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Pigeons, Fricandeau Of
Pluck and draw four plump young pigeons, and stuff them with a forcemeat made of the livers of the birds, finely minced, mixed with an equal quantity of finely-shredded suet and of finely-grated bread-crumbs, a table-spoonful of shredded parsley, and a pinch of powdered thyme. Season the mixture with salt and cayenne, and bind it together with beaten yolk of egg. Truss the pigeons as if for roasting, and lard their breasts delicately with very slender lardoons. Line the bottom of a braising-pan with slices of fat bacon. Place a thin layer of veal on this, and then the pigeons, breast to breast. Put another layer of veal and of bacon over the pigeons, pour upon them a pint of good stock, and add any bones or trimmings of meat or poultry that may be at hand, together with a blade of mace, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a glass of sherry, and a little pepper and salt. Cover the saucepan closely, and let the birds stew gently for an hour. Lift out the pigeons, strain and skim the gravy, and boil it down quickly until it is much reduced. Put in the pigeons once more, and baste them liberally until they are sufficiently glazed. Serve on a hot dish, with the sauce poured round them. Probable cost, 5s. Sufficient for five or six persons.
A braise dressed up as a fricandeau: the birds are larded, buried between bacon and veal, stewed in stock, then glazed in their own reduced gravy. The glazing at the end is what makes it, and it is the step most likely to be rushed.
- The hinge: reduce, then glazeThe strained cooking liquor must be boiled down until it is syrupy and just coats a spoon before the birds go back in. Basting with thin gravy will never produce the lacquered finish the recipe is after; the reduction does all the work.
- What bird to buy"Plump young pigeons" means squab — farmed birds of about four weeks, 12-16 oz each, sold oven-ready by game butchers and some supermarkets. Older wood pigeon is tougher, leaner and far gamier, and will not behave the same way in an hour.
- An hour may be too longFarmed squab at a bare simmer is tender in 35-45 minutes and dries out past that. Check at 35 minutes; the leg should give easily. The original assumes a slower, more variable stove than yours.
- LardingThreading slender strips of firm back fat through the breast with a larding needle is now a specialist operation. Draping the breasts with thin sheets of back fat or streaky bacon under the top layer achieves the same protection, though not the same appearance when carved.
- The veal layerThin slices of veal, plus bones and trimmings, are there purely to enrich the braising liquor — this is a shortcut to a glaze without a separate stockpot. Veal knuckle or a couple of chicken wings will do the same job if veal escalope is not worth buying to be discarded.
- MeasuresA glass of sherry in this period is roughly 2 fl oz (60 ml); use a dry amontillado or fino rather than cream sherry. A pint of stock means an imperial pint, 20 fl oz (about 570 ml). A blade of mace is one strip of the dried aril, not ground mace, and should be fished out with the herbs.
- The forcemeatRaw suet is not interchangeable with butter here — it melts slowly and keeps the stuffing open rather than dense. If the four livers are small, make up the volume with chicken livers; the ratio of liver to suet to crumbs is meant to be roughly equal by measure.
- Heat and vesselA heavy casserole with a tight lid on the lowest possible burner holds the gentle stew the recipe calls for; the original is a covered stovetop braise and names no oven. Anything approaching a rolling boil will shred the breast meat and cloud the gravy.
- YieldFive or six portions from four pigeons assumes a full Victorian dinner of several courses. As a main course today, one bird per person is more realistic.
Fricandeau properly means a larded cushion of veal, braised and glazed — and this dish borrows the name for the technique rather than the cut, as English cookery books working from a French vocabulary often did. Pigeon was a common meat in Britain for centuries: dovecotes were a familiar feature of manor and farm, supplying squabs for much of the year at a time when other fresh meat was seasonal. When Cassell's dictionary was compiled the birds were still ordinary market fare. The layering of bacon and veal around the birds is a braising method generally traced to French practice, where cheap protective meat is sacrificed to enrich the liquor; the same logic survives in the modern habit of laying bacon over a roasting bird.