Sunday, September 15, 2013

“A Riff on Coq au Vin”



People complain that I don’t provide enough lifestyle advice here on FirstNerve. Allow me to remedy that.
“I love the sweet aroma of squirrel, and I’m surprised at most folks’ inexperience with serving the little guys,” says chef Levon Wallace, who heads up the kitchen at Proof on Main in Louisville, Ky. Wallace developed this recipe after bagging a few grays on a recent outing.
Pretty much everything tastes better with Pinot Noir and bacon.

One of my favorite courses as an undergraduate at Cal was comparative anatomy, taught by an Englishwoman named Thelma Rowell. In the notes for each lab assignment she would include a recipe for the species involved. There was Skate in Black Butter Sauce, and a Cordon Bleu recipe for rat that dated back to the siege of Paris. After we dissected pigeons, the grad students came by each bench and collected the breast meat for a cookout.

Good times.

3 comments:

Peter Apps said...

That recalls to mind a marine biology field trip. After the catch from a trawl net was spilled onto the lab bench the students destined for great things in biology grabbed the crusty, blobby things and took them off to be dissected. Others (no names needed)focussed on the top end edibles.

Avery Gilbert said...

Peter Apps:

Heh. In graduate school a pal staying at a field research station heard squealing brakes. He went to investigate and found a deer dead on the road. We had venison that night. Roadkill can be tasty.

Peter Apps said...

Waste not, want not !