Thoughts on Turkey Day: why don’t we eat swans anymore?
A while back, Ann Althouse asked the question “why don’t we eat swans anymore?”:
And it’s not because they don’t taste pretty darn good:
“If you want to know how it tastes, it’s “delicious ”” deep red, lean, lightly gamey, moist, and succulent.”
My answer to the question is that we don’t eat swans anymore because they’re too pretty, they dance too well, and they ask you not to shoot them (I was unable to format the following video so that it started at the proper point, which is around 3:45, but I suggest you start watching there, and fullscreen mode might be best):
Makarova was a magical Odette, and Nagy a wonderful prince and partner, and I had the great good fortune to see them dance in this very production many times. This pas de deux in the second act of “Swan Lake” is a brilliant exploration of the ballet’s themes of fear, flight, dawning trust, and loving surrender. Note, for example, the subtle part where the Prince goes around Odette as he tries to catch her as she tries to escape (around 5:00). I’ve never seen a prince do it better than Nagy does it here.
But there’s a common misconception about Odette, the Swan Queen, one that I’m exploiting in this post. People believe she’s a swan, but she is not a swan. She is a woman under a spell that makes her a swan by day and then allows her to turn back again to a woman by night, albeit a woman who retains some of her swannish (as opposed to swinish) nature. It is by night that she and Prince Siegried meet, so PETA can’t complain.
Some of the role’s great practitioners emphasize the woman aspect of Odette somewhat at the expense of the swan—Margot Fonteyn (fourth act pas de deux here with Nureyev), and Galina Ulanova (second act pas de deux here). Some do the opposite, and are much more swan than woman. Natalia Makarova, shown in the above clip, was wonderful for many reasons, but one of the reasons is that she gave equal measure to both swan and woman, becoming a sort of chimera of the two.
[NOTE: Here’s a previous post featuring clips of one of my absolute favorite moments in the entire ballet, the instant when Odette changes from woman back to swan.]
When I read the title I just knew you would get into this, if not exactly what your points would be. Teh ballet girl nerd in you is showing. 🙂 Oh, no worries, just chuckling. It’s cute to sort of suspect and have it turn out. Almost a knowledge, in passing… a connection that is pleasant.
And, still, I must debate the issue. Ballet has no part to play. It is family size shrinkage, and for a time rarity which drove prices up. I do duck, if cooking for two, turkey for four or more. I have even done goose, though never swan (simply wasn’t available, or anywhere I shopped). Though price through scarcity might be a problem? Without trying it, I can’t be sure about actual size problems (might not fit in an standard oven?), and might leave far too many leftovers?
All I am suggesting, is that it is probably technical problems more than taste or ballet. Still chuckling…
heh. Because Carl Orff?
(taught us to look at the matter from inside the oven)
Did a goose once. All dark meat. Superb! And, per Fanny Farmer, pricked the skin all over to let the fat drain out. It is pure white. Possibly as a result of its privilege it makes the best biscuits I ever had.
Over here we don’t eat swans because the Queen owns them all and it’s a prosecutable offence. As one immigrant found out recently…
“If you want to know how it tastes, it’s “delicious – deep red, lean, lightly gamey, moist, and succulent.”
There’s something about the word “succulent” that always introduces a bit of nausea in my heart.
We are privileged to have a female swan on our lake. (It is sad that she has no mate.) My point, however, is that she has taught us much about swan behavior, and we have learned that a ballerina copies typical swan moves. Now Swan Lake means something different to us.
Have you priced swans lately? OUT-Rageous!
My Safeway doesn’t carry them.