to curl, set the grilled legs at either end of the dish, the two
wing-stumps, with the skin of the breast, in the middle, and serve
immediately.
1764—SOUFFLÉ DE CANETON ROUENNAIS
_Poële_ the duckling, and only just cook it.
Raise the _suprêmes_, and keep them hot, and cut the bones from the
carcass in such a way as to imitate a case, as I described in a number
of pullet recipes. With the duckling’s liver, the raw meat of another
half-duckling, the white of an egg, and three oz. of raw foie gras,
prepare a _mousseline_ forcemeat.
Fill the carcass with this forcemeat, shaping it so as to reconstruct
the bird. Surround it with a band of strong, buttered paper, so as to
avoid loss of shape, and poach gently, under cover, for twenty minutes.
With some reserved forcemeat, combined with an equal weight of
foie-gras purée, garnish some tartlet crusts, and poach them at the
same time as the _soufflé_.
Dish the piece; surround it with the tartlets; set a collop of
_suprême_ on each of the latter and serve a Rouennaise sauce separately.
=Canetons Froids=
1765—CANETON A LA CUILLER
Braise the duckling with Madeira, and cook it well. Put into a
_terrine_ just large enough to hold it; cover with the braising-liquor,
strained through a napkin, and combined with enough aspic jelly to
completely coat the duckling. Leave to cool.
When about to serve, clear the surface of grease, first by means of a
spoon, then with boiling water, and dish on a napkin.
1766—CANETON GLACÉ AUX MANDARINES
_Poële_ the duckling, and let it cool in its liquor.
When it is quite cold, set it on its back; glaze it with aspic jelly,
and place it on a low rice or carved-bread cushion lying on a long dish.
Surround it with emptied tangerines, filled with cold _mousse_ made
from ducklings’ livers and foie gras. Alternate the tangerines with
small timbales of aspic, combined with the _poëling_-liquor and the
juice squeezed from the sections of the tangerines.
1767—CANETON GLACÉ AUX CERISES
Roast the duckling, and keep it underdone.
When it is quite cold, remove the breast, and remove the bones in such
wise as to form a case with the carcass. Cut each fillet into eight
thin slices; coat them with a brown chaud-froid sauce, and decorate
with truffles. Fill the carcass with a _mousse_ made from the remains
of the meat, the duckling’s liver, and some foie gras, and shape it so
as to imitate the convex breast of the bird.
Glaze with aspic, and set in the refrigerator, that the _mousse_ may
harden. When the latter is firm, lay the chaud-froid-coated collops
upon it, and set the piece in a deep, square dish. Surround with cold,
stoned, morello cherries, poached in Bordeaux wine, and cover these
with an aspic jelly flavoured with duckling essence.
1768—AIGUILLETTES DE CANETONS A L’ÉCARLATE
_Poële_ a Rouen duckling until it is just cooked, and let it cool in
its liquor. Raise the fillets; skin them, and cut them each into eight
thin slices. Coat them with a brown chaud-froid sauce, and decorate
with truffles. Prepare an equal number of slices of tongue the size and
shape of the slices of duckling, and coat them with aspic.
With the remains and the meat of the legs, prepare a _mousse_, and
pour it into a square or oval silver dish; let it cool, and then
set the _aiguillettes_ of duckling and the slices of tongue upon it,
alternating them in so doing, and cover the _mousse_ with aspic.
1769—MOUSSE ET MOUSSELINES DE CANETON ROUENNAIS
These are prepared with the same quantities as the chicken _mousses_
and _mousselines_, but they allow of no other sauce than the Rouennaise
or the Bigarrade, nor of any other garnishes than sections of orange,
cherries, vegetable purées, or creams.
1770—MOUSSE DE CANETON ROUENNAIS
With the exception of the nature of the principal ingredient, the
preparation, quantities, and moulding of this _mousse_ are the same
as for chicken _mousse_. The reader is, therefore, begged to refer to
No. 1670, which may be applied perfectly well to Rouen duckling.
1771—SOUFFLÉ FROID DE CANETON A L’ORANGE
Proceed as for the “Caneton aux cerises,” but with this difference,
that the duckling is used entirely for the _mousse_.
Serve, similarly, in a square dish, and surround with sections of
oranges skinned raw. Cover with an aspic jelly flavoured with the juice
of Seville oranges, and combined with a liqueur-glassful of curaçao per
pint of jelly.
1772—TERRINE DE CANETON ROUENNAIS A LA GELÉE
First prepare the following forcemeat:—Heat three oz. of fat bacon, cut
into small dice, and three oz. of butter in a frying-pan. Throw six
fine ducks’ livers (seasoned with salt and pepper, and sprinkled with a
pinch of powdered thyme, bay-leaf, and half an onion chopped) into this
fat. Toss them over a fierce fire, just long enough to heat them; leave
them to cool, and rub them through a sieve.
Bone the breast of a Rouen duckling and its back as far as the region
of the legs, and suppress the tail. Stuff it with the preparation given
above; truss as for an entrée, and put it in a _terrine_ just large
enough to hold it. Sprinkle it with a glassful of brandy; cover with a
slice of bacon, and cook it in the _bain-marie_, in the oven, and under
cover for forty minutes.
With the carcass and some strong veal stock, prepare two-thirds pint
of excellent aspic, and, when withdrawing the duckling from the oven,
cover it with this aspic, and let it cool. When about to serve, remove
all grease, first by means of a spoon, and then by means of boiling
water, and set the _terrine_ on a napkin lying on a long dish.
1773—TIMBALE DE CANETON A LA VOISIN
Roast a Rouen duckling, and keep it underdone; let it cool, and raise
its fillets. With the carcass prepare a Salmis sauce, and thicken it
with aspic as for a chaud-froid sauce.
Cut the fillets into slices, coat them with Salmis sauce, and leave
this to set. Let a thickness of sauce set on the bottom of a timbale.
Upon this sauce lay some of the coated slices, alternating them with
slices of truffle, and cover with a thin layer of aspic jelly. Lay
another row of slices of fillet and of truffles, followed as before by
a layer of aspic, and continue thus in the same order. Complete with
a somewhat thick layer of aspic, and keep in the cool until ready for
serving.
N.B.—This old and excellent cold entrée is really only a cold salmis.
The procedure may be applied to all game suited to the salmis method of
preparation. It is the simplest and certainly the best way of serving
them cold.
1774—PINTADES (GUINEA FOWL)
The guinea-fowl is not equal to the pheasant from the gastronomical
standpoint, though it often takes the place of the latter among the
roasts after the shooting season. But, though it has neither the fine
flavour nor the delicate meat of the pheasant, it does good service
notwithstanding. The majority of pheasant recipes may be applied to it,
especially à la Bohémienne, à la crème, en Chartreuse, en salmis, à la
choucroûte, &c.
1775—PIGEONS AND SQUABS (PIGEONS ET PIGEONNEAUX)
Young pigeons are not very highly esteemed by English gourmets, and
this is more particularly to be regretted, since, when the birds are of
excellent quality, they are worthy the best tables.
1776—PIGEONNEAUX A LA BORDELAIS
Open the squabs down the back; season them; slightly flatten them,
and toss them in butter. They may just as well be halved as left
whole. Dish, and surround with the garnish given under “Poulet à la
Bordelaise” (No. 1538).
1777—PIGEONNEAUX EN CASSEROLE A LA PAYSANNE
Cook the squabs in the oven in an earthenware saucepan.
When they are two-thirds done, surround them with one and one-half oz.
of salted breast of pork, cut into small dice and _blanched_, and
two oz. of sliced and _sautéd_ potatoes for each pigeon. Complete the
cooking of the whole gently, and, when about to serve, add a little
good gravy.
1778—PIGEONNEAUX EN CHARTREUSE
Prepare the _Chartreuse_ in a Charlotte mould, as explained under
No. 1182. Line the bottom and sides with a layer of braised, drained,
and pressed cabbages; in the centre set the squabs, cooked “_à la
casserole_” and cut into two lengthwise, and alternate them with small
rectangles of _blanched_, salted breast of pork, and sausage roundels.
Cover with cabbages, and steam in a _bain-marie_ for thirty minutes.
Let the _Chartreuse_ stand for five minutes after withdrawing from
the _bain-marie_; turn out on a round dish, and surround with a few
tablespoonfuls of half-glaze sauce.
1779—PIGEONNEAUX EN CRAPAUDINE
Cut the young pigeons horizontally in two, from the apex of the breast
to the wings. Open them; flatten them slightly; season them; dip them
in melted butter, roll them in bread-crumbs, and grill them gently.
Serve a devilled sauce at the same time.
1780—PIGEONNEAUX EN COMPOTE
Fry in butter two oz. of _blanched_, salted breast of pork and two oz.
of raw mushrooms, peeled and quartered. Drain the bacon and the
mushrooms, and set the squabs, trussed as for an entrée, to fry in the
same butter.
Withdraw them when they are brown; drain them of butter; swill with
half a glassful of white wine; reduce the latter, and add sufficient
brown stock and half-glaze sauce (_tomatéd_), in equal quantities, to
cover the birds. Plunge them into this sauce, with a faggot, and simmer
until they are cooked and the sauce is reduced to half.
This done, transfer the squabs to another saucepan; add the pieces of
bacon, the mushrooms, and six small onions, glazed with butter, for
each bird; strain the sauce over the whole through a fine sieve; simmer
for ten minutes more, and serve very hot.
1781—PIGEON PIE
Line the bottom and sides of a pie-dish with very thin, flattened
collops of lean beef, seasoned with salt and pepper, and sprinkled with
chopped shallots.
Set the quartered pigeons inside the dish, and separate them with a
halved hard-boiled egg-yolk for each pigeon. Moisten half-way up with
good gravy; cover with a layer of puff paste; _gild_; streak; make a
slit in the top, and bake for about one and one-half hours in a good,
moderate oven.
1782—VOL AU VENT DE PIGEONNEAUX
Suppress the feet and the pinions; _poële_ the squabs, and only just
cook them.
Cut each bird into four, and mix them with a garnish “à la Financière”
(No. 1474) combined with the _poëling_-liquor. Pour the whole into a
vol-au-vent crust, and dish on a napkin.
1783—CÔTELETTES DE PIGEONNEAUX A LA NESLES
Cut them in two, and reserve the claw, which serves as the bone of the
cutlet. Flatten them slightly; season, and fry them in butter on one
side only. Cool them under slight pressure; coat their fried side,
dome-fashion, with some godiveau with cream, combined with a third of
its bulk of _gratin_ forcemeat and chopped truffles. Set them on a
tray, and place in a moderate oven to complete the cooking, and poach
the forcemeat. Dish in a circle, and separate the cutlets with collops
of veal sweetbreads, dipped in beaten eggs, rolled in bread-crumbs,
and tossed in butter. Garnish their midst with mushrooms and sliced
fowls’ livers, tossed in butter and cohered with a few tablespoonfuls
of Madeira sauce.
1784—CÔTELETTES DE PIGEONNEAUX EN PAPILLOTES
Cut the pigeons in two, as above; stiffen them in butter, and enclose
them in _papillotes_ as explained under “Côtelettes de Veau en
Papillotes” (No. 1259).
1785—CÔTELETTES DE PIGEONNEAUX A LA SÉVIGNÉ
_Sauté_ the half-pigeons in butter, and leave them to cool under slight
pressure. Garnish their cut sides dome-fashion with a _salpicon_ of
white chicken-meat, mushrooms, and truffles, the whole cohered by means
of a cold Allemande sauce.
Dip them in beaten egg, roll them in bread-crumbs, and cook them gently
in clarified butter.
Dish them in a circle; garnish their midst with asparagus-heads cohered
with butter, and serve a light, Madeira sauce separately.
1786—SUPRÊMES DE PIGEONNEAUX A LA DIPLOMATE
Raise the fillets and slightly flatten them; stiffen them in butter,
and leave them to cool under slight pressure. This done, dip them in
a Villeroy sauce, combined with chopped herbs and mushrooms, and cool
them. Dip each fillet in beaten egg; roll them in bread-crumbs, and fry
just before serving.
Dish in a circle, and in their midst set a heap of fried parsley.
Send separately a garnish of pigeon quenelles, mushrooms, and small,
olive-shaped truffles, to which a half-glaze sauce flavoured with
pigeon essence has been added.
1787—SUPRÊMES DE PIGEONNEAUX A LA SAINT-CLAIR
With the meat of the legs prepare a _mousseline_ forcemeat, and, with
the latter, make some quenelles the size of small olives, and set them
to poach. _Poële_ the breasts, without colouration, on a thick litter
of sliced onions, and keep them underdone. Add a little velouté to the
onions; rub them through tammy, and put the quenelles in this sauce.
In the middle of a shallow _croustade_, set a pyramid of _cèpes_ tossed
in butter. Raise the fillets; skin them, and set them on the _cèpes_;
coat them with the prepared sauce; surround with a thread of meat
glaze, and place the quenelles all round.
1788—SUPRÊMES DE PIGEONNEAUX A LA MARIGNY
Cut off the legs, and, with their meat, prepare a forcemeat. Poach the
latter on a tray, and stamp it out with an oval cutter into pieces the
size of the _suprêmes_.
Cover the breasts with slices of bacon, and _poële_ them, taking care
to only just cook them.
Quickly raise the _suprêmes_, skin them, and set each upon an oval of
forcemeat, sticking them on by means of a little _gratin_ forcemeat.
Put the _suprêmes_ in the oven for a moment, that this forcemeat may
poach. Dish the _suprêmes_ round a pyramid consisting of a smooth
purée of peas, and coat with a velouté sauce, finished with an essence
prepared from the remains and the _poëling_-liquor of the breasts.
1789—SUPRÊMES DE PIGEONNEAUX AUX TRUFFES
Raise the _suprêmes_, flatten them slightly; toss them in clarified
butter, and set them on a border of smooth forcemeat, laid on a dish by
means of a piping-bag, and poached in the front of the oven.
Swill the vegetable-pan with Madeira; add four fine slices of truffle
for each _suprême_, and a little pale melted meat glaze, and finish
with a moderate amount of butter.
Coat the _suprêmes_ with this sauce, and set the slices of truffle upon
it.
1790—MOUSSELINES DE PIGEONNEAUX A L’EPICURIENNE
Prepare and poach these _mousselines_ like the chicken ones, but make
them a little smaller. Dish them in the form of a crown; set thereon a
young pigeon’s fillet roasted, and in their midst arrange a garnish of
peas with lettuce. Coat with a _fumet_ prepared from the carcasses and
cohered with a few tablespoonfuls of velouté.
N.B.—Pigeons and squabs may also be prepared after the recipes given
for chicks.
=Relevés and Entrées=
GAME
VENISON AND GROUND GAME
The stag (Fr. Cerf) and the fallow deer (Fr. Daim) supply the only
venison that is consumed in England, where the roebuck (Fr. Chevreuil)
is not held in very high esteem. True, the latter’s flesh is very often
mediocre in quality, and saddles and legs of roebuck often have to be
imported from the Continent when they are to appear on an important
menu.
On the other hand, venison derived from the stag or red deer and the
fallow deer proper is generally of superior quality. The former has
perhaps more flavour, but the latter, which is supplied by animals bred
in herds on large private estates, has no equal as far as delicacy and
tenderness are concerned, while it is covered with white and scented
fat, which is greatly appreciated by English connoisseurs.
Although these two kinds of venison are generally served as relevés,
they belong more properly to the roasts, and I shall give their recipes
a little later on. In any case, only half of the hind-quarters (that
is to say, the leg together with that part of the saddle which reaches
from it to the floating ribs) is served at high-class tables.
I shall now, therefore, only give the various recipes dealing with
roebuck, it being understood that these, if desired, may be applied to
corresponding joints of the stag or deer.
1791—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL ET CUISSOT
Saddles and legs of roebuck may be prepared after the same recipes,
and allow of the same garnishes. The recipes for saddle which I give
hereafter may therefore be applied equally well to legs.
Whichever joint be selected, it must first be cleared of all tendons
and then larded with larding bacon. The last operation is no more
essential than is the _marinading_ which in France has become customary
with such pieces. It might even be said with justice that _marinading_
is not only useless, but harmful, more particularly in the case of
young animals whose meat has been well hung.
Unlike many other specimens of game, roebuck has to be eaten fresh; it
does not suit it to be in the least tainted. I should like to point out
here that game shot in ambush is best, owing to the fact that animals
killed after a chase decompose very quickly, and thereby lose a large
proportion of their flavour.
The saddle of the roebuck generally consists of the whole of the
latter’s back, from the withers to the tail, in which case the bones
of the ribs are cut very short, that the joint may lie steady at all
points.
At the croup-end, cut the joint on either side diagonally, from the
point of the haunch to the root of the tail. Sometimes, however, the
saddle only consists of the lumbar portion of the back, and, in this
case, the ribs are cut up to be cooked as cutlets.
1792—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL A L’ALLEMANDE
_Marinade_ the saddle for two or three days in raw _marinade_ No. 169,
and roast it, on a narrow baking-tray, upon the vegetables of the
_marinade_.
As soon as the joint is cooked, withdraw it; swill the tray with a
little _marinade_, and almost entirely reduce. Clear of grease; add
two-thirds pint of cream and one powdered juniper berry; reduce by a
third; complete with a few drops of melted glaze, and rub through tammy.
Serve this sauce at the same time as the saddle, which set on a long
dish.
1793—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL A LA BADEN-BADEN
The saddle should be _marinaded_ and well dried before being set to
cook.
_Poële_ it on the vegetables of the _marinade_.
When it is cooked, put it on a long dish, and, at either end of it, set
a garnish of stewed pears, unsugared, but flavoured with cinnamon and
lemon-rind. Pour one-third pint of game stock into the tray in which
the joint was cooked; cook for ten minutes; strain; clear of grease,
and thicken with arrowroot.
Serve this thickened stock separately, and send some red-currant jelly
to the table at the same time.
1794—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL AUX CERISES
Keep the saddle for twelve hours in _marinade_ (No. 169) made from
verjuice instead of vinegar. Roast it on the spit, basting it with the
_marinade_, and keep it slightly underdone.
At the same time, serve a cherry sauce consisting of equal quantities
of poivrade sauce and red-currant jelly, to each pint of which add
three oz. of semi-candied cherries, set to soak in hot water thirty
minutes beforehand.
N.B.—This saddle need not be _marinaded_ if it be desired plain.
1795—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL A LA CUMBERLAND
Roast it like a haunch of venison, without _marinading_ it. Send it
to the table with a timbale of French beans, cohered with butter, and
serve a Cumberland sauce (No. 134) separately.
1796—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL A LA CRÉOLE
_Marinade_ it for a few hours only, and roast it on the spit, basting
it the while with the _marinade_.
Set it on a long dish, and surround it with bananas tossed in butter.
At the same time serve a Roberts sauce, combined with a third of its
bulk of Poivrade sauce, and one oz. of fresh butter per pint.
1797—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL A LA BEAUJEU
Lard and roast it. Set it on a long dish, and surround it with
artichoke-bottoms, garnished with lentil purée, and alternated with
chestnuts cooked in a small quantity of consommé and glazed.
Serve a venison sauce separately.
1798—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL AU GENIÈVRE
Lard the saddle, and roast it. Swill the baking-tray with a small
glassful of burned gin; add one powdered juniper berry and one-sixth
pint of double cream. Reduce the cream to half; complete with a few
tablespoonfuls of poivrade sauce and a few drops of lemon juice. Serve
this sauce with the saddle, and send separately some hot stewed apples,
very slightly sugared.
1799—SELLE DE CHEVREUIL AVEC SAUCES DIVERSES
Saddle of roebuck may also be served with the following
sauces:—Poivrade, Venison, Grand-Veneur, Moscovite, Roberts, &c. The
selected accompaniment determines the title of the dish.
1800—NOISETTES ET CÔTELETTES DE CHEVREUIL
The same recipes may be applied to both. Trim them after the manner of
lamb noisettes or cutlets. They may be moderately _marinaded_, but they
may also be used fresh. In the latter case, fry them in butter over a
somewhat fierce fire, like the lamb noisettes.
If they have been _marinaded_, it is better to toss them very quickly
in very hot oil, and then to dry them before dishing them.
It is in the dishing only that the noisettes and the cutlets differ;
for, whereas the latter are always dished in a crown, one overlapping
the other, or each separated from the rest by _croûtons_ of bread-crumb
fried in butter, the noisettes are always dished in a circle on small,
oval _croûtons_ fried in butter, or on tartlet crusts containing some
kind of garnish.
1801—CÔTELETTES DE CHEVREUIL CONTI
_Sauté_ the cutlets in very hot oil; dry them; dish them in a crown,
and separate them by similarly-shaped collops of salted tongue.
Swill the saucepan with a little white wine; add this liquor to a
Poivrade sauce, and coat the cutlets with it.
Serve a light, buttered purée of lentils at the same time.
1802—CÔTELETTES DE CHEVREUIL DIANE
Spread an even layer, one-third inch thick, of _mousseline_ game
forcemeat on a tray. Poach this forcemeat in a steamer or in a very
moderate oven, and cut it into triangles equal in size to the cutlets.
Toss the latter as already explained; dish them in a crown, and
separate them by _croûtons_ of forcemeat already prepared.
Coat the whole with poivrade sauce, thinned by means of a little beaten
cream, and garnished with crescents of truffle and hard-boiled white of
egg, and serve a purée of chestnuts at the same time.
1803—NOISETTES DE CHEVREUIL AU GENIÈVRE
Cook the noisettes in smoking oil. Dry them, dish them, and coat them
with the same sauce as that given under “Selle au Genièvre” (No. 1798).
Serve some stewed apples at the same time.
1804—NOISETTES DE CHEVREUIL ROMANOFF
Cook the noisettes; set them on stuffed sections of cucumber, prepared
after No. 2124a, and place a slice of truffle on each noisette. Coat
with a Poivrade sauce with cream, and serve a mushroom purée separately.
1805—NOISETTES DE CHEVREUIL VALENCIA
Cook the noisettes, and dish them in a circle, each on a round
_croûton_ of brioche fried in butter, and coat lightly with bigarrade
sauce.
Serve a sauceboat of bigarrade sauce and an orange salad at the same
time.
1806—NOISETTES DE CHEVREUIL VILLENEUVE
Carefully clear the meat of the roebuck of all tendons, and chop it up
with a knife, combining with it the while the third of its weight of
fresh butter, as much bread-crumb, soaked in milk, and pressed, and
one-third pint of fresh cream per lb. of meat. Season, divide into
portions weighing two oz., mould to a nice round shape, wrap in pig’s
caul, cook quickly at the last moment, and dish in the form of a crown.
Coat with Chasseur sauce, and send a timbale of celery purée separately.
1807—NOISETTES DE CHEVREUIL WALKYRIE
_Sauté_ the noisettes in the usual way, and dish them in the form of
a crown, each on a small quoit of “Pommes Berny” (No. 2184). On each
noisette lay a fine, grilled mushroom, garnished with a rosette of
Soubise purée, made by means of a piping-bag fitted with a grooved
pipe. Pour a little venison sauce over the dish, and send a sauceboat
of it separately.
N.B.—Roebuck noisettes and cutlets are still served with purées of
chestnuts or celery, with truffles, _cèpes_, mushrooms, &c.
The sauces best suited to them are Poivrade sauce and its derivatives,
such as Venison sauce, Grand-Veneur sauce, Romaine sauce, &c., also
Roberts sauce Escoffier.
1808—CIVET DE CHEVREUIL
For “Civet de Chevreuil” the shoulders, the neck, and the breast are
used, and these pieces are cut up and set to _marinade_ six hours
beforehand with the aromatics and the same red wine as that with which
the civet will be moistened.
When about to prepare the civet, drain and dry these pieces, and
proceed exactly as for “Civet de Lièvre” (No. 1821), except for the
thickening by means of blood, which the difficulty of obtaining the
blood of the roebuck perforce precludes.
This civet, which should be classed among dishes for the home, is
usually served in the form of a stew; for, inasmuch as the final
thickening with blood is lacking, it can only be an imitation of the
civet. When, therefore, hare’s blood is available, it should always be
used in finishing this dish exactly after the manner of No. 1821—that
is to say, the preparation should be given the characteristic stamp of
civet by means of a final thickening with blood.
1809—BOAR AND YOUNG BOAR (SANGLIER ET MARCASSIN)
When the wild boar is over two years of age, it is no more fit to
be served as food. Between one and two years it should be used with
caution, and the various roebuck recipes may then be applied to it. But
only the young boar less than twelve months old should be prepared in
decent kitchens.
The hams of a young boar, salted and smoked, supply a very passable
relevé, which allows of varying the ordinary menu. They are treated
exactly like pork hams.
The saddle and the cushions may be prepared after the recipes given for
saddle of roebuck, and the same holds good with the cutlets and the
noisettes.
Finally, the saddle may be served cold, in a daube, when it is prepared
after No. 1173.
As the various parts of the young boar are covered with fat, it is
understood that they are not larded, nor do they need it.
1810—HARE AND LEVERET (LIÈVRE ET LEVRAUT)
As a result of one of those freaks of taste, of which I have already
pointed out some few examples, hare is not nearly so highly esteemed as
it deserves in England; and the fact seems all the more strange when
one remembers that in many of her counties excellent specimens of the
species are to be found.
Whatever be the purpose for which it is required, always select a
young hare, five or six lbs. in weight. The age may be ascertained as
follows:—Grasp one ear close to its extremity with both hands, and pull
in opposite directions; if the ear tear, the beast is young; if it
resist the strain, the hare is old, and should be set aside for soups
and the preparation of _fumets_ and forcemeats.
1811—LIÈVRE FARCI A LA PERIGOURDINE
Take care to collect all the blood when emptying the hare; break the
bones of the legs, that they may be easily trussed; clear the legs
and the fillets of all tendons, and lard them. Chop up the liver, the
lungs, the heart, and four fowls’ livers, together with five oz. of fat
bacon.
Add to this mincemeat five oz. of soaked and pressed bread-crumbs, the
blood, two oz. of chopped onion, cooked in butter and cold; a pinch
of chopped parsley, a piece of crushed garlic the size of a pea, and
three oz. of raw truffle parings. Mix the whole up well; fill the hare
with this stuffing; sew up the skin of the belly; truss the animal,
and braise it in white wine for about two and one-half hours, basting
it often the while. Glaze at the last moment. Serve the hare on a long
dish.
Add two-thirds pint of half-glaze game sauce to the braising-liquor;
reduce; clear of grease; strain, and add three oz. of chopped truffles
to this sauce.
Pour a little sauce over the dish on which the hare has been set, and
serve what remains of the sauce separately.
1812—RÂBLE DE LIÈVRE
The French term “râble” means the whole of the back of the hare, from
the root of the neck to the tail, with the ribs cut very short.
Often, however, that piece which corresponds with the saddle in
butchers’ meat alone is taken, _i.e._, the piece reaching from the
croup to the floating ribs. Whatever be the particular cut, the piece
should be well cleared of all tendons, and finely larded before being
set to _marinade_; and this last operation may even be dispensed with
when the “râble” is derived from a young hare.
_Marinading_ would only become necessary if the piece had to be kept
some considerable time.
1813—RÂBLE DE LIÈVRE A L’ALLEMANDE
Set the _râble_ well dried on the vegetables of the _marinade_, which
should be laid on the bottom of a long, narrow dish. When it is nearly
cooked, remove the vegetables, pour one-quarter pint of cream into the
dish, and complete the cooking of the _râble_, basting it the while
with that cream.
Finish at the last minute with a few drops of lemon juice.
Dish the _râble_, and surround it with the cream stock, strained
through a fine strainer.
1814—RÂBLE DE LIÈVRE AU GENIÈVRE
Roast it, as above, on the vegetables of the _marinade_.
Swill the dish with a small glassful of gin and two or three
tablespoonfuls of _marinade_, and reduce to half. Add one-sixth pint of
cream, two tablespoonfuls of poivrade sauce, and four powdered juniper
berries.
Strain and serve this sauce separately at the same time as the _râble_.
1815—CUISSES DE LIÈVRE
Use the legs of young hares only; those of old animals may be used for
the “civet” and forcemeat alone. After having cleared them of tendons
and larded them with very thin strips of bacon, treat them like the
_râble_.
1816—FILETS DE LEVRAUT A LA DAMPIERRE
Take five leverets’ fillets; _contise_ them with slices of truffle,
after the manner directed for “Suprêmes de Volaille à la Chevalière”
(No. 1458); shape them like crescents, and set them on a buttered dish.
Lard the minion fillets with a rosette consisting of strips of salted
tongue, and set them also on a buttered dish.
With what remains of the meat of the leverets, prepare a _mousseline_
forcemeat, and add thereto some truffle essence and some chopped
truffles.
Dish this forcemeat, shaping it like a truncated cone two and one-half
inches high, the radius of which should be the length of a leveret’s
fillet.
Set this forcemeat to poach in the front of the oven.
Sprinkle the fillets and the minion fillets with a little brandy and
melted butter; cover them, and poach them likewise in the front of
the oven. This done, arrange them radially on the cone of forcemeat,
alternating the fillets and the minion fillets. Place a fine, glazed
truffle in the middle of the rosette, and surround the base with
mushrooms, separated by chestnuts cooked in consommé and glazed, and
small onions cooked in butter.
Serve a poivrade sauce at the same time, combined with the fillets’
cooking-liquor.
1817—FILETS DE LEVRAUT A LA MORNAY (Recipe of the Frères Provençaux)
Trim two leverets’ fillets, and cut them into collops, one inch in
diameter and one-third inch thick. Prepare (1) the same number of
bread-crumb _croûtons_ as there are collops, and make them of the same
size as the latter, though half as thick; (2) the same number of thick
slices of truffle, cooked at the last minute in a little Madeira.
Toss the collops of fillet quickly in clarified butter; colour the
_croûtons_ in butter at the same time, and mix the latter with the
collops and the truffles in a saucepan.
Swill the sautépan with the Madeira in which the truffles have cooked;
add a little succulent pale glaze; reduce sufficiently; strain the
sauce through a sieve; finish it liberally with butter; add it to the
_sautéd_ collops, and serve the latter in a very hot timbale.
N.B.—This recipe was given by the Comte de Mornay himself to the
proprietors of the famous Parisian restaurant, and for a long while the
dish was one of the specialities of a house no longer extant.
1818—FILETS DE LEVRAUT A LA VENDOME
After having _contised_ the leveret’s fillets, roll them round a
buttered tin mould, and fasten them with a string, that they may form
rings.
Set to poach. Meanwhile, spread on a buttered tray a layer one-half
inch thick of game forcemeat; poach the latter; stamp it out by means
of an even cutter into roundels of the same size as the rings, and set
one of these on each of the forcemeat roundels, fixing it by means of a
little raw forcemeat.
Cut the minion fillets into collops, and quickly toss them in butter
with an equal quantity of mushrooms and five oz. of raw, sliced
truffles.
Swill the saucepan with a little brandy and the poaching-liquor of
the fillet-rings; add a little poivrade sauce; finish this sauce with
butter, and plunge therein the collops of fillet, the mushrooms, and
the truffles.
Set the rings in a circle on a dish, and fill them with this garnish.
Serve separately a sauceboat of poivrade sauce and a timbale of
chestnut purée.
1819—MOUSSES ET MOUSSELINES DE LIÈVRE
Proceed exactly as for all other _mousses_ and _mousselines_, except,
of course, in regard to the basic ingredient, which in this case is the
meat of a hare.
1820—SOUFFLÉ DE LIÈVRE
With one lb. of the meat of a hare, prepare a light _mousseline_
forcemeat; add thereto the whites of two eggs, whisked to a stiff
froth; poach the _mousseline_ in a _soufflé_ saucepan.
Cut the hare’s minion fillets into collops, and toss them in butter at
the last moment.
Cook the soufflé in a moderate oven; coat the top lightly with
half-glaze sauce flavoured with hare _fumet_, and surround it with the
minion-fillet collops, alternated with slices of truffles.
The minion-fillet collops and the slices of truffles may be added to
the sauce, and this garnish is served separately in another timbale.
1821—CIVET DE LIÈVRE
Skin and clean the hare, taking care to collect all the blood in so
doing. Put the liver aside, after having carefully freed it from the
gall-bladder, as also from those portions touching the latter.
Cut up the hare, and put the pieces in a basin with a few
tablespoonfuls of brandy and an equal quantity of olive oil, salt,
pepper, and an onion cut into thin roundels. Cover and leave to
_marinade_ for a few hours in the very red wine used for the
moistening. Fry one-half lb. of lean bacon, cut into large dice, in
butter, and drain it as soon as it is brown. In the same butter brown
two fair-sized, quartered onions; add two tablespoonfuls of flour, and
cook this roux gently until it acquires a golden tinge. Put the pieces
of hare into this roux, after having well dried them, and stiffen them.
Moisten with the wine used for the _marinade_. Add a large faggot, in
which place a garlic clove; cover, and leave to cook gently on the side
of the stove.
A few minutes before serving, thicken the civet with the reserved
blood, which should be gradually heated, and mix therewith a few
tablespoonfuls of sauce. Then transfer the pieces of hare, one by one,
to another saucepan with the fried pieces of bacon, twenty small,
glazed onions, and twenty cooked mushrooms.
Strain the sauce over the whole through a strainer.
Dish in a warm timbale, and surround with heart-shaped _croûtons_ fried
in butter at the last moment.
=Cold Preparations of Hare=
1822—LIÈVRE EN DAUBE
Take a fresh hare, and bone it from the back without emptying it, that
the skin of the belly may be untouched.
Detach the shoulders and the legs; do not touch the head; season with
salt and pepper; sprinkle with a few drops of brandy, and leave to
_marinade_. With the hare’s liver, some fat bacon, and some truffle
parings, prepare a _gratin_ forcemeat. Prepare another forcemeat with
the meat of the shoulders and the legs, an equal weight of fat bacon,
one egg, a pinch of wild thyme, salt, pepper, spices, and the brandy of
the _marinade_. Rub this forcemeat through a sieve, and add to it the
_gratin_ forcemeat, one-half lb. of fat bacon, and five oz. of truffles
cut into dice.
Fill the boned hare with this preparation; sew it up, and tie the head
to the back in such wise as to give the piece the appearance of the
animal at rest.
Wrap it in slices of bacon, and set it in a _terrine_ lined with the
latter; sprinkle with a glassful of brandy, and place in the oven for
thirty minutes with lid off.
Then pour into the _terrine_ a _fumet_ prepared with red wine from the
hare’s bones; cover, and then cook in the oven gently for three hours.
Leave to half-cool; drain away the cooking-liquor, and carefully remove
the slices of bacon. Strain the cooking-liquor through muslin; return
it to the _terrine_, and fill up the latter with savoury jelly.
Keep in the cool for two hours before serving.
1823—PAIN DE LIÈVRE
This “Pain” is prepared according to No. 1689, and it may be served in
“Belle-vue,” after the manner described for cold pieces prepared in
this way.
1824—PÂTÉ DE LIÈVRE
Clear the fillets, the minion fillets, and the legs of all tendons;
moderately lard them; season them; set them in a dish with an equal
quantity of truffles and fat bacon strips; sprinkle with some brandy,
and leave to _marinade_ for one hour. With what remains of the meat,
some fillets of veal and pork, in the proportion of six oz. per lb.
of hare; fresh, fat bacon in the proportion of one and one-half lbs.
per lb. of hare; and spiced salt, prepare a forcemeat, and finish it
with one egg and three tablespoonfuls of brandy per lb. of forcemeat.
Rub through tammy, and add a portion of the hare’s blood.
Line a round or oval buttered mould with raised-pie paste, and
completely cover the paste with slices of bacon. Then coat inside with
forcemeat, and fill up the mould with alternate layers of forcemeat,
hares’ fillets, truffle, and fat bacon strips.
Finish with a layer of forcemeat; cover with a slice of bacon; sprinkle
a pinch of powdered thyme and bay over the latter; close the pie with a
layer of paste, which should be sealed down round the moistened edges;
pinch the crest inside and out, and finish off the pie by means of
imitation leaves made from paste.
_Gild_; bake in a moderate oven, and, when the pie is almost cold, pour
some jelly flavoured with hare _fumet_ into it.
1825—TERRINE DE LIÈVRE
A “Terrine” or Patty is only a pie without a crust, and it allows of
the same forcemeat and of the same garnish of bacon strips as the
latter. The _terrine_ should first be lined with slices of bacon,
whereupon it is garnished like the pie with alternate layers of
forcemeat, bacon strips, hares’ fillets, and truffles.
Cover with a slice of bacon; sprinkle the centre of the latter with a
little powdered thyme and bay, and a little spice. Put the lid on the
_terrine_, place it in a saucepan containing a little water, and set it
to cook in the oven.
The time allowed for cooking is naturally subject to the size of the
_terrine_. It is known to be quite cooked when the grease which rises
to the surface is quite clear.
As long as this grease is turbid, raw juices are still issuing from
the forcemeat and the garnish inside. Another method of telling is
by the insertion of a needle. If the latter withdraws evenly heated
throughout its length, the _terrine_ is cooked.
If the patty is to be served immediately, add some aspic to it when it
is just tepid, and set it to cool under slight pressure. When quite
cold, clear it of grease; trim its surface, and cut it up in the
utensil.
If it is to be served whole and presented, set it to cool under greater
pressure; turn it out, and trim it all round. This done, cause a layer
of jelly to set on the bottom of the _terrine_; return the trimmed
patty to the latter, and surround it with melted aspic jelly.
When about to serve, turn it out after the manner of an aspic; set it
on a long dish, and border the latter with jelly _croûtons_.
If it have to be kept some time, proceed as above, but use lard instead
of aspic, and keep it well covered and in the cool.
1826—YOUNG WILD RABBIT (LAPEREAUX)
Use the wild rather than the tame young rabbit, and test its age after
the manner described in regard to the hare, and also by means of a
little lentil-shaped bone, which is to be found in the region of the
patella.
As the wild rabbit ages, this bone shrinks and finally combines with
the other bones of the articulation.
When the wild rabbit is old, it is tough, and can only be used for
stock or forcemeats.
All the recipes given for “Poulet Sauté,” and those given for hare, may
be applied to wild rabbit; the reader is, therefore, begged to refer to
these.
1827—FEATHERED GAME
Feathered game comprises all esculent birds that live in freedom.
The number of species involved, therefore, is considerable, but from
the culinary standpoint they may be grouped into ten principal classes,
which are:—
1. The various pheasants, grey and red partridges, the Tetras
Californias.
2. The hazel-hen, grouse, prairie fowls, ganga, sand-grouse.
3. The various wild ducks and teals.
4. The woodcocks and snipes.
5. The various plovers, lapwings, sandpipers, water-rails, water-hens.
6. The quails, land-rails, Virginia quails.
7. The various thrushes, Corsican blackbirds.
8. The various larks.
9. The warblers.
10. The ortolans.
The birds of Classes 1 and 4 are better high—that is to say, they
should be hung for a few days, before being plucked, in a moderate
draught, that they may begin to decompose, and that the particular
flavour of their flesh may be accentuated, a process which increases
their culinary value. Whatever opinion may be held in regard to the
gaminess of these birds, one thing is quite certain—namely, that
the meat of a fresh pheasant and that of a high one are two totally
different things. When fresh, the meat is flavourless, whereas when it
is reasonably high it is tender, full of taste, and of an incomparable
flavour.
Formerly, it was the custom to lard the birds of Class 1, especially
when they were to be roasted. But this practice should be resolutely
discarded, for, if the bird be young, it can only impair the latter’s
flavour, and, if it be old, it cannot possibly restore those qualities
to it which it has already lost.
Besides, an old bird should never be served; it ought only to be used
in the preparation of game stock or forcemeats.
The birds belonging to the remaining classes are prepared fresh; or, if
it be thought necessary to let them hang for a few days, at least they
should not be allowed to get high, more particularly the aquatic ones,
because gaminess is, if anything, deleterious to the flavour of their
flesh.
1828—PHEASANT (FAISAN)
When this bird is young, its legs are grey and the ventral end of the
sternum is tender and flexible. But with pheasants, as with partridges,
an infallible sign of youth may be discovered at the extremity of the
last large feather in the wing. If this feather be pointed, the bird is
young; if it be round, the reverse is the case.
1829—FAISAN A LA MODE D’ALCANTARA
This recipe comes from the famous Alcantara convent. History tells us
that at the beginning of the Portuguese campaign in 1807 the convent’s
library was pillaged by Junot’s soldiers, and its precious manuscripts
were used in the making of cartridges.
Now it happened that an officer of the commissariat who was witnessing
the event found, among a collection of recipes selected by the monks,
the particular one now under our notice, which was applied only to
partridges.
It struck him as interesting, and after trying it when he returned
to France in the following year, he surrendered it to the Duchess of
Abrantès, who noted it in her memoirs.
It represents, perhaps, the only good thing the French derived from
that unfortunate campaign, and it would tend to prove that foie gras
and truffles, which had been known for so long in Languedoc and
Gascony, were also known in Estremadura, where, even at the present
day, tolerably good truffles are to be found.
The procedure is as follows:—
Empty the pheasant from the front; bone its breast, and stuff it with
fine ducks’ foies gras, mixed with quartered truffles, cooked in port
wine.
_Marinade_ the pheasant for three days in port wine, taking care that
it be well covered therewith. This done, cook it “_en casserole_” (the
original recipe says on the spit, but the saucepan is more suitable).
Reduce the port wine of the _marinade_; add to it a dozen medium-sized
truffles; set the pheasant on these truffles, and heat for a further
ten minutes.
N.B.—This last part of the recipe may be advantageously replaced by the
“à la Souvaroff” treatment—that is to say, having placed the pheasant
and the truffles in a _terrine_, sprinkle them with the reduced port
combined with slightly buttered game glaze; then hermetically seal down
the lid of the _terrine_, and complete the cooking in the oven.
1830—FAISAN A L’ANGOUMOISE
Stuff the pheasant with a preparation consisting of two-thirds lb. of
very fresh pork fat, rubbed through a sieve; four oz. of raw, peeled,
and quartered truffles, and four oz. of fine chestnuts, cooked in
consommé.
This preparation, which should be seasoned as for the ordinary
truffling (No. 1956), ought to be quite cold when inserted into the
pheasant.
Wrap the bird in slices of bacon; roast it gently for three-quarters
of an hour, and take care to remove the slices of bacon seven or eight
minutes before the cooking is completed, that the outside of the piece
may be coloured.
Set on a long dish, and serve a Périgueux sauce at the same time.
1831—FAISAN A LA BOHÉMIENNE
Season a small foie gras with salt and paprika; stud it with raw
quartered truffles, and poach it in Madeira for twenty minutes.
When it is cold, insert it into the pheasant, which should be high.
Truss the bird, and cook it in butter in a saucepan or a _cocotte_ for
forty-five minutes. When about to serve, remove some of the butter used
in cooking; sprinkle the pheasant with a glassful of burnt brandy, and
add a few tablespoonfuls of reduced game gravy to the cooking-liquor.
Serve the pheasant in its cooking utensil.
1832—FAISAN EN CASSEROLE
Truss the pheasant as for an entrée, and _poële_ it in butter only.
This done, swill the saucepan with a few drops of brandy and a
tablespoonful of game gravy.
Cover the utensil, and serve the dish burning hot.
1833—FAISAN EN COCOTTE
Proceed exactly as for pheasant “_en casserole_,” and, when the cooking
is two-thirds done, surround it with a garnish of small onions cooked
in butter; small, cooked mushroom-heads and olive-shaped truffles,
the latter taking the place of the potatoes, which are one of the
garnishing ingredients of fowls “_en cocotte_.”
1834—FAISAN EN CHARTREUSE
Parboil a fine, round-headed, quartered cabbage, and braise it as
directed under No. 2100, adding thereto an old, oven-browned pheasant.
The _chartreuse_ may be made with the pheasant kept whole or cut into
pieces, but in any case, roasted or _poëled_, it should be very tender
and only just cooked. The old pheasant put in with the cabbage only
serves in imparting its flavour to the latter, but it must not and
cannot be used for the _chartreuse_.
If the _chartreuse_ be made with a cut-up pheasant, proceed as in the
case of No. 1778. If whole, line an oval mould _chartreuse_-fashion;
coat the inside with a portion of the braised cabbage, which should be
slightly pressed; set the pheasant, breast undermost, in the mould;
cover it with what remains of the cabbage, and then turn it out on a
dish.
Send a sauceboat of excellent half-glaze, flavoured with pheasant
_fumet_, separately.
1835—FAISAN A LA CHOUCROÛTE
Prepare the sauerkraut after No. 2097, and bear in mind that when it is
specially prepared to accompany a pheasant, it is considerably improved
by being braised with foie-gras fat.
_Poële_ a very tender pheasant, and only just cook it. Lay the
well-drained sauerkraut on a long dish; set the pheasant upon it, and
surround it with a border consisting of rectangles of bacon, cooked in
the sauerkraut.
Serve separately the _poëling_-liquor combined with a little game
_fumet_, strained, and kept somewhat greasy.
1836—FAISAN A LA CRÈME
Cook the pheasant in butter, in a saucepan, with a medium-sized,
quartered onion. When the cooking is three-parts done, sprinkle the
bird with one-quarter pint of cream (sour if possible), or with
ordinary cream, acidulated by means of a few drops of lemon juice.
Finish the cooking, basting the piece the while with cream and serve
in the saucepan.
1837—FAISAN DEMIDOFF
Proceed exactly as directed under “Poulet à la Demidoff” (No. 1464).
1838—FAISAN A LA GEORGIENNE
Truss the pheasant as for an entrée, and put it into a saucepan with
thirty fresh, halved, and well-peeled walnuts; the juice of two lbs.
of grapes and of four oranges, pressed on a sieve; a wineglassful of
Malmsey wine; a glassful of strong, green tea; one and one-half oz. of
butter, and the necessary seasoning.
Poach the pheasant in this preparation for about thirty minutes, and
colour it when it is almost cooked.
When about to serve, dish it and surround it with fresh walnuts.
Strain the cooking-liquor through a napkin; add thereto one-third pint
of game Espagnole, and reduce to half.
Slightly coat the pheasant and its garnish with the sauce, and serve
what remains of the latter separately.
1839—FAISAN GRILLÉ DIABLE
For this preparation only young pheasants are used; although, provided
they be tender, adult pheasants will answer the purpose. The procedure
is precisely the same as that described under “Poulet Grillé”
(No. 1636).
1840—FAISAN KOTSCHOUBEY
Cook the pheasant “_en casserole_,” and add to it, when it is almost
done, two oz. of fine, raw truffle slices, and a little excellent game
glaze, clear and well buttered.
Serve the following garnish separately:—Fry in butter four oz. of
_blanched_, fresh breast of bacon, cut into dice. When the pieces are
properly frizzled, add to them one lb. of freshly-cooked, well-drained,
uncooled, and roughly-chopped Brussels sprouts. Add two oz. of fresh
butter, a little pepper and grated nutmeg, and stew gently for one-half
hour, that the garnish may just be ready in time for dishing.
1841—FAISAN A LA NORMANDE
Colour the pheasant in butter.
Meanwhile quarter, peel, mince, and slightly toss in butter six
medium-sized apples.
Garnish the bottom of a _terrine_ with a layer of these apples; set
the browned pheasant thereon; surround it with what remains of the
apples; sprinkle it with a few tablespoonfuls of fresh cream; cover
the _terrine_, and cook in the oven for from twenty to twenty-eight
minutes.
Serve the preparation in the _terrine_.
1842—FAISAN A LA PÉRIGUEUX
Stuff the pheasant with truffles, proceeding as for ordinary truffling
(No. 1956). _Poële_ it in Madeira; dish, and surround it with a border
of quenelles consisting of truffled game forcemeat, moulded by means of
a coffeespoon, and poached at the last moment.
Serve separately a Périgueux sauce combined with the reduced
_poëling_-liquor, cleared of all grease.
1843—FAISAN A LA RÉGENCE
_Poële_ the pheasant, and dish it on a low _croûton_, carved from a
sandwich-loaf and fried in butter.
Surround it with small, decorated, round game quenelles; large,
grooved, cooked mushrooms; and cocks’ kidneys; all three arranged
alternately.
Serve separately a Salmis sauce, flavoured with truffle essence, and
combined with the strained and reduced _poëling_-liquor, cleared of all
grease.
1844—FAISAN A LA SAINTE-ALLIANCE
Bone two woodcocks, and put their livers and intestines aside.
Chop up their meat, together with a quarter of its weight of poached
and cooled beef-marrow, and as much fresh, fat bacon; salt, pepper, and
herbs. Add to this hash six oz. of raw, peeled, and quartered truffles,
slightly cooked in butter.
Stuff the pheasant with this preparation; truss it; wrap it in slices
of bacon, and keep it in the cool for twenty-four hours, that the aroma
of the truffles may be concentrated.
Roast the pheasant on the spit, or, if in the oven, set it on a
somewhat high stand in a baking-pan. Cut a large _croûton_ from a
sandwich-loaf, and fry it in clarified butter.
Pound the woodcocks’ livers and intestines with an equal weight of
grated fresh fat bacon, the well-washed fillets of an anchovy, one oz.
of butter, and one-half oz. of raw truffle. When this forcemeat is very
smooth and all its ingredients thoroughly mixed, spread it over the
fried _croûtons_.
When the pheasant is two-thirds cooked, set this coated _croûton_ under
the bird in such wise as to allow the juices escaping from the latter
to drop upon the _croûton_. Complete the cooking, and dish the pheasant
on the _croûton_. Surround with slices of bitter orange, and send the
gravy separately.
When serving, accompany each piece of pheasant with a slice of orange
and a small slice of the coated _croûton_.
1845—FAISAN SOUVAROFF
Cook six fair-sized truffles for five minutes in a glassful of Madeira
and an equal quantity of light meat glaze. Withdraw the truffles and
put them in the _terrine_ in which the pheasant will complete its
cooking.
Cut one-half lb. of foie gras into large dice; stiffen these in the
truffles’ cooking-liquor, and stuff the pheasant therewith. Truss the
latter; wrap it in slices of bacon, and two-thirds _poële_ it.
This done, put it into the _terrine_ containing the truffles; add the
_poëling_-liquor, a small glassful of Madeira, and the same quantity of
game gravy; hermetically close the _terrine_, and continue cooking for
about a quarter of an hour.
Serve the preparation as it stands.
1846—SUPRÊMES, CÔTELETTES ET FILETS DE FAISAN
Pheasant Suprêmes, Cutlets and Fillets, allow of the same garnishes as
those of fowl. But, whereas in the case of the latter, they are raised
raw, and then poached, my advice in regard to pheasant is, that it
should be previously roasted or _poëled_ (keeping it just underdone)
and that the _suprêmes_ be only raised at the last moment.
By this means, a much better result is obtained than by the poaching of
raw fillets; which, once cooked, are generally dry if they have to wait
but a few seconds.
I also advise, when the garnish consists only of foie-gras collops
and truffles (as in the case of the _Rossini_ garnish), the sending
separately of a small timbale of noodles with cream.
1847—SALMIS DE FAISAN
Salmis is perhaps the most delicate and most perfect of the game
preparations bequeathed to us by old-fashioned cookery. If it be less
highly esteemed nowadays, it is owing to the fact that this recipe has
been literally spoiled by the haphazard fashion in which it has been
applied right and left to game already cooked, and cooked again for the
purpose.
But the Salmis given above may always be included in any menu, however
sumptuous. It is applied more particularly to game of the 1st and 2nd
classes, which should be somewhat high when treated.
The recipe I give may be applied to all the birds in the two classes
referred to.
Roast the pheasant, keeping it moderately underdone. Quickly cut
it into eight pieces, thus: two legs, two wings (separated from the
pinions), and the breast cut into four lengthwise. Skin the pieces;
trim them neatly, and keep them at a temperate heat in a covered
vegetable-pan, with a few drops of burnt brandy and a little clear
melted meat glaze.
Pound the carcass and the trimmings, and add to them half a bottleful
of red wine (almost entirely reduced), three chopped shallots and a few
mignonette pepper. Add one-quarter pint of good game Espagnole sauce;
cook for ten minutes; rub through a sieve, pressing well the while, and
then strain through a strainer.
Reduce this sauce to about one-third, and despumate it; strain it once
more through a close strainer; add a small quantity of butter, and pour
it over the pieces of pheasant, to which add a fine, sliced truffle and
six grooved mushroom-heads.
I advise the discarding of the old method of dishing upon a cushion of
bread fried in butter, as also of the triangular _croûtons_ fried in
butter and coated with _gratin_ forcemeat, which usually accompanied
the Salmis.
A speedy preparation and a simple method of dishing, which facilitate
the service and allow of the Salmis being eaten hot, are the only
necessary conditions. Moreover, the goodness of the preparation is such
as to be independent of a fantastic method of dishing.
1848—SAUTÉ DE FAISAN
Unless it be prepared with the greatest care, _sautéd_ pheasant
is always dry. I therefore do not recommend it; but, should it be
necessary to make a dish of it, care should be observed in selecting a
young, plump bird. It should be cut up like a fowl, cooked in butter on
a moderate fire and kept somewhat underdone.
Dish it after the manner of a “poulet sauté” and cover it. Swill the
sautépan and prepare a sauce after the recipe in common use.
This sauce must always be short, and it should be poured over the
pheasant just before serving it.
1849—PÂTÉ CHAUD DE FAISAN
The preparation of hot, raised pheasant pies is the same as usual; the
ingredients alone changing. The reader will, therefore, kindly refer
to “Pâté chaud de Canard” (No. 1752), and duly note the following
modifications:—
(1) Use a _gratin_ forcemeat (No. 202) prepared from game livers and
meat.
(2) Roast the pheasant, keeping it underdone, and mix the pieces of
cooked mushroom with the sliced truffles.
(3) Accompany the pie by a Salmis sauce, prepared from the pheasant’s
carcass and remains.
1850—MOUSSES ET MOUSSELINES DE FAISAN
As already stated in various parts of this work, the constituents and
their quantities are the same for _mousses_ and _mousselines_, and but
for the basic ingredient, which is pheasant in this case, the procedure
does not differ from that already described.
The base of the sauces served with these _mousses_ and _mousselines_ is
a _fumet_ made from the carcasses and remains.
1851—SOUFFLÉ DE FAISAN
Prepare a very light, _mousseline_ forcemeat of pheasant.
Set in a buttered _soufflé_ saucepan, and cook in a moderate oven.
Send a fine, half-glaze sauce, flavoured with game essence, at the same
time.
=Cold Pheasant=
1852—FAISAN A LA BOHÉMIENNE
Proceed as for “Faisan à la Bohémienne” hot (No. 1831). Cook it in
an earthenware _terrine_, and add thereto, at the same time as the
prescribed brandy, enough succulent, savoury jelly to fill up the
_terrine_.
Leave to cool for a day or two, and, when about to serve, remove the
grease that has settled on the surface, by means of a spoon. Remove
the last vestiges of grease by repeated scaldings; carefully wipe the
_terrine_, and serve it incrusted in a block of ice.
1853—CHAUD-FROID DE FAISAN
Proceed exactly as for “Chaud-froid de Volaille” (No. 1689), and use a
brown chaud-froid sauce, flavoured with pheasant _fumet_.
In regard to the decoration, dishing, &c., follow the recipe already
referred to.
1854—CHAUD-FROID DE FAISAN A LA BULOZ
_Poële_ a pheasant, keeping it underdone; raise its _suprêmes_, and cut
these into thin collops.
With a _fumet_ prepared from the carcass and the _poëling_-liquor,
prepare a brown chaud-froid sauce. Coat the collops with this sauce,
and also coat ten cooked and grooved mushrooms with a white chaud-froid
sauce.
_Clothe_ a dome-mould with clear aspic jelly, and deck it with truffles.
Set the collops of pheasant and the chaud-froid-coated truffles inside,
alternating the two in so doing; fill up the mould with the same jelly,
and let it set on ice. When about to serve, turn out after the manner
of an aspic, on a low cushion of rice or semolina, lying on a round
dish.
Border with neatly-cut _croûtons_ of very clear aspic.
1855—FAISAN A LA CROIX DE BERNY
Roast the pheasant and keep it underdone. When it is quite cold, raise
its fillets and leave the legs and the wings attached to the carcass.
By means of scissors, completely bone the carcass; garnish its inside
with a truffled foie-gras Parfait, and cover it with a thin coat of
foie-gras _Mousse_.
Replace the fillets upon this _Mousse_, after having sliced them, and
fill any gaps that may exist between the slices with some of the same
_Mousse_: thus reconstructing the bird.
Let the _Mousse_ set thoroughly, and glaze with aspic jelly.
Meanwhile, coat eight boned, stuffed, poached and cold larks with brown
chaud-froid sauce. Decorate them with pieces of truffle and salted
tongue, and glaze them with aspic jelly.
Dish the pheasant on a low cushion; surround it with the larks, and
garnish the gaps between the latter with chopped and very clear aspic.
1856—FAISAN EN DAUBE
Proceed as for “Terrine de Poularde à la gelée” (No. 1701), making due
allowance, in the cooking, for the difference between the sizes of the
two birds.
1857—CÔTELETTES DE FAISAN
Proceed as for “Côtelettes froides de Volaille.”
1858—GALANTINE DE FAISAN
See “Galantine de Volaille” (No. 1708).
1859—MOUSSE DE FAISAN
Prepare the _Mousse_ according to the usual procedure, and mould it
after the manner of “Mousse de Volaille” (No. 1711).
1860—PAIN DE FAISAN EN BELLE-VUE
The procedure follows that of No. 1709, but for the difference in the
basic ingredient, which in this case is pheasant.
1861—SUPRÊMES DE FAISAN CHÂTELAINE
Raise the _suprêmes_ and prepare them exactly like the _suprêmes_ of
fowl in “Chaud-froid Félix Faure” (No. 1691). Poach them; cool them,
and cut them into medallions as explained.
Cover half of these medallions with chicken _Mousse_, and the other
half with pheasant _Mousse_. Keep on ice for some time that the
_Mousse_ may set. This done, coat the first lot with brown chaud-froid
sauce and the second lot with white chaud-froid sauce. Deck each
medallion with small pieces of truffle. Set them in a deep, square dish
(alternating the two colours), and cover with very clear, succulent
aspic jelly. Leave to set and serve on a block of ice.
1862—SUPRÊMES DE FAISAN GASTRONOME
_Poële_ the pheasant in Madeira and let it cool. Raise the fillets; cut
them into thin, regular slices; coat them with brown chaud-froid sauce,
and decorate according to fancy. With the trimmings and the meat of
the legs, prepare a pheasant _Mousse_ after the manner described under
No. 1711, and mould it in a Parfait mould which should have the depth
of the chaud-froid-coated slices.
When this _Mousse_ has set, turn it out on a dish and place the slices
all round, standing them upright and letting them lean one against the
other.
Surround with a crown of fine, fair-sized, peeled truffles, cooked in
Champagne, and set one of them on the top of the _Mousse_, fixing it
there by means of a _hatelet_.
Border the dish with fine _croûtons_ of aspic.
1863—TERRINE DE FAISAN
Prepare it after the manner of the “Terrine de Lièvre” (No. 1825), and
take care to make due allowance, in the cooking, for the difference, in
the matter of tenderness, between the two meats. But the explanations
already given on this subject ought to suffice for ascertaining whether
or not the patty have cooked sufficiently.
PARTRIDGE (PERDRIX ET PERDREAUX)
Three kinds of partridges are used in Cookery:—the Grey Partridge,
which is commonest in flat country, and which is also the most highly
esteemed; the Red Partridge, which is to be found in hilly and wooded
country; and the Bartavelle (perdix vertevella), which is a somewhat
larger species than the two former. To these three kinds may be added
the American Colin (Ortix Virginianus), an excellent bird sometimes
seen in English markets.
All the recipes given for pheasants may be applied to partridge, and
below, I shall only give those which are proper to the latter.
1864—PERDREAU A LA BOURGUIGNONNE
Truss the partridge as for an entrée; three-parts _poële_ it, and place
it in a _terrine_ with six small glazed onions and as many small,
cooked mushroom heads. Swill the saucepan with a glassful of red wine;
reduce it two-thirds, and add a tablespoonful of game half-glaze.
Strain; clear of grease; pour this sauce over the partridge, and
complete the latter’s cooking for seven or eight minutes.
1865—PERDREAU EN DEMI-DEUIL
Bone the breast and fill the partridge with truffled partridge
forcemeat, prepared with panada or butter. Between the skin and the
fillets, slip a few slices of very black truffle; truss as for an
entrée; wrap the piece in muslin, and poach it for thirty minutes in a
game _fumet_.
When about to serve, remove the muslin; take the string off, and dish
the partridge. Reduce the _fumet_ in which the partridge has poached;
strain it; add thereto a liqueur-glassful of burnt liqueur-brandy, and
send this reduced _fumet_ separately.
1866—PERDREAU EN ESTOUFFADE
Brown the partridge in the oven and set in a _terrine_ just large
enough to hold it, with a tablespoonful of Matignon (No. 227) and one
crushed juniper berry, on top and beneath.
Add one-half oz. of butter, a liqueur-glassful of burnt brandy, and
twice that amount of game _fumet_. Close the _terrine_; seal down the
lid with a strip of paste; bake in a hot oven for twenty-five minutes
and serve the dish as it stands.
1867—PERDREAU A LA LAUTREC
Select a young partridge; open its back; slightly flatten it with a
butcher’s beater; pierce it through with a skewer; season it with salt,
pepper and melted butter, and gently grill.
At the same time grill six small mushroom-heads.
Dish the partridge; on either side of it set the mushrooms, each of
which should be garnished with a coffeespoonful of Maître-d’hôtel
butter; surround the mushrooms with a thread of melted meat glaze and
sprinkle the partridge with a few drops of lemon juice.
1868—PERDREAU LADY CLIFFORD
Cook the partridge in butter in a saucepan. When it is three-parts
done, surround it with two oz. of fine slices of raw truffle; add a
liqueur-glassful of burnt brandy and one tablespoonful of clear melted
meat glaze.
Serve a Soubise sauce at the same time and separately.
1869—PERDREAU AUX CHOUX
Prepare a garnish of braised cabbages as explained under No. 2100,
and add thereto an old partridge, browned in the oven or on the spit.
Meanwhile, roast or _poële_ a very tender young partridge and keep it
underdone.
Dish the cabbages, which should be well drained; set the young
partridge upon them, and surround with small rectangles of very lean
bacon, cooked with the cabbages, and a thread of half-glaze sauce,
flavoured with game _fumet_.
N.B.—This dish may be given a more decorative appearance by means of
a sort of _Chartreuse_, which is prepared as follows:—Line a large
bowl or a buttered, round-bottomed timbale with roundels of sausages;
roundels of carrots arranged in superposed rows, separated by a line of
French beans or peas; and small rectangles of bacon, laid side by side.
Line the inside of the timbale with a thick layer of cabbages, and put
the young partridge, breast undermost, in the middle (the partridge
may also be carved up). Cover the cabbages and press the latter with
a fork; turn the timbale out on a dish and tilt the latter that all
the grease may fall before withdrawing the timbale, which answers the
purpose of a mould.
Surround with a thread of half-glaze sauce, flavoured with game _fumet_.
1870—CRÉPINETTES DE PERDREAUX
After substituting the meat of a young partridge, cleared of all
tendons, for the veal sweetbreads, and fresh bacon for calf’s
udder, proceed exactly as directed (as regards quantities and other
particulars) under “Crépinettes de ris de Veau” (No. 1222), taking care
to add three oz. of chopped truffles per lb. of the forcemeat.
Divide up the forcemeat into portions one and one-half oz. to two oz.
in weight; wrap them in pig’s caul; roll them first in melted butter
and then in bread-crumbs, and grill them gently.
The usual accompaniment to these crépinettes is a light chestnut or
lentil purée.
1871—EPIGRAMMES DE PERDREAU
Raise the young partridge’s fillets, leaving the wing-bone attached to
the carcass, and put them aside. From the minion fillets and the meat
of the legs, prepare a _mousseline_ forcemeat; mould the latter in very
small buttered cutlet moulds, and set to poach.
Roll the fillets in melted butter and bread-crumbs, and grill them
gently. Dip the cutlets in beaten egg; roll them in finely-chopped
truffles; press upon the latter with the flat of a knife, that they may
combine with the egg; adjust the shape of the cutlets, and toss them in
butter.
Dish in the form of a circle, alternating the fillets and the cutlets;
pour in their midst a cullis prepared from the partridge’s carcasses,
and serve a chestnut purée separately.
1872—TIMBALE DE PERDREAU DIANE
Line a liberally-buttered, shallow mould with crescents of truffle
arranged in superposed rows, and then completely cover the bottom and
sides of the mould with a layer, two-thirds in. thick, of raw partridge
forcemeat.
Place the mould in the front of the oven that the forcemeat may be
poached; and then spread another layer of _gratin_ forcemeat of game.
Fill the utensil with a garnish of small quenelles consisting of
truffled partridge forcemeat, mushrooms and slices of truffles, cohered
with a reduced Madeira sauce. Cover the garnish with a small coat of
forcemeat, and poach in the _bain-marie_ for from thirty to thirty-five
minutes.
When about to serve, turn out on a dish, and deck the timbale with a
crown of partridges’ _suprêmes_, raised from birds fresh from the spit
or the oven. Surround the base of the timbale with a thread of Diane
sauce, and send a sauceboat of the latter separately.
1873—PERDREAUX FROIDS
The various recipes given for cold pheasant also suit cold partridge;
it is only necessary therefore to replace the word “pheasant” by
“partridge” in the formulæ referred to.
1874—WOODCOCK AND SNIPE (BÉCASSE ET BÉCASSINES)
If grouse, which can only be thoroughly appreciated in its native
country, were extinct, woodcock would be the leading feathered game.
But the latter have this advantage over the former, namely: that their
_fumet_ is not so fugitive, and that they may be kept much longer.
Woodcock does not yield its full quality unless it be moderately high.
1875—BÉCASSE DE CARÊME
Sprinkle the woodcock with a few drops of oil, and roast it, keeping it
underdone. As soon as it is cooked, divide it into two lengthwise, and
cut each half of the breast into two collops. Mix half a coffeespoonful
of French mustard in a small vegetable-pan, with a few drops of lemon
juice. Roll the pieces of woodcock in this mustard, and keep them hot.
Chop up the carcass and the intestines; sprinkle with a glassful of
burnt liqueur brandy; reduce; add a tablespoonful of game _fumet_, and
cook for five minutes.
Strain through a strainer, pressing on the pieces of woodcock in so
doing, and rock the saucepan, that the pieces may be coated with the
cullis. Dish in a hot timbale, and, upon the pieces, set the woodcock’s
head.
N.B.—_Bécasse à la fine Champagne_ is prepared in the same way, but
without mustard. Cut it into six pieces: wings, legs and two halves
of the breast, and put these pieces into a round _cocotte_. Swill the
saucepan with burnt liqueur brandy; add the chopped intestines, mixed
with the juices of the pressed carcass; add a tablespoonful of _fumet_,
a little lemon juice, and a little cayenne, and pour this cullis
(heated but not boiled) over the pieces.
_Bécasse à la Riche_ is prepared in the same way, but:—(1) the pieces
are dished on a _croûton_ of fried bread, coated with _gratin_
forcemeat of game; (2) the sauce is thickened with a little foie-gras
purée and one oz. of butter, and then strained over the pieces through
a coarse strainer, during which process the operator should press with
a spoon or a whisk.
1876—BÉCASSE A LA FAVART
Proceed as for “Caneton Rouennais Soufflé” (No. 1764), and remember to
add the woodcock’s intestines to the forcemeat.
When the carcass is garnished, set the sliced _suprêmes_ on the
forcemeat, with a row of sliced truffles in the middle. The forcemeat
should poach for about twenty minutes.
Serve at the same time a half-glaze sauce, flavoured with woodcock
_fumet_.
1877—SALMIS DE BÉCASSE
Under the article “Pheasant,” I gave the generic recipe for Salmis,
which may be applied to all feathered game. In regard to the Woodcock
Salmis, the operator should remember to add the bird’s intestines to
the sauce, and to keep the meat rather under- than overdone.
1878—BÉCASSE SOUVAROFF
Proceed exactly as for “Faisan à la Souvaroff” (No. 1845), after making
due allowance for the size of the bird in regard to the quantity of
truffles and foie gras.
1879—MOUSSES ET MOUSSELINES DE BÉCASSE
Proceed as indicated in No. 1850.
1880—TIMBALE DE BÉCASSE METTERNICH
Prepare a somewhat shallow, decorated timbale crust.
Roast the woodcocks and keep them underdone.
Raise the _suprêmes_ and put them in the timbale, separating them by
collops of fresh foie gras, _sautéd_ at the last moment.
Pound the remains of the woodcocks, including their carcasses; thin the
purée with truffle essence; rub it through a sieve, pressing heavily
the while, and then rub it through tammy.
Heat the cullis thus obtained, without letting it boil; finish it with
a little lemon juice, liqueur-brandy and butter, and pour it into the
timbale over the pieces of woodcock and the foie gras collops.
Dish the timbale on a folded napkin, lying on a round dish.
1881—TIMBALE DE BÉCASSE NESSELRODE
_Poële_ the woodcocks and keep them underdone.
As soon as they are cooked, raise their fillets and put these aside.
Bone the remains, and pound the meat thus obtained, together with a
quarter of its weight of raw foie gras.
Rub through a sieve, and add an equal weight of game forcemeat,
prepared with panada and butter. Add the chopped carcasses and a
glassful of liqueur brandy to the _poëling_-liquor; cook for a few
minutes; strain, and in this stock poach five oz. of olive-shaped
truffles (for an ordinary timbale).
Line a buttered Charlotte-mould with short paste; cover its bottom and
sides with the prepared forcemeat, and against this forcemeat set
the woodcock’s _suprêmes_, cut into collops. Garnish the centre with
the truffles, and cover these with a few tablespoonfuls of Espagnole,
reduced with some of the _fumet_. Close the timbale with a layer of
paste, as explained in the various preceding timbale recipes, and bake
in a good, moderate oven for about forty-five minutes.
When about to serve, turn out the timbale on a dish; pour into the
former some half-glaze sauce combined with what remains of the _fumet_,
and send a sauceboat of the same sauce separately.
N.B.—This “Timbale Nesselrode” may be prepared after the same recipe,
from Pheasant, Partridge, Woodcock or Hazel-Hen, but the name of the
selected bird should, of course, appear on the menu.
1882—BÉCASSES ET BÉCASSINES FROIDES
All the recipes given for cold pheasant and partridge may be applied to
woodcocks and snipes.
1883—QUAILS
Quails should always be chosen plump, and their fat should be white and
very firm. Besides the spit, which should always be used in preference
to the oven for roasting, they allow of two other methods of cooking:
they may be cooked in butter, in a saucepan; or they may be poached in
excellent strong and gelatinous veal stock.
This last mode of procedure greatly enhances the quail’s quality and is
frequently used.
1884—CAILLES EN CASSEROLE
Cook them in butter, in the saucepan in which they will be served.
Swill with a few drops of brandy; add a little game _fumet_; cover, and
serve very hot.
1885—CAILLES AUX CERISES
For four quails:—Truss them as for an entrée and cook them with butter
in a saucepan. Swill with a little brandy and a glass of port, in which
a piece of orange rind should have soaked.
Add three tablespoonfuls of excellent veal stock, three tablespoonfuls
of red-currant jelly and about forty cherries, previously poached in a
boiling syrup of about 18° (Saccharometer) and cooled in the syrup.
Drain them before adding them to the quail, and, if the sauce be too
insipid, sharpen it with a few drops of lemon juice.
1886—CAILLES A LA DAUPHINE
Wrap each quail in a buttered vine-leaf and a thin, square slice of
bacon, and roast them for ten minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare a well-seasoned purée of fresh peas with lettuce,
and reduce it to a somewhat stiff consistence.
Line the bottom and sides of a deep dish with very thin slices of ham;
pour the purée into it; smooth the surface, and half-plunge the quails
into this purée.
Place in the oven for ten minutes, and this done, send the dish to the
table immediately.
1887—CAILLES FIGARO
Insert a piece of truffle into each quail, and wrap them each in a
piece of gut together with a bit of pale veal glaze, the size of a
pigeon’s egg. String the pieces of gut at two points one in. from
either extremity of the quails, that the envelope may not burst
while cooking. Poach the quails in good veal stock, that they may
not be washed as they would be if the gut happened to burst in a
poaching-liquor consisting of salted water.
Serve the quails as they leave their cooking-liquor.
1888—CAILLES A LA GRECQUE
Cook the quails in a saucepan, and set them in a timbale,
half-garnished with “Riz à la Grecque.” Swill the saucepan with a few
tablespoonfuls of game _fumet_, and pour this swilling-liquor over the
quails, without clearing it of grease.
1889—CAILLES JULIETTE
Divide the quails into two along the back and do not separate the
two halves; season them; sprinkle them with melted butter and
finely-chopped truffle. Wrap each quail in a piece of pig’s caul;
sprinkle again with melted butter and fine raspings, and grill gently.
Dish the quails and sprinkle them with a few drops of verjuice.
1890—CAILLES JUDIC
_Poële_ the quails.
Dish them in the form of a crown, each on a small, braised lettuce,
with a cock’s kidney on either side and a truffle on top. Coat with a
half-glaze sauce prepared with quail _fumet_.
1891—CAILLES LUCULLUS
Cook the quails in butter. Dish them in a circle on a round dish, each
on an oval or rectangular fried _croûton_, and between each set a fine
truffle cooked in Champagne and chicken glaze.
1892—CAILLES A LA NORMANDE
Peel, mince and toss some apples in butter, as explained under “Faisan
à la Normande.” Allow half an apple per quail. Garnish the bottom
of a _cocotte_ with some of these apples; upon them set the quails,
browned in butter; add what remains of the apples; sprinkle with a few
tablespoonfuls of cream, and complete the cooking in the oven.
1893—CAILLES AUX PETITS POIS A LA ROMAINE
Cook the quails in butter. At the same time, fry in butter one small
new onion and two-thirds oz. of raw, chopped ham, for each quail. Add
some peas, shelled at the last moment, and cook without any moistening
whatsoever.
The moisture contained in the ham and peas is sufficient for the
cooking. The peas should be ready simultaneously with the quails.
Serve the quails and the peas separately, in little, closed timbales.
The diner mixes them.
1894—CAILLES AUX RAISINS
Cook the quails in butter. Swill the utensil with a few drops of dry,
white wine and a little verjuice; add half a tablespoonful of strong
game _fumet_ for each quail; and dish in a very hot _cocotte_ with
about one oz. of fresh peeled grapes for each quail.
1895—CAILLES RICHELIEU
Select some fresh and plump quails; remove their gizzards; season them
inside with a grain of salt and a few drops of brandy; insert a piece
of raw truffle into each bird, and truss them as for an entrée. Set
them in a sautépan, snugly pressed one against the other, and season
them with salt. Cover them with a coarse _julienne_ of carrots, onions
and celery, cooked in butter, and prepared as far as possible from new
vegetables.
Moisten, just enough to cover, with some succulent amber-coloured veal
stock, gelatinous and fine; cover, boil, and then poach gently for
twelve minutes.
This done, add a _julienne_ of truffles (raw if possible) which should
equal only half of the vegetable _julienne_, and poach for a further
two minutes, that the truffles may cook and the quails be done.
Dish in a timbale, clear of grease, and pour the cooking-liquor and the
_julienne_ over the quails.
Pilaff rice is often served with quails prepared in this way.
1896—RIZOTTO DE CAILLES
Into each quail insert a piece of fresh, pounded pork fat, the size of
a hazel nut, combined with an equal quantity of white truffle; and cook
them in a saucepan with butter.
Add their fat to a previously-prepared Rizotto. Dish this rizotto in a
timbale, and hollow it out so as to make a nest for the quails.
Sprinkle the latter with the saucepan-swillings, consisting of game
_fumet_; and send the dish to the table at once.
1897—CAILLES SOUS LA CENDRE
Stuff the quails with a little smooth truffled game forcemeat, and wrap
them each in a buttered vine-leaf, followed by a slice of bacon, and
finally by two sheets of buttered paper.
Place them on the hearth-stone; cover them with very hot cinders, and
cook thus for thirty-five minutes, taking care to renew the hot cinders
from time to time.
When about to serve them, remove the outside covering of paper which is
charred, but leave the other coverings.
N.B.—A log fire is essential for this recipe.
1898—CAILLES SOUVAROFF
Prepare these as described under “Faisan à la Souvaroff” (No. 1845).
1899—CAILLES A LA TURQUE
Truss the quails as for an entrée; brown them in butter, and complete
their cooking in pilaff rice, combined with a quarter of its weight of
cooked and chopped egg-plant pulp.
Set the rice in a pyramid on a dish; place the quails all round
(upright against the rice), and surround with a thread of quail _fumet_.
1900—TIMBALE DE CAILLES ALEXANDRA
Coat a well-buttered timbale mould with patty paste, and line it with
slices of bacon so as to completely cover the paste. The slices of
bacon in this case are there to prevent the moistening of the timbale
from reaching the paste. Insert a piece of foie gras into each quail;
stiffen them in butter, and set them against the sides of the timbale
in successive tiers.
Completely garnish the middle with small, peeled truffles; add
one-quarter pint of excellent stock with Madeira (per six quails), and
a few bits of bay-leaf. Close the timbale with a layer of paste and
cook in a moderately hot oven for one and one-quarter hours.
Turn out upon withdrawing from the oven, and serve the dish as it
stands.
N.B.—(1) The shell of paste merely serves to hold in the quails and
their garnish, and ought not to be eaten.
(2) The same timbale may be prepared with ortolans, except that these
need only forty-five minutes’ cooking.
=Cold Quails=
1901—CHAUD-FROID DE CAILLES EN BELLE-VUE
The quails should be boned for a chaud-froid, and stuffed with _gratin_
forcemeat of game with a rod of foie gras and another of truffle set
in the middle. This done, reshape them; wrap them each in a square of
muslin; poach them for twenty minutes in an excellent veal stock, and
let them cool therein.
When they are quite cold, dry them; and dip them, so as to veneer them
all over, in a good brown chaud-froid sauce (No. 34), prepared with
quail _fumet_. Decorate the breast of each quail elegantly with bits
of truffle and poached white of egg; sprinkle with cold melted savoury
jelly, so as to fix the decoration; and leave to set.
Remove the excess of sauce from around the quails; set them in a
square, deep dish; cover them with very good limpid savoury jelly, and
place them in a refrigerator until they are required.
1902—CAILLES EN CAISSES
Prepare the quails as for a chaud-froid, as above; but set each in an
oval, pleated case of delicate porcelain or paper. Border with a thin
thread of chopped jelly, and on each quail set a head, the eyes of
which may be imitated by means of a ring of white of egg and a central
spot of truffle.
1903—CAILLES GLACÉES AU GRANITÉ
I shall only give a few recipes of this class; for the series is a
long one, and I recommend them more particularly on account of their
quaintness. These dishes, wherein a sugary and glazed preparation is
introduced, are highly esteemed in summer; but they really belong to
the culinary repertory of hot countries.
1904—CAILLES GLACÉES CERISETTE. Prepare the quails as for an entrée and
poach them for 12 minutes in a strong veal stock, with Champagne. This
done, put them each into a small, oval mould; fill up these moulds with
cooking-liquor, cleared of all grease and strained, and leave them to
set on ice.
This preliminary procedure applies to all quail dishes in this series.
Now prepare a Granité with cherry juice (see No. 2930).
Set this Granité in a pyramid on a dish incrusted in ice. Turn out the
quails and place them round the Granité; fill up the gaps between them
with small heaps of stoned cherries, poached in syrup for a few minutes
and quite cold.
1905—CAILLES GLACÉES CARMEN. Prepare the quails as above, and place
them round a rock of Granité made from pomegranates.
1906—CAILLES GLACÉES MARYLAND. Set them round a rock of Granité made
with pineapple.
1907—CAILLES GLACÉES REINE AMELIE. Prepare the quails in the usual way,
and lay them round a rock of Granité prepared with tomatoes.
1908—CAILLES GLACÉES AU ROMANÉE. Poach the quails in stock combined
with Romanée wine, and set them round a rock of Granité made with
verjuice.
1909—FILETS DE CAILLES AUX POMMES D’OR. Raise the quails’ _suprêmes_,
after having poached and cooled them. Set these _suprêmes_ in the
rinds of small oranges or tangerines, and fill up the rinds with jelly
prepared with Port. When about to serve, deck each orange or tangerine,
by means of the piping-bag, with a small ornament of Granité, prepared
with the juice of the fruit used.
1910—CAILLES CECILIA
Roast the quails, keeping them juicy, and leave them to cool.
This done, raise their fillets and skin these; then, with the remains
of the meat and an equal quantity of foie gras, prepare a purée.
Set each fillet of quail on a similarly-shaped slice of liver, causing
it to adhere by means of the prepared purée, and coat with brown
chaud-froid sauce.
When the sauce has quite set, place these fillets in an even
border-mould, _clothed_ with very limpid aspic, and decorated with
truffles. Fill up the mould with the same aspic jelly, and let the
latter set.
When about to serve, turn out on a napkin, after the manner of an aspic.
1911—CAILLES AU CHÂTEAU-YQUEM
Prepare the quails like those “à la Richelieu” (No. 1895). After having
added the _julienne_, sprinkle them with Château-Yquem; cover; reduce,
and complete their cooking as directed.
When they are poached, transfer them to another saucepan; add ten
slices of truffle per quail; strain their cooking-liquor, through
muslin, over them, and poach them for a further two minutes.
This done, place the quails in a timbale; cover them with the
cooking-liquor cleared of all grease; leave it to set, and serve on a
block of ice.
1912—MANDARINES DE CAILLES
Slice the tangerine rinds at their stem-ends with an even round cutter;
remove the sections; put them to dry, and skin them raw.
Three-parts garnish the tangerine rinds with a quail _Mousse_, combined
with foie gras, cut into dice; set a roasted quail’s fillet on the
_Mousse_; coat with brown chaud-froid sauce, and cover with the
sections of tangerine, glazed with aspic jelly. Keep in the cool for
some time and dish on a napkin.
1913—CAILLES NILLSON
Proceed as for “Cailles au Château-Yquem,” and set each quail in a
small, silver _cassolette_. Cover with the cooking-liquor, cleared of
grease and strained, and surround each quail with four small very white
cocks’ kidneys.
1914—CAILLES RICHELIEU FROIDES
Prepare these like the “Hot Cailles Richelieu”; place them in a square,
deep dish; cover with the cooking-liquor and the garnish and let them
cool until the cooking-liquor sets. Then clear the dish of all grease
and serve on a block of ice.
1915—TIMBALE DE CAILLES TZARINE
Line a round pie-dish with ordinary paste, and coat it inside with
slices of bacon. In the middle, place a fresh foie gras seasoned with
salt, pepper and allspice, and surround it with quails, stuffed with
quarters of truffles, set upright with their breasts against the bacon.
Fill up the timbale with whole raw and peeled truffles; cover with a
round slice of bacon; close the timbale with a layer of paste sealed
down round the edges; make a slit in the top, and bake in a hot oven
for one and one-quarter hours.
When withdrawing the timbale from the oven, pour into it some veal
stock flavoured with Madeira, and let it be sufficiently gelatinous to
set like a jelly.
Keep the timbale in the cool for one or two days before serving it.
1916—CAILLES A LA VENDANGEUSE
Roast the quails; let them cool, and set them, each in a little dosser
of dry paste, resting against a cushion lying on a round dish. On top
of the cushion plant a leafy vine-shoot bearing grapes. Surround the
quails with white and black grapes (peeled and pipped) and cover with a
slightly gelatinous aspic jelly, prepared with liqueur brandy.
1917—MOUSSES DE CAILLES
See the various remarks made concerning this subject, under Pheasant,
Partridge and Woodcock.
1918—LAND RAIL, ROI DE CAILLES OU RÂLE DE GENÊTS
The Land Rail, which must not be confused with the Water Rail, is most
often served roasted, but all the quail recipes, hot or cold (except
those in which Granité forms an accompaniment) may be applied to it.
1919—HAZEL-HENS 1920—BLACK GAME
1921—PRAIRIE-HENS 1922—PTARMIGAN
1923—GROUSE 1924—GANGAS
These birds, one or two of which, such as grouse and the hazel-hen, are
of incomparable delicacy and high culinary value, are mostly served
roasted.
_Mousses_, _Mousselines_ and Salmis are also prepared from them, after
the directions already given. But I must remind the reader that when
they serve in the preparation of a salmis, their skins and legs, which
are bitter, must be discarded.
All these birds must be treated while still very fresh.
1925—GRIVES ET MERLES DE CORSE (Thrushes and Corsican Blackbirds)
The greater part of the quail recipes, more particularly the “en
casserole” and “sous la cendre” ones, may be applied to these excellent
birds.
The two following recipes are proper to them.
1926—GRIVES OU MERLES A LA BONNE-FEMME
Cook the birds in butter, with one oz. of very small dice of salted
breast of bacon to each bird. Put them into a hot _cocotte_ with
two-thirds oz. of butter per bird; heat; add some square _croûtons_
fried in butter; sprinkle with the saucepan-swillings, which should be
a few drops of brandy; cover, and serve very hot immediately.
1927—GRIVES OU MERLES A LA LIÉGEOISE
Cook the birds in butter on the stove, in an uncovered earthenware
saucepan. When they are nearly done, sprinkle them with two
finely-chopped juniper berries per bird; add some round _croûtons_ of
bread-crumb fried in butter; cover, and serve very hot.
This procedure particularly suits thrushes, more especially when these
come from the Ardennes.
1928—GRIVES ET MERLES FROIDS
The various, cold preparations of quails, except those comprising a
Granité, may be applied to thrushes.
=Alouettes ou Mauviettes (Larks)=
These birds are generally served to the number of two or three for each
person.
1929—MAUVIETTES A LA BONNE-FEMME
Proceed exactly as directed for the thrushes.
1930—MAUVIETTES A LA MÈRE MARIANNE
Slice some peeled and cored russet apples, and three-parts cook them in
butter. Spread this stew in thick layers on a buttered dish.
Simply stiffen the seasoned larks in nut-brown butter, and place
them upon the stewed apples, pressing them slightly into the latter.
Sprinkle with very fine bread-crumbs and melted butter, and set to
glaze in the oven or at the Salamander, just long enough to complete
the cooking of the larks.
1931—ALOUETTES DU PÈRE PHILIPPE
Clean some fine, medium-sized potatoes, allowing one to each lark; and
cut a cover from each, which thin down until it is only one-sixth inch
thick. With a root-spoon, hollow out the potatoes in such wise as to
allow of their each enclosing a lark.
Stiffen the larks in butter, and add thereto some salted breast of
bacon, cut into small dice and _blanched_, and in the proportion of
one-third oz. per lark. Place a lark in each potato, together with a
few bacon dice and some of the cooking-fat; return cover of each potato
to its place; fix it there by means of cotton, and wrap each potato in
oiled paper.
Lay them on the hearth, cover them with hot cinders, and cook for about
forty minutes, taking care to renew the cinders from time to time.
1932—MAUVIETTES FROIDES
When cold, larks may be prepared in plain chaud-froid fashion, in
cases, in Belle-vue, in Aspic, as _Mousses_, &c., in pursuance of the
directions given under these various recipes.
1933—ORTOLANS
Serve ortolans as plainly as possible; but the best method of preparing
them is roasting. However, for the sake of variety, they may be
prepared as follows:—
1934—SYLPHIDES D’ORTOLANS
Butter some very small porcelain or silver _cassolettes_, and garnish
them half-full with _mousseline_ forcemeat of ortolans prepared with
truffle essence.
Set these _cassolettes_ in the front of the oven, that the forcemeat
may poach. Cook in butter, for three minutes only, as many ortolans as
there are garnished _cassolettes_, and proceed so as to have them just
ready when the forcemeat is poached.
Place an ortolan in each _cassolette_, and sprinkle them with nut-brown
butter, combined with a little pale melted glaze and pineapple juice.
1935—BECS-FIGUES ET BEGUINETTES (Fig Peckers)
These birds are not met with in English markets; it is therefore
useless to give the recipes concerning them. I will only say that they
may be prepared like the larks.
1936—CANARDS SAUVAGES (Wild Duck)
1937—SARCELLES (Teal)
1938—PILETS (Pintails and Widgeons)
Birds of this class are mostly served roasted.
They may, however, be used in preparing excellent Salmis, which may
be made after “Salmis de Faisan” (No. 1847) or after “Salmis à la
Rouennaise” (No. 1763).
They may also be prepared after all the recipes of “Caneton à la
Rouennaise.”
1939—PLUVIERS DORÉS (Golden Plover)
1940—VANNEAUX (Lapwings)
1941—CHEVALIERS DIVERS (Various Sandpipers)
These various birds are generally served roasted.
They may also be served “en Salmis,” but in that case the skin must be
discarded in the preparation of the cullis.
They only appear on very ordinary menus, and could not be served at an
important dinner.