If you pay a sojourn to the markets where Americans did their market shopping during the 1800s , you would see a intimate assortment of potatoes and Daucus carota sativa next to cut of beef cattle and freshly caught fish — not too different from what you ’d find at a farmer ’ market today . But integrate in with the meat and produce you ’d also witness an incredible variety of wildbirds .
Depending on the time of year , you might see barrels ofpassenger pigeon , wads ofsparrowsstrung in quarrel , or exotic fare likeowlsor Hero . The 1867 bookThe Market Assistantcatalogeda jaw - drop 120 species of chick sell in New York , Boston , and Philadelphia markets , which shoppers used to make favourite dishes like American robin pie and plover on goner .
To add these markets , hunters killed so many skirt that they begin disappearing at an alarming charge per unit . implicated bird - lovers organized a response that led to Congress passing theMigratory BirdTreaty Act in 1918 , which made it illegal to vote out or deal most native fowl , or to evenown their feathering . This law has kept many skirt from going the style of the rider pigeon , but it also means you ’ll never get to eat like a 19th - hundred American .
To give you a good sense of what you ’re missing out on , here are eight birds people used to have for dinner but would be a federalcrimeto eat today .
Robins
America ’s favoritebackyard birdalso used to be one of its preferent dish . In 1888 George Holdenwrotethat schoolboy and business community alike would “ smack their lip when think of the delectable dish known as Robin pot - pie . ”Wehman ’s Cook Book , publish two years subsequently , include a recipe for this dish that instructed bakers to “ cover the bottom of a pie - looker with thin slices of kick and fat bacon , over which repose ten or twelve robins , previously roll in flour … and overcompensate with three quarters of a pound of one-half puff spread ” before baking .
Thrushes
Delmonico ’s of New York City used to be thefanciest restaurantin America , and abook of its recipesfrom 1912 include elaborate dishes with luxuriant name likeThrush Pudding , Croustades of Thrushes , andCases of Thrushes à la Diana . The formula for Thrushes Andrieux called for stuffing eight of the shy , robin - sized dame with ground meat and herbaceous plant , place them in a baking dish with cubes of carrot , onions , and veal , and baking in Madeira wine-coloured before topping the bird with truffles and “ escalops of cooked duck ’s liver . ”
Loons
The State Department bird of Minnesota had a reputation for being jolly unappetizing . The painter and ornithologistJohn James Audubontried loon andwasn’t a sports fan , calling them “ not very palatable , ” with their nub “ being baffling , rank , and dark coloured . ” But foodies of his day did n’t seem to bear in mind . When he was traveling in New England , Audubon ascertain that loons were “ much relished by many lovers of good - living , especially at Boston , where it was not infrequently served almost sensitive . ”
Woodpeckers
Even though woodpeckers were a pop ravisher , Audubon again left a negative review : Hefoundtheir meat “ very unsympathetic , it having a strong flavour ofants . ” Despite their off taste , the razz were common to find in market . Chefs would sometimes discombobulate a few woodpeckers into a pot pie with blackbird or grackles , which would hopefully mask their anty essence .
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar waxwing are sleek , knightly little birds that love moving around in friendly flocks and munch on berries . the great unwashed also used to have sex munch on them , even though each bird , weighing only one ounce , made for just “ a morsel of delicate eating . ” An acquaintance of Audubon’sonce shippeda basket of cedar waxwing to a ally in New Orleans as a Christmas present , only to find out that “ the steward of the steamer , in which they were shipped , made PIE of them for the benefit of the passengers . ”
Bobolinks
These bounteous black- and cream - colored birds , about the size of Richmondena Cardinalis , were a threat to Southern rice James Leonard Farmer . But after gorging themselves on the farmers ’ crops , they became “ extremely tender and juicy , ” which turned them into a delicacy . You could corrupt a few dozen bobolink and make a recipe fromMiss Leslie ’s New Cookery Bookfor “ Birds with mushroom-shaped cloud , ” which called for stuff a button mushroom in each bird , then grizzle the lot in butter and serve them on goner .
Owls
Even if they had n’t beengranted Union protection in 1972(they were excluded from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918 because they were branded as chicken thieves ) , few multitude would think about owls as food . But back in the 1800s , they were acommon sightin markets . People also rust them out of necessity . enslave Africans in the South were often only capable to hunt for food at nighttime , which meanteating nocturnal animalslike bird of night . And of all the snort he taste , there ’s only one that Audubon compared to the shuttlecock we feed most often today . Meat from snowy owl , hewrote , is like “ that of a poulet , and not indecorous eating . ”
Sparrows
You might imagine sparrows were too small to be worth eating , but you ’d be wrong . Even though they count only as much as seven or eight penny , critics called the birds “ super delicate and fat , ” and it was easy to regain small drawstring of the birds for sale . While America ’s native species of hedge sparrow ( like the one above ) are now protected by law of nature , the incursive theater dunnock get over from Europe are not . In 1910 the U.S. Department of Agriculturesuggestedthat people exhaust the “ toothsome and nutritious ” birds to assist get free of them — which would still technically be legal today .
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