To dress cold fowl or pigeon is a traditional British recipe, based on Hannah Glasse's recipe of 1747, for a classic dish of cold, cooked, fowl that are quartered, dipped in an egg batter, fried and served with thickened gravy. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: To dress cold fowl or pigeon.
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This is a traditional British recipe redacted from Hannah Glasse's 1747 volume The Aft of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, the classic Georgian cookbook.
To dreſs cold fowl or pigeon.
CUT them into four quarters, beat up and egg or two, according to what you dreſs, grate a little nutmeg in, a little ſalt, ſome parſley chopped, a few crumbs of bread, beat them well together, dip them in this batter, and have ready ſome driping hot in a ſtew-pan, in which fry them of a fine light brown : have ready a little good gravy, thickened with a little flour, mixed with a ſpoonful of catchup ; lay the fry in the diſh, and pour the ſauce over. Garniſh with lemon, and a few muſhrooms, if you have any. A cold rabbit eats well done thus.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
4 cooked pigeons, quail, grouse, partridges etc
For the Batter:
4 eggs
1/4 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
sea salt, to taste
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
4 tbsp breadcrumbs
oil or dripping, for frying
300ml good gravy thickened with flour
2 tbsp ketchup
1 lemon, sliced, to garnish
12 button mushrooms, fried, to garnish
Method:
Allow the fowl to cool after cooking then quarter them. In the meantime, beat the eggs in a bowl and work in the nutmeg, salt, parsley and breadcrumbs.
Heat oil or dripping to a depth of about 4cm in a wok or large pan. Dip the pieces of fowl in the batter and then drop in the hot oil. Fry until golden brown and done through then drain on kitchen paper and set on a serving dish.
Thicken some good gravy with flour then work in the ketchup. Heat through and pour over the birds. Garnish with lemon slices, arrange fried mushrooms around the dish and serve.
