The Illegal French Delicacy: Ortolan

If you saw a group of people with napkins on their head at the dinner table, what might you think? You’d be forgiven to think it was some strange Hollywood ritual. But the real reason is, they’re eating a french delicacy called Ortolan.

Hannibal, Billions, Succession, American Dad — all feature this absurd, and illegal practice. I shared a video about this on my TikTok account and this practice clearly struck a nerve, garnering close to 400K views. One of the most common comments I got was, “I saw this on American Dad — but thought this was a joke?”

No my friends, consuming Ortolan is not a joke — in fact the practice is said to date back to ancient Romans living in the South of France who would breed calling birds to attract and bait unsuspecting wild Ortolan into their traps.

In modern preperations, the small bird is caught at night in nets during their migratory period as they head south towards Africa. They’re then kept in covered cages. The dark encourages them to gorge themselves, fattening them up on grains like Hansel and Gretel until they’re nice and plump (nearly two times their size!) Once they’re sitting fat and pretty, they are thrown into a container of Armagnac liquor where they drowned and marinate.

The birds are roasted for eight minutes until they quote “sing” and are plucked before service. The diner places the napkin over their head and eats the bird whole, feet first, tiny bones and all.

Crunch Crunch.

The bigger bones are removed and placed neatly on the plate.

Chef (and personal hero) Anthony Bourdain had a secret night of dining with other chefs where he partook in this ritual. In his book, Medium Raw, he writes:

“I bring my molars down and through my bird’s rib cage with a wet crunch and am rewarded with a scalding hot rush of burning fat and guts down my throat. Rarely have pain and delight combined so well. I’m giddily uncomfortable, breathing in short, controlled gasps as I continue slowly — ever so slowly — to chew. With every bite, as the thin bones and layers of fat, meat, skin, and organs compact in on themselves, there are sublime dribbles of varied and wondrous ancient flavors: figs, Armagnac, dark flesh slightly infused with the salty taste of my own blood as my mouth is pricked by the sharp bones. As I swallow, I draw in the head and beak, which, until now, have been hanging from my lips, and blithely crush the skull.”

Like a kid who has been told legendary tales of a unicorn his whole life and the mystical creature finally appears — his reaction is giddy at the opportunity and rarity of the moment, but also feels a tinge of guilt.

There is another famous reference to ortolan in the HBO show Succession. Where the ritual serves as a way for the wealthy 1%ers to set themselves apart from the rest of the world. Sure, maybe there’s some good flavor with the Ortolan but can crunching bones and spurting juices really be better than say some smoked brisket, a nice burger, or steak? Or is it really about the rarity and privilege of the opportunity? The social capital that comes with being of means to obtain the forbidden fruit? (...)

Okay, but why the napkin over the head? There are several possibilities a diner might choose to do this.

The first is shame.

Historically they would put the napkin over their head to protect their sins from god, with the napkin on, they believed god couldn’t witness their sin.

The second is sensory.

By putting the napkin over the diner’s head, they are able to trap and continually inhale the rich aromas.

Lastly, is decorum (if you can call it such).

With all of the crunching of bones and beak, spurting, and removal of the larger bones — the scene can be quite unsavory and appetite suppressing.

Today, eating of Ortolan is now outlawed — it was so widely consumed at one point its population dropped by an estimated 40% and in 1999 France put a stop to its consumption and again in 2007 with even stronger legal measures.

But where there’s demand, there’s supply — and the practice still continues underground with each bird fetching nearly 200 euros. It’s estimated some 30,000 birds are still eaten annually.

by Austin Miller, Medium |  Read more:

Images: uncredited/MaxPPP/Roger Tidman/Corbis/Guardian
[ed. What a world. See also: Why French chefs want us to eat this bird – head, bones, beak and all. (Telegraph); and, A French delicacy being eaten to death (Cosmos).]