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Quails Crapaudine
Singe and draw the quails, remove the claws and truss them with their legs inward. Pinch the breast and scallop it without reaching the skin; beat the birds flat, sprinkle over salt and pepper and dip them twice in clarified butter and breadcrumbs. Boil them over a clear fire, and serve with Italian sauce.
A short entry that assumes a professional larder and a coal broiler. Two things need translating before anything else: crapaudine is a butchering method, and "boil them over a clear fire" is broiling, not boiling.
- "Boil" means broilA clear fire is a bed of coals burned down past the smoke, and nothing is boiled over it. Read this as broiling or grilling over direct high heat, or under a preheated broiler set as close to the element as the birds will fit.
- What crapaudine meansThe name is usually explained by the flattened, splayed shape of a toad (crapaud). Note that this recipe does not split the bird: it is trussed with the legs inward, the breast pinched and scalloped, and the whole bird beaten flat. The aim either way is even, quick cooking rather than a scorched outside and a raw thigh.
- "Scallop the breast without reaching the skin"Shallow slashes across the breast meat only, so heat penetrates and the crumb coating grips. Cutting through the skin lets the butter run out and the bird dry.
- Buying quailFarmed quail run 4 to 6 oz each and are usually sold whole or semi-boneless; the semi-boneless birds are already most of the way to crapaudine. Allow two per person as a main course, one as a first course. Singeing and drawing will not be needed.
- The double coatingDipping twice in clarified butter and crumbs builds a crust that stands up to fierce heat. Clarified butter matters here because the milk solids in whole butter blacken well before the bird is done. Press the crumbs on firmly and let the birds sit ten minutes before cooking so the coating sets.
- TimingFlattened quail need only a few minutes a side over high heat; judge by the crust and the bird rather than the clock. Quail breast is often served slightly pink, though that is below the 165F recommended for poultry; pushed hard it turns dry and livery. The legs are small and need no extra time.
- Italian sauceSauce italienne of this era is a duxelles of finely chopped mushroom and shallot cooked down in white wine, with demi-glace and a little tomato, finished with chopped parsley and often ham. Any good mushroom-and-wine pan sauce built on a dark stock serves the same purpose.
Cooking small birds a la crapaudine was standard French practice well before it appeared in American hotel cookery, and the name is generally traced to the flattened, splayed shape of a toad. The technique belongs to the era of the open grill: a bird beaten flat, armored in butter and crumbs, and cooked over coals in a few minutes. Quail were common on American menus around 1900, arriving both from game dealers and from breeders. The terseness of the entry is telling: it was written for cooks who already knew what a clear fire looked like and had Italian sauce to hand.