I
love quail. I should clarify that at this moment, on this blog, I am referring
to quail as food. I don’t believe I have featured them here before, so today I
am going to remedy the omission.
‘Quail’,
according to the Oxford English Dictionary includes ‘any of various small
short-tailed game birds of the Old World subfamily Perdicinae (family Phasianidae),
esp. of the genera Coturnix and Perdicula, which resemble tiny
partridges and typically have brown camouflaged plumage; esp. the widespread
and migratory C. coturnix, which has
a distinctive liquid call.’ The OED
continues “domestic quail usually belong to the species C. japonica, the Japanese quail, but this is indistinguishable from
C. coturnix except by call, and is
sometimes regarded as a subspecies of it.’
From
a culinary point of view, the use of quail as a desirable dinner dish is
attested from the late fourteenth century, but it has undoubtedly been enjoyed
for much longer. Quails were likely often included in the ‘small birds’
mentioned in early feast descriptions, and many cookery books simply indicate
that they be cooked in the same way as partridges.
I
give you a few choice recipes for this delicious little bird, from a range of
cookery books from the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries.
Quails.
Pick
and truss them like partridges, put them on a bird-spit, tie vine leaves over
the breasts, and tie them on another spit, roast them for twenty minutes before
a clear fire, and baste them with butter often; when they are done, put them in
a dish, with fried breadcrumbs round them, and bread sauce and gravy in boats.
The English Art
of Cookery (1798) by Richard Briggs.
Quails
au Gratin.
Bone
nine quails; cut a piece of bread in the form of a cork, about two inches and a
half in diameter, and two inches and a half high; surround it with a very thin
slice of bacon fat; place it in the middle of the dish; garnish this round with
farce fine (No. 34), sloping off to the edge of the dish all round. Season the
quails with a little herbaceous mixture,* fines herbes, and salt; nil them with
farce, so as to give them their original plumpness; place these with the
breasts outwards on the farce: put a little more farce on the birds, so as to
leave the breasts bare only; cover these with a thin slice of fat bacon, and
bake them in a sharp oven about three quarters of an hour: when done, take out
the roll of bread, and, with a sponge, soak up all the fat; fill this well with
a good brown Italian (No. 68), or scolloped truffles, in a gipsey sauce (No.
71) When served with truffles, an under fillet larded with truffles may be
served between the birds; otherwise put a fried comb of bread or larded fillet.
Glaze the breasts and serve.
Simpson's
Cookery, Improved and Modernised (London, 1834) by John
Simpson (Cook)
Cailles
au chasseur.
Put
the quails in a pan with six ounces of butter, some chopped parsley and
shalots, salt and pepper; toss them repeatedly over the fire for five minutes;
sprinkle upon them a table-spoonful of flour; toss again. Add half a tumbler of
white Burgundy wine, and as much water or broth. Let the sauce thicken in
boiling fast. When the quails are done, squeeze upon them half of the juice of
a lemon.
Cookery
for English households, by a French lady (1864)
Quails
Cured in Oil.
Procure
a sufficient number of fine, plump quails. Pluck them, draw them, clean them
thoroughly, cut them open so that they will lie flat, as for broiling, and rub
them over with salt. Let them lie in the salt, turning them every morning, for
three days. Let them dry; and then pack them down close in a stone jar,
covering each layer of quails tightly with fresh gathered vine leaves. Fill the
jar with pure salad oil, and cover’ it securely with bladder, so as quite to
exclude the air. When they are wanted, take them out and broil them. They make
a delicious dish for breakfast.
The Godey's
Lady's Book Receipts and Household Hints (Philadelphia, 1870.)
Quail
Pie.
Lay
the birds in a deep earthen dish, and season with pepper, salt, and a little
butter; then dredge in flour. Nearly cover with cold water; cover with a paste,
and bake one hour.
The Appledore
Cook Book (Boston, 1872)
Some say Queen Jane Seymour died partly as the result of a surfeit of quails, which she kept calling for after giving birth to Edward VI ...
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this qualifies as proving that quails were considered good eating before the 14th century, but in Exodus, when the Israelites were wandering in the desert after escaping from Egypt, their food consisted of quails that appeared in the evening, and manna that appeared in the morning. Most people remember the manna, but not the quails!
ReplyDeleteSandra
I love these comments! Thanks Foose and Sandra- I didnt know either of these little stories. Dont you love the internet? We could never have had this conversation in the Good Old Days!
ReplyDeleteThe most elegant (by far) date I ever went on in my single days started with the Bolshoi and ended with dinner at a German restaurant. Quail (he ordered).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately for my bon vivant escort, I couldn't figure out how the heck to eat it around all those little bones.
(for some reason I usually ended up with burger-and-a-movie guys).