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Capon Braise, Ecossaise
Remove the head and feet of a small, tender capon of four pounds; singe, draw and wipe neatly. Soak two ounces bread crumbs in one and a half gills cold milk for two minutes; take up and squeeze out the milk and lay on a plate. Add one ounce finely chopped raw beef marrow and the yolk of an egg. Season with half teaspoon salt and two saltspoons white pepper. Mix all thoroughly with a spoon until well thickened, then stuff the capon with it. Truss neatly and place in a small brazing pan. Place a mirepoix around the capon, adding four tablespoons flour and one and a half tablespoons melted butter; mix a little with the mirepoix. Pour in sufficient hot water to cover the vegetables. Season with a tablespoon salt and half teaspoon white pepper. Cover the pan, let boil on the range for ten minutes, then set in the oven to braise for one hour. Remove, transfer the capon to a large, hot dish and keep warm. Reduce the gravy on the fire to three-quarters of a pint, then strain it through a fine Chinese strainer into another saucepan; add six heads canned mushrooms cut in half, two ounces cooked smoked beef tongue cut into quarter-inch squares and one egg yolk; then briskly stir while cooking for two minutes. Pour the sauce over the capon and serve.
A classical French-method braise dressed up with a Scottish name. Two things decide whether it works: the bird reaching a safe internal temperature, and the egg yolk going into the sauce off the boil.
- The hinge: the finishing yolkOnce the yolk goes in, the sauce must stay below a simmer. "Briskly stir while cooking for two minutes" means over low heat, whisking constantly; at a boil the yolk scrambles and the sauce breaks into threads.
- CaponA capon is a castrated cockerel, fatter and more tender than a hen, and now uncommon in many markets. A 4 lb roasting chicken is the direct substitute.
- Time and temperatureThe book gives no oven setting; braise covered at 325F. One hour is optimistic for a stuffed 4 lb bird. Cook until the thigh reads 165F and the centre of the stuffing does too, which usually takes 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours after the ten-minute stovetop boil.
- Gills and saltspoonsA gill is half a cup, so one and a half gills is 3/4 cup of milk. A saltspoon is about 1/4 teaspoon.
- SaltA full tablespoon of salt in the braising liquid, then reducing that liquid to 3/4 pint, produces a sauce far too salty for modern palates. Use a teaspoon, and season the finished sauce after reducing.
- Mirepoix and the flourThe recipe does not itemise the mirepoix; the term means roughly diced aromatic vegetables, such as onion, carrot and celery, enough to line the pan. The four tablespoons of flour rubbed into it with butter is the thickener; it is a rough roux made in place, which is why the gravy needs straining.
- Vessels"Brazing pan" is a lidded braising pot or Dutch oven just large enough to hold the bird. A "fine Chinese strainer" is a chinois, the conical fine-mesh strainer; any fine sieve does the job.
- Beef marrowAsk a butcher for marrow bones and scoop the raw marrow out, or order marrow directly. It enriches the crumb stuffing rather than binding it; suet is the nearest substitute, softened butter a distant one.
- Canned mushrooms and tongue"Six heads canned mushrooms" means whole button caps from a tin, drained. Fresh buttons, briefly sauteed, are better. Cooked smoked tongue is sold in delicatessens; a similar weight of good boiled ham gives the same salty note.
- YieldServes four, with the stuffing counted as part of the portion. Carve at the table and spoon the sauce over each serving so it does not sit and thin out.
This comes from Alexander Filippini's The International Cook Book (1906); Filippini had been a manager and cook at Delmonico's in New York, and his books catalogue the grand-restaurant repertoire dish by dish under French names for an American home audience. In classical kitchen nomenclature a l'ecossaise means "in the Scottish manner", and the label was applied loosely to garnishes thought to have a Scottish character; the connection is culinary convention rather than anything documented in Scottish cooking, and here it seems to rest on the diced tongue and the plain, unwined brown gravy. The method itself is straightforwardly French: a bird braised on a bed of vegetables that both flavours and thickens the liquid, with the strained cooking liquor finished with an egg yolk. The recipe also marks a moment when tinned mushrooms were a respectable restaurant ingredient rather than a compromise, and when capon was common enough at market that a cook could specify a small tender one without further comment.