The spirit of cookery

with slices of bacon and an oiled paper, and bake them in a French field or country stove so called (four de campagne), or in an oven. Various other preparations are characterized by a ragout or sauce only. Buffs, the males, and reeves, the females, of the species tringa (in French le combattant), are best towards the end of May. They are caught in nets, kept in boxes and fattened, and then roasted or fried like larks. Quails, French cailles, are also migratory birds, breeding in temperate latitudes, and wintering in more southerly climes. The European quails spend the winter mainly in Africa. When in early autumn they arrive from the north in the southern parts of Europe, they are mostly in excellent condition. The flocks, which comprise thousands of individuals, consist mainly of young birds. After their arrival they are chased by sportsmen as well as the people, •and thousands are slain, with sticks or shot, and snared or netted ; and it is for this wholesale destruction that the German peasant unwittingly preserves and surrounds with a halo of sanctity the nests and young of the revered Wachtel. Again, when the quails return from Africa and land exhausted on islands or peninsulas of the northern Mediterranean, they meet with the same reception. In the spring of 1894 a steamer of the French Messageries from Alexandria carried 90,000 quails in boxes. The ship being delayed by adverse weather, the food provided proved insufficient, and several thousands of birds died of starvation before reaching Marseilles. By the common consent of gastronomers, quail is never cooked in any other way than as roast in a paper case {rotie en papillote) ; its flavour is very volatile, and whenever the bird is brought in contact with liquid, the perfume evaporates and is lost. For the oiled paper case a thin envelope of bacon may be substituted, with a vine-leaf applied to the breast. A vine-leaf underneath the bacon is QUAIL AND GROUSE applicable only in case it be desired to keep the roasts for some time in a cold state ; then the vine-leaf prevents it from getting dry. A recipe for Qtcails au Gratin comes from Beauvilliers. The birds are boned and stuffed with a farce au gratin, bedded on and imbedded in farce, and baked on a silver dish. Quails with Truffles, or a la Financière, are also to be boned, stuffed, and braised, or twice egged, crumbed, and fried, garnished with Toulouse ragout and quenelle forcemeat. The breasts or fillets admit of all the preparation given for fowl and pheasant. Other braised forms sometimes produced in the French kitchen are grotesque ragouts, such as Cailles a I’Anglaise, in which eight quails, a calf’s brain in halves, and nine chipolata sausages are cooked with bacon, bouillon and champagne ; or Cailles a la Cendrc aux Ecrevisses, a funny mixture of quails and crayfish, calculated for a show dish in the restaurant.