Quail Ham.

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: Cured Birds.

Every salted fowl, such as geese, cranes, wild ducks, barnyard doves and other fowl, once they are out of the brine and with the brine well washed off them, are dried in moderate smoke or in the open air. To store them for a long time after they have been hung in smoke, preserve them in oil. Fowl that are salted are used more in cool places than in warm, and in places where the meat of quadrupeds is scarce. Ortolans, fig-peckers, and other small birds, after being kept for six days in brine, are removed and put in liquified fat that contains fennel seeds, in an earthenware vessel, letting the lard congeal about the birds. Alternatively those small birds can be kept in well salted vinegar that contains garlic, cloves and crushed pepper. I have seen them done both ways, and brought from Cyprus to Venice. For best storage they must always be in a cool place. (Opera, 1570, I.10)

1000 g boneless quail or other small birds
4 cups water
28 g salt
14 g sugar
2.5 g curing salt #1
seasonings: I used rosemary, pepper, garlic
lard or olive oil (I used duck fat)
pinch fennel pollen or ground fennel seeds

Bring water to a boil. Remove from heat, and stir in salt and sugar until dissolved. Cool completely to room temperature, then mix in curing salt #1 and any seasonings.
Rinse quail, pat dry, and fully submerge in the brine. Use a plate or other weight as needed to keep the birds fully below the surface. Brine for 2 hours.

Remove birds, discarding the brine. Rinse, pat dry, and cold-smoke for 2-4 hours as desired. Place in a non-reactive container. If using fat, melt and infuse with the fennel pollen or seeds. Cover birds completely with far or oil, with a 1/4" layer on top. Cover tightly and store in a cool, dry place for at least one week. When ready to serve, remove from oil or fat, pat dry as needed, and grill to crisp up the meat.

If using a larger bird such as chicken or duck, increase brine time to 1-2 days and cold-smoking time up to 6 hours.

I used boneless quail as they are somewhat similar in size to the small birds mentioned and more readily available. I substituted duck fat for the lard. Oils specifically mentioned in Scappi are almond, olive, and walnut; olive oil is the cheapest and most widely available.
I added the curing salt #1 for safety reasons; it helps prevent botulism bacteria from forming during the curing process. I added sugar to the brine to make it consistent with modern brine recipes.

Sources
Scappi, Bartolomeo, and Terence Scully. The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570): L'arte Et Prudenza D'un Maestro Cuoco. Toronto: University of Toronto, 2008. Print. ISBN 978-0-8010-9624-1.
Marianski, Stanley, and Adam Marianski. Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages. Seminole, FL: Bookmagic, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9824267-3-9.

What worked: $deity, this was good. It was incredibly easy to do ahead of time and I used an earthenware vessel two plastic containers with small birds as a proof of concept. (I actually have a stoneware crock with a waxed linen lid I will try next time.) Someone referred to their taste as "quail ham" which was an accurate summation of the flavor - salty (but not too much), smoky, and rich. Everyone who tried them seemed to like them. I know I did - I could have eaten one by myself. They were also totally different from my usual cured pork sausages. Since I only had half a dozen I cut them up in small bits for ease of crisping and serving.

What didn't: I cold-smoked the birds for about four hours but I suspect that was overkill; they probably didn't absorb any smoke after the first hour or so. I used a metal smoker basket which kept all the quail together, but resulted in polka dots on the meat where the smoke colored through the basket holes. I was amused by it but I might try a sieve next time for a more even color.

This used a lot of duck fat. I recovered most of it, but still. I'd use olive oil next time as it's significantly cheaper, although that has the disadvantage of not solidifying the way duck fat does so keeping the birds submerged might need a weight on top.

The quail meat was fully cured from the process but they needed a fair amount of browning; straight from the fat they had a raw-bird chewiness that wasn't appealing. I didn't bring over my skillet and used the low-edged skillet/griddle provided, which worked fine but spat a lot because of the low edges. The curvy upstairs neighbor was understandably a bit nonplussed at this as she was sitting right there cooking wafers. She also counseled me to be more careful as I cut them up in the skillet; she (again, understandably) didn't want the grill to tip and end up wearing boiling hot duck fat.

Will I make it again? I plan on curing a chicken at the war in July. I might actually pre-cut the chicken after smoking to pack it more densely in the container.

Comments

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

where do you get boneless quail? The 6packs I get at Ranch 99 have bones.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

I bought them at the Saturday Ferry Building farmers' market. A bit pricey for everyday use.

[joycebre.livejournal.com]

:( I don't have a smoker anyway.

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Sounds fantastic.

How required is the cold-smoking? I'm not yet set up for doing any sort of smoking. Does it merely add flavor or does it actually affect the edibility of the end product?

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

Besides the original recipe calling for it? (Okay, it also says in the open air. But the part about submerging in fat is after hanging in smoke.)

It adds complexity of flavor and helps preserve by drying as well as the smoke compounds that deter bacteria. I've made duck proscuitto without and with cold-smoking; the smoked version tastes far superior.

Can you make bird confit without it? Undoubtedly. Will it taste better with smoking as well as be more accurate? I think so on both counts.

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

(These still had wing bones, but that was it.)

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

Good to know. I may try an unsmoked version simply because this looks really tasty and I don't have the patience to wait until I am set up to smoke things.