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SNIPES, POTTED (a good breakfast dish--to be eaten cold)
Take some freshly-killed snipes, pluck them carefully, cut off the legs and wings, take away the gizzard, but leave the trail untouched. Cover the bottom and sides of an ordinary potting-pan with thin slices of fat bacon. Place the snipes in this in layers until the dish is almost full, and carefully season each layer with salt and pepper. Pour in as much clarified butter as will cover the birds, and lay over the surface of the pan a paste of flour and water, or, if the lid is put on, lay a border of paste round the edge of it to keep in the steam. When the pastry only is used, a little slit should be made in the middle of it with a knife to prevent accidents. Bake the pie in a moderate oven. When done enough, let it get quite cold before serving. Time to bake a moderate-sized pie, about an hour and a quarter.
A Victorian potted game dish that assumes a shooting household with birds coming in from the field. The technique translates directly to any small game bird; the sourcing does not.
- Sourcing the birdsSnipe are wild game and are not on general sale. In the United States they may only be taken in season under licence and cannot be bought; in Britain and some other countries licensed game dealers handle them during the open season. Quail, or small woodpigeon breasts, behave much the same in a potting pan.
- The trailThe "trail" is the intestine, left in as it traditionally is with snipe and woodcock; sporting tradition held that these birds keep a clean gut, though that is custom rather than demonstrated fact. Only the gizzard is removed, as the recipe directs. Cook the birds fully through rather than treating them as pink game.
- Moderate oven350F/175C. An hour and a quarter at that heat is right for a full pan of small birds submerged in butter, which conducts heat slowly.
- Potting-panA deep, straight-sided earthenware or stoneware dish. Any lidded casserole or loaf-shaped terrine of similar depth works; the birds should sit in layers, not in a single course.
- The flour-and-water pasteThis is huff paste, a disposable seal rather than pastry. Roll it thick, press it over the rim, and discard it after baking. The slit is a steam vent, and it matters.
- Clarified butterClarify the butter properly, as milk solids left in will sour and shorten the keeping time considerably. Allow enough to cover the birds during baking and to set as a solid seal over them when cold.
- StoragePotting under butter was a preserving method in a cold larder, not a substitute for refrigeration. Keep the finished pan chilled and eat within three or four days; do not hold a sealed pot of cooked meat at room temperature.
- YieldA snipe is a very small bird, well under half a pound dressed. The recipe gives no yield; fill the pan almost full in layers, which for a moderate-sized pan will be something like six to eight birds.
Snipe belonged to the class of small game that Victorian cookery treated with a certain reverence: undrawn, roasted on toast to catch the trail, and considered ruined by heavy sauce. Potting was the standard way of turning a day's mixed bag into something that would keep and could be carried to the sideboard, where the substantial cold breakfast of a country house was laid out for guests to help themselves. The flour-and-water huff paste, sealing steam in and never intended to be eaten, is one of the oldest tricks in the English kitchen and survived in game cookery long after it had disappeared from ordinary baking.