A guide to modern cookery

Select some fresh and plump quails; remove their gizzards; season them inside with a grain of salt and a few drops of brandy; insert a piece of raw truffle into each bird, and truss them as for an entrée. Set them in a sautépan, snugly pressed one against the other, and season them with salt. Cover them with a coarse julienne of carrots, onions and celery, cooked in butter, and prepared as far as possible from new vegetables. Moisten, just enough to cover, with some succulent ambercoloured veal stock, gelatinous and fine; cover, boil, and then poach gently for twelve minutes. This done, add a julienne of truffles (raw if possible) which should equal only half of the vegetable julienne, and poach for a further two minutes, that the truffles may cook and the quails be done. Dish in a timbale, clear of grease, and pour the cookingliquor and the julienne over the quails. Pilaff rice is often served with quails prepared in this way. 1896—RIZOTTO DE CAILLES Into each quail insert a piece of fresh, pounded pork fat, the size of a hazel nut, combined with an equal quantity of white truffle; and cook them in a saucepan with butter. Add their fat to a previously-prepared Rizotto. Dish this rizotto in a timbale, and hollow it out so as to make a nest for the quails. Sprinkle the latter with the saucepan-swillings, consisting of game fumet; and send the dish to the table at once. 1897—CAILLES SOUS LA CENDRE Stuff the quails with a little smooth truflled game forcemeat, and wrap them each in a buttered vine-leaf, followed by a slice of bacon, and finally by two sheets of buttered paper. Place them on the hearth-stone; cover them with very hot cinders, and cook thus for thirty-five minutes, taking care to renew the hot cinders from time to time. When about to serve them, remove the outside covering of paper which is charred, but leave the other coverings. N.B.—A log fire is essential for this recipe. 1898—CAILLES SOUVAROFF Prepare these as described under ‘‘ Faisan a la Souvaroff ”’ (No. 1845). 1899—CAILLES A LA TURQUE Truss the quails as for an entrée; brown them in butter, and complete their cooking in pilaff rice, combined with a quarter of its weight of cooked and chopped egg-plant pulp. Set the rice in a pyramid on a dish; place the quails all round (upright against the rice), and surround with a thread of quail fumet. © 1900—TIMBALE DE CAILLES ALEXANDRA Coat a well-buttered timbale mould with patty paste, and line it with slices of bacon so as to completely cover the paste. The slices of bacon in this case are there to prevent the moistening of the timbale from reaching the paste. Insert a piece of foie gras into each quail; stiffen them in butter, and set them against the sides of the timbale in successive tiers. Completely garnish the middle with small, peeled truffles; add one-quarter pint of excellent stock with Madeira (per six quails), and a few bits of bay-leaf. Close the timbale with a layer of paste and cook in a moderately hot oven for one and one-quarter hours. Turn out upon withdrawing from the oven, and serve the dish as it stands. N.B.—(1) The shell of paste merely serves to hold in the quails and their garnish, and ought not to be eaten (2) The same timbale may be prepared with ortolans, except shat these need only forty-five minutes’ cooking. CoL_D QuAILS 1901—CHAUD-FROID DE CAILLES EN BELLE-VUE The quails should be boned for a chaud-froid, and stuffed with gratin forcemeat of game with a rod of foie gras and another of truffle set in the middle. This done, reshape them; wrap them each in a square of muslin; poach them for twenty minutes in an excellent veal stock, and let them cool therein.