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Broiled Pigeons
Clean the pigeons, split them down the back, wipe them with a damp towel, and sprinkle salt and pepper over them. Roll them in warmed butter, dredge with flour, and broil for ten minutes over a clear fire, turning to do both sides equally. Toast some thick slices of bread without a crust, butter them and put them on a hot dish. When cooked lay the pigeons on the toast, garnish round with parsley, and serve.
Broiled Pigeons, Crapaudine Clean two pigeons, cut them lengthwise under the breast, beat them flat, and season with salt and pepper. Put them in a sautepan with a tablespoonful of butter, and fry them for fifteen minutes. Drain them, and place between two plates with a weight on top, and leave them till cold. Fry a tablespoonful of chopped shallot in the sautepan, then pour in one-half pint of broth, add a little pepper, and boil till reduced to half its original quantity. Skim the fat off the gravy, strain it through a pointed strainer into a smaller stewpan, and keep it hot. Roll the pieces of pigeon in warmed butter, then in breadcrumbs, and broil them over a clear fire, browning both sides equally. Put the pigeons on a hot dish, garnishing round with slices of lemon, and serve with the gravy in a sauceboat.
Two methods for the same bird: a plain ten-minute broil on toast, and the older crapaudine treatment, in which the bird is part-cooked, pressed flat, crumbed and finished over fire. Both assume a young pigeon and a very hot, smokeless fire.
- The bird"Pigeon" here means squab — a young bird of roughly 12-16 oz, sold frozen by game butchers and some Asian markets. A mature wood pigeon or feral bird is much tougher and will be poor eating after ten minutes on a grill; those are better braised. One squab per person.
- A clear fireThis means charcoal burnt down past the flame stage, giving steady radiant heat with no smoke or flare. A chimney of coals raked level, or a gas grill on high, is the equivalent. Under a domestic broiler set to its highest setting, work about 4 inches from the element and expect the same order of time.
- Split down the backSpatchcocking. Cut either side of the backbone with shears, open the bird out and press the breastbone flat so it lies in one plane — otherwise the thighs are raw when the breast is done.
- DonenessSquab is usually taken to medium-rare, the breast still rosy at about 135F, with the legs cooked further. Ten minutes total, turning once, is plausible for a small bird over strong heat. Note that USDA guidance for all poultry is 165F; cooked to that point squab turns dry and livery, which is why it is commonly served pink.
- Crapaudine timingsFifteen minutes in butter in a sautepan is a par-cook, not a finish. The pressing under a weighted plate is what gives the flat, even shape the second cooking needs; it must be genuinely cold before crumbing or the coating slides.
- Half a pint of brothOne cup in American measure, reduced to half a cup. Use a good brown chicken or veal stock; the shallot is fried in the pigeon fat first, so scrape the pan well.
- Pointed strainerA chinois or fine conical sieve. Any fine-mesh strainer does the job; the point is to catch shallot solids and leave a clear gravy.
- Dredge with flour, roll in butterWarmed butter means melted but not hot — it should coat rather than run off. Flour the first version lightly and shake off the excess, or it will scorch before the bird cooks. Fresh, dry breadcrumbs for the crapaudine, not the sandy commercial kind, which burn.
Crapaudine comes from crapaud, French for toad: a bird split, flattened and splayed was thought to resemble one squatting, and the term appears in French cookery well before Oscar Tschirky's day. Pigeon was ordinary American eating in the nineteenth century, and by this period squab had become a restaurant luxury rather than cheap meat, the wild passenger pigeon that earlier generations had netted by the barrel having dwindled to the point of disappearance. The toast beneath the birds is the older service: bread set under roasting or broiling game to catch the juices, a practice often traced to medieval trencher cookery and said to have been common for small birds in hotel dining rooms of this period.