The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Great pictures Ian.

Can't remember if I've put this one on here before so here goes

Dave Burr wrote:Can't remember if I've put this one on here before so here goes

Did you visit him in Cheddington?

I did indeed Sandgroper. I did an interview with him and spent a very enjoyable afternoon chatting with Fred and eating his stuffed pheasant and trout pate - and I think a bottle of wine appeared somewhere along the way

Dave Burr wrote:I did indeed Sandgroper. I did an interview with him and spent a very enjoyable afternoon chatting with Fred and eating his stuffed pheasant and trout pate - and I think a bottle of wine appeared somewhere along the way

Ah yes, Fred got me into eating and shooting a few pheasants, I acquired quite a taste for them. My wife used to make a pheasant and hare soup which was very tasty, both ingredients were normally provided by Fred. His wine could be a bit inconsistent to say the least. but of course you would never tell him that. Fred was very sensitive about criticism regarding his wine making or cooking. I well remember the day I chose to eat a lobster morney my wife had made in preference to his, he was most unhappy. Although hers was the better, I was over a barrel anyway, my wife cooks all of my meals for me. Did he ever get you into eating his rook pie? That was a great favourite of his. The rooks have to be shot during a very short time frame - in May if I remember rightly - and in the early years of our association, he would go out and get some. Such meals were, at one time, a economic necessity as Fred didn't come from a rich family but they ate well being as Fred was more than ready and able to take food off the land.

'Four and twenty black birds baked in a pie' - that refers to rook pie. The time to shoot them is mid May and is referred to as 'Branching' as its when the newly fledged youngsters leave the nest and explore their tree before taking to the wing. Due to corvid's incredible eyesight and intelligence this is the one opportunity of some easy shooting. I've not tasted rook but I dare say that Fred would have made it extremely palatable.

We drank regular shop bought wine. He liked the look of the bottle I took him and hid that away for another day whilst we drank a bottle of the quaffing plonk from his cupboard You gotta love Fred. To have shared a wilderness camp with him would have been a dream fulfilled, he was a great bloke.

Dave Burr wrote: - and I think a bottle of wine appeared somewhere along the way

and was it even more pleasant in its disappearance?

Ha...like a float!!!

Nice one Paddex

Dave Burr wrote:'Four and twenty black birds baked in a pie' - that refers to rook pie. The time to shoot them is mid May and is referred to as 'Branching' as its when the newly fledged youngsters leave the nest and explore their tree before taking to the wing. Due to corvid's incredible eyesight and intelligence this is the one opportunity of some easy shooting. I've not tasted rook but I dare say that Fred would have made it extremely palatable.

We drank regular shop bought wine. He liked the look of the bottle I took him and hid that away for another day whilst we drank a bottle of the quaffing plonk from his cupboard You gotta love Fred. To have shared a wilderness camp with him would have been a dream fulfilled, he was a great bloke.

I had never associated the nursery rhyme with eating rooks. Quite a few of them are based on actual incidents or the like, but sadly, I have always had to have them explained to me.

The wine incident made me laugh, at least you didn't have to drink some of what he made, they were not always the best.

One of his favourite cooking events was when he did a sausage sizzle for a group whose name I forget now. Anyway, it was held at Hyde Lane Pit near Buckingham. When he did that he used trays of prime pork sausages - pre EU specifications - and I used to collect up all of the dripping that ran out of them as they cooked. I preferred that dripping to the sausages.