No. 2022

Squabs a la Vestal

Pigeonneaux a la Vestale

Mix in with some veal godiveau (No 85) truffles, chives and parsley all well chopped; range this forcemeat in a plain well-buttered border mold (No. 139) and poach in a slack oven. Cut some squabs in four, fry them in butter to a nice color, drain off the grease, add allemande sauce (No. 407) and small mushroom heads; fill the inside of the unmolded border with this stew; bestrew over with bread-crumbs and grated parmesan; pour melted butter on it and brown the whole in a hot oven serving when of a fine color.

← No. 2021 Squabs a la Carolina Pigeons & Squabs No. 2023 Turkey Hen →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This is a Ranhofer assembly recipe: three cross-references stand in for most of the work. Before starting, settle what godiveau and allemande sauce mean in your kitchen, because everything else is quick.

Godiveau (No. 85)A fine veal forcemeat, classically pounded lean veal with beef kidney suet, egg and iced water or cream, seasoned with nutmeg. A modern equivalent: 1 lb lean veal ground fine with 6 oz suet or cold butter, one egg, and 3-4 oz ice water worked in, then sieved or processed smooth. It must stay cold or it breaks.
Allemande sauce (No. 407)Velouté (chicken or veal stock thickened with a blond roux) finished off the heat with egg yolks, cream and lemon. Once the yolks go in, keep it below a simmer or it curdles. Make about 1 1/2 cups for this dish.
Oven temperaturesRanhofer gives no figures. A "slack oven" is generally read as somewhere in the region of 250-300F, and a "hot oven" as 400-450F; a broiler for two or three minutes will also do the final browning. The border wants gentle heat so it sets rather than souffles and weeps.
The border moldNo. 139 is one of Ranhofer's illustrated border (ring) molds; a savarin or angel-food ring pan will stand in. The recipe says only to butter it and poach in a slack oven; a covered water bath is the usual way to do that, reckoning roughly 25-35 minutes until the center is firm to the touch, then a short rest before unmolding onto the serving dish.
SquabsA squab is a young pigeon, usually about four weeks old and around a pound dressed; today it is farmed and generally sold frozen. Cut in four means two legs and two breast halves, bone in. Cornish hen is a common substitute, but it is white-meated and needs to be cooked through rather than left pink.
Frying and finishingBrown the pieces in butter, then pour off the fat and let them finish in the allemande over low heat; roughly 4-5 minutes a side and 8-10 minutes in the sauce, judged by eye. Squab is often served faintly pink today, though pieces stewed in sauce and then gratinated as here will cook through; take care not to dry them out.
Mushroom headsSmall button caps with the stems removed. The recipe gives no instruction as to how they are cooked or whether they are kept pale.
YieldTwo squabs fill a nine-inch border and serve four as a course; three squabs and a ten-inch ring serve six. Assemble and brown at the last minute, since the crumb and Parmesan crust softens on standing.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of his kitchen, and its numbered cross-references make it read like a professional manual rather than a household book. The name "a la Vestale" belongs to a family of nineteenth-century French garnitures whose common thread is often said to be whiteness, traditionally read as a nod to the vestal virgins of Rome and their white robes: veal forcemeat, a pale velouté-based allemande, and mushrooms. That the squab itself is browned and the whole gratinated shows how loosely such classical names were applied by the 1890s. Squab was a staple of American restaurant menus in this period, when domestic pigeon lofts kept small birds cheap and plentiful; the forcemeat border, poached in a ring and filled with a stew at service, was a standard way of turning an awkward little carcass into something that could be carried through a dining room whole.