No. 2124

Quails a la Macedoine—Larded

Cailles Piquees a la Macedoine

Truss eight quails after they have been picked, drawn, and singed, proceeding the same as for an entree (No.178); dip the breasts in boiling water and lard them with small lardons (No. 4, Fig.52). Line a low saucepan with bards of fat pork, lay the quails on top, and moisten with a white wine mirepoix stock (No.419); braise in a slack oven and when almost done, glaze over. Untruss and dress in a circle with a garnishing of macedoine vegetables (No.680), in the center; strain the stock, free it of its fat, and reduce to the consistency of half-glaze, serving it separately. The quails may be barded instead of larded, and the macedoine replaced by green peas Parisian style (No.2745), or else cucumbers cut as cloves of garlic, blanched and cooked in consommé (No.189), then thickened with bechamel (No.409), etc.

← No. 2123 Quails a la Caprea Quail, Snipe, Woodcock & Small Birds No. 2125 Quails a la Mirepoix →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes for a brigade with a stockpot always on the fire, so half this recipe lives in cross-references. Stripped down, it is a short braise of small birds on a bed of fat, finished with a reduced glaze and a dice of vegetables.

The hinge: keep the braise shortQuail are lean and small, and the whole dish turns on not overcooking them. Farmed quail of 4-6 oz are done in roughly 20-25 minutes in the covered pan; past that the breast goes dry and stringy no matter how much fat is laid over it.
"Slack oven"A slack oven is simply a cool one, usually taken as somewhere around 300F, though period usage is imprecise. The pan is covered and lined with fat, so this is a gentle braise rather than a roast.
Larding and bardingLarding means threading strips of chilled pork fat through the breast with a needle; barding means simply tying a sheet of fatback over it. Ranhofer offers barding as the alternative, and it is the practical choice — fatback or unsmoked streaky bacon, removed for the last few minutes if you want colour.
Dipping the breasts in boiling waterA brief dip firms the skin so the lardons hold and do not tear their channels. Seconds, not a blanch.
Mirepoix stock (No. 419)Ranhofer's white wine mirepoix is, in general terms, a diced aromatic vegetable base with pork or ham trimmings, moistened with white wine and stock; the exact composition is in the cross-referenced recipe. A well-made chicken stock reduced with dry white wine and a fine mirepoix stands in for it.
Macedoine (No. 680)A macedoine is mixed vegetables cut in small even dice, typically carrot, turnip, green beans and peas, cooked so that nothing overcooks and usually bound in butter; Ranhofer's exact version is in the cross-referenced recipe.
Glazing and half-glazeTo glaze is to brush the birds with reduced cooking liquid in a hot oven until they shine. Half-glaze here means the strained, defatted stock reduced until it coats a spoon — thinner than a syrup, not a bound sauce.
Quantity and serviceEight quail serve four as a main course or eight as an entrée in the period sense, which is a course among many. Sauce goes in a boat, not over the birds, or the glaze dulls.
SourcingNearly all quail sold now are farmed Coturnix, sold oven-ready and often semi-boneless. Whole birds with the bone in hold their shape far better through a braise.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is his attempt to set down the whole grammar of that kitchen — which is why a single quail dish reaches out to seven numbered recipes elsewhere in the book. The garnish gives the dish its name: a macédoine is a dice of assorted vegetables, and the term is generally traced to the idea of Macedonia as a mixture of peoples under Alexander, a piece of kitchen wordplay already old by Ranhofer's day. Small game birds were a fixture of the American luxury restaurant in the 1880s and 1890s, when wild quail, snipe and woodcock still arrived by the barrel from market hunters; the section this recipe sits in has no real equivalent on a modern menu, and the birds a cook buys today are farmed rather than shot.