[1883—QUAILS]
Quails should always be chosen plump, and their fat should be white and very firm. Besides the spit, which should always be used in preference to the oven for roasting, they allow of two other methods of cooking: they may be cooked in butter, in a saucepan; or they may be poached in excellent strong and gelatinous veal stock.
This last mode of procedure greatly enhances the quail’s quality and is frequently used.
[1884—CAILLES EN CASSEROLE]
Cook them in butter, in the saucepan in which they will be served.
Swill with a few drops of brandy; add a little game [fumet]; cover, and serve very hot.
[1885—CAILLES AUX CERISES]
For four quails:—Truss them as for an entrée and cook them with butter in a saucepan. Swill with a little brandy and a glass of port, in which a piece of orange rind should have soaked.
Add three tablespoonfuls of excellent veal stock, three tablespoonfuls of red-currant jelly and about forty cherries, previously poached in a boiling syrup of about 18° (Saccharometer) and cooled in the syrup.
Drain them before adding them to the quail, and, if the sauce be too insipid, sharpen it with a few drops of lemon juice.