Becassines de la Nouvelle Orleans
Faites une gelée madère et pieds de veau, prenez du veau, un petit morceau de porc salé et de foie de veau; hâchez le tout très-fin, avec assaisonnement, laissez mijoter à un feu doux, pulverisez, mêlez le tout faites une bonne pâte, hâchez truffes et champignons, ajoutez l'eau des deux. Mettez vos bécassines coupées en deux, remplissez les avec le hachis mettez au feu dix minutes, arrosez avec la gelée.
A showpiece of the Creole game kitchen — New Orleans snipe split, stuffed with a truffled forcemeat, and glazed in Madeira aspic.
- Sourcing the birdsBécassines are snipe, wild migratory game birds of the marshes; they can’t be bought commercially. Farmed quail or squab make an excellent, legal stand-in.
- The Madeira jellyGelée madère et pieds de veau is an aspic set with calf’s-feet gelatin and flavored with Madeira — the glossy coat that finishes the dish.
- A rich forcemeatFinely chop veal, a little salt pork, and calf’s liver, season, and simmer to a paste; truffles and mushrooms fold in, moistened with their soaking liquid.
- Stuff and setSplit the birds in two, fill with the hash, and give them just 10 minutes over the fire — small birds cook fast — then baste with the jelly to glaze as they cool.
- Cook birds throughPoultry and game should reach a safe internal temperature — give farmed quail or squab a few minutes more than wild snipe would need.
Snipe, woodcock, and other small marsh birds were once the height of the sporting table, and the wetlands around New Orleans were a hunter’s paradise that supplied Creole kitchens with wild game through the cool months. Dishes like this — birds split, stuffed, and mirrored in a Madeira aspic — belonged to the grand, painstaking style of nineteenth-century cookery, meant to dazzle at a cold buffet. Today snipe are a strictly seasonal game bird taken only by licensed hunters, which is why farmed quail or squab have quietly inherited their place in the recipe.
From page 100 of the 1904 edition.
Original pages from the book
