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Squabs en Casserole
Draw, clean and truss six squabs, saute in three tablespoons of butter, then remove to the casserole, half cover with hot water or stock, add a bit of bay leaf, a sprig of parsley and cook until almost tender, then add two dozen potato balls, sauted in butter with one sliced onion.
When the potatoes are tender add the yolks of three eggs beaten and diluted with three-quarters cup of thin cream.
As soon as the sauce thickens serve from the casserole.
A stovetop braise finished with an egg-and-cream liaison. The finish is where it goes wrong, so read the last step first.
- The hinge: the liaisonOnce the beaten yolks and cream go in, the pot must stay below a simmer — around 170-180F. Let it boil and the yolks scramble into grains and the sauce breaks. Off the heat is safest: temper the yolk-cream mixture with a ladle of hot broth, stir it back, and return to low heat only until it coats a spoon.
- "Casserole" hereIn 1900s usage this is the vessel, not the genre — a lidded flameproof earthenware or enamelled pot that goes from burner to table. A Dutch oven or a wide braiser does the job; the recipe never sees an oven.
- SquabsYoung domestic pigeon, about four weeks old, roughly 12-16 oz each and sold dressed by game butchers and online suppliers. Six is a lot of squab; three Cornish hens (halved after braising) will fit the method, though they cook a little longer.
- Draw and trussAny bird you buy today arrives drawn. Trussing still matters in a braise — tie the legs and wings close so the birds sit compactly and stay half-submerged.
- TimingSear in butter about 5 minutes to colour, then braise, half covered in liquid and lidded, 25-35 minutes for squab. "Almost tender" means the leg still has resistance; the potatoes need another 12-15 minutes in the pot.
- Potato ballsTwo dozen spheres cut with a parisienne scoop from peeled russets or Yukon Golds — figure three or four medium potatoes. Brown them in butter with the sliced onion, as the recipe directs, before they join the braise.
- Thin creamLight cream, 18-20% fat. Half-and-half works; skim milk does not, as the liaison depends on fat to keep the yolks from tightening.
- Seasoning and yieldNo salt or pepper is specified, which was assumed. Season the birds before searing and the sauce at the end. Serves six as written, one bird each.
Pigeon was ordinary meat in American kitchens well into the twentieth century — the passenger pigeon had been shot to commercial extinction by the 1890s, but domestic squab from dovecotes and commercial squab farms kept the bird on hotel and household menus, and the recipe treats it as unremarkably as chicken. The dish itself is a plain French braise in English dress: a sear in butter, a short stew in stock with bay and parsley, and a finish with liaison à l'oeuf, the egg-yolk-and-cream thickening that predates roux-based sauces in classical practice and was standard in fricassées and blanquettes. The potato balls are the period's tell — turned or scooped vegetables signalled a kitchen with time and a hand skilled enough to spend it, and this recipe does not stop to explain the tool. Serving "from the casserole" was itself part of the appeal, a one-vessel presentation for households where the elaborate multi-course service of the previous generation was giving way.