This recipe is taken from Harry Starlight’s 1778 cookbook, Sleeping Beans, Worts, and Fowl Creatures. It follows the recent feature, “Spitting a Rabbit Over Leaping Flame”, which originally appeared in the Joy of Coppice Alight, 1769.
COOKED WOOD IMP
Ingredients:
- 1 wood imp*
- 1 lock virgin princess hair
- 2 blood oranges
- 1 c. urine of white stag
- 1 bunch long, hairy carrots
- 1 desiccated quince
- 2 c. fairy ring mushrooms
- 1 bunch gnarled roots
- butter, saltpetre and herbs (to taste)
Wild wood imp is unlike almost every other North American mammal, ameliorated by 3 or 4 days dried, if kept from heat and the moon, which has much more injurious effect than the sun.
To prepare marinade:
Remove the head of the wood imp, drain the blood, and clean the feet. If you have ice, you may store the head for broth or head cheese. The brains are delightful sautéed with black butter, or with cheese in fondue.
Fill a cotton tea sack with gnarled roots, fairy mushrooms, ground quince, and princess hair. Place in a cold water kettle and bring to boil. Add diced long, hairy carrots and simmer until tender. Remove from fire and transfer to a cookpot. Add juice of blood orange and urine of white stag. Place imp in cookpot and place in cool dark place overnight.
Roasting:
The general rules are, to have a brisk hot fire, to hang down rather than to spit, to baste with salt and water, and one quarter of an hour brush to every ounce of imp. Tender imp will require less, while old bothersome imp will require more roasting. Pricking with a fork will determine whether done or not; rare done is the healthiest. Finish with brush of butter, salt, and herbs to taste.
*Finding a wood imp may prove a difficult task. Tips to methods of the hunt can be found in Gryzzly Truemane’s 1756 book, Crawling on All Fours.
by H. F. W., 2019
