CookEat Recipe
Spit-Roasted Small Birds with Sage and Bread
Small birds wrapped in thin cured fatback and roasted in a row with sage and thick slices of day-old bread.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 6 legally supplied food-grade thrushes, professionally plucked and eviscerated, about 350–450 g total prepared weight, with heads, necks and feet removed; About 18 small sage leaves; 60 g plain cured pork fatback, sliced paper-thin; 150 g day-old bread, cut into slices about 1.5 cm thick; 1 tablespoon olive oil; Salt only if needed.
Step 2
Use only fresh, correctly identified birds legally sold for food and professionally eviscerated. Keep at 4°C or colder until preparation. Do not leave the intestines inside, age birds at room temperature or cook spoiled birds to disguise an off smell. Fold the wings back, securing one or two sage leaves beneath each, and tuck the legs together with another small sage leaf or cluster between them. Use food-safe kitchen string if needed, keeping a count of all ties.
Step 3
Wrap the breasts with the paper-thin cured-fatback slices, tasting a separately cooked piece before deciding whether they need any more salt. Thread the birds on the rotisserie with the larger ones in the middle, alternating with the thick bread slices so these receive fat from the wrapped breasts. Secure everything according to the rotisserie instructions.
Step 4
Preheat for brisk indirect rotisserie cooking at about 200–220°C, with a drip pan below and no direct flame touching the food. Roast, rotating, for about 20–35 minutes according to the birds. When they begin to brown, brush the birds once with the oil without oiling the bread. Season the birds once with a little salt only if needed. Check each bird reaches at least 82°C in its thickest meat and the bread touched by raw juices is thoroughly heated to at least 74°C. Remove every tie and slide the birds and bread onto a platter in their alternating row. Serve promptly.
Step 5
For a stew made only with fresh, properly stored birds, replace the fatback and rotisserie method with 50 g thin prosciutto, 1 tablespoon oil, 20 g butter, about 250 ml ready-to-use broth and 1 lemon. Put the birds with the whole sage leaves over the prosciutto in a casserole, add the oil and a little pepper and brown gently. Add the butter and enough broth to finish cooking gently until all birds reach 82°C, about 30–45 minutes. Add lemon juice to taste just before serving over the 150 g bread, toasted separately. Salt sparingly because of the prosciutto and broth. About 2 tablespoons food-grade verjuice may replace the lemon juice, adjusted to taste. This alternative does not make spoiled birds safe.
Step 6
For the separate duck variation, use a professionally dressed, eviscerated duck or legally supplied food-grade mallard of about 1.5–2 kg. Omit the small birds, sage, fatback and alternating bread. Season the duck lightly with salt, secure on the rotisserie and roast over indirect heat at about 180–200°C with a drip pan below. When the skin starts to colour, squeeze over 1 lemon and baste periodically with its juice and 2 tablespoons oil collected in the pan. Continue for about 1½–2 hours, or until at least 82°C in the thickest breast and thigh away from bone. Rest for 10–15 minutes, remove all string and carve. The duck variation has its own timing and serves about four.
Cooked it? Rate it.
Cooked 0 times