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Broiled Quails with Bacon
Singe, draw and wipe well half a dozen fine fat quails, split them through the back without separating the parts, and break the two leg-bones. Place them on a dish, season with a pinch of salt, one-half pinch of pepper and one tablespoonful of sweet oil, mixing them in well, and place them on a moderate fire to broil for six minutes on both sides. Arrange six pieces of toast on a hot dish, place the quails on top, pour over one gill of maitre d'hotel butter, decorating with six slices of broiled bacon, and serve.
A straightforward grill-and-toast dish that depends almost entirely on not overcooking the birds. Quail are small, lean and lose their appeal the moment they dry out.
- Buying the birds"Singe, draw and wipe" assumes birds arrive whole and feathered. Farmed quail today come dressed and often semi-boned; six birds at 4-5 oz each serves six as a first course or three as a main.
- Splitting through the backEffectively spatchcocking: cut down the back to open the bird flat without separating the halves, and break the leg bones as directed so the thighs lie level with the breast. Even thickness is the whole point, since the breast cooks in a fraction of the time the legs need.
- Sweet oilOlive oil. One tablespoon for six birds is enough to coat them; more and it drips and flares.
- A moderate fireOn a charcoal grill this means the coals raked to one side and the grate warm rather than searing; under a gas broiler, medium with the birds about 4 inches from the element. "Six minutes on both sides" may mean six minutes total or six a side; go by feel, with the breast firm and just yielding.
- Maitre d'hotel butterSoftened butter worked with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper, not a cooked sauce. A gill is half a cup, which is generous for six small birds; a quarter cup, cut into pats and set on the hot quail to melt, does the job without flooding the toast.
- The bacon and toastBroil the bacon first and hold it warm, then the birds, so nothing waits. Cut the toast to roughly the footprint of a flattened quail so it catches the butter and juices instead of drowning in them.
Quail on toast with bacon was standard restaurant game cookery in the late nineteenth century, when American hotels drew on a commercial trade in wild birds. Oscar Tschirky's book records the Waldorf's repertoire at the height of that trade. The market in wild game was closed off over the following decades by the Lacey Act and by state game laws; the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 covered migratory species, while quail were regulated by the states rather than by the federal treaty. Birds like these did not vanish from menus altogether — today's are farmed. The bacon is not decoration but technique: quail carry almost no fat of their own, and barding or serving pork fat with small game birds was common period practice. The toast underneath is the older habit still, a trencher meant to absorb the juices, and it survives in the modern practice of serving small game birds on a crouton.