No. 2129

Quail Cutlets, Girondins

Cotelettes de Cailles aux Girondins

Prepare the same as the above, split them in two equal parts, the legs to form a handle and trim with a fancy frill (No.10). Saute on a brisk fire, keeping them rare, then place under a light weight, cover over with Villeroi sauce (No.560), let get cold, then dip in eggs and bread-crumbs and fry in clarified butter, dress on croutons of cooked red beef tongue, filling the center with minced cepes fried in oil, seasoned with salt, pepper and chopped parsley; drain and mix in with the cepes a little game glaze (No.398) and lemon juice. Serve a sauce-boat of Bordelaise sauce (No.436) at same time.

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For the Modern Kitchen

This is a two-stage preparation in the classic Delmonico's manner: the birds are cooked once, coated, chilled, then cooked again. It only works if each stage is finished properly before the next begins.

Start with No. 2128The recipe opens "prepare the same as the above," meaning the quail of the preceding entry (No. 2128). Read that number first or the instructions have no starting point.
Villeroi sauce is the hingeSauce Villeroi (No. 560) is a thick allemande enriched and reduced until it sets firm when cold. The cutlets must be coated while the sauce is still warm and fluid, then chilled until the jacket is solid; if you crumb them while it is soft, the coating slides off in the butter.
Rare on purposeThe first saute is deliberately underdone because the birds cook again in the frying. Take them off the fire as soon as they are coloured. Quail served pink is standard practice; if that concerns you, take the finished cutlets to an internal 165F, accepting that the breast will be dry.
Under a light weightPressing the halves flat between two trays with a plate on top, while they cool, gives an even thickness so the Villeroi coats uniformly and the cutlets fry evenly. An hour in the refrigerator is enough.
CepesCepes are porcini, Boletus edulis. Fresh ones are seasonal and expensive; 1 oz of dried porcini, soaked and drained, stands in for roughly 8 oz fresh in a mince like this.
Game glazeNo. 398 is game stock reduced to a syrupy glaze that sets to rubber when cold. A spoonful of commercial demi-glace, or veal stock reduced hard, does the same work of binding and seasoning the mushroom filling.
Croutons of tongueNot bread. These are slices of cooked, pressed beef tongue cut with a cutter to a shape slightly larger than the cutlet, warmed through and used as a base. Delicatessen tongue works.
The frillNo. 10 is a paper cutlet frill slipped over the exposed leg bone, purely decorative and added after frying so it stays clean.
Frying and yieldShallow-fry in clarified butter over a moderate heat, a few minutes a side, until the crumbs are deep gold. One quail gives two cutlets; the recipe itself specifies no quantities or portions.

A Little History

The dish comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the record of some thirty years of cooking at Delmonico's in New York, where quail came in from the game markets and appeared in many guises. The garnish name points to the Gironde: cepes cooked in oil with parsley and a Bordelaise sauce are recognisable markers of Bordeaux cookery, and nineteenth-century French menu language often borrowed a region's name for its produce. The technique behind it, a la Villeroi - coating cooked meat in a stiff sauce, chilling it hard, then crumbing and frying - is traditionally associated with the household of the Duc de Villeroy, and the same principle survives in croquettes and in the Italian and Spanish fried-bechamel dishes. One practical advantage in a restaurant kitchen would have been scheduling: the cutlets could be coated and chilled ahead and fried to order.