No. 2155

Snipe-English-a la Waleski

Becassines Anglaises a la Waleski

Bone the backs of twelve snipe. Put into a basin three ounces of bread-crumbs, half a pound of unmelted butter, two chopped and blanched shallots, some chopped mushrooms, finely cut up chives, salt, pepper, nutmeg and brandy; stuff the birds with this dressing and lay them in buttered bottomless oval molds the same size as themselves, then cook in a brisk oven. Prepare some foundation paste (No. 135), croustades the same shape and size as the snipe, and when baked and emptied fill them with delicate game cream forcemeat (No. 75); poach in a slack oven and dress in a circle on a hot dish; lay a snipe on every croustade, glaze over and fasten on one end a well cleaned head, the eyes formed of forcemeat and a round of truffles; cover with brown Madeira sauce (No. 492) and game glaze (No. 389).

← No. 2154 Snipe-English-a la Montaland Quail, Snipe, Woodcock & Small Birds No. 2156 Baked Snipe →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Delmonico's construction dish: the bird is the centerpiece but the work is in the pastry cases, the forcemeat and the two sauces, all cross-referenced to numbered recipes elsewhere in Ranhofer. Read it as an assembly plan and prepare the components a day ahead.

The birds themselves"English snipe" is the American market name for Wilson's snipe. Wild snipe cannot legally be bought or sold in the United States under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, so unless you shoot them yourself the practical substitute is farmed quail — twelve of them, boned along the back exactly as described. Quail are meatier and will take a minute or two longer.
Oven temperatures"Brisk" for the stuffed birds means a hot oven, roughly 425-450F. "Slack" for the forcemeat-filled croustades means a low one, roughly 275-300F. The recipe says "poach," which in this idiom implies gentle, moist heat; a water bath at that temperature will help the cream forcemeat set rather than curdle, though the text does not specify one.
Bottomless oval moldsThese are simply oval rings, open top and bottom, set on a buttered tray so the bird holds a neat shape while it roasts. Oval or round tart rings, or foil collars shaped by hand, do the same job.
The stuffing is mostly butterHalf a pound of butter to three ounces of crumbs is deliberate; it bastes the bird from inside as it melts. The recipe specifies unmelted butter, so keep it firm rather than liquid, and chill the stuffed birds before they go near the oven or the filling will run out.
Croustades, not pastry cupsNo. 135 foundation paste is a stiff, barely-shortened dough used for architecture rather than eating: baked, hollowed out as the recipe directs, and used as a stand. A modern equivalent is a firm pâte brisée baked blind in oval molds.
The headsThe recipe has a well cleaned head fastened to one end as decoration, with forcemeat and a disc of truffle standing in for the eye. Skip it and nothing about the eating changes; the effect is visual.
Glazing"Glaze over" and No. 389 game glaze mean reduced game stock, cooked down to a syrup that sets tacky. Brush it on hot and thin, in one pass — a second coat on cooling glaze goes streaky.
YieldTwelve birds on twelve croustades, intended as one bird per guest in a long service. As a main course with the sauce it will serve six.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it is organized like a professional's notebook: nearly every recipe leans on numbered component recipes rather than repeating itself. Dish names ending "à la —" in this book commonly commemorate a patron or a public figure, and Waleski is generally taken to be a rendering of Walewski, the family name of Napoleon III's foreign minister — a plausible but undocumented attribution, of the kind restaurant kitchens attached to plates freely in the period. What is certain is that snipe were then an ordinary item of the American market game trade, sold by the dozen alongside plover and reedbirds; the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 ended that commerce, which is why a dish calling for twelve snipe now reads as a period document rather than a shopping list.