No. 2158

English Snipe in Papers

Becassines Anglaises en Papillotes

Cut six snipe in two lengthways, pare, beat lightly, season and toss them to stiffen both sides. Fry in butter some shallots, raw mushrooms, truffles and parsley all finely chopped, add a few spoonfuls of espagnole sauce (No. 414), besides this fry the intestines with a few chicken livers, season, pound and press through a sieve; put this pulp in with the cooled off fine herbs and divide the preparation in twenty-four parts using one of them to cover the inside of each half snipe. Cut some sheets of paper into hearts, oil, and on one side lay a half snipe, over a layer of grated fat pork and cover with the remainder of the preparation, fold the paper, crimp it all around to enclose properly the birds and dress each one on a small oval dish intended for the table, heating and browning them on this. When of a fine color and swollen considerably, remove from the oven; serve separately an espagnole sauce (No. 414) reduced with game fumet (No. 397).

← No. 2157 Broiled Snipe Quail, Snipe, Woodcock & Small Birds No. 2159 Snipe, English, Roasted →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives no oven temperature, no timing and no yield, in the manner of a book written for professionals. The points below fill in what a modern cook needs, and flag the two ingredients that no longer come easily to hand.

The hinge: the paper must inflateA papillote works because trapped steam puffs the parchment and the bird effectively steams in its own fat and forcemeat. Oil the paper on both sides, crimp the edge in tight overlapping folds so no steam escapes, and do not open one to check. Ranhofer's cue is the only one you need: fine colour and swollen considerably.
Oven heatA papillote of this size wants a hot oven, 425-450F. At that heat twelve half-snipe need roughly 8-10 minutes, since the birds were already stiffened in the pan. The small oval serving dishes go into the oven with them and must be ovenproof.
"English snipe"In nineteenth-century America this meant Wilson's snipe, still a legal migratory game bird under seasonal limits but not sold in shops. In practice the recipe is made with quail or with snipe from a hunter. Six snipe are a small amount of meat; count two halves per person as a course, so this serves six.
The trailSnipe and woodcock are traditionally cooked undrawn, and the intestines here are fried with chicken livers, pounded and sieved into the forcemeat. Remove the gizzard, which is gritty. If you are substituting quail, the birds will be drawn already; use chicken livers alone and accept a milder result.
"Toss them to stiffen"A brief sauté in hot butter to firm the flesh and set the outside, not to cook through. Thirty to sixty seconds a side. The birds finish in the paper.
Grated fat porkUnsmoked back fat or fresh fatback, frozen firm and grated on a coarse grater so it melts evenly over the bird. Thin sheets of sliced fatback or lardo work as well; bacon does not, as the smoke and cure overwhelm snipe.
Espagnole and game fumetRanhofer's No. 414 is his long-cooked brown sauce and No. 397 his game fumet, a reduction of game trimmings. A well-reduced brown veal or game stock, finished with a splash of Madeira, stands in for both. A few spoonfuls go into the chopped mushroom and truffle mixture; the rest is served separately.
PaperUse baking parchment, folded double and cut as a heart large enough that the crimped border sits a good inch clear of the bird. Foil seals more reliably but will not brown, which is half the point of the dish.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, and The Epicurean (1894) is the record of that kitchen: French technique, American game, and a cross-referencing system that assumes the cook has the whole book at hand. Snipe and woodcock occupied a peculiar place on such menus, being small, strongly flavoured, seasonal and impossible to farm, which made them a marker of luxury in a way that no amount of beef could be. Cooking en papillote — in a crimped paper case that inflates in the oven — was already an established French method by this date, valued for holding the aroma of a delicate bird until the paper is cut at the table. The use of the trail, the bird's intestines, pounded into the forcemeat is the older European handling of snipe and woodcock, birds generally said to be clean-feeding enough to roast undrawn; the practice survives in classic French cookery but has largely vanished from American tables.