No. 2012

Squabs, American Style—Stuffed

Pigeonneaux Farcis a l'Americaine

Have six squabs, draw, singe lightly and truss as for roasting (No. 179); fill the insides with an American bread dressing (No. 61), and cover the breasts with thin slices of fat pork; roast them either in the oven or on the spit; they take about twenty minutes when stuffed and fifteen when not. Dress and surround with slices of broiled bacon, pouring a little clear gravy (No. 404) around.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a professional brigade with numbered cross-references, a spit and a coal range. The dish translates cleanly, but the timings assume very hot fire and very small birds.

What a squab isA squab is a young domestic pigeon, slaughtered before it flies, usually around 12 to 16 oz dressed. It is dark-fleshed and closer to duck than to chicken. Order from a game butcher or online; supermarket poultry is no substitute, and Cornish hens behave quite differently.
"Draw and singe"Birds today arrive drawn. Singeing removes the last pinfeathers and down — a few seconds over a gas flame, or a pass with a kitchen torch, then wipe.
The oven temperatureRanhofer's roasting fire is fierce. For twenty minutes to mean anything on a stuffed bird, work at 450–475F, with the birds on a rack so the undersides brown.
The barding pork"Thin slices of fat pork" means unsmoked salt pork or fresh pork fatback, cut nearly transparent and tied over the breast. Squab breast has almost no fat of its own and dries in minutes. Sliced fatback or unsmoked streaky bacon does the job; remove it for the last five minutes if you want colour on the skin.
Stuffing and doneness — the tensionSquab is normally taken to a rosy 135–140F in the breast. Bread stuffing packed inside a bird will not be safe at that point. If you stuff them, roast to 165F throughout including the centre of the dressing and accept firmer meat; if you want the birds pink, bake the dressing separately in a dish and roast the squabs empty at the fifteen minutes Ranhofer gives for unstuffed.
The cross-referenced numbersNo. 61 is Ranhofer's American bread dressing, No. 404 his clear gravy, and No. 179 his trussing method for roasting. Look those entries up for the exact ingredients and technique rather than assuming a standard version.
Broiled bacon garnishCut the bacon into neat rectangles and broil or pan-crisp it flat between two trays so it stays straight for the border. Streaky bacon reads correctly here.
YieldSix squabs, one per person, as a main course. Rest them five minutes breast-down before serving.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its pigeon chapter runs to dozens of preparations — Stanislas, Colbert among them. The label à l'Americaine here does not mean tomato and brandy, as it does in the lobster dish; it means the bird is treated the way an American household would treat a roast fowl, with bread-and-sage dressing, barding pork and bacon rather than a French farce of forcemeat and truffle. Ranhofer's habit of numbering every component so that a stuffing or a gravy could be called up from elsewhere in the book reflects a professional kitchen's economy.