Quail
Seal the flavor into quail by rubbing them with butter, wrapping them with bacon, putting them into greased paper bags, wrapping them up in nice tasting leaves, or closing them into Dutch oven with flour paste. Do anything to keep flavor and odor from escaping until you put your teeth into them. Then cook over grill, on the spit, in the ashes, or in the oven. Or jug them if birds are old (see recipe for Jugged Birds under Out of the Bean Hole). Quail need plenty of butter or fat, but light seasoning, and must always be kept whole to retain all their flavor. "Quail on Toast" is almost an adage.
This is a method rather than a fixed recipe: every technique listed serves the same end, which is to keep a very small, very lean bird from drying out. Choose one wrapper and one heat source and the rest follows.
- The hinge: fat and speedA dressed quail weighs 4-6 oz and has almost no intramuscular fat, so it goes from juicy to sawdust in a couple of minutes. Bard it heavily with bacon or butter as directed and pull it the moment the thigh juices run clear.
- Oven and grill numbersThe recipe specifies no heat and no timing. In a modern kitchen a barded whole quail is usually taken at a high heat, roughly 425-450F for 15-20 minutes, or over a medium-hot bed of coals about 4-5 inches down, turned often, for 10-12 minutes. These are modern figures, not the book's.
- DonenessCurrent guidance for poultry, farmed quail included, is 165F at the thickest part of the thigh. Restaurants often serve quail breast pink, but that is a choice made with birds of known provenance.
- Greased paper bagsThe paper bag was a genuine period technique and it works, but do not use a modern grocery bag: many are printed, glued or recycled and not intended for oven heat. Parchment made into a sealed papillote gives the same trapped steam without the risk.
- "Nice tasting leaves"Grape leaves are the classic wrap for small game birds, and fig or fresh corn husks also work. Avoid anything foraged that you cannot identify with certainty, and blanch tough leaves briefly so they mould around the bird.
- Flour paste in the Dutch ovenA stiff paste of flour and water luted around the lid seals the pot; it is not eaten. The same principle underlies clay-baked birds. Break the seal only at the table, since the point is the burst of aroma.
- Jugging old birdsJugging means long, slow, sealed cooking in a covered vessel with liquid, the old remedy for tough wild birds. Farmed quail are generally slaughtered young, so this mainly matters if you are working with hunted birds of uncertain age.
- ShotWild-shot quail may carry pellets. Feel over the breast before cooking and warn anyone at the table; lead shot fragments are a real concern in game birds.
- Yield and servingTwo birds per person is a common portion, one if they are part of a larger meal. The book only says 'Quail on Toast is almost an adage'; the usual point of the toast is to catch the fat and juices, so set each bird on a thick slice.