The Romans gave it their entire esteem,[XX_74] and prepared it with truffles and mushrooms.[XX_75] Among them, men who knew what good cheer means, thought there was nothing worth eating in birds but the leg and lower part of the body. Fig-peckers were the only exception to this rule: they were served and eaten entire.
“In the southerly parts of France, and in Italy, all the different species of linget, and almost all birds with a slender beak, are commonly called becafico, because in the autumn they attack and eat the figs, and thereby the flesh of these birds becomes then fat and exquisite; but that really known as the becafico is remarkable for its delicacy; therefore it has at all times been recherché as an excellent eating. It is like a small lump of light fat—savoury, melting, easy of digestion; and, in truth, an extract of the juice from the delicious fruits it has fed upon.”—Vieillot.
THE ORTOLAN.
Florence and Bologna sent to Rome cases of ortolans, the enormous price of which irritated instead of discouraging gluttony.[XX_76] They arrived in the metropolis of the world, picked and separated one from the other by layers of flour to prevent decomposition.[XX_77] Each of these little birds furnished only a mouthful; but this incomparable mouthful eclipsed everything else, and produced a sort of epicurean extacy which may be called the transcendantalism of gastronomy.
Ortolans were submitted to the same treatment as fig-peckers in their preparation.
THE OSTRICH.
There were tribes formerly in Arabia who fed on ostriches, and who for this reason were called strutiophagists.[XX_78] Marmot asserts that, in his time, they were eaten in Africa, although their flesh was glutinous, and had a bad smell. When the people of Numidia took any that were young, they reared and fatted them, and led them to feed by flocks in the Desert; and as soon as they were fat they killed and salted them.[XX_79]
The Arabs of the present day abstain from them; but it is said they seek much the fat, which they use plentifully in cooking.