Mousses de Cailles

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •8-cup food processor with metal blade
• •Fine-mesh sieve, about 8 inches wide
• •Two nesting stainless-steel bowls for an ice bath
• •Eight 4-ounce (120 ml) dariole molds or ramekins
• •Deep roasting pan for the bain-marie
• •Small heavy saucepan
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Boning knife and poultry shears

Instructions

1. 1

   Bone and chill

   Remove the skin and every visible piece of sinew from the quail meat, then cut it into 1-inch pieces. Spread the meat on a metal tray and place it in the freezer for 20 minutes, until very firm at the edges but not frozen solid. Chill the processor bowl and blade beside it, and set the egg whites and cream over ice. The mixture must remain below 50°F (10°C) from first pounding to final molding.

   A butcher can bone the birds, but ask for every carcass and wing tip back. The bones become the sauce, and there is no sense paying for quail twice.
2. 2

   Build the quail jus

   Chop the reserved carcasses into a few pieces with poultry shears. Melt 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 14 g) of the butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, add the bones and trimmings, and brown them deeply for 10 to 12 minutes. Add the shallot and carrot and cook until their edges color. Pour in the Madeira, scrape up the fond from the pan floor, and reduce until only a syrupy glaze remains. Add the cold water, thyme, and bay leaf, then hold at a bare simmer for 45 minutes while you make the mousse.

3. 3

   Pound and sieve

   Put the chilled meat and 2 teaspoons of salt in the cold processor and pulse until the meat becomes a smooth, tacky paste. Salt begins extracting the proteins that will bind the cream, so it goes in before anything else. Add the egg whites, white pepper, and nutmeg, then pulse only until incorporated. Scrape the paste through a fine-mesh sieve into a chilled metal bowl, leaving sinew behind. This sieving is not brigade scaffolding. It is the dish, and it gives the Mousses de Cailles their fine, close texture.

4. 4

   Mount the cold cream

   Nest the bowl of quail paste inside a larger bowl of ice. Work in the 1⅔ cups of cold cream in four additions with a sturdy spatula, fully incorporating each before adding the next. The farce mousseline, a fine cream-bound forcemeat, should become pale, glossy, and softly mounded. If it turns grainy or develops a greasy rim, stop immediately. Spread it thinly against the cold bowl, leave it over ice for 10 minutes, then beat in 1 tablespoon of the optional cold cream, adding the second only if needed. Ça se rattrape. Continuing while it is warm is what finishes the split.

5. 5

   Test and fill

   Poach a teaspoon of the mixture in barely simmering water until its center reaches 165°F (74°C), about 3 minutes, then taste it for seasoning. It should feel tender and finely grained, not rubbery. Butter eight 4-ounce (120 ml) dariole molds or ramekins generously, fill them with the mousse, and tap each mold once against a folded towel to release hidden air pockets. Smooth the tops, cover them with buttered parchment rounds, and chill for 20 minutes.

6. 6

   Set the mousses

   Heat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Arrange the molds in a deep roasting pan and pour hot water around them to reach halfway up their sides, making a bain-marie, or water bath. Cover the pan loosely with foil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the mousses feel gently resilient and their centers reach 165°F (74°C). The water must never boil. If bubbles gather around the molds, remove a ladleful and replace it with cool water before the mousse develops holes or curdles. Rest the molds in the bath for 5 minutes.

7. 7

   Finish the jus

   Strain the quail liquid into a clean saucepan, pressing the bones only lightly, and reduce it to ¾ cup (180 ml). Add the ½ cup of cream and the measured sauce salt, then simmer until the sauce is nappant, thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove it from the heat and monter au beurre, finishing it by whisking in the remaining 2 tablespoons of cold butter a piece at a time. If the sauce turns oily, put 1 tablespoon of cold water in a clean pan and slowly whisk the broken sauce into it. Taste only after reduction, because Madeira, salt, and quail all concentrate.

8. 8

   Turn out and serve

   Run a thin knife around each mold and invert two mousses onto every warmed plate. Spoon the glossy jus de caille au madère, the quail reduction with Madeira, around them rather than burying their smooth surfaces. The mousses should tremble slightly when the plate moves and cut with the pressure of a fork. Serve at once. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Buy whole farmed quail and ask the butcher to bone them while returning every carcass. Technique still comes first, but the bones give this small sauce the depth that a spoonful of packaged stock cannot.
• •Use heavy cream with at least 35 percent fat. Thin cream cannot carry the same emulsion, and a dairy substitute changes both the setting and the flavor. We don't apologize for butter or cream when they are doing structural work.
• •The sieve is the quiet labor of the dish. Press the paste through with a flexible scraper while it is cold, then discard the threads left behind. Skipping this step produces a pleasant quail loaf, but not Mousses de Cailles.
• •Serve with buttered spinach, glazed young carrots, or a smooth celery-root purée. A restrained Pinot Noir has enough freshness for the cream and enough earthiness for quail without flattening either.

Advance Preparation

• •The quail jus can be made through the first reduction up to two days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator. Reheat it, add the cream, reduce, and monter au beurre only while the mousses bake.
• •The quail can be boned and trimmed a day ahead. Keep the meat and carcasses separately covered at 40°F (4°C) or colder.
• •The finished farce mousseline can be molded, covered, and refrigerated for up to four hours. Set the bain-marie and bake as the guests sit down; a cooked mousse loses its tenderness if held for a long service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 285g)