No. 2009

Squabs a la Flourens

Pigeonneaux a la Flourens

Procure eight squabs, draw, singe and truss as for an entree (No. 178), or one squab for each guest Chop up very fine eight ounces of beef marrow, mix with it eight ounces of butter, some chopped parsley, finely cut up chives, eight chopped tarragon leaves, a little crushed and chopped garlic, salt, pepper, four ounces of lean ham cut into one-eighth inch squares, four ounces of bread-crumbs and two whole eggs. Fill the squabs with this dressing and roast them either on the spit or in the oven for thirty minutes, basting them frequently. When done, untruss, dress in a circle and pour in a garnishing of sweetbreads and artichoke bottoms cut in three-sixteenth inch squares to which has been added some espagnole sauce (No. 414). Serve some of this sauce separately.

← No. 2008 Squabs a la Crispi Pigeons & Squabs No. 2010 Squabs a l'Impromptu—Sauted →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Delmonico's roast squab with a marrow-and-ham forcemeat, written for a kitchen with a spit, a stockpot of espagnole and a larder of sweetbreads. Most of the work is in the garnish, not the birds.

The hinge: stuffing versus birdSquab is at its best with the breast still rosy, around 135F, but a forcemeat bound with two whole eggs needs 165F to be safe. The two cannot both happen in thirty minutes. Either cook the dressing separately in a buttered dish and spoon it into the cavities at service, or accept a fully cooked, firmer bird.
Oven heatThe recipe says only "on the spit or in the oven" and gives no temperature. A hot oven, around 425F, suits the thirty minutes stated for birds of roughly a pound, basting every seven or eight minutes; a lower oven will dry the breast before the legs give up.
Squab, and what to buyA squab is a young domestic pigeon, killed before it flies, and it is dark, tender meat, mild rather than strongly gamey. It is usually sold frozen, around 12-16 oz. "Draw, singe and truss as for an entree" means gutted, the pinfeathers burned off over a flame, legs and wings tied close so the bird holds a compact shape.
Beef marrowEight ounces of chopped marrow means marrow scooped from the bones, not the bones themselves; ask for canoe-cut femurs and reckon on several pounds of bone. Soak the bones in cold water, push the marrow out, and chill it firm before chopping or it smears. Marrow is what makes this dressing rich rather than merely fatty.
Quantity of dressingA pound of fat plus crumbs, ham and eggs is a great deal of forcemeat for eight small cavities. Expect to have half of it left over; bake the remainder in ramekins and serve it alongside.
Espagnole, No. 414The original sauce is a brown veal stock thickened with a long-cooked brown roux and mirepoix, reduced over many hours. A well-reduced brown veal or beef stock, lightly thickened, stands in for it without apology. Make it before the birds go in.
SweetbreadsVeal sweetbreads need soaking in several changes of cold water, then blanching, cooling under a weight, and peeling of the outer membrane before they are cut into dice. That is an hour of handling spread over several hours of soaking and pressing, all of which the recipe assumes is already done.
Artichoke bottomsFresh bottoms mean trimming globe artichokes down to the base and holding them in acidulated water. Good-quality tinned or frozen bottoms, rinsed and diced, are a fair substitute here since they are cut small and sauced.
YieldOne squab per person, as stated; eight servings as a main course, or plate them as a course with the sweetbread garnish spooned inside the ring of birds and the rest of the sauce in a boat.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of some three decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its pigeon chapter runs to dozens of preparations because squab was a fixture of the American restaurant menu in the late nineteenth century, raised commercially in lofts and sold young enough to give each diner a whole bird. Ranhofer's habit, like that of the French kitchens he came from, was to name dishes for patrons, performers and public figures; who a la Flourens honoured is not recorded, and Ranhofer, as usual, offers no explanation. The construction is haute cuisine of the period: a stuffing built on beef marrow, which turns up in Ranhofer's forcemeats, sauces and canapes alike, finished with a garnish of sweetbreads and artichoke bottoms bound in espagnole -- a sauce that in a house like Delmonico's simmered more or less permanently and underwrote much of the brown-sauce cookery on the card.