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Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 1890, Cailles Judic, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
Cailles Judic crowns pressed braised lettuces with butter-poëled quails, cocks’ kidneys, and whole truffles, all coated in a quail-fumet demi-glace whose gloss depends on keeping the lettuce dry.
Cailles Judic (quails butter-roasted in a covered pan, set on braised lettuce with cocks’ kidneys, truffles, and a reduced quail-fumet sauce) teaches one severe and useful lesson: a garnish that carries water can undo a sauce built with hours of care. The lettuce must be tender, compact, and thoroughly pressed before it meets the demi-glace. Wet lettuce thins the sauce at once.
The original assumed a saucier at the range, a stockpot never off the fire, whole cocks arriving with their kidneys, and enough hands to prepare a great crown while every component stayed hot. Here eight quails feed four, prepared demi-glace and quail fumet replace the standing sauce station, and poultry-butcher chicken kidneys are the honest equivalent when sex-specific cocks’ kidneys aren't sold. The linked Poëlings (No. 250) remains whole as its own preparation. One cook, one stove, one evening.
The separate sauce station and brigade-sized crown are scaffolding, so they go. The butter poëling, braised lettuces, kidneys, whole truffles, and quail-fumet demi-glace are the dish, so they stay. Press the lettuces dry before assembly. That is the step to guard.
Cailles Judic belongs to the formal Parisian grand-kitchen table, where small game birds were arranged in architectural crowns and finished with costly garnishes for celebration suppers. Judic refers to Anna Judic, a celebrated Parisian comic singer and actress, not to a region, breed of quail, or cooking method. The dish entered the written canon with its full composition intact: poëled quail, braised lettuce, cocks’ kidneys, whole truffle, and demi-glace sharpened by the concentrated savour of quail fumet.
Quantity
8 (about 2 lb / 900 g total)
damaged outer leaves removed
Quantity
8 tablespoons (1/2 cup / 115 g)
divided
Quantity
2 cups (475 ml / 475 g)
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g)
Quantity
1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g)
divided
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g)
Quantity
16 (about 3 oz / 85 g total)
trimmed and rinsed
Quantity
8 (about 4 oz / 120 g total)
fresh or preserved, with preserving liquid reserved
Quantity
2 1/4 cups (535 ml / 535 g)
divided
Quantity
1 1/2 cups (355 ml / 360 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| oven-ready quailstrussed | 8 (about 4 lb / 1.8 kg total), for Poëlings (No. 250) |
| small butter lettuces or baby lettuce heartsdamaged outer leaves removed | 8 (about 2 lb / 900 g total) |
| unsalted butterdivided | 8 tablespoons (1/2 cup / 115 g) |
| unsalted chicken stock | 2 cups (475 ml / 475 g) |
| fine sea salt for blanching | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g) |
| fine sea saltdivided | 1 teaspoon (5 ml / 6 g) |
| finely ground white pepper | 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml / 1 g) |
| cocks’ kidneys or poultry-butcher chicken kidneystrimmed and rinsed | 16 (about 3 oz / 85 g total) |
| small whole black trufflesfresh or preserved, with preserving liquid reserved | 8 (about 4 oz / 120 g total) |
| prepared quail fumetdivided | 2 1/4 cups (535 ml / 535 g) |
| prepared veal demi-glace | 1 1/2 cups (355 ml / 360 g) |
Trim each lettuce core just enough to clean it while leaving the leaves attached. Blanch the lettuces in well-salted boiling water for 90 seconds, until flexible but still holding their shape, then drain and cool them in cold water. Squeeze each one gently from leaf to core and reshape it into a compact oval. Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a wide covered pan, arrange the lettuces in one layer, add the chicken stock, and season with half the remaining salt and white pepper. Cover with parchment and a lid, then braise at the gentlest simmer for 20 to 25 minutes, until a knife enters the hearts without resistance. Lift them onto doubled clean towels, cover with more towels, and press beneath a board for 10 minutes. If they still release liquid when pressed, give them another five minutes. Ça se rattrape: lettuce that remains wet can be returned to a dry pan and turned gently until its surface moisture is gone.
Reserve 1/4 cup (60 ml) of the quail fumet. Bring the remaining fumet to a lively simmer in a wide saucepan and reduce it to about 3/4 cup (180 ml). Add the veal demi-glace and, if using preserved truffles, their strained preserving liquid. Simmer gently until the sauce reaches nappe, meaning it coats the back of a spoon in a glossy film, and you have about 1 1/2 cups (355 ml). Skim any fat from the surface. If the sauce is thin, keep reducing; if it tightens too far, whisk in the reserved fumet a spoonful at a time. Hold it barely warm.
Prepare and cook the quails according to Poëlings (No. 250), using the referenced preparation at the scale of eight small birds. Cook until richly colored and until the thickest part of each thigh reaches at least 165°F (74°C), then transfer the birds to a warm dish, cover loosely, and rest them for 8 minutes. The poëling is not brigade scaffolding. It is the flavor of the bird, and it stays.
Dry the kidneys thoroughly. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a small skillet over medium heat and add the kidneys in one uncrowded layer. Season with the remaining salt and white pepper, then turn them in the foaming butter for 2 to 3 minutes, until browned at the edges and just firm throughout. Too much cooking makes them chalky. If the pan begins to darken before the centers are cooked, lower the heat and add a teaspoon of water; the butter settles, and the kidneys finish gently.
Set preserved truffles in the warm demi-glace for 3 minutes, turning them once so they take on its gloss. Fresh truffles need only 1 minute, since prolonged heat drives off their perfume. Lift them out, cover, and bring the sauce back to nappe without boiling it hard.
Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a wide skillet. Add the pressed lettuces and turn them gently over medium heat until hot, butter-glossed, and dry on the outside. Press one lightly with the back of a spoon before plating. If liquid beads around it, keep turning the lettuces for another minute. The demi-glace must meet a dry surface.
Arrange the eight lettuces in a close ring on a large warmed platter, their tapered ends pointing outward. Set one quail squarely on each lettuce. Place one kidney on either side of every bird and crown each quail with one whole truffle. Spoon the quail-fumet demi-glace generously over the birds without drowning the lettuces, letting the sauce pool lightly beneath the crown. Carry it straight to the table. À table!
1 serving (about 650g)
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