No. 2228

Cases of English Snipe a la Careme

Caisses de Becassines Anglaises a la Careme

Bone nine snipe thoroughly after they have been well-singed and cleaned; fill them with game quenelle forcemeat (No. 91) into which mix a little Madeira and cooked fine herbs (No. 385); lay them in oval molds the size of the inside of the paper cases in which they are to be served, and cover with slices of fat pork; cook them in the oven for twenty minutes. Oil a sufficient number of paper cases, turn them over on to a grater and stiffen in the oven; cover the bottom and sides with delicate game forcemeat (No. 75), into which mix some chopped truffles. Lay the unmolded snipe in the center, reconstruct the heads naturally, imitating the eyes with a little white forcemeat, and a small round of truffle; push the beak on the neck end leaving only the head protrude, then place the cases in a buttered sautoir, cover with a round of buttered paper, and push into the oven to poach the forcemeat; drain off all the fat, and cover with a brown sauce (No. 414) made with a game essence (No. 389) extracted from the carcasses, and some Madeira wine.

← No. 2227 Cases a la Montglas—Small Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2229 Cases with Fat Livers—Small →

For the Modern Kitchen

An assembly dish from Delmonico's kitchen: nine boned snipe, stuffed, molded, then set into forcemeat-lined paper cases with the heads reattached for effect. It depends on four numbered preparations from elsewhere in the book, so read those first.

The cross-references are the recipeNo. 91 is the game quenelle forcemeat, No. 75 a more delicate game forcemeat, No. 385 the cooked fine herbs, No. 389 a game essence drawn from the carcasses, No. 414 a brown sauce. Their compositions have to be looked up in the book itself; without them you have only an assembly diagram.
SnipeEnglish snipe here means the common or Wilson's snipe, a migratory game bird that cannot be bought. It is legal to shoot in season under federal migratory-bird rules in the US, so this is a hunter's dish. Boned quail, roughly the same size once the breast is off the frame, is the practical substitute and takes the same handling.
Fat porkSlices of fresh pork fatback, cut thin as barding. Not cured bacon, which would push smoke and salt into a delicate game forcemeat. Sheet caul fat works if fatback is unavailable.
Oven temperaturesThe recipe gives none, only "in the oven" for each of the three stages. Working from the wording: the twenty minutes in the covered molds is a brisk roast, the stiffening of the oiled paper cases only wants a low oven to dry and set them, and the final poaching under buttered paper should be gentle. Cook the forcemeat until it reads 160F at the center.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan, what most cooks now call a sauté pan or a wide skillet. It only needs to hold the cases upright in a single layer.
Paper casesThe oiled cases are inverted on a grater and dried in the oven so they hold their shape. Ovenproof paper baking cases or small foil molds lined with parchment do the same job with less fuss.
The headsReconstructing the head with a dot of white forcemeat for the eye and a round of truffle for the pupil, beak folded down the neck, is the point of the presentation. If you find that unappetizing, cover the cases with sauce and serve them plain; nothing in the cooking changes.
YieldNine cases, one bird each, intended as a small entree in a long menu. As a modern first course that is nine servings; as a main, count two or three per person.

A Little History

This comes from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the vast compendium of the food he cooked for some thirty years at Delmonico's in New York, and it is characteristic of the book's small "caisses" entrees: a single expensive bird, boned, rebuilt, and served in its own paper case as one plate among many. The dedication a la Careme honors Marie-Antoine Careme, the French chef whose early nineteenth-century writing is often said to have established the practice of naming garnishes after people, and whose taste for architectural, reassembled game this dish carries to an extreme. Snipe were high-status table birds in the period, sold by the dozen in American game markets before the migratory-bird protections of the early twentieth century closed that trade, and they were prized precisely because they were small, fiddly, and strongly flavored. The trouble taken here with the head and the truffle eye tells you what the dish was for: it was set down in front of diners who were meant to recognize the bird, and the labor, at a glance.