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Squabs En Casserole
¼ lb. raw lean bacon Bunch of herbs 1 tablespoonful chopped parsley I bay leaf I blade mace Small piece lemon rind I heaping tablespoonful (I oz.) flour I heaping tablespoonful (I oz.) butter 1 pint (2 cups) stock 1 wineglassful Marsala wine Salt and pepper to season Cut each bird in four pieces. Cut the bacon into small pieces and the onion into large dice. Melt the butter in a casserole, put in the bacon, onion, herbs, mace, parsley, and bay leaf, and fry them for five minutes, or till a good brown color.
Add the stock, and bring it to boiling point. Lay in the pieces of squabs and lemon rind, cover the casserole tightly, and allow its contents to simmer very gently for one hour. Next skim it well, remove the squabs, and strain the stock. Put the squabs back
The ingredient list has been mangled in the original printing — the bacon is almost certainly a quarter pound, and the onion appears in the method but never in the list — and the text breaks off mid-sentence. What survives is a straightforward brown braise, and the missing ending is easy to reconstruct from the butter and flour set aside at the top.
- The casserole is a pot, not a bakeIn this book a "casserole" is a lidded flameproof vessel used on the range, which is why the recipe says to melt butter and fry in it. A Dutch oven or heavy enamelled cast-iron braiser is the direct equivalent.
- Quantities as printedThe bacon reads a quarter pound, about 4 oz. The onion is missing from the ingredient list though the method calls for it; one medium onion, cut in large dice, suits the dish. No number of squabs is given either, and a pint of stock will cover two or three quartered birds.
- WineglassfulIn period cookbooks a wineglass is roughly 2 fl oz, so about a quarter cup of Marsala. Use a dry Marsala unless you want the sauce distinctly sweet.
- Blade maceA blade of mace is a whole piece of the lacy aril from nutmeg, sold in strips. If you cannot find it, a scant 1/8 teaspoon of ground mace stirred in with the stock is close, though it will cloud the sauce.
- Squab and the hour of simmeringSquab is young pigeon, sold at about 1 lb dressed. A full hour reflects period practice; quartered squab may well be tender sooner, so test the leg joints rather than the clock.
- Keep it at a shiver"Simmer very gently" is the hinge. A rolling boil will shred the delicate breast meat and cloud the stock you are about to strain and turn into sauce.
- The missing endingThe flour is listed but never used in the surviving text (the butter is spent frying the bacon and onion). The likely finish is a roux or kneaded butter-and-flour whisked into the strained and skimmed stock, cooked out for a few minutes, with the Marsala added, seasoned, and the squab returned to warm through. Do not boil hard after the wine goes in.
- ServingCount on about one squab per person for a main course. Lift out the bay leaf, mace and lemon rind before serving; the rind should be pared thin, with no white pith, or the sauce turns bitter.
Cooking "en casserole" was a genuine vogue in English and American kitchens in the first decades of the twentieth century, and whole small books like this one were built around the single lidded earthenware or metal pot brought straight from the range to the table. Squab our weeks, before it has flown \ Ameran squab raising was a commercial business.