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Squabs En Crapaudine
Cut off necks and feet, singe, draw and neatly wipe six fat, tender squabs. Split them through the back without separating, remove breast bones, crack legs and wing bones with a cleaver; place between a towel and lightly flatten them, season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon pepper, roll well in a little melted butter, then in bread crumbs. Arrange on double broiler and broil for eight minutes on each side. Remove, pour a Piquante sauce on a hot dish, dress the squabs, one overlapping another, and serve.
A spatchcocked-and-crumbed bird cooked fast over direct heat. The whole thing hinges on the butterflying: flatten the squabs evenly, or the thick breast will still be raw when the crumbs have gone black.
- Squab, and what to buySquab is a young domestic pigeon, slaughtered before it flies, usually sold dressed at somewhere around 12-14 oz. Order from a game butcher or online supplier; six birds is a generous main course for six. Cornish game hens are the usual stand-in, though they are larger and milder and want a few extra minutes a side.
- "Draw and singe" is already doneBirds today arrive plucked and eviscerated. You may still need to pull a stray pinfeather with tweezers and trim the wing tips.
- Crapaudine cutSplit down the backbone without cutting through the breast skin, open the bird flat, then lift out the breastbone and ribs with your fingers and a small knife. Cracking the leg and wing joints with the back of a heavy knife lets the bird lie truly flat, which is the point of the whole exercise.
- Double broilerThis is a hinged wire grill basket that clamps the flattened bird between two grids so it can be turned in one motion over coals. A grill basket over charcoal is the direct equivalent; a heavy ridged pan with a weight on top works indoors.
- Under a modern broiler elementButtered crumbs scorch under overhead gas or electric radiant heat long before the legs are done. Keep the birds 5-6 inches from the element, or start them skin side down in a hot pan and finish in a 425F oven.
- Timing and donenessEight minutes a side suits a 14 oz bird over coals, but check rather than trust it: squab is traditionally served with the breast rosy, while current food-safety guidance for all poultry is 165F at the thickest part of the thigh. Decide which you are cooking to before you start.
- Piquante sauceTypically in this period: shallots reduced in white wine and vinegar, brown sauce or demi-glace added, finished with chopped gherkins and parsley, and in some versions capers. A well-reduced stock-and-wine pan sauce sharpened with vinegar and cornichons gets you there.
- SeasoningA teaspoon of salt across six birds is light by modern taste. Season inside and out, and salt the flattened birds 30-40 minutes ahead if you have the time.
En crapaudine means "in the manner of a toad" -- a flattened, splayed bird with its cracked legs sticking out was thought to resemble a squatting crapaud, and French cookery has used the term for split grilled pigeon and chicken since at least the early nineteenth century; it is the same operation English cooks call spatchcocking. Squab appears constantly in American cookbooks of this era because pigeons were domestically raised in lofts and dovecotes, and small enough to cook through on a gridiron in a quarter of an hour. The double broiler and the piquante sauce describe the sequence plainly enough: bird flattened and crumbed in advance, fired when wanted, dressed overlapping on a hot platter for service.