Lark (food)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The lark , known as “alouette” or “mauviette” in French kitchen language , is a songbird that was used in parts of Europe as a wild fowl and was used in different ways.

features

Skylark ( Alauda arvensis ) with caterpillar as prey

When used as a food lark is the skylark ( Alauda arvensis ), a medium-sized ground-living bird which like some other species of songbirds, such as the Ortolan ( fat Bunting ), chokes or the Fieldfare (fieldfare), in whole or in part in the Kitchen was processed. In many European countries, the catching and killing of these animals is prohibited by species and animal protection and they are accordingly excluded from use in the kitchen. Herings Lexicon of the Kitchen still lists various forms of preparation for the lark in the 2012 edition and describes it as a very tasty meadow bird, but also shows that the species is under species protection in many countries.

Escoffier's culinary arts guide defines:

“Alouette” is the name given to the living lark. The dead bird is called "Mauviette" in the kitchen and on the menus. "

- Auguste Escoffier : culinary arts guide, 1910; Pp. 657-658

Catch

In the past, larks were caught in nets with adhesive twine or in night nets (lark stroking). According to the Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon of 1838, the larks could be caught very well in large quantities, mainly because they are "very social in meadows and fields", whereby "the larks by the thousands at a time" are driven into the nets could become. The catch took place in autumn.

Leipzig Lark

Historically, the Leipzig lark plays a central role. In this region they are "the fattest and tastiest" and were "sent as delicacies to the most distant areas". The reason given for the special quality and the special taste of the Leipzig larks is "that they particularly feed on field garlic, which is common around Leipzig."

Lark fishing was officially banned in Saxony in 1876. However, larks were still eaten. "The agreement between Austria and Italy of November 5, 1875 and also the German Reich Bird Protection Act of March 22, 1888 only prohibit the use of traps placed on the ground and large beating nets , but not the catch of larks in general." According to the Vienna Appetite Lexicon , larks were still exported from the Leipzig region at the end of the 19th century.

South France

In parts of the south of France, larks are still caught with drift nets, although the EU Birds Directive has been in force since 1979 to protect European wild birds . Animal welfare organizations such as the international committee against bird slaughter (CAPS) put the number of larks caught and killed at 1.8 million animals per year, which are trapped mainly in the Aquitaine region around Bordeaux for use in the kitchen be caught.

Forms of preparation

Larks were usually processed as whole animals in the kitchen due to their small size. Recipes for preparation can be found in numerous historical cookbooks.

In preparation, the larks are plucked and the intestines and stomach are pulled out with the help of a chopping needle or a hook. Depending on the recipe, the remaining innards are left in the body or taken out and prepared separately. The head and feet are also separated according to the recipe and processed separately. Three birds per person are counted as a main course and two as a starter or intermediate course.

For larks with sauce, the head and feet were separated and the innards were left in the animal except for the intestines and stomach. The larks were rubbed with salt, pepper and cloves and fried in butter. The sauce was made from the heads crushed in a mortar together with breadcrumbs, which were poured with the remaining frying fat and meat stock and then added to the roasted larks again and seasoned with lemon juice.

For stuffed larks, the larks were gutted, the feet cut off and salted. A filling was made from the innards with veal, onions, bacon, lemon juice, bread, cream and egg yolk, which was seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg and cloves and then filled into the birds' abdominal cavity. Barded with bacon slices , the larks were then fried in butter yellow.

Larks were also roasted on skewers when empty. For this purpose 10-14 larks were put on a skewer and fried in butter.

In the farmer's style (“à la paysanne”), the animals were browned in butter and bacon and then dusted with flour and steamed in water and spices with olive potatoes and small onions and served with a sauce made from the scent. Roasted with bacon and served with a sauce from the roasting set refined with cognac , they were prepared in the housewife style (“à la bonne femme”). The larks are roasted in the Provencal style (“à la provençale”) and before they are cooked in the oven, supplemented with mushrooms, olives, tomatoes and garlic.

Other preparations are the southern-style larks ("à la méridionale"), in which the seared larks are boned and filled with a liver farce and parsley and are served with a truffle sauce , as well as the Turkish-style larks ("à la turque") , which is a rice dish with eggplant , spices and seared larks.

In the English way (“à l'anglaise”) they were spread with butter and fried in the oven with white bread and parsley. The preparation according to Mother Marianne ("à la mère Marianne") was similar, here the larks were fried in butter and then dressed on fried apple slices and sprinkled with butter before they were fried in the oven. In contrast, when they are prepared in the Philipps way (“du père Philippe”) they are fried and stuffed into hollowed-out potatoes together with bacon and then cooked in the oven while being wrapped.

In the case of the pâtés of larks ("Pàte d'alouette"), a pâté mold was filled with a dough, then covered with bacon and filled with a farce of veal and boned larks filled with a liver farce . The pies were baked and, after cooling, were covered with a game jelly. For the Norman-style lark (“à la normande”), on the other hand, spiced larks were placed in a hollowed-out apple, sprinkled with some apple schnapps, and the apple was then wrapped in shortcrust pastry and fried.

A cookbook from 1905 describes how larks were confined in butter and then preserved in a water bath for 45 minutes in airtight tin cans .

Derivatives

The name of a shortcrust pastry filled with marzipan and jam, which is also known as the Leipziger Lerche and is known as a regional specialty to this day, was derived from the Leipzig lark .

In the feature film The Life of Brian by the British comedy group Monty Python , the audience is offered “lark tongues, wren livers, chaffinch brains, stuffed jaguar ears, wolf teat chips” during a gladiatorial match. This was a satire on ancient Roman cuisine that is not based on real preparations.

A 1973 music album by King Crimson is called Larks' Tongues in Aspic (lark tongues in aspic). Lark tongues in aspic were reputedly an ancient Roman delicacy.

The alouette (see above) is a French folk song for plucking larks.

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f "Lerche, Leipziger Lerche" In: F. Jürgen Herrmann (Hrsg.): Herings Lexikon der Küche. Fachbuchverlag Pfanneberg, Haan-Gruiten 2012 (licensed edition Nikol, Hamburg 2016); Pp. 389-390. ISBN 978-3-86820-344-8 .
  2. ↑ https://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/90877/1/
  3. ↑ " Lerchenstreichen, das " In: Adelung: Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect , Volume 2. Leipzig 1796; P. 2030.
  4. ↑ " Lerchenfang, der " In: Adelung: Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect , Volume 2. Leipzig 1796; P. 2030.
  5. ↑ a b c “ [1] ” In: Brockhaus Bilder-Conversations-Lexikon , Volume 2. Leipzig 1838; P. 734.
  6. ↑ “ Lerche, die Lerche, die ” In: Adelung: Grammatical-Critical Dictionary of High German Dialect , Volume 2. Leipzig 1796; Pp. 2029-2030.
  7. ↑ name = "appetite lexicon"; In fact, the law that came into effect in July 1888 , concerning the protection of birds, contained further bans, for example in § 2 a) for night catching with glue or nets and in § 3 for the period from 5.3. until 15.9. a general ban on catching, killing and marketing - including "dead birds", ie meat.
  8. ^ Robert Habs, Leopold Rosner: Appetit-Lexikon , Badenweiler 1997 (reprint of the original edition Vienna 1898)
  9. ↑ Nets on the Atlantic: Fishing for Larks in Southwest France on the website of the Committee against Bird Slaughter (CAPS), accessed on August 19, 2018.
  10. ↑ Marie Susanne Kübler / Pauline Klaiber: The household with its full extent depicted in letters to a friend. With the addition of a complete cookbook . 15th edition. J. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1905, p. 294-295 .
  11. ↑ Marie Susanne Kübler / Pauline Klaiber: The household with its full extent depicted in letters to a friend. With the addition of a complete cookbook . 15th edition. J. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1905, p. 295 .
  12. ↑ Marie Susanne Kübler / Pauline Klaiber: The household with its full extent depicted in letters to a friend. With the addition of a complete cookbook . 15th edition. J. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1905, p. 295-296 .
  13. ↑ Marie Susanne Kübler / Pauline Klaiber: The household with its full extent depicted in letters to a friend. With the addition of a complete cookbook . 15th edition. J. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1905, p. 296 .
  14. ↑ Marie Susanne Kübler / Pauline Klaiber: The household with its full extent depicted in letters to a friend. With the addition of a complete cookbook . 15th edition. J. Engelhorn, Stuttgart 1905, p. 407 .

literature

  • F. Jürgen Herrmann (Ed.): Herings Lexicon of the kitchen. Fachbuchverlag Pfanneberg, Haan-Gruiten 2012 (licensed edition Nikol, Hamburg 2016); Pp. 380-381. ISBN 978-3-86820-344-8 .