No. 2019

Squabs, Breasts a la Duxelle—Stuffed

Filets de Pigeonneaux Farcis a la Duxelle

Pare eight to ten breasts of squabs; split them in two through their thickness without detaching the parts, but simply to form a pocket, fill this in with a little duxelle with raw truffles (No. 461), close the opening, season the breasts, dip them in beaten eggs mixed with cooked fine herbs, (No. 385) roll in fresh bread-crumbs and then in melted butter and broil over a slow fire. Dress the breasts crown-shaped on a dish with a little half-glaze sauce (No. 413) to which has been added butter, lemon juice and chopped parsley.

← No. 2018 Squabs in Earthenware Saucepan or Stuffed—Ro Pigeons & Squabs No. 2020 Squab Fritters, Oporto Sauce →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a cook with a stocked garde-manger: duxelles, cooked fine herbs and demi-glace are all cross-referenced from elsewhere in The Epicurean. Made with those three things on hand, the dish is quick work.

The hinge: keep the pocket shutSplit each breast horizontally without cutting through, stuff sparingly, and press the edges firmly together before breading. Overfilling forces the duxelles out during cooking, where it burns onto the grill and the crumb coating unravels.
DuxelleFinely chopped mushrooms with shallot and onion, cooked down in butter until dry — the moisture must be driven off or the stuffing will steam the crumbs from inside. Raw truffle was Ranhofer's luxury; a few drops of truffle oil or extra mushroom, chopped fine, stands in without pretending to be the same thing.
"Cooked fine herbs"His No. 385 is a cooked preparation, softened in butter, not raw chopped herb. Mixed into the beaten egg it seasons the coating itself; a herb mixture sweated in butter and cooled does the job.
Half-glazeDemi-glace: brown stock reduced to a coating consistency (Ranhofer's No. 413; formulas vary, some with a little tomato or Madeira). Finished off the heat with cold butter, lemon juice and parsley, it becomes a light pan sauce rather than a heavy glaze. Do not boil it after the butter goes in.
"Broil over a slow fire"A gridiron over settled coals, well away from flame. The crumb-and-butter crust needs a gentle, steady heat — under a modern overhead broiler, set the pan low, or better, brown the breasts in butter in a heavy pan and finish them in a 375F oven.
DonenessSquab breast is dark meat, traditionally served rosy at about 135F at the centre; a stuffed, breaded breast will take roughly 8 to 12 minutes total depending on size. Cooked through to grey it turns dry and livery.
SourcingSquab is a young domestic pigeon, four weeks old and never flown, sold frozen by game butchers and some Asian markets. Eight to ten breasts means four or five birds, which serves four as a course.
"Crown-shaped"Arranged in a ring on the dish, leaning against one another, with the sauce spooned around the base rather than over the crumb. Overlapping them flat on a warm platter achieves the same thing with less fuss.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for most of the last third of the nineteenth century, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially that restaurant's working system set down in print — hence the numbered cross-references, which assume the stockpot, the duxelles and the demi-glace already exist somewhere down the line. Squab was a staple of that kind of cooking: small, tender, expensive enough to justify the labour, and available year-round from pigeon lofts rather than only in game season. The name duxelles is generally traced to the seventeenth-century Marquis d'Uxelles, whose cook La Varenne is credited with the mushroom preparation, though the attribution is traditional rather than documented. What dates the recipe most clearly is the casual instruction to fill the pockets with raw truffle — in 1894 Delmonico's, truffle was a garnish a cook reached for without comment.