy]

Origins[edit]

 

 

The Queen Was in the Parlour, Eating Bread and Honey, by Valentine Cameron Prinsep.

The rhyme's origins are uncertain. References have been inferred in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (c. 1602), (Act II, Scene iii), where Sir Toby Belch tells a clown: "Come on; there is sixpence for you: let's have a song" and in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca (1614), which contains the line "Whoa, here's a stir now! Sing a song o' sixpence!"[1]

 

In the past it has often been attributed to George Steevens (1736–1800), who used it in a pun at the expense of Poet Laureate Henry James Pye (1745–1813) in 1790, but the first verse had already appeared in print in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in London around 1744, in the form:

 

Sing a Song of Sixpence,

A bag full of Rye,

Four and twenty Naughty Boys,

Baked in a Pye.[1]

The next printed version that survives, from around 1780, has two verses and the boys have been replaced by birds.[1] A version of the modern four verses is first extant in Gammer Gurton's Garland or The Nursery Parnassus published in 1784, which ends with a magpie attacking the unfortunate maid.[1] Fifth verses with the happier endings began to be added from the middle of the 19th century.[1]

 

Meaning and interpretations[edit]

Many interpretations have been placed on this rhyme. It is known that a 16th-century amusement was to place live birds in a pie, as a form of entremet. An Italian cookbook from 1549 (translated into English in 1598) contained such a recipe:[2] "to make pies so that birds may be alive in them and flie out when it is cut up" and this was referred to in a cook book of 1725 by John Nott.[1][3] The wedding of Marie de' Medici and Henry IV of France in 1600 contains some interesting parallels. "The first surprise, though, came shortly before the starter—when the guests sat down, unfolded their napkins and saw songbirds fly out. The highlight of the meal were sherbets of milk and honey, which were created by Buontalenti."[4]

 

In The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie write that the rhyme has been tied to a variety of historical events or folklorish symbols such as the queen symbolizing the moon, the king the sun, and the blackbirds the number of hours in a day; or, as the authors indicate, the blackbirds have been seen as an allusion to monks during the period of Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, with Catherine of Aragon representing the queen, and Anne Boleyn is maid. The rye and the birds have been seen to represent a tribute sent to Henry VII, and on another level, the term "pocketful of rye" may in fact refer to an older term of measurement. The number 24 has been tied to the Reformation and the printing of the English Bible with 24 letters. From a folklorish tradition, the blackbird taking the maid's nose has been seen as a demon stealing her soul.[5]

 

No corroborative evidence has been found to support these theories and given that the earliest version has only one verse and mentions "naughty boys" and not blackbirds, they can only be applicable if it is assumed that more recently printed versions accurately preserve an older tradition.[1]

Thanks for the education and well done for looking up the origin of it!

I stand (Quite happily) corrected!