Organic Ostrich
Peter Lund Simmonds, a British writer whose wildly successful "The
Curiosities of Food: On the dainties and delicacies of different nations obtained from the animal kingdom" (1859) was sort of an exciting, scary Cook's tour for 19th-century foodies, advised that
"the best mode of cooking ostrich eggs is that practiced by the Hottentots, who place one end of the egg in hot ashes, and making a small orifice at the other, keep stiring the contents with a stick till they are sufficiently roasted; and thus, with with a seasoning of salt and pepper, you have a very nice omelet."
A native of Africa, ostrich's merits as a foodstuff were celebrated by no less a personage than Charles Darwin, who comforted his female relatives back home with the fact that his sojourn on the "Beagle" was not a misery of endless rations of salt beef, but included such delicacies as ostrich.
And, during the Mad Cow scare in the UK in the mid 1990s, flavorful, delicate, low-fat, dark-red ostrich meat was served in lieu of beef at High Table (formal dinnner) at Oxford University's Christchurch College.
"the best mode of cooking ostrich eggs is that practiced by the Hottentots, who place one end of the egg in hot ashes, and making a small orifice at the other, keep stiring the contents with a stick till they are sufficiently roasted; and thus, with with a seasoning of salt and pepper, you have a very nice omelet."
A native of Africa, ostrich's merits as a foodstuff were celebrated by no less a personage than Charles Darwin, who comforted his female relatives back home with the fact that his sojourn on the "Beagle" was not a misery of endless rations of salt beef, but included such delicacies as ostrich.
And, during the Mad Cow scare in the UK in the mid 1990s, flavorful, delicate, low-fat, dark-red ostrich meat was served in lieu of beef at High Table (formal dinnner) at Oxford University's Christchurch College.
