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Pigeons, Escalopes of, in Cases
Prepare as many birds as are required, by boning them, and filling them with any suitable forcemeat. They may then be braised or roasted, and left to cool, when they should be cut in slices the third of an inch thick. Have ready some paper cases, and put in each some dressed salad. Lay a slice of pigeon in each, and mask it with mayonnaise or chopped aspic.
A cold buffet assembly rather than a cooked dish: the work is all in the boning, stuffing and cooling, and the finish is a matter of neatness. Cassell's assumes you already know how to braise a bird and make aspic.
- The hinge: chill it hard before slicingA boned, stuffed bird will not cut into clean third-inch slices until the forcemeat is thoroughly set. Cool the birds completely, then refrigerate several hours or overnight; slicing warm gives ragged, crumbling escalopes.
- Pigeon and its substitutesThe bird is most likely a young domestic pigeon or squab, though wood pigeon was also common in Britain at the time. Squab today runs roughly 12-16 oz whole and yields two or three slices apiece once boned. Quail work on the same principle at a smaller size; boneless duck breast, poached and pressed, gives a similar effect if squab is unobtainable.
- BoningTunnel-bone or split down the back and lift the carcass out whole, leaving the skin intact so it can be re-formed round the forcemeat. Tie or roll each bird in cling film and then foil before cooking so it holds a cylinder and slices evenly.
- "Escalope" hereHere the word means simply a thin slice cut across a piece of meat, not a pounded and fried cutlet. No further cooking is intended after the bird is cold.
- Braising or roastingThe book gives no temperatures or times. As a modern equivalent, braise at around 325F for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the weight of the stuffing, or roast at 400F to an internal temperature of 165F at the centre of the forcemeat. Stuffed poultry needs the forcemeat itself brought to temperature, not just the meat around it.
- "Suitable forcemeat"Assume a fine pork or veal farce with the pigeon livers worked in, seasoned and bound with egg. It should be smooth and well packed; anything loose or coarse will not slice.
- Paper casesThese are caisses, small stiff paper or foil cases of the sort now sold for canapes and petits fours; choose one large enough to take a slice on its bed of salad. Souffle cases or small ramekins serve the same purpose.
- "Dressed salad"A spoonful of small salad leaves or shredded lettuce already turned in vinaigrette, laid in the case as a bed. Dress it at the last moment or the paper softens.
- Chopped aspicSet a savoury jelly firm in a shallow tray, turn it out and chop it coarsely with a wet knife; it goes on as glittering fragments rather than a poured coat. Modern powdered gelatine at about 1 oz to a quart of well-flavoured stock gives a jelly firm enough to chop.
- Yield and serviceReckon two to three filled cases per bird. It is a cold-table dish: assemble no more than an hour ahead, keep refrigerated, and serve cold rather than chilled to nothing.
Serving cold meat in small paper caisses was a hallmark of the late Victorian and Edwardian buffet, where a supper table was judged on the number of individually portioned, highly finished items it could carry. Pigeon appears constantly in Cassell's because it was still an everyday bird in Britain, sold cheaply in markets long before it became the restaurant luxury it is now. Boning and stuffing a bird, cooking it and then slicing it cold into neat rounds is a technique closely related to the French galantine, and the aspic-and-mayonnaise finish belongs to the same tradition of cold-larder cookery that produced chaud-froid. The dish tells you something about the labour available in a well-staffed kitchen: hours of boning and setting, for a mouthful apiece.