Gray herons (Ardea cinerea) are tall, with lengthy legs, an extended beak, and gray, black, and white feathering. To take flight a heron should leap into the air and when standing, hunched with their neck bent over their chest they appear identical to previous males, so we predict they make a great illustration for the lords given on the tenth day of Christmas.
Like different wading birds and members of the stork household they had been a preferred meals for medieval European the Aristocracy. Platina, the Italian gastronomist, warned that commoners ought to by no means get to eat these birds in case they developed a style for them.
A part of the attraction was their sheer dimension, and, like swans, they’d their pores and skin and feathers eliminated earlier than they had been roasted and redressed to be served because the showpiece for a feast. Lots of the accompanying sauces had been extremely spiced with cinnamon, galangal, and ginger and one wonders whether or not this was to disguise the style of the meat which is meant to be slightly fishy.
A recipe for boiled heron pudding says that no bones ought to be damaged in the course of the preparation of the dish, as they comprise a fishy fluid which mustn’t come into contact with the meat. As an alternative, it ought to be extracted, saved within the medication cupboard, and utilized to cuts and grazes.