No. 2016

Squabs with Tarragon

Pigeonneaux a l'Estragon

After the squabs have been drawn and singed, split them lengthwise in two down the back, but do not separate the parts; beat lightly, and season with pepper and salt. Put two ounces of butter into a sauté pan, and after it begins to heat, lay in the squabs, the breast side downward, and set it on a brisk fire; when browned on one side, turn them to do likewise on the other; they take about twelve minutes to cook. Dress and pour off half the butter in the pan, and to the remainder add a pinch of flour, stir well, pour in some clear gravy (No. 404), two tablespoonfuls of good tarragon vinegar, and salt; let the sauce give one or two boils, season it nicely, and pour it over the squabs.

← No. 2015 Squabs, New York Style Pigeons & Squabs No. 2017 Squabs with Figaro Sauce—Fried →

For the Modern Kitchen

A plain sauté with a fast pan sauce; nearly all of it depends on the size and quality of the birds and on not overcooking them.

The hinge: twelve minutes is for real squabA squab is a young pigeon of about 12 to 16 ounces, still tender enough to cook through in a hot pan. Anything larger or older will not be edible in twelve minutes, and if you push a small bird much past it the breast dries out immediately.
"Drawn and singed"Drawn means gutted, singed means passing the plucked skin over a flame to burn off remaining hairs and down. Birds bought from a butcher or online game supplier arrive drawn; a quick pass over a gas burner still helps.
Splitting down the backThis is spatchcocking: cut through the backbone with shears, leave the breast skin joined, then press flat. "Beat lightly" means a firm tap with the flat of a cleaver or a heavy pan to flatten the ribcage so the bird sits level in the fat.
Pan and heatA sauté pan here is a wide, straight-sided skillet on the stovetop. "A brisk fire" is medium-high — hot enough to brown two ounces (4 tablespoons) of butter without blackening it. Clarified butter, or butter with a little oil, is more forgiving at that heat.
DonenessRanhofer's twelve minutes leaves the breast rosy, which is how squab is still served in restaurants. Modern food-safety guidance for poultry is 165F throughout, which for a bird this small means a fully cooked, grey breast; decide which you are aiming for before you start, and buy from a supplier you trust if you want it pink.
The gravy, No. 404That cross-reference is to Ranhofer's clear gravy, an unthickened brown stock preparation. A well-reduced homemade brown stock is the substitute; commercial broth is too thin and too salty to reduce hard.
"A pinch of flour"Roughly a scant teaspoon, stirred into the remaining tablespoon or two of butter to make a quick roux. It should thicken the sauce to a light coating gloss, not a gravy.
Tarragon vinegarTwo tablespoons is assertive and meant to be; the acid is the point of the dish. Bottled tarragon vinegar is easy to find, or steep a good bruised sprig in white wine vinegar for a week. "Dress" simply means arrange the birds on the serving platter.
YieldOne squab per person, split halves laid cut side down, sauce poured over. The recipe does not say how many birds it is written for; scale the butter to your pan and the number of birds.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of the kitchen he ran at Delmonico's in New York, and its pigeon chapter reflects a time when squab was ordinary market poultry rather than a specialty item — squab was raised commercially in America into the twentieth century, and young birds taken before they flew were prized precisely because they were tender enough for a quick sauté like this one. À l'estragon marks the dish as French in method: tarragon with vinegar, butter and brown gravy is the same flavour axis that produces béarnaise and sauce chasseur, and tarragon vinegar was a common pantry item in nineteenth-century kitchens. The recipe's terseness is characteristic of the book, which was written for cooks who already knew what a brisk fire and a pinch of flour were and needed only the sequence and the cross-reference to the stock.