Whole stuffed camel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Whole stuffed camel is claimed to be a traditional Bedouin wedding dish, served at the weddings of sheiks and of their family members. Like Turducken, which is a recipe consisting of birds stuffed with birds and which has become popular in North America, whole stuffed camel is a culinary delicacy composed of a medium-sized camel stuffed with a sheep or a lamb stuffed with other foods both animal and plant.

Although the recipe has been published in a number of cookbooks[1] and recipe webpages,[2] [3] 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)...".

The Snopes article mentions[1] that the Guinness Book of World Records lists the recipe without actually mentioning whether or not anyone has actually eaten it:

"The largest item on any menu in the world is roasted camel, prepared occasionally for Bedouin wedding feasts. Cooked eggs are stuffed into fish, the fish stuffed into cooked chickens, the chickens stuffed into a roasted sheep's carcass and the sheep stuffed into a whole camel."

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.

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