Rooks

[Hammergun]

I remember my grandad telling me about shooting rooks and making rook pie during the war when normal meat was rationed and hard to come by.  Has anyone here ever eaten rook?  What's it like?  Do you have any recipes?

 

During the war, coffee was unavailable and my grandad told me that some people made a substitute from acorns.  You gathered the acorns when they were green, roasted them in the oven, then ground them and used them as you would ground coffee!!  Apparently it was somewhat of an acquired taste, a sort of a cross between coffee, tobacco, and the taste you get when you get mud in your mouth!  

[NGhost]

I eat all the rooks I shoot, infact my youngest son always asks "got any crows" when I come back from shooting. They are horible things to dress (they eat all sorts of c**p), so I just brest them out. It taste is very similar to pigeon.

Substute it for pigeon in any recipe.

Squirrel is realy nice but the skin takes a lot of removing.

Now has any one tried fox?

[neil]

I seem to remember being told that you had to soak the breasts of rooks in milk (havent got a clue why).I've never had much of an appitite for them because as NGhost says they eat allsorts

[Hammergun]

Someone once told me that certain chemicals in milk can neutralise certain toxins. Perhaps this is why? Also, milk has a chemical in it which is supposed to act as a tenderiser.

[Cranfield]

Milk also removes the ammonia from some sea fish, if you soak the fillets in it overnight.

 

Apparently, hanging squirrels is like hanging any game.

It makes the meat stronger, but its a matter of personal taste.

[NGhost]

I dont hang anything (somtimes the phesants get a couple of days if i'm being a bit lazy). I like to get rid of whole crows asap they are horible things. Likwise with the squirrels as these are full of bighting fleas. I have a book from the us on preparing game (includes "coons" hmmm.) they dont seem to soak anything, though I am told that salt water can improve muddy taisting wild fowle.

[Quick-Draw Roar.]

pretty sure you're all talking b*llocks...

whatever you do - dont eat rooks, foxes or squirrels ... even worse than mcdonalds.

[lazza]

Charming!...... ..........I know that squirrels are in demand at the moment, & that the price for them is quite good. Apparently the Chinese like them! I can remember being told that Rook is quite good eating...............Foxes???..........I think not!...

[neil]

I'm feeling queasy just thinking about it

[Elma Fud]

Even my Border Terrier pukes when kills a wounded rook/crow. If I were to eat a rook, I would probably join him.

 

As for squirrels, i dont even touch them. I've had too many flea bites in the past.

 

Just shooting a fox is enough pleasure, and oh yeh, they stink as well.

 

But give credit where credits due, too the ones who attempt to eat them.  Your braver than me.

[NGhost]

In the 19th century a chap in oxford was trying to taste every animal he could. The two things he said was the worst:

Bulebottle flys, and moles. Shame about the moles always fancied having a go at them.

[MAJ]

I seem to remember an article in the Countrymans Weekly a couple of years ago. Apparently there was some report published in America (I think) linking the eating of squirrel brains to some strain of C.J.D. I have eaten them (not the brains though) cooked for me by an American friend (who later ran off with my missus, that's what I call a mate). He pot roasted them with carrots, onions, and swede, with herbs and seasoning. Absolutely delicious, not too unlike rabbit.

[Cranfield]

MAJ, he was probably trying to poison you.  

[Hammergun]

I have discovered information on rooks in "Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery", circa 1860.  Reads as follows:

 

"The rook affords a dry and coarse meat.  A pie made of young rooks is tolerable; at least, it is the best form of using these birds as food.  There is, in the opinion of some, a resemblance between the flavour of the young rook and that of the young pigeon.

 

Rook pie - Rooks require long stewing, or they will not be tender.  The breasts are the only parts of the birds which are really worth using, and when the other portions are put into the dish, care should be taken to cut out the spine and the flesh near it to the width of three quarters of an inch, or the pie will have a bitter taste.  Many cooks lay the birds in a dish, season them with pepper and salt, put a coards flour-and-water crust over them, and then bake then for a couple of hours; the next day they remove the common crust, lay good pastry over them, and bake the pie in the usual way.  The following recipe will, however be found very good:

 

Take six or eight freshly killed young rooks.  Skin without plucking them, and to do this cut the skin round the first joint of the legs, and draw it over the head.  Cut off the necks, draw the birds, and cut away the legs, backs and wings.  Cut a pound of chunk steak into neat squares, pepper these, and lay them in a pie dish, pouring over them half a teacupful of stock or water, cover the dish closely, and bake themeat until it is almost done enough,  Lay the breastsof the rooks upon the steak, with a small slice of butter upon each.  Sprinkle over them a seasoning of salt, pepper and pounded mace, and pour over them as much stock or water as will barely cover them.  let them bake gently for half an hour,  Let the dish cool, then line the edges with good pastry, cover it with the same, ornament according to taste, make a hole in the centre that the steam may escape, and bake in a brisk oven.  When the pastry is done enough, the pie may be served.  Time to bake, altogether two hours and a half, probable cost, uncertain, rooks being seldom sold.  Sufficient for five or six persons.

 

Rook Pie (another way) -Skin and draw six young rooks, and cut out the backbones.  Season them with pepper and salt, put them in a deep dish with half a pint of water, lay some bits of butter over them and cover the dish with a tolerably thick crust.  Let the pie be well baked."