SC - Big birds on the medieval plate

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

Bonne wrote:

>The fishiness was probably a "what you are used to" problem.  I've never
had
>swan, but can't imagine a reason why it would be more fishy tasting than
>duck.


Ducks that feed mostly on small fish and such tend to taste a bit fishy;
others do not. - Around here, swans are protected nowadays and killing them
can land you in jail. I´ve never tasted one but I have it on good authority
that a very young swan is quite good but an older bird requires at least 6
hours in the oven and still resembles shoe leather. Nevertheless, they were
frequently eaten in earlier times, as they are fairly easy to catch during
that period when they have lost their flying feathers and are growing new
ones (what is it called? molting?).

The swan has two names in Icelandic: Svanur and álft. No one I know would
dream of eating the former; it is a beautiful, graceful bird, the stuff of
legends, and it sings. Few people would have had any scruples about eating
the latter bird; it is a big bastard that destroys fields, and its croak is
very annoying. Yet they are one and the same. Both names are very old and I
think they were used in the same manner in Old Norse.

So, maybe the Ingalls family wouldn´t have been so sad if they had had
another name to call the swan by.

Nanna

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