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Pigeons in Aspic Jelly
Wash and truss twelve pigeons, put them in a large saucepan with four pounds of the shank of veal, one onion that has been fried, one stick of celery, a bunch of sweet herbs, five or six cloves, two dozen peppercorns, and four and one-half quarts of water. Bring to a boil, and cook over a slow fire for three hours, adding at the end of the first hour two tablespoonfuls of salt. When ready, take the pigeons out carefully so as not to break them, and remove the strings. Place the pan over a quick fire and boil rapidly for forty minutes; then strain the liquor through a fine hair-sieve, adding more seasoning if necessary. The liquor should be reduced to two and one-half quarts during boiling. Have two large moulds that will hold six pigeons each, pour a little liquor into each, and set them on ice to harden. Arrange the birds on the set jelly, cover them with the liquor, which must be cooled but not hardened, and set the moulds in the ice-box for twelve hours. When ready to serve, dip the moulds in tepid water, wipe them, and turn the contents on a cold dish. Garnish round the dish with chopped jelly slices of pickled beet-root, and some nicely picked sprays of parsley, and serve with a sauceboatful of Tartar sauce.
A cold buffet centerpiece scaled for a hotel banquet: twelve birds in two large moulds. The whole thing hinges on the veal shank, which is the only setting agent in the recipe.
- The gelatin comes from the vealFour pounds of shank — bone, cartilage and connective tissue — is what turns the broth into jelly. Ask for veal shank cut across, not boneless meat, or the stock will never set. Test a spoonful on a cold saucer before committing the birds; if it stays loose, reduce further rather than adding packet gelatin, which sets brittle by comparison.
- Pigeons means squabThese are farmed young pigeons, roughly 12-16 oz each, sold as squab at good butchers and by mail order. Wild pigeon is not a substitute, and taking wild birds for the table is governed by game laws that vary from place to place. Twelve squab is a serious outlay; halving everything and using one 2-quart mould is more realistic.
- Scale and vesselsFour and a half quarts of water plus twelve birds and four pounds of veal needs a 12-quart stockpot or larger. Each mould must hold six birds plus jelly — figure 3 to 4 quarts apiece. A loaf pan or terrine works for a reduced batch.
- The reduction is a measurement, not a guessFour and a half quarts down to two and a half is the concentration that makes the jelly firm. Measure it. Forty minutes at a hard boil is an estimate that depends entirely on the width of your pan.
- Hair sieve and clarityA fine hair-sieve is a horsehair mesh strainer; a fine chinois lined with a double layer of damp muslin does the same work. Ladle rather than pour, and leave the cloudy bottom inch behind — aspic shows every fleck.
- Cool it fastDo not let the strained stock sit at room temperature to cool on its own. Set the pot in an ice bath and stir it down to just above setting point, then use it. The same applies to the birds: chill them promptly after they come out of the pot.
- Timing on the birdsThree hours of slow simmering leaves squab thoroughly done and quite soft; that is the point here, since they must hold their shape but be spoonable. Handle them with two spatulas rather than tongs when lifting them out.
- UnmouldingTepid water means barely warm, and only for a few seconds — long enough to release the jelly against the metal, not to melt the surface. Wipe the mould dry before inverting or water runs onto the dish.
- Yield and serviceHalf a pigeon is a portion, so the full recipe serves twenty or more as a cold first course. The recipe does not say where the chopped jelly garnish comes from; surplus liquor set separately, or trimmings from the moulds, would both answer. Tartar sauce made with raw egg yolk should be eaten the day it is made and kept cold.
Oscar Tschirky's book, published in 1896, catalogues the cold larder of a large American hotel at the moment when French cuisine froide was the measure of a kitchen's ambition. Aspic work — birds, sweetbreads and fish suspended in clear savory jelly — was display cooking, judged on transparency and on how cleanly a mould turned out, and it required exactly the kind of labor a hotel had and a household did not: a stockpot running for hours, a cool larder or an icebox to hold two enormous moulds overnight, and the ice itself, which by the 1890s the commercial ice trade had made reliably available in New York. Squab appears constantly in menus of the period as a luxury that was also convenient, being small, tender and quickly served in quantity. The recipe predates commercial powdered gelatin's dominance in American kitchens, which is why the setting power is built entirely from veal shank; the beet-root and parsley garnish and the sauceboat of tartar sauce are the conventional finish for a cold mould of the era.