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To posterity, his Almanach des gourmands (), left the impossible ‘Roast of Roasts’ (Roti sans pareil ), a recipe that is best understood as an epic novel disguised as a nursery rhyme. I have paraphrased the rather long instructions here: Begin with a ‘pretty’ olive stuffed with capers and anchovies. Stuff the olive into a warbler from which the head and feet [and feathers] have been removed. Truss the warbler and stuff it inside a ‘fat’ ortolan. Stuff the whole ortolan into a lark from which the head, feet, and bones have been removed.

A girl pushes a wheelbarrow of carrots along Bond Street, looking over her shoulder at an older man, possibly the son of John Montagu, th Earl of Sandwich, who tugs at her apron. The bookshop in the background displays the titles A Chip off the Old Block; Doe Hunting an Ode by an Old Buck Hound; A List of Servant Maids; The Beauties of Bond Street; and A Journey through Life – from Maddox Street unto Conduit Street & Back Again. son of the Earl of Sandwich. Illiterate or inattentive viewers, including children and the lower classes in general, would miss the reference entirely.

However, the East African prefers beef, which strangers find flatulent and heating. Like most people, they reject game when they can command the flesh of tame beasts. As with any blanket cultural generalization, the passage should be taken with a grain of salt. The assessment chiefly confirms that Burton viewed livestock beef as a status symbol among East Africans, and found himself superior for being able to afford it. Burton also notes that ‘the cheapest and vilest meat is mutton’, and the ‘favourite’ game meat is zebra: ‘it is smoked or jerked, despite which it retains a most savoury flavour’.