Quail with grapes and bleu cheese

1. Stage

For the quail to be juicy, it should be soaked for 15 minutes in a 6% salt solution. If we just salt it, the salt will draw out the moisture.

2. Stage

And here the salt will help to retain moisture inside the quail during the baking process and make it juicier. But it is still necessary to salt the bird before baking. Such soaking will not lead to salting. Dissolve 60 grams of salt in 1 liter of water and soak the quail.

3. Stage

Next, continue to prepare the carcasses. Cut off two phalanxes from the wings. And a little chop off the ends of the legs. These parts will burn anyway. You can throw those parts in the freezer with the soup set. You can give them to your pets. I gave them to the kitties under the driveway.

4. Stage

Now one more step in the preparation of the quail. To make the skin of the quail crispy, you need to do the following "trick with your ears". We put two pots. One with boiling water, the other with ice water. We lower each quail for 15 seconds in boiling water and for 15 seconds in icy water. And so repeat three times. Thanks to this method, the fat on the skin will start to melt. Dipping in cold water stops the process of cooking the quail. All this is done quickly enough, so we could not make step-by-step photos.

5. Stage

As a result, the quail will get this kind of shape. And the skin becomes thin. In the process of baking, it will get crispy. Here's a picture of one bird that hasn't been processed yet. You can easily see the difference.

6. Stage

Preparing the filling. Lately I've been a fanatic about the combination of pink grapes and mold cheese. I tried it with quail as well. At first I just mixed grape halves, cheese and spices in the stuffing, but the cheese flavor was lost in the thyme flavor.

7. Stage

So I went the other way. A little longer, but tastier. We cut each grape without going all the way through. Take out the pips.

8. Stage

We cut the cheese into small cubes. We now have a relatively inexpensive good quality Polish mold cheese on sale in Dnepr. I buy it. If it's expensive or you don't like cheese with mold, then get brynza or adygeyan. Suluguni, mozzarella or hard cheese will not do. You want cheese that melts but doesn't stretch. Cheese with mold turns into a kind of sauce.

9. Stage

Instead of pips, we put a piece of cheese in each grape.

10. Stage

Tear off the leaves from the thyme.

11. Stage

Add thyme and freshly ground black pepper and a little salt to the thawed butter.

12. Stage

We mix the butter with the stuffed grapes.

13. Stage

Each quail is poked with a fork from the inside, so that it soaks in the spices better during cooking. But do it very carefully, so as not to damage the skin. Salt the quail slightly from inside from the side of the breast. Since we will bake the bird on the back, the lower part will be salted with salt from the butter.

14. Stage

Stuff the quail with grapes and butter. It's dense enough.

15. Stage

We put the birds into the baking sleeve. And place in a preheated 180 degrees oven at first for 30 minutes.

16. Stage

Then we cut the sleeve, increase the temperature to 230 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes until crispy.

17. Stage

Serve it up and call your family or guests!

18. Stage

This is what a quail looks like in the cut. Look how tender the meat is!

19. Stage

And there's the breast in the cut!

20. Stage

Enjoy!