No. 2203

Breasts of Woodcocks a la Vatel

Ailes ou Filets de Becasses a la Vatel

Raise the breasts from six fine woodcocks, remove the skin and sinews, and fry them in butter over a brisk fire. Fill some heart-shaped bottomless molds with a game quenelle forcemeat made from the woodcocks' legs and parings and young rabbit meat; poach them slowly in a slack oven, unmold, cool off, and lay on buttered paper, coat the tops with woodcock cream forcemeat, made as game cream forcemeat (No. 75), and dress the breasts two on each crouton; cover entirely with woodcock cream forcemeat, smooth with a knife, shaping them into hearts, run the beak through from side to side between the forcemeat and fillet. Bestrew with finely chopped coral sifted through a sieve and imitate a flame with yellow tinted game quenelle forcemeat pushed through a cornet, on which place thin fillets of tongue. Pour butter over the whole and push into a moderate oven; when removed lay them on top of a sauce made with game fumet (No. 397) and essence of truffles (No. 395), serving a financiere garnishing (No. 667), cut in salpicon (No. 741) apart.

← No. 2202 Breasts of Woodcocks a la Mancelle Quail, Snipe, Woodcock & Small Birds No. 2204 Broiled Woodcocks →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Delmonico's set-piece rather than a weeknight dish: twelve small breasts, three separate forcemeats, and a decorative flame piped in tinted farce. Most of the work is in the garnish, and the eating is over in two bites per person.

Sourcing the birdsAmerican woodcock is a legal game bird in season but cannot be bought or sold commercially in the United States, so this depends on a hunter. European woodcock is farmed nowhere; imported frozen game dealers occasionally carry it in the UK and France. Squab or quail breasts behave similarly, though the flavour is far milder.
Oven temperaturesA "slack oven" for poaching the quenelle moulds corresponds to roughly 275-300F, low enough that the forcemeat sets without boiling and weeping. The final "moderate oven" to heat the assembled croutons is around 350F, and only long enough to warm through and set the coating -- the breasts are already cooked. Both are approximations; the book gives no figures.
The hinge: keep the cream forcemeat coldGame cream forcemeat is pounded meat with egg white and cream, and it breaks if it warms. Work over ice, add the cream in stages, and test-poach a teaspoon before committing. A split mixture is difficult to recover, and the whole construction depends on it holding a smooth moulded shape.
Don't overcook the breastsWoodcock breast is dark, lean and dries out quickly. Fry in butter over high heat, about a minute a side, to rare; they will take further heat during the final oven pass, which has to be long enough to set the forcemeat coating. The recipe specifies a brisk fire for the frying.
Coral"Coral" here is the roe of a cooked lobster, dried in a low oven and pushed through a fine sieve to give a brick-red powder. Any decent fishmonger with hen lobsters can supply it; there is no substitute that gives the same colour, though paprika mixed with dried breadcrumb approximates the look.
CornetA cornet is a cone rolled from parchment or paper and snipped at the tip -- a disposable piping bag. Use one for the tinted forcemeat flames; a fabric bag holds too much and warms the mixture in the hand.
CroutonsNot the salad kind. These are shaped slices of crustless bread fried in clarified butter until dry and firm, cut to the footprint of the moulded forcemeat so the assembly has a base that will not go soggy under the sauce.
Bottomless mouldsHeart-shaped metal cutters set on a buttered tray, filled and poached in place, then lifted away. Modern ring moulds or cutters do the same job; butter them well and chill the filled moulds before they go into the oven.
YieldSix woodcocks give twelve breasts, dressed two to a crouton -- six portions as a course in a long dinner, not six dinners. The financiere garnish, cut in small dice, is served in a separate dish alongside.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years running the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and dishes like this one show what the restaurant meant by a game course: a wild bird taken apart, its legs and trimmings recycled into forcemeat, and the whole thing rebuilt into a shape it never had in life, with the beak run through as proof of provenance. The dedication is to Francois Vatel, maitre d'hotel to Nicolas Fouquet and later to the Prince de Conde, remembered chiefly for his death at Chantilly in 1671 -- traditionally said to have been suicide over a late delivery of fish for a banquet in honour of Louis XIV, an account that comes to us through the letters of Madame de Sevigne. Nineteenth-century French cooking attached his name to elaborate garnished preparations as a kind of professional homage. Woodcock itself was prized above almost all other game in this period for the strong, slightly livery flavour of its dark flesh; the bird was often cooked undrawn, its trail spread on toast, though Ranhofer here takes the more decorous route of using the legs and parings in the farce.