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Broiled Quails
Singe and draw the quails, split them lengthwise down the back and wipe them with a damp cloth. Season with salt and pepper, rub them well in warmed butter and dredge with flour. Place the birds on a gridiron over a clear fire and broil for ten minutes. Cut some thick slices of bread, remove the crusts, toast and butter them and lay them on a hot dish. Place a quail when cooked on each slice, garnish with parsley, and serve.
A plain grill-house preparation that depends almost entirely on heat and timing. The birds are small, so ten minutes over a genuinely hot fire is not an approximation to be padded.
- Sourcing the birdsFarmed quail, sold whole and already drawn, are the practical option; they run roughly 4-6 oz each and need no singeing. Wild quail may only be used if legally taken, and wild game birds are not legally sold in US markets.
- Splitting down the backThis is spatchcocking: cut through the backbone with shears and press the bird flat so it cooks in one plane. Flatten firmly, or the thick thigh will lag behind the breast.
- Gridiron over a clear fire"Clear" means burned down to glowing coals with no flame or smoke. A charcoal grill at high heat is the direct equivalent; a broiler element set 4 inches above the birds works, though it will not give the same scorch.
- TimingTen minutes total, turned once, suits a 5 oz bird over real heat. Quail breast is lean and dries in the space of a minute or two past done; standard poultry guidance is 165F, though cooks commonly pull small game birds at 155-160F in the thigh and let them rest.
- Warmed butter and flourThe butter must be melted but not hot, or the flour clumps. The dredge is very light -- a dusting -- and its job is browning, not a crust. Shake off the surplus or it will scorch and taste of raw flour.
- The toastIt functions as a trencher, catching the juices that run out of the split bird. Cut it thick, around 3/4 inch, and butter it while hot so it stays pliable rather than turning to rusk under the quail.
- YieldOne quail per slice, and two birds per person for a course of any substance. Six quail will serve three.
Oscar Tschirky's Waldorf opened in 1893, at the tail end of the era when American hotel and restaurant menus treated wild game birds as ordinary provisions: quail, snipe, plover and canvasback were bought by the dozen from commercial hunters and shipped to city markets by rail. The Lacey Act of 1900 curtailed that trade by restricting interstate transport of illegally taken game, and successive state and federal protections ended the market hunting of songbirds and most wild game birds altogether, which is why a dish once listed as casually as a chop now depends on farmed birds. The method here -- split, buttered, floured, grilled hard and set on buttered toast -- is the standard hotel treatment for any small bird of the period, and the toast beneath is the older practice of serving roast game on a sop that absorbs the drippings, a habit that long predates the plate.