The Fabulously Festive Five Bird Roast
“Treat Your Family to a King’s Feast This Christmas”
It is traditional to eat luxurious food during a celebration, and Christmas is no exception. A huge slice of the British population will opt for the turkey roast this year; a tradition amongst the rich for many centuries (Henry the VIII championed the turkey and then Edward VII made it popular as a Christmas dish), but only available to the common man within the last 50 years or so. Before this time people would celebrate with goose many paying a small fee to use the local baker’s oven to cook it in.
Pre-dating the turkey, which only arrived on British soil in 1526, was the boar’s head carried into the feast as everyone sang the boars head carol. In Roman feasts the boar was the first dish served and there are historical writings of boars stuffed with quails being served at ceremonies.
The Romans were great a having a good party and the notion of stuffing one animal into another animal became quite the norm. Another writer talks of another meal involving stuffing a chicken inside a duck inside a goose inside a pig inside a cow.
The Georgians also did well with marking an occasion with food. In 1753, James, Earl of Lonsdale sent a Christmas pie to King George III which weighed 22 stones (140 kgs) and contained 177 birds of differing varieties including 12 fieldfares, 46 yellow-hammers and a curlew.
By 1807 the rôti sans pareil (“roast without equal”) was born. Grimod de La Reynière presented his 17 bird roast with the largest bird being a bustard and the smallest a garden warbler. This is not the largest multi bird however; in 1829 a cookbook was produced in Brussels which cited 20 stages.
In the modern day we are more refined, but no less luxurious. Companies such as Pelham and Talbot provide the most “Royal of roasts” a Succulent fresh turkey breast, stuffed with goose, stuffed with chicken, stuffed with duck, stuffed with partridge. A delicacy which Mark Walker, Head Chef at Cambridge University’s Madingley Hall describes as:
“approximately 5 kilos of gourmet poultry and game with absolutely no waste. It is a mouth-watering cacophony of taste; succulent, juicy and very, very moreish indeed.”
Click on an image to enlarge
Treat your family this Christmas, if there’s one day of the year that you can spoil yourselves it’s the 25th of December, so eat like Kings.
Our five bird roast is available direct from our main website at pelhamandtalbot.co.uk or via this web page and is now only £118.50.
Hurry, there are only a few days left to order before Christmas!
Choose either fresh or frozen at no extra charge.
Delivery Dates
FreshFresh 5 bird roasts will be delivered by FedEx on either 20th, 21st, or 22nd of December 2011.
Frozen
Frozen 5 bird roasts will be delivered by FedEx within 5 working days of receipt of your order. (Note: Deliveries are only made on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays).
Important
A signature is required by our carriers, so please ensure that you have left specific instructions and a signed note for the carrier authorising your package to be left somewhere safe (or with a neighbour) if nobody will be in to receive it.Free Delivery
Delivery is free of charge in the UK*
*Excluding postcodes listed below, which will incur a £15.00 delivery surcharge:Northern Ireland
All postcodes beginning with BTHighlands and Islands
HS1-9IV1-63
KA27-28
PA20-78
PH19-50
Note: We regret we cannot supply outside of the UK.
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Hurry - this offer is only available while stocks last.
