No. 2236

Cases of Thrushes

Caisses de Grives

Select six good, fat thrushes, not taking those that are too large; singe and split them down the back to bone the breasts and draw the insides; season the interior meats and lay in each one a ball of game quenelle forcemeat (No. 91), mixed with a third as much of the intestines from the birds, cooked, pounded and rubbed through a sieve. Sew up the opening on the top, truss the legs and shorten the stumps. Melt some grated fat pork in a saucepan, range the birds in this, season and fry while turning them over until partly cooked, then drain and draw out the sewing thread without disturbing the legs. Add to the fat in the saucepan two or three spoonfuls of cooked fine herbs (No. 385), a pinch of bread-crumbs and some grated fat pork, obtaining a light paste. Oil over with a brush six oval paper cases, and on the bottom of each spread a layer of this paste and over place a thrush; set the cases on a buttered sheet, cover with buttered paper and push into a slack oven to finish cooking the birds. At the last moment remove, untruss the legs, glaze over with a brush and set each case inside another white one in order to serve them neatly.

← No. 2235 Cases of Sweetbreads a la Grammont Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2237 Cases of Thrushes a la Diana →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

The obstacle here is not technique but the bird itself. Thrushes are songbirds, and in the United States, Canada and the European Union they cannot legally be taken, sold, possessed or cooked.

The birds are protectedEvery North American thrush — robin, wood thrush, hermit thrush and the rest — is covered by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes killing or possessing them an offence regardless of intent. In the EU, songbird trapping is restricted under the Birds Directive and the traditional netting derogations are narrow and contested, though a few thrush species remain huntable in some member states. Commercial supply for the table is not realistically available.
No substitution is being offeredQuail and squab are the birds a modern kitchen cooks whole in this style, but the proportions, boning method and cooking time in Ranhofer's text are written for a bird of a few ounces. Use a current recipe written for the bird you actually have.
The trail is part of the forcemeatThe recipe draws the birds but then pounds a portion of their own intestines, cooked and sieved, into the quenelle stuffing. Even where such birds are legal, wild avian viscera carry a heavier bacterial and parasite load than muscle, and the finished cases are baked only in a slack oven.
Paper cases in the ovenThe oiled oval caisses are paper, brushed with oil before filling, and doubled with a clean white case for service. This part of the method is sound and survives in modern paper-case cookery; it is the filling that does not.

A Little History

Small birds were serious commerce in nineteenth-century Europe: thrushes, larks, ortolans and figpeckers came to market by the dozen, netted in autumn when they were fat on berries, and appeared on grand menus as garnishes, in pies, and in individual cases like these. Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, was cooking for diners who expected the full Parisian repertoire, and The Epicurean (1894) accordingly carries several thrush entrées, classical shorthand for a game preparation. Sentiment and law both turned against the trade over the following century; the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 ended it in the United States, and pages like this one now read as a record of a cuisine that no longer has ingredients.