Alex Robinson, the content editor for OL, spent some time crow-hunting in southern Minnesota in the early fall. I dare you to make these taste good, he said as he handed me three dressed breasts after he came back from the field. ”.
My friend Toufik Halami and I set out to recreate an old world wild meat and vegetable “pye” after doing some research (which of course included learning about the rhyme “…four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” and perusing the pages of a 1940s edition of “Joy of Cooking”). ”.
The final taste and textures of our blackbird pie were nothing less than delectable. To my surprise, when prepared as a Yankee Pot Roast, the breast meat was surprisingly tender and tasted and felt like beef. Thanks to a straightforward hard cider brine I tried before and a slow braise after it was nested inside the sealed, flaky golden crust, the wild crow was neither gamey nor chewy. Here’s how to make your own.
Ingredients: 1 Honeycrisp apple, or another similar variety, 2 Yukon Gold potatoes, 1 cup of whole mushrooms of your choice, 1 bunch of rainbow carrots from Trader Joe’s, 1 cup of sugar snap peas, 10 fluid ounces of hard cider, 2 cups of chicken stock, 1 leek, 1 small bunch of fresh flatleaf parsley, 12 sprigs of fresh thyme, 1 egg, butter, or bacon grease, salt, flour, and 2 prepared
Leeks are cut into halves lengthwise, then into quarters, eighths, and dice. Chop parsley, dice carrots and peas, remove the thyme sprigs, and roughly cut mushrooms. Dice potatoes, core and dice one apple.
Heat 12-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add butter, or bacon grease if you have it. Leeks and mushrooms should be sautéed for two to three minutes to remove any remaining water. Add carrots and more fat, as needed. Add about ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook another 5 minutes.
Mix in about 2 tablespoons of flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. The time has come to add the remaining hard cider from the crow breast brine to the pan if you or someone in the kitchen didn’t consume it earlier. Or, crack another, and add approximately 10 fluid ounces. Add the parsley and thyme, and mix.
Slowly pour in some chicken stock in increments of 1/3 to 1/2 cup as the mixture simmers. We want to make the mixture thick enough to resemble gravy. You have to feel your way through this step. Just think Grandma’s Thanksgiving turkey gravy. This step will take about 30-45 minutes.
Add the brined crow breasts to the pan once the mixture has reached its silky thickened state of deliciousness. Basically, we poach the breasts in the vegetable sauce for a brief period of time to partially cook them. To give the meat and vegetables a touch of sweetness at this time, we also add the diced apple.
When the meat is almost done, take the cast-iron pan off the heat and transfer the chicken breasts to a cutting board. Dice the breasts and add a little salt, too.
Put the meat back into the pan with the veggies. Place the entire mixture into a bowl to cool while you make the crust. Turn on the oven preheating to 350 degrees.
Brush butter and a little salt into an 8 or 9-inch cast iron skillet that has been chilled. This keeps the piecrust from adversely interacting with the cast-iron.
Put in your first piecrust and gently mold to shape. You want a lot of crust to droop over the edge. (Pre-made is fine, but if you want to make your own dough, it’s simple to do and produces a much flakier crust than store-bought will. ).
After placing your base crust in the pan, give it five minutes to expand and relax. Roll out your second crust while waiting for the first one to settle into the pan. If you have a pie bird, cut an x in the middle to make a small opening for it. As the savory crow pie bakes in the oven, this vintage pie bird will release steam.
The cooled mixture should now be added to the skillet. Place the bird in the center, cover with the second crust, fold the edges under, and pinch as desired.
Just be sure to pinch the dough to the ceramic pie bird to seal there as well as the crusts to one another. Before placing in the oven, we want the seal to be as tight as possible.
Beat the egg and liberally brush onto the crust. Place the pie on the bottom rack of the oven and bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Keep an eye on things and make adjustments as you go because cooking times can vary depending on the thickness of your crust, the size of your skillet, and the precision of your oven. Cover loosely with aluminum foil if your crust begins to brown before the vegetables are done to prevent burning.
When the ringer sounds, take the pie out and let it rest for at least 30 minutes to allow the hot ingredients to cool and come together.
Be prepared for your family and friends to swarm to the table to devour this delicious meal.
When the ringer sounds, take the pie out and let it rest for at least 30 minutes to allow the hot ingredients to cool and come together.
The final taste and textures of our blackbird pie were nothing less than delectable. To my surprise, when prepared as a Yankee Pot Roast, the breast meat was surprisingly tender and tasted and felt like beef. Thanks to a straightforward hard cider brine I tried before and a slow braise after it was nested inside the sealed, flaky golden crust, the wild crow was neither gamey nor chewy. Here’s how to make your own.
Beat the egg and liberally brush onto the crust. Place the pie on the bottom rack of the oven and bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Keep an eye on things and make adjustments as you go because cooking times can vary depending on the thickness of your crust, the size of your skillet, and the precision of your oven. Cover loosely with aluminum foil if your crust begins to brown before the vegetables are done to prevent burning.
Leeks are cut into halves lengthwise, then into quarters, eighths, and dice. Chop parsley, dice carrots and peas, remove the thyme sprigs, and roughly cut mushrooms. Dice potatoes, core and dice one apple.
Put the meat back into the pan with the veggies. Place the entire mixture into a bowl to cool while you make the crust. Turn on the oven preheating to 350 degrees.
Crow Stigmas and What They’re Rooted In
The phrase “eating crow” being a negative expression demonstrates how low we think of these birds and why crows are viewed with such a negative perspective. For a variety of reasons over the years, crows have been regarded as evil spirits or as vicious animals.
Crows and other corvids, particularly in literature, are frequently depicted as witches or other evil characters who engage in sinister activities against the main character. Folklore holds that crows are thieving creatures drawn to shiny objects or that they steal from the nests of other birds, depleting their populations. People frequently disregard the idea of eating crows because they observe them in their neighborhood eating trash, roadkill, and other “nasty” foods.
Another problem with crow is that whenever it is reported that someone has tried it, it always seems to taste bad and not be “worth the effort.” Poor meat handling and preparation, as with most wild game, is essential to the recipe. That starts the moment the animal is harvested. Continue reading to learn how to preserve the meat and prepare a tasty meal.
Crows actually have a much more diverse and varied diet, which includes the eggs from many bird species. Their diet often ranges from a wide array of grains, fruits, nuts, berries to insects and larger animals. They are also known to eat aquatic animals like fish, turtles, clams, and crayfish. This is a very nutrient-dense diet that isn’t found in many of the more charismatic conventional prey species.
The craze for crows in Tulsa was largely a result of Dr T. W. Stallings, former county health superintendent and self-professed “crow hater. Crows, with their propensity to flock to staple crops, have recently become a major issue for Oklahoma farmers, according to Stallings.
Of course, we should exercise caution when interpreting the ‘crow craze’ of the 1930s and 1940s at face value. As we’ve seen, state representatives had a personal stake in encouraging the eradication of the birds because they were widely regarded as destructive pests. Additionally, the 1930s saw widespread famine in areas of the United States that were hardest hit by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, which may have made the crow, which was not previously thought of as a source of food, more enticing than it had previously been.
By 1937, newspapers in Kansas, Georgia, Illinois, and Washington state were all reporting a surge in public interest in the much-maligned bird. Crow-eating was not just a problem in Oklahoma. According to estimates, two Americans wrote to the Department of Agriculture on average every day in August 1937 seeking information on “how crows might be cooked, stewed, fried or roasted and how crow broth can be made.” Fernand Pointreau, the renowned Hotel Sherman’s executive chef, served “crow en casserole” to a group of sportsmen in 1941. The crows were prepared as follows:
Despite this, it is also evident that many individuals were doubtful of or outright repulsed by the idea of eating crow. In 1936, a chef in Atlanta remarked, “Roast crow, bah, people just don’t go in for that kind of meat.” In my opinion, eating crow will always be nothing more than a political statement. I have eaten rattlesnakes, but I have never eaten crows, said a writer for the US Department of Agriculture in 1937. And I don’t think I ever intend. ” [7].
However, this brief episode in the history of food serves as an illustration of what happens when shared convictions that some substances are unfit for human consumption collide with practical nutrition concerns. In a widely cited article on the psychology of disgust, Paul Rozin and April Fallon made the following observation: