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FOOD HISTORY
See Also: Thanksgiving Trivia; Turkey Trivia; Stuffing Recipes; Turducken; Thanksgiving Quotes; Turkey Quotes
STUFFINGS
Animals have most likely been stuffed since man or his ancestors began cooking food. After cleaning out the body cavity of internal organs, you have a hollow space that just begs to be filled. Especially for birds, rabbits, hare, suckling pigs, etc. They have a small cavity, and the stuffed animal could be cooked through in a reasonable amount of time.
The ancestors of our modern chickens were first domesticated in western Asia, in the area around India, probably about 4,000 or so years ago. Stuffed chicken most likely followed soon after.
The oldest cookbook that we have is by Apicius, a Roman gourmet who lived some time around the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD. In his cookbook 'Apicius de re Coquinaria', he has recipes for stuffed chicken, hare, pig, and even stuffed dormouse. Most of these early stuffings were of vegetables, herbs, nuts, spelt* and frequently, chopped liver, brains, etc.
*Spelt: an ancient variety of wheat
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