Boudins et Quenelles de Volaille
[1655—BOUDINS DE VOLAILLE A LA RICHELIEU]
Take the required amount of chicken forcemeat, prepared with panada and cream, and divide it into three-oz. portions. Roll these portions into sausage-form, and open them so as to stuff them with some white chicken-meat, truffle and mushroom [salpicon], cohered with reduced Allemande sauce. These quenelles may also be moulded in little, rectangular cases, used in biscuit-making, as follows:—Line the bottom and sides of the moulds, which should be well buttered, with a thickness of one-third inch of forcemeat; garnish the centre with [salpicon]; cover with forcemeat up to the edges, and smooth with the blade of a small knife dipped in tepid water.
[524]
]Whichever way they are made, however, the boudins are poached like quenelles, and are afterwards drained on a piece of linen. They are then dipped in beaten egg and rolled in bread-crumbs, and, finally, gently coloured in clarified butter, that their inside may get heated at the same time.
Dish them in a circle on a folded napkin, and serve a Périgueux sauce separately.
[1656—BOUDINS DE VOLAILLE SOUBISE]
Prepare the boudins with some forcemeat as above, but replace the [salpicon] inside by a very reduced and cold truffled Soubise purée.
Poach, dip in beaten egg, and roll in bread-crumbs, and colour as before in clarified butter.
Serve a clear Soubise separately.
[1657—QUENELLES DE VOLAILLE MORLAND]
Mould some portions of somewhat firm chicken [mousseline] forcemeat into the shape of oval quenelles, three oz. in weight. Dip them in beaten egg; roll them in finely minced truffle, and press lightly on the latter with the blade of a knife, in order that it may combine with the egg.
Poach gently in clarified butter, under cover, that the forcemeat may be well cooked.
Dish in a circle, and in the middle pour a mushroom purée.
[1658—QUENELLES DE VOLAILLE D’UZÈS]
Line the bottom and sides of some oval buttered quenelle moulds with chicken forcemeat prepared with panada and cream. Garnish the middle with a mince of the white of chicken meat cohered with reduced Allemande sauce, and cover with forcemeat.
Poach the quenelles in good time; drain them on a piece of linen; set them in a circle on a round dish, and coat with Aurore sauce. Garnish the centre of the circle with a fine [Julienne] of truffles.
[1659—CAPILOTADE DE VOLAILLE]
Prepare an Italienne sauce, combined with cooked, sliced mushrooms. Add to this sauce some thin slices of cold fowl remains, and heat without allowing to boil at all.
Dish in a timbale, and sprinkle a little chopped parsley over the preparation.
[1660—CHICKEN PIE]
Cut a fowl into pieces as for a fricassée; season the pieces, and sprinkle them with three finely-chopped onions, one and [525] ]one-half oz. of chopped mushrooms cooked in butter, and a pinch of chopped parsley.
Line the bottom and sides of a pie-dish with thin slices of veal; set the pieces of fowl inside, putting the legs undermost; add five oz. of thin slices of bacon; the yolks of four hard-boiled eggs cut into two; and moisten sufficiently to three-parts cover with chicken consommé. Cover with a layer of puff-paste, which should be sealed down to a strip of paste stuck to the edges of the pie-dish; [gild]; streak; make a slit in the middle of the paste, and bake in a moderate oven for one and one-half hours.
When taking the pie out of the oven, pour a few tablespoonfuls of strong gravy into it.
[1661—CRÊTES ET ROGNONS DE COQ]
In order to prepare cocks’ combs and kidneys, they should be first set to soak in cold water for a few hours.
If they are fresh, they should be put in a saucepan of cold water; the latter should be made lukewarm, and they should then be drained and rubbed in a towel that their skins may be removed. This done, they are trimmed, and kept in fresh water, which ought to be frequently changed until they are quite white.
They may then be cooked in a very light Blanc (No. [167]).
The kidneys are merely soaked in cold water for a few hours, and put to cook with the combs a few minutes before the latter are ready.
Cocks’ combs and kidneys are mostly used as garnish; nevertheless, they also serve in the preparation of special dishes, for which I shall now give a few recipes.
[1662—CRÊTES ET ROGNONS DE COQ A LA GRECQUE]
About twenty-five minutes before serving, prepare a pint of pilaff rice, combined with one half-capsicum cut into dice, and a very little saffron.
Also prepare ten roundels of egg-plant, seasoned, dredged, and fried in oil just before dishing. The moment the rice is cooked, add thereto twenty-four very fresh cocks’ kidneys, frizzled in butter, and twelve fine [blanched] cocks’ combs, [poëled] after the manner of lambs’ sweetbreads.
Set the whole in a silver saucepan, arrange the egg-plant roundels in a circle on the rice, and serve instantly.
[1663—DESIRS DE MASCOTTE]
Put three oz. of butter in a vegetable-pan, and fry it nut-brown.
[526]
]Add to this butter twenty-four fine cocks’ kidneys (it is essential that these should be fresh); season them with salt, pepper, and a little red pepper, and cook them for from five to six minutes, which should prove sufficient.
Meanwhile, prepare twelve [croûtons] of bread-crumbs, one-third inch thick, stamped out with a round cutter two-thirds inch in diameter. Fry these [croûtons] in butter at the last minute.
Put four fine, very black truffles, cut into somewhat thick slices, into the required quantity of reduced half-glaze sauce; add the kidneys, drained of their butter, as well as the fried crusts, one and one-half oz. of very best butter, and a few drops of lemon juice, and roll the saucepan gently, that the butter may thoroughly combine with the sauce.
Dish immediately in a very hot, silver timbale, and serve instantly.
[1664—ROGNONS DE COQ FARCIS POUR ENTRÉES FROIDES, GARNITURES, ETC.]
Choose some fine, cooked kidneys, and cut them into two lengthwise. Trim them slightly underneath, that they may lie steady.
Stuff them by means of a piping-bag with a highly seasoned purée of foie gras, or of ham, of the white of a chicken and truffles, combined with an equal weight of fresh butter.
Coat them with a pink or white chaud-froid sauce, according to the requirements; set them in a low timbale, and cover them with light jelly.
They may also be put into petits-fours moulds, surrounded with jelly, and used as a garnish for cold fowls.
[1664a—CHICKEN CROQUETTES AND CUTLETS]
The croquettes and cutlets with which we are now concerned are made up of exactly the same constituents, and only differ in the matter of shape, the croquettes, as a rule, being shaped either like corks or rectangles; sometimes, too, like quoits; whereas the cutlets, as their name implies, are made in cutlet-shaped moulds.
The preparation from which they are made is as follows:—One lb. of the meat of a poached or roast fowl, thoroughly cleared of all skin, cartilage, and bones, and cut into small regular dice[Footnote 1]; six oz. of cooked mushrooms; an equal amount of salted ox-tongue or York ham, and four oz. of truffles. Cut [527] ]these various products like the chicken, and mix them therewith; then add one-half pint of very reduced and finished Allemande sauce to the whole; set the preparation to dry for a few minutes over an open fire; this done, remove it from the latter, and thicken it with the yolks of four raw eggs, which should be quickly mixed with it. Now pour the preparation into a very clean, buttered tray, and butter its surface, lest a crust form thereon during the cooling.
When the preparation is quite cold, transfer it, by means of a spoon, in pieces weighing about two oz., to a flour-dusted mixing board. Make the croquettes and cutlets about the desired shape; dip them into an [anglaise], and roll them in fine bread-crumbs. Definitely shape them; plunge them into very hot fat; keep them therein till they have acquired a fine golden colour; drain them, and dish them in a crown on a napkin, with a heap of fried parsley in the middle.
Croquettes and cutlets may be garnished as fancy suggests, but the accompaniment should always be served separately. Tomato and Périgueux sauces are the most commonly used, and the best garnishes for the purpose are all the purées, peas, French beans, and jardinières.
[Footnote 1:] When prepared as directed above, all meats, whether of poultry, game, fish, crustacea or mollusca, &c., may serve in the preparation of croquettes or cutlets.] [Return to text]