Kevin Lohraff's quail stretching pasta, page 73

This is the second of two quail recipes in the book and the last for us to try. Fred wanted to keep back some of the quail that he and his dad hunted so we could make his parents dinner. He's nice like that.

We visited his folks on the farm this weekend, so I lugged all the ingredients for this recipe down there and made dinner Saturday night.

I really enjoy cooking with my mother-in-law. She and I have different cooking styles. And, she is so interested in watching me cook when I'm there. It's one thing to try someone else's food, but really, if you cook, is so very informative to watch them. And, Dorothy (my mother-in-law) is fantastic about helping, too. She really wants to help when I cook, which is great, so she carefully chops, washes, stirs, and generally helps make a mountain of  recipe into a much more enjoyable project for me.

I have to say, this is not a recipe I'd usually make with quail. Quail are like gold. There are small and rare to catch, making the meat invaluable. So, since this recipe starts off with cutting the meat off the bone into bite sized pieces, it was going against my instincts from the get-go. It's one thing to boil and debone a bird. Then, all the meat falls off. But, deboning a raw bird means leaving a fairly big percent of meat sticking to the bones. And, qauil don't have a percent of meat to spare! Also, using chunks of quail meat in a heavy, alfredo-type sauce was the # 2 reason I would not normally make this recipe. Let's throw in some chicken, but quail? Again, my instinct is that the meat is too precious to loose in a rich sauce.

My mother-in-law, Dorothy Koenig, deboning quail

Painting of my father-in-law (Chris Koenig) quail
 hunting made by my father, Gerard Rebmann

Which leads me to another reason I liked cooking with my mother-in-law. For one thing, she sensed the waste in deboning a quail just like I did. She's a frugal quail woman as well and hates to waste the rare meat her husband so proudly hunted. And, two, she deboned the quail for me anyway, a task I was subconsciously dreading, because I wanted her to. That's it. "Ann needs this job done, and I can do it. Seems ridiculous to me, but I'll do it." Thank you, Dot, for allowing my hands and conscience to be unsoiled with quail wasting and for helping me with the chopping, dicing, stirring, draining, etc. for the meal.

I used several veggies in the pasta, which Dot enjoyed, and freshly grated parmesan, which she really enjoyed, and it turned out just fine. Really, it was a very nice meal. I just won't be able to repeat it, at least not unless Dot has some more quail to she wants to debone. Quail deboning is not for me. And, if it's not for me, I know it's not for Dot, either.