Whole stuffed camel

Whole stuffed camel is a dish consisting of a medium-sized camel engastrated with a sheep or a lamb, in turn stuffed with other ingredients.

Although the recipe has been published in a number of cookbooks[1] and recipe webpages,[2][3] and claimed to be a traditional Arab wedding dish,[4] the recipe is often treated with skepticism, and many think it might be an exaggeration of a real, less impressive, culinary experience. A posting on Snopes[1] describes references in the recipe that might lead the reader to the conclusion that the recipe is, in fact, a joke, including instructions to "skin, trim, and clean the camel (once you get over the hump)...".

Reference to this recipe is made in the comedic novel I Served the King of England,[5] first published in 1971 by Czech author Bohumil Hrabal as a traditional Ethiopian dish cooked for a visit to Prague by the Emperor Haile Selassie.

The Guinness Book of World Records lists the recipe as the "largest item on any menu in the world", "prepared occasionally for Bedouin wedding feasts."[1] According to the Milwaukee Journal, the steps are:

Cook eggs. Stuff eggs into fish. Cook the fish. Stuff the fish into cooked chickens. Stuff the cooked chickens into roasted sheep. Stuff the roasted sheep carcass into a whole camel . . . now cook to taste.[6]

There is a reference in culinary expert Richard Sterling's book The Fearless Diner in which he claims to have met someone who cooked the entire recipe for "some sheik or other," in Saudi Arabia. Water Music by T. Coraghessan Boyle contains a recipe for camel stuffed with dates, plover eggs, carp, seasoned bustards, and sheep, baked for two days on hot coals in a trench.[7]

Remastered CD versions of the Pink Floyd album Atom Heart Mother contain a card of "Breakfast Tips". On one side is a recipe for a "Traditional Bedouin Wedding Feast", detailing the stuffing of a chicken inside of a lamb, which is stuffed inside a goat, which is then stuffed inside a camel, and cooked over a charcoal fire.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Stuffed Camel Recipe". Snopes.com. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
  2. "Richard Harter's World". Bertc.com. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
  3. "Recipezaar". Recipezaar. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
  4. W. L. Gordon (January 13, 1970). "Read and Remember". Lodi News Sentinel. Retrieved 2010-08-20.
  5. Hrabal, Brohumil. I Served THE KING OF ENGLAND. Picador, 1990, pp. 108-114. ISBN 0330308769
  6. Milton Marmor (November 22, 1958). "One of the Mostest in 'Superlatives' Book". Milwaukee Journal. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012.
  7. "Konundrum Engine Literary Review - TC Boyle Interview". Lit.konundrum.com. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
  8. "Pink Floyd Atom Heart Mother". Pink Floyd Online. Retrieved 2010-02-25.
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