CookEat Recipe
Game Birds in Salmì
Part-roasted game birds finished immediately in a strained sauce of roasted bird meat, prosciutto, shallot, broth and Marsala, served over toast.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 2 pigeons, about 400–500 g each, legally supplied for food and professionally cleaned and eviscerated, with heads and feet removed; 75 g additional boneless pigeon meat or edible pigeon trimmings for the sauce; 1 tablespoon olive oil; Salt and black pepper to taste; 25 g butter; 30 g prosciutto, finely chopped; 150 ml poultry stock or meat jus, plus a little extra only if needed; 150 ml Marsala; Madeira is an alternative; 1 shallot, finely chopped; 1 small bay leaf; 4 slices of bread.
Step 2
Heat the oven to 200°C. Toss the 75 g boneless pigeon trimmings with about a teaspoon of the measured oil and a little salt. Roast in a small pan until browned and fully cooked to 74°C, about 15–20 minutes, then pound or finely mince them. This practical sauce base uses edible roasted meat rather than the heads pounded in the historical method.
Step 3
Put the butter, prosciutto, shallot, stock, Marsala, bay leaf and pounded cooked meat in a small saucepan. Add pepper and a little salt if needed. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for about 30 minutes, adding a small splash of stock only if it becomes too thick. Strain firmly through a fine sieve into a pan large enough to hold the jointed birds; keep the sauce hot.
Step 4
Time the next stage so the hot strained sauce is ready before the birds leave the oven. Rub the whole pigeons with the remaining oil and a little salt and roast at 200°C for about 15–20 minutes, just to colour them and start cooking. Transfer them directly to a clean board, quarter at the joints and immediately put the pieces into the hot sauce. This is one continuous cooking process: do not cool, refrigerate or hold the partly cooked birds for later.
Step 5
Simmer the pieces gently in the sauce for about 20–30 minutes, turning occasionally, until all pieces reach 74°C and are tender. Add a little hot stock if the sauce becomes too reduced. Lightly toast the bread, put it beneath the birds and spoon over the sauce. Serve promptly and take care with small bones.
Step 6
Other legally supplied edible game birds may be used. Small birds, including thrushes, stay whole after the first roasting stage and must reach 82°C in the final simmer. Larger birds are quartered and checked to 74°C in every piece. For thrushes, replace the bay leaf with 1–2 food-grade juniper berries; for other birds keep the bay leaf. Use fully cooked boneless trimmings of the same bird for the sauce and adjust cooking time to size and tenderness. Madeira may replace the Marsala in the same measured amount.
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