Sunday, June 24, 2007

Muttonbirds - Titi


Have you ever wanted to try a muttonbird but were too chicken (ah, comedy gold!) to give it a whirl? Take a look at this weeks effort in the kai lab.
First, some background. Muttonbirds, known also as the Sooty Shearwater or Titi amongst Maori, are a member of the petrel family. The origin of the name refers to the mutton-like taste of the flesh, and possibly the woolly appearance of its young. It is the chick that is harvested, found in vast numbers living in the multitude of burrows on the small islands
near Stewart Island (Rakiura). The season starts on the 1st of April and goes through to the 31st of May. All activity is administered by Rakiura Maori (Ngai Tahu) and their sustainable harvest programme. To that end, the bird population is monitored in conjunction with the University of Otago. The harvest is an age-old event for the islanders, being one of the few large-scale harvests of petrels in the world. Consequently, it is of immense significance, providing as it does income, an opportunity for families and those connected to meet, work and socialise together, as well as being an important facet of cultural life for Maori in the South Island.
The process: once the chicks are collected, they are plucked and then the feet and wings are cut off. They are then dipped in wax to help remove the layer of down on the bird's body. Once hardened, the wax is cracked and removed, taking the down with it. The birds are then packed in salt and placed in buckets for shipping to market on the mainland. The birds are expensive and available for a limited time. I bought mine from the Albert street market in Palmerston North; I've seen them for sale at fish markets, non-chain butcher shops and once at Pak 'n' Save in Hastings.


The bird is the size of a very small duck. It's fatty, a feature necessary for a bird soon to spend long periods of time at sea (except this one, obviously). Cooking them takes a wee bit of time. Your kitchen will also become quite pungent for a while. Personally, I don't mind the smell but some people might, so don't say I didn't warn you... I cooked mine with puha and I also made some gnocchi - more on those soon.

Find your puha, wash and put aside. Take your muttonbird and pluck off any downy feathers that may be left. Place in a pot of water - lots of water. Pop the lid on, bring to the boil and then simmer for an hour. Once the hour's up, drain off the water, and repeat the entire process. By the way, are your windows open? Go open them... Or turn your rangehood up to eleven.

Again, once that hour has been reached, drain off the water. As you can see from the photo, the bird possesses an astounding amount of fat, even after that initial change of water; the second change will take care of that though. This time, when refilling the pot with water, you'll only need enough to cover the bird.
Once the bird has simmered for about 30-40 minutes, whip up some gnocchi, dumplings or doughboys. During this time, hurl your puha into the pot with the muttonbird.
Time to cook the gnocchi. Remove the bird from the pot and keep warm - turn the heat up and drop your gnocchi into the pot to cook. While this is happening, remove the skin off the bird and don't play with the light settings on your camera, even if the results look good (deceptively so) on the camera's LCD screen...
Voila! Muttonbird, puha and misshapen gnocchi! It was very tasty - the meat of the bird is quite dark and does indeed taste like mutton. I've read grumbles about muttonbirds tasting overly greasy, salty and/or fishy - patently untrue. Changing the water minimises those potential problems, thus bringing out the flavour of the food as well as making it a bit healthier. If you make this for your family, you might want to remove the bones for your littlies. One bird would feed two people at a stretch, and given the cost (anywhere from $12 to $18 a bird), this is probably a truly seasonal treat (unless you 'know' people).

Other methods of cooking muttonbirds I've encountered involve grilling after boiling (reasonably common), boiling in milk (!) and an odd french story involving boiling in brandy (done presumably because they were French and can get away with that sort of nonsense).

Fancy something a little more flash? Try titi orzo by brilliant New Zealand chef Anne Thorpe.

Take a look at these two personal accounts of muttonbirding from Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand and the National Library of New Zealand.

18 comments:

Nigel Olsen said...

Hat tip to Rangi: Astar from TV one's Good Morning show and her Gourmet Titi Birds.

Anonymous said...

hey your map link shows the whole earth not the island

Nigel Olsen said...

The crosshair in the centre of the screen is actually located over the Stewart Island - just double click on it or use the +/- thingy on the right hand side of the screen to move in for a closer look.

Unknown said...

I just knew this bird!! Sounds interesting, Nigel!!

Nigel Olsen said...

Arfi, try some if you ever get the chance.

Joanna said...

I'd never even heard of muttonbird until I started reading this post. Fabulous adventurous cooking and eating. Great stuff. And who cares if the gnocchi are misshapen?

Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com

Cuoche dell'altro mondo said...

Very interesting! I just discovered Puha and this sounds a great recipe!
MARINA

Nigel Olsen said...

In hindsight, this needed some liquid, like a sauce or gravy, or perhaps even a broth.

Donna Barr said...

I first heard of the muttonbird in the novel "The Bone People" and assumed it was a kind of duck. In the book it was slow-roasted, and sounded delicious. Now I know it's not a duck!

Marino said...

Titi... mmm yum! love it's salty goodness just simply boiled.

Anonymous said...

i can vaguely remember my nanny cooking it. she boiled for nearly an hour and removed it from the pot. then made some doughboys, kumara, cabbage if no puha or watercress. she changed the water a couple of times to get rid of the salt and put the cabbage, and veges in the pot and partially cooked veges and doughboys and placed titi back on top and slowly cooked the rest of the kai. I tell you the titi was so fat that the hinu use to be oozing out but boy it was beautiful. I dont no of any other way to cook it. I must admit there were only two muttonbirds between 10 of us. so we enjoyed the broth that the muttonbird was cooked in.

Nigel Olsen said...

Anon - Awesome! It's good comfort food.

Madz & Jason - You guys are so right!

Donna - A classic novel. Mostly, muttonbird is just fantastic.

I just can't shut up said...

We're coming in June and desperately desire trying muttonbird....where do we find it on a menu? Or do only grocers carry it? We're doing North Island 14 days Auckland to Wellington, Rotorua, Napier etc....basically all around.

Kimi said...

I LOVE YOU MUTTON BIRD. Titi is my meke. Awesome recipe, can't wait to cook it!!

Nigel Olsen said...

Kimi - My pleasure :)

I Just Can't Shut Up - Well, it's certainly available in June, so it should pop up on a few menus. I recall muttonbird appearing on Logan Brown's menu in Wellington a while ago. Being a 'wild food' means it'll be popular, so you'll definitely find it on offer at discerning restaurants.

Unknown said...

Kia Ora Nigel,

Great enthusiastic blog on titi. I think it's great trying NZ's unique Kai, and titi is obviously up there! What stops most people (as well as not knowing how to source the birds) is understanding where to start with cooking them!

My whanau put them in sushi for 'bring a plate' type functions, as people love trying it and it's an approachable dish for people to try! It's also great in pate (as well as a heap of 'mains' type meals)!

I'm now fortunate enough to be following in the footsteps of my ancestors and birding on one of the southern-most titi islands. To try and balance the costs we have to sell a few!

I'm more than happy to courier birds up North. Generally they're packed in food grade 10 litre buckets (new alternative to kelp poha), with around 20 salted birds per bucket. Our whanau easily chomp through several, but as a starting point may be a bit of a barrier to people. However, buckets can be 'split' between whanau, simply put the birds in plastic bags & place them in your freezer.

If people want to chat titi they can email me at rakiura.kai@gmail.com

na Jane

Markamus said...

Titi is usually available in good seafood shops. I know of 2 in West Auckland that stock it. Haven't been able to buy Puha but many vege shops and butchers are starting stock watercress.

Nigel Olsen said...

Whenever I see titi up here, it never sits for long. As for puha & watercress, it's quite commonplace now; most fruit & veg stores stock it, as well as market gardeners. Supermarkets, not so much unfortunately.