No. 2047

Blackbirds a la Degrange

Merles a la Degrange

Procure eight blackbirds, draw and singe, suppress the feet and necks. Fry in butter some carrots, onions, ham and fat pork cut in three-sixteenth inch squares, also parsley, thyme, bay leaf and six chicken livers; when well cooked, lay aside to cool, then pound into a pulp with a little bread-crumb and seasoning; press this through a sieve and use this forcemeat for filling the black-birds; fry them in butter, drain it off and replace it by a little glaze (No. 402), lemon juice, chopped truffles, parsley and a little half-glaze sauce (No. 413). Dress the birds inside a rice border finished with butter and parmesan cheese, and pour the sauce over the birds.

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For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

This dish cannot be prepared today in the United States or most of Europe, because its single defining ingredient is a legally protected wild songbird. The notes below explain the obstacles rather than offering a way around them.

Blackbirds are protectedThe merle of the French kitchen is the Eurasian blackbird, a thrush; American blackbirds and every other native songbird are covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which makes it an offence to take, possess or sell them, alive or dead, without a federal permit. In Europe the picture is mixed: the blackbird is listed as huntable in a number of EU member states under the Birds Directive, though commercial sale is restricted, and trapping of other songbirds for the table is prosecuted. There is no ordinary commercial supply.
There is no market substituteQuail is the bird usually reached for in place of small game birds, but it is roughly twice the weight of a blackbird and is generally described as milder than thrush. Anyone wanting a stuffed small-bird dish of this kind should work from a current recipe written for farmed quail, with its own timings.
The forcemeat is the recipe's real substanceThe filling is a classic gratin forcemeat: carrot, onion, ham and fat pork cut in three-sixteenth-inch dice, cooked with herbs and chicken livers, pounded with breadcrumb and passed through a sieve. The technique belongs to the general repertoire rather than to blackbirds specifically.
Cross-referencesRanhofer's No. 402 is meat glaze, stock reduced to a syrup, and No. 413 is demi-glace. Neither is given here; the recipe assumes a kitchen with both standing ready, which is why The Epicurean is close to unusable as a stand-alone book.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for some three decades, and The Epicurean (1894) is essentially his working repertoire set down in several thousand numbered entries. Small birds run through it in quantity: reed birds, plover, snipe, and here blackbirds; several of these were then sold openly in American markets, and that commercial trade in wild birds was shut down by the Lacey Act of 1900 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The name a la Degrange is the sort of personal dedication that recurs throughout the book; no particular Degrange is identified here. The rice border finished with butter and Parmesan is a bordure, a piped or moulded ring used to hold small items in place on a platter.