No. 2020

Squab Fritters, Oporto Sauce

Beignets de Pigeonneaux, Sauce Oporto

Pluck, draw and singe some nice squabs, free them of all their feathers, cut off the stumps and pinions, then divide them in two lengthwise and afterward split them across on the bias to obtain two pieces from each, one from the legs and from the wings; lay them in a vessel and season with salt, whole peppers, nutmeg, thyme, bay leaf, sliced onions, lemon juice and a little oil, leave to marinate for two hours, turning them over occasionally, take each piece out and dip it in frying batter (No. 137), then plunge into very hot frying fat, drain, salt and dress them in a pyramid form on a folded napkin; serve separately a currant sauce (No. 455) with Port wine.

← No. 2019 Squabs, Breasts a la Duxelle—Stuffed Pigeons & Squabs No. 2021 Squabs a la Carolina →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer assumes a kitchen with a game larder, a standing pot of frying fat and two numbered recipes on hand. The dish is straightforward once you resolve the cross-references and the cutting.

The cut is the whole pointEach squab is halved lengthwise, then each half cut across on the bias into a leg piece and a wing/breast piece — four pieces per bird. Keep the pieces close in size or the batter on the smaller ones will darken before the legs are done.
Squab, and what to buySquab is a young domestic pigeon, about four weeks old and 12-16 oz dressed. Butchers and game suppliers sell them dressed and frozen; the plucking, drawing and singeing in the original is no longer your job. Two birds serve one as a main course, one bird as an appetizer.
Recipe No. 137, frying batterRecipe No. 137 is Ranhofer's frying batter — a flour-based batter thinned with water or beer, with beaten whites folded in at the end. Check the original before assuming yolks. Any thin tempura-style batter works; it should coat but still let the shape of the meat show.
Recipe No. 455 with PortRecipe No. 455 is a currant sauce, served here with Port. In practice that means currant jelly loosened and flavored with the wine. Aim for a sauce that coats a spoon lightly rather than a syrup.
Whole peppers in the marinadeCrack them lightly so they give up something in two hours. Whole peppercorns left intact contribute very little and have to be picked out before battering anyway — wipe each piece dry before it goes into the batter, or the coating will slide.
Marinate coldTwo hours at 1894 pantry temperature is two hours in the refrigerator now. Bring the pieces back to room temperature for fifteen minutes before frying so the centers are not cold.
"Very hot frying fat"350-375F. Below that the batter absorbs fat; much above it and the coating colors before the bone-in leg pieces are cooked. Fry in batches, 5-7 minutes depending on size, and check that the meat at the bone is no longer translucent.
DonenessSquab breast is often served pink when roasted or sautéed, but battered and deep-fried pieces cannot be judged by eye. Cook them through; the marinade and the sweet-sharp sauce carry the flavor here, not rareness.
The napkinThe folded napkin is a period service piece that absorbs fat under the pyramid of fritters. A rack over a sheet pan does the draining better; use the napkin on the platter only if you want the look.

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 reflects how familiar squab then was on an American restaurant menu — cooked a dozen different ways in the same section. Beignets here means fritters in the older, broader sense: anything dipped in batter and fried, savory as readily as sweet. The marinade of oil, lemon, onion and herbs is a classic French marinade instantan\lightly tenderize rather than preserve. The Port-and-currant sauce belongs to a long European tradition of pairing sweet-acid fruit with dark-fleshed birds; Oporto is simply the Portuguese city that gives Port its name. Worth noting that the squabs of Ranhofer's market were domestic pigeons raised for the table — the wild passenger pigeon that had glutted American markets a generation earlier was, by the time this book appeared, all but gone.