"eat crow"

[Mullins, Bill]

I recently bought a stack of "Comments on Etymology" (thanks Jerry!),
and the Oct 2003 issue presents some of Barry's work on "eat crow"
(ADS-L 6/22/2003).  This phrased has nagged at me since, until
I remembered why:

Thomas Harris, _Silence of the Lambs_, Ch. 35, about 3-1/2 pages in
(bottom of p. 224 in the St. Martin's paperback edition).
Lecter, speaking to Clarice:  "Dumas tells us that the addition
of a crow to boullion in the fall, when the crow has fattened
on juniper berries, greatly improves the color and flavor of
stock."

This dish must agree with Harris; in an article, "An Ideal
English Class Syllabus for 9th Graders" from the Spring '94
issue of the teen magazine, _Mouth2Mouth_, he says:
"Alexandre Dumas' _Dictionary of Cuisine_ will give us history
and good practical information. We will cook now and then. . . .
Dumas has sound advice on when to flavor your beef stock by
putting in a crow."

The local libraries don't have a copy of the English translation
of Alexandre Dumas' (pere) _Grand dictionnaire de cuisine_,
nor can I find it online, but apparently he thought crow can
be quite tasty.

Probably doesn't have anything to do with the phrase "eat crow,"
though.