A guide to modern cookery

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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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:—

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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.