(Author’s Receipt.)
Form into balls about half the size of a filbert either the cutlet-mixture or the pounded lobster of Chapter [III.], roll them in the sifted coral, warm them through very gently, have ready some hot patty-cases (see page [361]), pour into each a small spoonful of rich white sauce, or Sauce à l’Aurore (see page [118]), lay the balls round the edge, pile a larger one in the centre, and serve the whole very quickly. The Dresden patties of page [387] may be thus filled.
GOOD CHICKEN PATTIES. (ENTRÉE.)
Raise the white flesh entirely from a young undressed fowl, divide it once or twice, and lay it into a small clean saucepan, in which about an ounce of butter has been dissolved, and just begins to simmer; strew in a slight seasoning of salt, mace, and cayenne, and stew the chicken very softly indeed for about ten minutes, taking every precaution against its browning: turn it into a dish with the butter, and its own gravy, and let it become cold. Mince it with a sharp knife; heat it, without allowing it to boil, in a little good white sauce (which may be made of some of the bones of the fowl), and fill ready-baked patty-crusts, or small vol-au-vents with it, just before they are sent to table; or stew the flesh only just sufficiently to render it firm, mix it after it is minced and seasoned with a spoonful or two of strong gravy, fill the patties, and bake them from fifteen to eighteen minutes. It is a great improvement to stew and mince a few mushrooms with the chicken.
The breasts of cold turkeys, fowls, partridges, or pheasants, or the white part of cold veal, minced, heated in a béchamel sauce, will serve at once for patties: they may also be made of cold game, heated in an Espagnole, or in a good brown gravy.
PATTIES À LA PONTIFE. (ENTRÉE.)
(A fast day, or Maigre dish.)
Mince, but not very small, the yolks of six fresh hard-boiled eggs; mince also and mix with them a couple of fine truffles,[[120]] a large saltspoonful of salt, half the quantity of mace and nutmeg, and a fourth as much of cayenne. Moisten these ingredients with a spoonful of thick cream, or béchamel maigre (see page [109]), or with a dessertspoonful of clarified butter; line the patty-moulds, fill them with the mixture, cover, and bake them from twelve to fifteen minutes in a moderate oven. They are excellent made with the cream-crust of page [347].
[120]. The bottled ones will answer well for these.