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Noun: "a small bird, once eaten as a delicacy"
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1749
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2003 2008
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15th c.
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- this taught him to consider Sophia as a most delicious morsel, indeed to regard her with the same desires which an ortolan inspires into the soul of an epicure.
- 2003, Stewart Lee Allen, In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food, page 73
- the last flavor Mitterrand wished to savor belonged to the flesh of the endangered ortolan, a songbird the size of a human toe that is a crime to buy or hunt, and is certainly illegal to eat. Mitterrand devoured it in the traditional manner, first covering his head with an embroidered cloth, then inserting the entire bird into his mouth. Only its head should dangle out from between your lips. Bite off the head and discard.
- 2008, Leanne Kitchen, The Butcher, page 225-226
- Consuming ortolan is now banned, which apparently didn't stop François Mitterrand from famously dining on a few at his final meal in 1996. These tiny birds — weighing only 25 g (barely an ounce) — were captured live, kept in darkness and fattened by force feeding until four times their weight. 'True' gourmands then killed them by drowning them in Armagnac, and the birds were cooked and eaten whole — guts, bones, beak and all. The diner was supposed to eat these birds with a white napkin held over his face so he could savour the aromas and also 'hide from God', presumably out of guilt.