No. 2233

Cases of Quails a la Dejazet

Caisses de Cailles a la Dejazet

Bone thoroughly some well-cleaned quails, open them on a cloth, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, cover the inside meats with a layer of game forcemeat (No. 91) with chopped truffles added and envelop the forcemeat, forming them in the shape of an egg, and lay them inside of bottomless oval molds of the same size as the paper cases in which they are to be served; set the molds on a baking sheet, cover with thin slices of fat pork, moisten with white wine mirepoix stock (No. 419) and cook in a hot oven. Mask the bottom and sides of the paper cases previously oiled and stiffened with a thin layer of quenelle forcemeat (No. 91) and the same quantity of cooked forcemeat (No. 73), both well mixed together; put the quails in the center and push into the oven for about twenty minutes, then cover with a salmis sauce (No. 536), mixed with the strained and skimmed braise stock.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A boned, stuffed quail braised in a mold and served in an oiled paper case, from Charles Ranhofer's Delmonico repertoire. The cross-references do most of the work, so the first task is deciding what to substitute for them.

The cross-referenced preparationsNo. 91 is Ranhofer's quenelle/game forcemeat base (game or poultry meat pounded with panada and butter, bound with egg); No. 73 is his cooked forcemeat, which the recipe treats as mixable with No. 91 in equal quantity. A modern equivalent is a fine mousseline of quail or chicken thigh with cream and egg white.
Mirepoix stock and salmis sauceNo. 419 is a braising liquid of diced carrot, onion, celery, ham or bacon and herbs sweated in butter, moistened with white wine and stock. No. 536, salmis, is built from the pounded carcasses and trimmings of game birds simmered in stock and wine, strained and reduced eshould go straight into it rather than the bin.
Hot oven"hot" in this period is generally read as somewhere around 425F. The molded quails need enough heat to set the forcemeat quickly; the recipe gives no temperature for the second pass with the paper cases, where a more moderate oven is safer so the paper does not scorch.
The twenty minutes is for the case, not the birdBy the time the quails leave the molds they are all but cooked. The final twenty minutes exists to set the forcemeat lining the paper cases. Judge the forcemeat: firm and just springy, around 160-165F at the center. Overshoot and the quail meat dries out entirely.
Bottomless oval moldsThese were plain metal rings without bases, holding the egg-shaped birds in shape while they braised. Oval ring molds, or rings cut from a small can, work; so does a muffin tin lined with foil collars if the shape matters less to you than the support.
Paper casesCaisses are pleated paper containers brushed with oil and dried in a low oven until stiff enough to hold sauce. Modern parchment or foil baking cases serve, but oil and pre-dry them as directed or the forcemeat lining will steam the paper limp.
Fat porkThin sheets of fresh (unsmoked) pork back fat, used as a barding cover. Ask a butcher for fatback and slice it thin, or use unsmoked lardo. Bacon changes the flavor of the braise stock, which becomes the sauce.
Quail and boningFarmed quail run roughly 4-6 oz each. The recipe's "open them on a cloth" indicates boning through the back and spreading the bird flat, meat and skin in one piece, rather than tunnel-boning; a butcher will do it if asked. Figure one case per person as an entrée in a long menu, two as a course on its own.

A Little History

The name honors Virginie Déjazet (1798-1875), the Parisian actress celebrated for playing young men in breeches roles late in her long career; Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) is full of garnishes and entrées named for performers, politicians and Delmonico's regulars, a fashion he would have known from the French kitchens in which he trained. Quail reached American restaurants in this period in quantity, wild-shot and imported, and boning small birds to reassemble them around a forcemeat was the sort of labor a large brigade could supply more readily than a household cook -- it is the sort of dish that justified the size of the Delmonico kitchen. The caisse itself, an oiled and stiffened paper case, answered the problem of serving an individually sauced portion that could go from oven to table without transfer, and paper cases of the kind survive today mostly in those used for petits fours.