I have eaten Rook pie it was quite eatable but there is a twist in how it was done. When I first moved to Cheshire I became friendly with the Village factotum it really is the only word to describe a person who had never left the county of Cheshire and lived all his life in the same cottage he was born in and had practically every job of work the countryside could offer, including Game keeper and of course Poacher well you set a thief to catch a thief.
The story about rook pie was if you intended to eat the birds you want them young so as a young man he climbed the trees of a rookery when the chicks where three weeks old and tied one leg of the chick to the nest so it could not leave. In time when the birds where large enough he would re climb the trees collect the young birds and sell them to the villages, this was also done to wood pigeon chicks too. It does sound farfetched though I have come across the same story on a number of occasions. As for the Rook Pie I have also eaten Moor hen stew and of course that more famous stomach churner Hedge Hog all from the same countryman source. It is all something I would now not want to repeat but it is the sort of thing I have been there seen it done it and have the T shirt to throw in to conversation as a surprise conversation piece.
