Ever since I was a little kid I have loved dinosaurs
from Dino and The Flintstones to Jurassic Park
but my love of dinosaurs pales in comparison with that of
a group of Victorian scientists who once dined inside of an Iguanodon.
And while I tell you exactly why that happened I'm going to be making salmi de perdrix or partridge salmi
which was served at that reptilian repast.
So thank you to Hellofresh for sponsoring this video as we dine in a dinosaur
this time on Tasting History.
So this dinner inside of a dinosaur boasted a robust menu of eight courses
all of which were made up of some of Victorian England's most popular dishes.
Things like mock turtle soup, curried rabbit, and fantastic desserts like Charlotte Russe and macedoine jelly.
And I am currently on the hunt for more wonderful Victorian molds like this so I can make some of those fantastic desserts
but for this episode I figured since it was dining in a dinosaur I would
dine on some of the dinosaur's descendants and that is by making fowl.
Luckily the menu boasted quite a number of fowl dishes including roasted snipe, pheasant and woodcock
as well as salmi de perdrix or partridge salmi, and it is a popular dish even today in French cuisine.
It's extremely complicated so I thought that it would be cool to do this Victorian version
which is a lot less complicated and kind of see how it evolved over the last century and a half.
And for that Victorian recipe I am turning to one of Victoria in England's most popular cookbooks,
one so thick that it could choke a T-Rex, Isabella Beaton's 'Book of Household Management.'
I got this copy it's from 1880 at a bookstore recently, they did not know what they had.
It's amazing.
Salmi de perdrix. After the partridges are plucked and drawn, roast them rather undone...
as they should not be browned; cut them into... wings, legs and breasts; put these in a stew pan cover them up and set them by until the gravy is ready.
Cut a slice of ham into small pieces, and put them with the carrots sliced,
the shallots, mushrooms, herbs, cloves, and pepper, into a stewpan;
fry them lightly in butter, pour in the stock add the bones and trimmings from the partridges and simmer for 1/4 hour.
Strain the gravy... put it to the legs, wings, and breasts, add a glass of sherry or Madeira and a small lump of sugar;
let all gradually warm through by the side of the fire, and when on the point of boiling,
serve and garnish the dish with croutons."
So there are many similarities to the modern version of this dish but then there are some stark contrasts
like she says to not brown the bird
where today you would do all you can to get a nice color on the bird before putting it into the oven.
Also she is only reducing her sauce for 15 or 20 minutes
where today they'll reduce it for hours sometimes to get a nice, thick rich gravy
but who has time to reduce a sauce for multiple hours?
Not Isabella Beeton and not me
that's why I choose the meals from Hellofresh our sponsor today that are quick and easy.
Hellofresh has an entire line of quick and easy recipes for those nights
when you just kind of start cooking a little too late but you need to make something for dinner.
Luckily Hellofresh delivers everything to your door and pre-portioned so there's no excuse not to cook up something good.
My quick and easy recipe last night was the bulgogi beef noodles stir fry.
Quick, easy, and delicious.
All of their recipes are so well written and easy to follow and they have meals to cover any lifestyle
pescetarian, vegetarian, even family friendly for those picky eaters.
Also with 40 recipes a week there are always plenty of options. You can also swap in and out different proteins inside so
every meal that you're making is exactly what you want.
So to give Hellofresh a try go to hellofresh.com and use my code TASTINGHISTORY16 to get up to 16 free meals
plus free shipping. That's hellofresh.com using my code TASTINGHISTORY16.
Now less quick and easy is this Victorian recipe so let's get started.
What you'll need is: two small birds, partridges are preferred but she says that you can use any game bird and partridges are really quite hard to find
so I'm using game hens. They are much easier to find.
Two or three minced shallots, a large slice of ham cut into small pieces.
So this one really threw me because in the modern version it usually calls for bacon or lardon which is basically just fat,
and that's actually what you're kind of cooking the other ingredients in
but she goes out of her way to call for a slice of lean ham
so the complete opposite of lardon, so I'm curious how that's going to work.
Three carrots, three to four mushrooms, a bundle of savory herbs, two cloves six peppercorns,
one and 3/4 cup or 415 milliliters of beef stock, a quarter cup or 60 milliliters of Sherry and one tablespoon of sugar.
You also need some butter as well as a few slices of white bread that you can cut into any way that you want for the croutons.
So first let your game birds come to room temperature and then salt and pepper them inside and out,
and truss them with a bit of cooking twine.
Then set them in a pan and roast them in the oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit,205 Celsius, for about 20 minutes.
So this is the hardest part of the process because you want to cook these birds about 3/4 the way done,
and every bird is going to be different based on weight and the type of meat it is so
you just kind of have to play it by ear.
It's actually not easy to only three-fourths cook a bird,
but we're going to be cooking it more later so you don't want to cook it all the way.
Once they are partially cooked let them sit for about five minutes and then carve them removing the wings, legs and breasts
setting those in another pan which you will want to cover to keep warm.
As for the carcasses hold onto those and actually chop them up into little pieces
because you're going to be using them in the sauce.
As for the sauce or as she calls it the gravy you melt two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan,
not a shallow frying pan like the one that I started with because I wasn't thinking ahead
but a nice deep saucepan like the one that I'm going to switch over to in a minute.
But once melted add the carrots and shallots, and let them cook for about five minutes,
and then add in the mushrooms, herbs, cloves, and peppercorns, and cook for three to four minutes
before pouring in the stock as well as the bones and trimmings of the birds.
Let all of this cook for she says 15 minutes but I promise you that is really not enough.
You have to at least do it for 30 minutes to even get something resembling a gravy.
I need to do an entire video on this book because it is
fascinating how many mistakes are in it.
So many of the recipes were never tried out before they went into the book and in later editions she fixes them or somebody fixes them rather.
Anyway that'll need to be an entire other video for now cook it at least for 30 minutes.
But once it's slightly thickened pour it through a strainer and let it cool for a bit,
and you want to skim off as much fat as you possibly can that rises to the top.
Then pour it onto the birds in the pan, add the bit of Sherry and a sprinkle of sugar on top,
and then set it on a low heat and bring to a simmer.
You do not want to rush this part of the process.
Leave it over a very low heat, it can take a while to get to that simmering or a light boiling point
but if you rush it you will overcook the partridge.
You just want to let it slowly come to a temperature so it cooks the bird all the way through.
And while it cooks I'm going to answer the question that you've been wondering ever since the beginning of the video,
why the heck were these Victorians having dinner in a dinosaur?
"Mr Waterhouse Hawkins requests the honor of (your name)
at dinner in the mould of the Iguanodon at the Crystal Palace
on Saturday evening December the 31st at five o'clock, 1853
an answer will oblige."
I think I prefer that to RSVP, an answer will oblige.
It just sounds just sounds fancier and I think I'll swap that in for any forthcoming invitations I might send out.
Anyway if you were lucky enough to be invited to this illustrious dinner that is the invitation you would have received
the words written on the wing of a pterodactyl.
"There was something so terrific and grotesque in the nature of the invitation, which excited the curiosity and interest of some of the leading geologists,
paleontologists, and scientific men of the country."
The host of the dinner was Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins who had been the creator
of 33 life-sized dinosaur models at the Crystal Palace in London,
a fantastic structure which had originally been built for the Great International Exhibition of 1851.
And this dinosaur exhibit really was the first Jurassic Park and they spared no expense.
The guest of honor was Professor Richard Owen who had been the scientific mind behind the dinosaur exhibit.
He was also the person who declared these creatures being unearthed in Southern England at the time "terrible lizards"
and he placed them in a new taxonomic group called Dinosauria.
He came up with that word, I mean this is a time when the entire concept of dinosaurs was brand new and
it's amazing. Sometimes I forget how recent many scientific discoveries actually are.
The one that always throws me is plate tectonics, that was not really a thing until the 1960s,
like when my parents were alive. I think that's just crazy.
Anyway, in the 1850s people became enthralled with the idea that these massive lizards
were once roaming around long, long ago.
And and the newspaper articles from that time about this dinner reflect that fascination.
"We are entering a mausoleum to the memory of ruined worlds... 'Sages wherefore have we come hither under the eye of past and future words?'
The sages reply, to dine!
And dine they did. As I mentioned it was eight courses this dinner,
and it started off with soups, and then fish then a choice of roast turkey, ham, raised pigeon pie,
or boiled chicken and celery sauce.
The entrees all written in French were lamb with tomatoes, curried rabbit with rice, fillet of sole with mayonnaise
and of course the salmi de perdrix, or partridge salmi.
Then a course of game meats which was followed by the most outlandish of Victorian desserts,
than fruits and nuts, and finally a course of after dinner wines.
After eating a meal like that I would be the size of an Iguanodon.
Now before the dinner actually commenced the newspapers kind of set the scene of what was going on around.
First the names of several illustrious gentlemen in the field of science were placed on banners around the room.
Then the invited guests came in.
These included many of the top scientists of the day as well as several executives from the CrystalPalace Company who owned the park,
and of course a handful of prominent newspaper editors who were able to report on that dinner,
and report they did.
And they did so in a wonderfully Victorian poetic fashion
like one who wrote asking these dead dinosaurs if they ever envisioned people eating on top of their graves.
"Potentates of the Wealdon and the Oolite!
Saurians and pterodactyls all!
Dreamed ye ever, your ancient festivities, of a race to come dwelling above your tombs...
who would vent their rage for dining on your ghosts..?"
What a wonderful turn of phrase. So next time you're hungry instead of saying I want to eat
you need to say I wish to vent my rage for dining.
"The number of gentlemen present was twenty-eight, of whom twenty-one were accommodated in the interior of the Iguanodon,
and several at the side table on a platform raised to the same level."
So a sort of kids table but by the illustrations from the time it does look at least like that table was attached,
though I might rather be at the kids table because it sounds like the table inside of the Iguanodon was was a little cramped.
It actually had to be shaped kind of in in a weird way just to accommodate the curves of the inside of a dinosaur.
Guest of honor Professor Owen at least got to sit at the head of the table where the lizard's brain would be,
and once everyone was seated he stood and delivered a speech dedicated to all of the great minds who had come before him.
And "Professor Owen, at the close of his remarks, proposed 'The memory of Mantell, the discoverer of the Iguanodon,'
a toast which was responded to in mournful and appropriate silence."
But the model in tone was not to last because as the food came in things got rather rowdy.
"They drink to the dead, they drink to the deranged, they drink to the living.
Owen gives the toasts, Forbes writes a ballad, and the sages all sing, rap, roar, and create-
of all creations after dinner speeches."
So the thing is the way the author writes this article is rather is- rather dramatic so it's hard to tell what actually happened versus what might be poetic license,
but other more prosaic articles from the time do confirm that the partying and drinking went on
raucous as it was into the wee hours of the morning, it was New Year's Eve after all.
And I love how one article from Punch Magazine finishes it
"We congratulate the company on the era in which they live;
for if it had been an early geological period, they might perhaps have occupied the Iguanodon's inside
without having any dinner there."
Though as witty as that is the Iguanodon was a vegetarian so eating one person let alone 21 people is is highly unlikely.
Now what I love about this story is the
foresight that the people who were throwing the dinner had to invite all of these newspaper men
because they were able to not only get publicity for the event and for the park itself but
they gave them a bunch of information about all of the different dinosaurs, kind of scientific information, different facts
and so in the articles that followed they would start with information about this fantastic dinner but
then they would give the readers paragraphs of information on all of the dinosaurs,
where they lived, when they lived, what they might have eaten,
and even information on how the scientists were able to deduce all of these things from just a few simple bone fragments.
Much of it is now we know not correct but the methods that they used were so important
at that time, at that point in scientific history,
and I just love that the Articles kind of grab people's attention with information about food
followed by a bunch of educational information. <_<
Seems a little familiar doesn't it?
But the educational information for today is done and so let's get back to the food.
So when your partridge is almost done cooking make your croutons by melting a bit of butter or oil in a pan,
and then set your bread in and let it fry for just a moment on each side.
As for the partridge itself once the liquid that it's in is simmering let it cook for just a minutes,
then take it out and set a few pieces on the crouton.
Then drizzle some of the cooking sauce over the meat and serve.
And here we are Victorian salmi de perdri.
I wish you were here to smell this because it smells fantastic.
The whole house smells wonderful. It's kind of that earthiness from the mushrooms but then-
it's just so much more complex than, that I don't even know how to put put it into words, but let me taste it. Maybe I can put that that into words.
Hmmm.
That is-
that feels expensive,
tastes expensive rather.
There's so many flavors like
all in one. It is one new flavor but it's almost like nothing I've ever tried before. The mushrooms-
it doesn't taste like mushrooms but you get that wonderful kind of umami savoriness from from the mushroom
but then there's the sweetness from the sugar. They usually don't add sugar today and I kind of-
I kind of see why because that's no longer a popular a popular flavor in dishes like this
but I kind of I actually really like it but the partridge is actually done very well, the dark meat.
I think I needed to have taken the white meat out of the out of the pan a little bit sooner because
it looks like it may be a little bit overdone but just put a bunch more sauce on it and
mm-hmm,
overcooked but still delicious.
That sauce could really go on to anything, not even just fowl.
It's so dark and robust a flavo, I really- it's hard to describe because it is unlike-
unlike anything I've had before and since I'm at a loss for words
that just means you have to make it yourself and it is a little bit of work but it's a lot less work than the modern version,
and yet it is complex and absolutely worth the time in doing.
You don't need to go get a partridge, if you could even find one you could use chicken.
It's just kind of going to depend on how long you end up cooking and everything
but the flavors I think are still going to be there and that's what really matters.
So even though you might not be able to dine in a dinosaur like those wacky Victorians at least
you can taste a bit of what they ate that night inside of an Iguanodon,
and I will see you next time on Tasting History.