Cailles sous la Cendre (Quails under the Ashes)

Ingredients

• Quails
• Fine game forcemeat
• Vine leaves
• Bards of bacon
• White paper
• Very hot ashes (old method)
• Pâte à foncer (present-day method)

Instructions

1. Old method: fill the quails with fine truffled game forcemeat.
2. Wrap each one in a buttered vine leaf, then in a bard of bacon, then in two buttered sheets of white paper laid one over the other.
3. Place them on the hearth of a chimney or of a grill and cover them with very hot ashes.
4. Cook for about 35 minutes, renewing the hot ashes from time to time.
5. To serve, remove the first paper, which is soiled, and leave the other wrappings on.
6. Present-day method: fill the quails with forcemeat as above and bard them.
7. Enclose each one in an oval sheet of pâte à foncer, folded into the shape of a pantin and sealed.
8. Arrange on a tray, gild, and cook for 25 to 30 minutes in a fairly hot oven.