No. 2246

Crepine of Pigeons, Poivrade Sauce with Truffle Essence

Crepine de Pigeons, Sauce Poivrade a l'Essence de Truffes

Truss six pigeons as for an entree (No. 178); braise them in a mirepoix stock (No. 419) and when done transfer them to a vessel, straining the mirepoix stock over and then let get thoroughly cold. Spread some pieces of "crepine" or caul fat on the table; split the pigeons in two, pare nicely and cover with a forcemeat made of half a pound of veal and half a pound of veal suet, both being finely chopped and pounded to a pulp, then mix in two ounces of bread crumbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, finely shredded chives, chopped up mushrooms and a few egg-yolks; when this forcemeat is of a sufficient smoothness, and has acquired a firmness, use it to cover over both sides of the pigeons, laying it on rather thick; place a few slices of truffles on top and wrap the whole in pieces of crepine; baste over with melted butter and roll in bread-crumbs, then put them in a slow oven to get very warm, and serve on a poivrade sauce (No. 522) with essence of truffle (No. 395) added.

← No. 2245 Crepine of Chicken a la Turenne-Breasts Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2247 Crepine of Reedbirds →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

A Delmonico's assembly dish: braised pigeon, chilled, jacketed in veal forcemeat, wrapped in caul and baked. Most of the work is cold-kitchen prep, and the recipe leans on four cross-references the modern reader has to supply.

The hinge: the forcemeat is rawThe pigeons are already cooked, but the veal-and-suet coating goes on raw and is laid "rather thick." Ranhofer's instruction to bake only until "very warm" is not enough for that jacket. Bake until the forcemeat reaches 165F on an instant-read thermometer at the thickest point; if the parcels are browning too fast, tent them rather than shorten the time.
"Slow oven"Conventionally read as somewhere around 275-325F; call it 300F. At that temperature a well-buttered, crumbed parcel should take roughly 35-45 minutes to heat through, which is about what the internal temperature will demand anyway. Finish under the broiler for a minute if the crumbs are pale.
PigeonsThe book means young domestic pigeon, sold today as squab, about 12-16 oz each. Farmed quail, two per portion, work in the same construction. Wild pigeon is not a substitute and in most places not legal to sell.
Crepine, or caul fatThe lacy membrane from around a pig's stomach. Order it from a butcher; it usually comes frozen and salted. Soak in cold water (a splash of vinegar helps) until pliable, then spread it flat and pat dry. It melts away in the oven and leaves the forcemeat sealed.
Veal suetHard fat from around veal kidneys, effectively unobtainable at retail. Beef suet is the closest match and behaves the same; fatback, finely diced and pounded with the veal, also works. Keep everything refrigerator-cold while pounding or the fat smears and the forcemeat breaks.
"A few egg-yolks"Genuinely unquantified. For a pound of veal and suet plus 2 oz crumbs, start with two yolks and add a third only if the mixture will not hold a shape on a spoon. Overshooting makes the coating tight and rubbery once baked.
Mirepoix stockNo. 419 is a braising liquid of stock with diced carrot, onion, celery, ham or bacon trimmings and herbs, not the dry vegetable dice the word means now. Braise the trussed birds covered, in enough liquid to come halfway up, about 45 minutes at 325F, then chill them in the strained liquid so they stay moist and firm enough to pare.
The sauce and the truffle essencePoivrade (No. 522) is a peppery brown sauce built on mirepoix, vinegar and reduced stock, strained and coarsely peppered at the end. The truffle essence of No. 395 is the reduced soaking or cooking liquor of truffles; a teaspoon of good truffle-preserving liquid, or the strained soaking water from dried truffle, stands in. Add it off the heat, since the aroma flashes off in a boiling sauce.
YieldSix pigeons split in two gives twelve parcels, one per person as an entrée in the period sense, two as a main course for six.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after some three decades as chef of Delmonico's in New York, and the book reads as a working index rather than a teaching manual — hence the numbered cross-references, which assume a brigade that already knows how a mirepoix stock or a poivrade is built. Crepine is simply the French kitchen word for caul fat, and dishes named for it are all variations on the same trick: a farce wrapped in that lacy membrane, which bastes the parcel from the outside and disappears as it cooks, leaving a browned skin where there is no skin. The neighbouring entries in this section — crepine of chicken breasts, crepine of reedbirds — show how freely the form was applied to small birds. Reedbirds, incidentally, were bobolinks, netted by the thousand and sold as game in nineteenth-century American markets; they are protected now, which is one measure of how far this section of the book has drifted from what a cook can actually buy. Pigeon, by contrast, remains available as squab, and this dish is one of the more workable survivals in the chapter.</invoke>|</parameter>|</invoke>|</parameter>}</parameter>}</invoke>|</parameter>|</parameter>}</parameter>}</invoke>|