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Broiled Squabs, Africaine
Split open through the back six fresh, fat Philadelphia squabs. Neatly draw, cut off the legs at the first joints, wipe dry, gently flatten with a cleaver; lightly roll in a tablespoon oil a plate, then arrange on a double broiler; season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper and broil for five minutes on each side. Remove, dress on six freshly prepared toasts on a hot dish and keep warm. Heat a tablespoon butter in a black frying pan, add three minced green peppers, cook for one minute, tossing them well meanwhile; mince and add three canned sweet red peppers. Season with half teaspoon salt, cook for one minute, lightly tossing again. Dress the garnishing on one side of the dish of squabs.
Cut a small eggplant into julienne strips, lightly roll in flour and fry in boiling fat for two minutes. Lift up with a skimmer, thoroughly drain on a towel, sprinkle half teaspoon salt over and arrange on the opposite side of the first garnishing, pour a hot Perigueux sauce over the squabs and serve.
A grand-hotel plate built from three separate operations — broiled birds, a two-pepper sauté, fried eggplant straw — finished with a truffle sauce. Read it as an assembly job and time the components backward from the moment the squabs come off the heat.
- The hinge: the saucePerigueux sauce is not optional garnish here, it is the dish. It is a demi-glace or espagnole reduced with Madeira and finished with chopped truffle and truffle juice. Without a real brown stock reduction behind it the plate is just broiled pigeon on toast, so make the sauce first and hold it warm.
- "Philadelphia squabs"A market designation for the plump, milk-fed young pigeons then raised commercially around Philadelphia, not a breed you need to seek out. Any 12-16 oz squab works; game birds sold as "pigeon" are older and tougher and will not cook in ten minutes.
- Double broilerA hinged wire basket that clamps the flattened bird between two grids so it can be turned over coals in one motion. Under a modern overhead broiler, set the rack 4-5 inches from the element at its highest setting and turn the birds with tongs; a grill pan or outdoor grill is closer to the original.
- DonenessFive minutes a side leaves squab breast rosy, which is how it is customarily served in this style of cooking. If you want it to reach the 165F recommended for poultry generally, expect the breast to go dry and livery — squab is one of the few birds commonly taken only to medium.
- Spatchcocking"Split open through the back... gently flatten with a cleaver" is spatchcocking. Crack the breastbone and press the bird flat so it sits in even contact with the heat; this is what makes the short cooking time possible.
- "Boiling fat"Deep fat at a visible shimmer, roughly 375F. Two minutes is right for floured eggplant matchsticks — any longer and they collapse into grease. Fry in small batches so the fat does not drop below temperature.
- Canned sweet red peppersThese are pimientos, still sold in jars. Since they are already cooked, the one minute given is only to warm them through; do not let them break down into the green peppers.
- "A black frying pan"Cast iron or black steel, called for because it holds heat and takes the peppers hard and fast. The point is the sear, not the vessel.
- YieldSix squabs, six toasts, six diners at a formal service — though one bird per person is a modest portion by modern standards and two is common when squab is the main course.
Squab was a luxury staple of American restaurant cooking around 1900, and "Philadelphia squab" functioned as a quality grade on a menu much as "Long Island duckling" did — the term denotes a young pigeon taken before it has flown, and birds raised around Philadelphia were reportedly supplied to hotel kitchens. The name africaine in the classical French repertoire generally signals a garnish built on eggplant and tomato, with peppers in some versions — the vegetables associated with North Africa — rather than any dish from the continent itself; here it means sweet peppers on one side, fried eggplant on the other. That the whole thing is then flooded with Perigueux, a Madeira-and-truffle sauce named for Périgueux in the truffle country of the Dordogne, tells you where this book's sympathies lie.