At a recent visit to a Michelin-recommended Parisian restaurant, I was served quail that was red-to-bloody near the bone. The chef claimed that that was the intention, and any further sautéing would toughen the fowl. I know that poultry should be thoroughly cooked. Is the chef putting his clients in danger?
And while on the subject—I often bake chicken’s dark meat only to find out, even after adding 5-10 minutes to the original recipe, that there still is a streak of blood by the bone. Any comments?
Perhaps Uke will move this to Cafe Society where his toque is the highest.
The right way to cook little birds varies. I love squab (baby pigeon) and it certainly should be very very rare. Quail pinkish at the bone would be fine by me, but red seems a little extreme. I tend to butterfly them and then grill them at high temperatures. By the time the outside is dark, the inside is pretty much cooked. I hope your bird was not in the fride when you ordered. The wilder the quail, the less I would cook them, since game is overly lean).
I dunno whether other birds suffer from the same health risks as the humble chook.
I’ve heard quite a few chefs recommend cooking duck, pheasant(if not hung) and other game/fowl until only pink but only ever when they are talking about breast fillets - in this case any pathogens would most likely be on the outside and thus would still be killed off by cooking. To present a whole bird this way would be dangerous as the cavity would probably not have been heated sufficiently to kill off the bacteria that are almost certainly present in there.