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Blackcock, Salmi Of
Cut up a blackcock into nice pieces. Melt two ounces of butter in a small stewpan, put in the pieces of blackcock and let them cook for four or five minutes till they are browned. Drain off the butter, pour in a quarter of a pint of brown stock and a quarter of a pint of port wine, and stew the bird gently for an hour. Lift out the pieces and keep them hot. Mix half a tea-spoonful of arrowroot smoothly with a dessert-spoonful of cold water, then stir it into the sauce; simmer for two or three minutes until it thickens, add the juice of half a lemon, half a tea-spoonful of salt, and a pinch of cayenne pepper; strain the sauce over the blackcock, and serve immediately. The remains of cooked birds may be used as above, but they should be stewed only half an hour. Probable cost, 4s.
A plain game stew under a French name. The main obstacles are the bird itself and a set of measures that no longer appear on spoons or jugs.
- The birdBlackcock is the male black grouse (Tetrao tetrix), a red-listed bird of conservation concern in Britain and now scarce in the game trade even where shooting remains legal. A brace of red grouse, a guinea fowl, or two wood pigeon will behave the same way in the pan; farmed game will need less time than wild.
- Liquid measuresA quarter of a pint is 5 fl oz, about 150 ml, so the braise uses roughly 300 ml of liquid in total. A dessert-spoonful is two teaspoons.
- Brown stockThis means a long-simmered roasted-bone stock, unsalted and gelatinous. A good unsalted beef or veal stock is the closest thing on a shop shelf; a cube dissolved in water will taste thin against the port.
- The hinge: how long to stewAn hour suits an old wild bird. A young grouse or any farmed substitute will be dry and stringy well before that, so start testing at 25 to 30 minutes and stop when the flesh gives at the thigh joint. The recipe's own note that cooked leftovers need only half an hour is the clue.
- Draining the butterPouring off the frying butter before the wine goes in is deliberate: the sauce is finished with arrowroot and lemon, and residual fat will refuse to emulsify and float in beads on the plate. Deglaze the browned pan properly with the port to keep what stuck to the bottom.
- ArrowrootHalf a teaspoon thickens 300 ml to a light coating sauce, no more. Arrowroot sets clear and glossy but breaks down if held at a boil or kept warm for long, so thicken at the last moment, as written. Cornflour is a workable stand-in and gives a slightly cloudier sauce.
- PortThe recipe specifies only 'port wine'; a ruby style suits it, since the sweetness is balanced by the lemon juice and cayenne, and a very sweet or cream style may unbalance the dish.
- Yield and servingOne blackcock feeds two, or three at a stretch as part of a larger meal. Fried bread croutes, game chips or plain mashed potato take the sauce; the classic accompaniment is redcurrant jelly.
- Probable costFour shillings was a substantial sum for a single dish in a Victorian household, which places this among the company recipes rather than everyday cooking.
Salmi is the English clipping of the French salmis, itself generally traced to salmigondis, the old word for a hotchpotch or ragout of mixed meats that also gave English "salmagundi". In classic French practice a salmis is a game bird part-roasted, carved, and finished in a sauce made from its own carcass and trimmings pounded and sieved; this version keeps the name and the port-and-lemon sauce but drops the labour of the pounded carcass. The recipe also allows for the remains of cooked birds, stewed only half an hour.