Rook

Rook Pie is the best known way to cook these gregarious and voracious birds, and was popular in country districts and during the Second World War. Dorothy Hartley, in Food in England (1954), recommends simmering the skinned breasts in milk and water till tender, then buttering a deep pie dish and placing in it a juicy slice of raw beef with the cooked breasts in an overlapping layer over the meat. Thin strips of bacon are strewn over the breasts, the dish covered with a crust and the pie baked briskly before serving hot with a mustard sauce. They are notorious carriers of parasites.