No. 2007

Squabs Crapaudine—Broiled

Pigeonneaux Grilles Crapaudine

After a squab has been well drawn, singed and thoroughly cleaned, cut each side from the pinion of the wing to the tip of the breast; open without detaching the parts, having the legs and back on one end, and the breast on the other; beat well to flatten, season and dip in melted butter; roll them in bread-crumbs and broil slowly. While this is progressing chop up one shallot exceedingly fine, blanch, drain and fry it colorless in butter, add to it some clear gravy (No. 404) and a little espagnole sauce (No. 414) and white wine; season and then pour this sauce into a dish, dress the squabs on it and surround with slices of lemon cut in halves.

← No. 2006 Squabs a la Briand Pigeons & Squabs No. 2008 Squabs a la Crispi →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is spatchcocking under another name: the bird is split down both sides of the breast, opened flat, flattened with a mallet, crumbed and grilled. Most of the work is in the butchery and in the two sauce cross-references, which the original assumes you have already made.

The cutCutting "from the pinion of the wing to the tip of the breast" on each side opens the bird into two still-joined flaps, legs and back on one end, breast on the other, as the recipe specifies; it is not a backbone-out spatchcock. It is easier with poultry shears than a knife. Pound it with a flat mallet until it lies level, or it will cook unevenly.
Squab sizeA squab is a young pigeon, four weeks old, sold dressed at about 12-16 oz. One per person. Anything labelled simply "pigeon" will be older, tougher and better braised than grilled.
"Broil slowly"The crumb coating is the constraint. Under a modern overhead broiler at full blast the crumbs blacken long before the legs are done; set the rack 6-8 inches from the element, or grill over medium coals with the breast side away from the hottest part. Ten to fifteen minutes total, turned once, is typical.
DonenessSquab breast is dark meat and is classically served rosy, around 135F. If that is not to your taste, take the thigh to 165F and accept a drier breast. The legs always want a few minutes more than the breast.
Clear gravy (No. 404)Ranhofer's clear gravy is an unthickened brown gravy, given separately at No. 404. A good reduced brown chicken stock stands in for it. Save the squab backbones and necks to fortify it.
Espagnole (No. 414)A brown roux-based mother sauce built on brown stock with mirepoix and tomato, simmered and skimmed for hours. In place of the full production, a spoonful of demi-glace will give the pan sauce body; a tablespoon or two is all that is wanted here.
Blanching the shallotDropping the minced shallot into boiling water for a minute before frying it colorless strips the raw sulphur bite and keeps the sauce from browning. It is worth doing; the sauce is meant to be clean-tasting behind the wine.
Wine and seasoningA dry white; the recipe adds it along with the clear gravy and espagnole rather than reducing it with the shallot first. Season at the end, after reduction, since both the gravy and the espagnole carry salt already.
ServingSauce goes under the birds, not over, so the crumb crust stays crisp. Ranhofer finishes the dish with halved lemon slices around the rim.

A Little History

Crapaudine is generally traced to crapaud, French for toad: a bird split and flattened this way, with the wings splayed and the head end squared off, was said to sit on the plate like a squatting toad. The treatment is old and was applied to small birds and to chicken alike, since a flattened bird cooks quickly and evenly over coals. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York across two spells between 1862 and 1896, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a compendium of the restaurant's repertoire, and the pigeon and squab chapter is unusually long by modern standards — squab was then a common market bird in the United States, raised commercially and cheap enough to appear on ordinary menus. The cross-references to numbered sauces are characteristic of the book, which is built as a working kitchen system rather than a set of standalone recipes.