Some people believe it to be just a myth, but the Guinness Book of Records has the stuffed whole camel listed as the largest single food item on any menu, and there are even a few photos of Bedouins feasting on it doing the rounds on the internet
The official name of this traditional Bedouin dish is unknown, but most people refer to it as a “camel Turducken”. According to most sources it’s sometimes prepared at wedding feasts and special parties in Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. Basically, they get a full-grown camel, take out the insides and stuff it with a few sheep or lambs which are in turn stuffed with about 20 chickens full of fish. This calorie atomic bomb has to be boiled then cooked over a pit of burning charcoal until the camel meat is brown and crispy. I can’t imagine what the pot that can hold a whole camel looks like, but apparently the entire cooking process takes about 24 hours. The camel is then served on a silver platter and the wedding guests attack it with knives or their bare hands, leaving only the clean bones.
According to myth-busting website, Snopes, a recipe for stuffed camel actually appears in a cook book calledInternational Cuisine, where it’s listed as a Saudi-Arabian dish. It has all the necessary ingredients and cooking instructions, if you’re looking for a dish that serves between 80 and 100 people. The site also references the introduction of Richard Sterling’s book, The Fearless Diner, where he tells of his meeting with Sven Krause, executive chef at a high-class Bangkok restaurant, who actually cooked a camel Turducken for a sheik’s wedding banquet, while working in Saudi Arabia. He described the process in detail, down to how the wedding guests descended upon the meaty treat and ate the whole thing.
You probably thought your mom’s Thanks Giving turkey was pretty huge, didn’t you?
Photo: International Cuisine Cookbook
Photo sources unknown
0 comments:
Post a Comment