No. 2011

Squabs a la Stanislas—Stuffed

Pigenneaux Farcis a la Stanislas

Fry eight ounces of bacon cut in three-sixteenth of an inch squares in butter, also as much fresh mushrooms sliced the same size, with a little chopped shallot and parsley. Fill the pigeons with this preparation and roast them. Have as many round truffles as there are pigeons, each one inch in circumference, peel and use the parings to pound with quenelle forcemeat (No. 89), and with this make some quenelles the shape and size of large verdal olives; poach and put them into an allemande sauce (No. 407) with a little meat glaze (No. 402), also the peeled truffles and some channeled mushrooms (No. 118). When the squabs are roasted untruss and dish up with the garnishings ranged around.

← No. 2010 Squabs a l'Impromptu—Sauted Pigeons & Squabs No. 2012 Squabs, American Style—Stuffed →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade kitchen with a stockpot always going and a numbered index at hand; the recipe is really an assembly instruction resting on four other preparations. Sort out the sub-recipes first and the dish itself takes under an hour.

The cross-referencesNo. 89 is quenelle forcemeat, No. 407 allemande sauce, No. 402 meat glaze, No. 118 channeled mushrooms. Substituting a good velouté--and-cream liaison for the allemande, and a spoonful of reduced demi-glace for the glaze, will get you there without the full Epicurean apparatus.
Squab, not pigeonA squab is a young pigeon, four weeks old and never flown, weighing about 1 lb dressed. It is dark, tender and lean. Order from a game butcher or online supplier; wood pigeon breast is not a substitute for a whole bird here.
Roasting time and temperatureStuffed squab want a hot oven, 425-450F, for roughly 20-25 minutes. Ranhofer's kitchen would have served the breast rosy; a stuffed bird is safest taken to 165F at the centre of the stuffing, which will cook the breast through. Rest 5 minutes before untrussing.
The diceThree-sixteenths of an inch is a fine brunoise, about 5 mm. Cut the bacon and mushrooms the same size so the stuffing reads as one texture. Eight ounces of bacon plus an equal volume of mushrooms should fill four to six birds, though the recipe never states a number.
"One inch in circumference"Taken literally that is a truffle about a third of an inch across, which is smaller than any truffle worth peeling. Ranhofer almost certainly means one inch in diameter, roughly a walnut. Treat the measurement as ambiguous and use whole small truffles.
Verdal olivesThe Verdale is a large green French table olive. The quenelles should be piped or moulded to that shape and size, about an inch long and oval — the point is a uniform garnish, not a precise cultivar.
Poaching the quenellesPoach in barely trembling salted water or light stock at about 170F. A rolling boil will burst them. Lift out, drain, then warm through in the allemande rather than cooking them in it.
Channeled mushroomsThese are turned mushroom caps, cut with spiral grooves using the tip of a paring knife, then cooked white in butter with lemon. Purely decorative; plain sautéed caps taste the same.
Yield and serviceOne squab per person. Untruss, set the birds on a warm platter and range the truffles, quenelles and mushrooms around them, spooning the sauce over the garnish rather than the birds so the skin stays crisp.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and the pigeon chapter shows how completely that kitchen worked in the French idiom — the heading is French, the garnish is French, and the numbered cross-references assume a staff that could turn out quenelle forcemeat and allemande sauce on demand. Dishes named à la Stanislas are generally traced to Stanisław Leszczyński, the deposed Polish king who ruled Lorraine in the mid-eighteenth century and whose table gave its name to a scattering of preparations in the classical repertoire, though the connection is culinary tradition rather than documented fact. Squab was a standard restaurant luxury in this period: pigeon lofts supplied American cities reliably, the birds were young, uniform and quick to cook, and a whole one made an elegant single portion at a time when a Delmonico's dinner ran to many courses. The truffle-and-quenelle garnish is the tell — this is a dish built to be looked at as much as eaten.