Cutlets of Squabs a l'Albufera

Ranhofer writes in shorthand: this entrée exists only as a variation on No. 2269, so the cook is expected to have the base preparation, the half-glaze and the poivrade already at hand. Read it as an assembly instruction rather than a standalone recipe.

• What a squab cutlet isNot a chop. The breasts are lifted from young pigeons, trimmed to a cutlet shape, and a small wing or leg bone is often left in or inserted to mimic the handle. A squab dresses out at roughly a pound, giving two cutlets; the recipe itself specifies no yield or portion.
• The hinge: the glazeEverything here depends on reducing Madeira with the half-glaze until it films the garnish rather than pooling around it. Cook it down over moderate heat in a wide pan, uncovered, and stop when a spoon drawn through leaves a clean track. Past that point the sugars in the Madeira turn bitter.
• Half-glazeNo. 400 is demi-glace: brown stock and espagnole reduced together. A well-reduced homemade veal stock, thick enough to be syrupy when cool, stands in adequately. Commercial glace de viande diluted with stock is a working substitute, but salt it only at the end.
• Cock's combsThe braised comb of a rooster, blanched, peeled of its outer skin and simmered until gelatinous, was a standard 19th-century garnish and is now hard to source outside specialist butchers. A glazed button mushroom cap or, as the parent recipe has it, a slice of truffle gives the same visual accent.
• Poivrade sauceNo. 522 is a peppery brown sauce built on mirepoix, vinegar and crushed peppercorns, strained and finished with half-glaze. The pepper should go in near the end of the reduction; long boiling makes it harsh rather than aromatic. Serve it in a boat, as directed, not over the cutlets.
• Cooking the breastsSquab breast is dark, lean and best kept rosy at the centre. This entry gives no method, deferring to No. 2269; cooked through the meat goes dry and livery.
• TrufflesFresh black truffle in the sauce is the intent. Preserved truffle peelings, added off the heat, are the practical version; truffle oil is not, since heat and the reduction will flatten it to nothing.