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Chicken and Tomatoes, Chartreuse Of
Line a plain Charlotte mould thinly with pale aspic. Cut ripe tomatoes in thin slices, and use them, together with shreds of hard-boiled white of eggs, fancy shapes of beetroot and cucumber, and chervil or other green salad, for decorating the bottom and sides of the mould, in any pattern, according to fancy. Set this garnish with a second layer of aspic, and when firm fill up with a creamy puree of chicken. This is to be made of the white meat of a cooked chicken, chopped and pounded, then mixed with a little butter, seasoned delicately, and moistened with thick bchamel and cream; about a gill and a half to half a pint of chicken mixture. The whole should be blended over ice before being put in the mould, and the cream should be beaten until stiff. The top should be made level with a palette knife and coated with more aspic, and the mould set in a refrigerator until the contents will turn out firmly. The garnish may consist of small green salad, aspic, beetroot, cucumber, and the yolks of the eggs whose whites were used in the interior garnish. Probable coast, 4s.
A cold moulded chicken mousse set in aspic, built decoration-first in the bottom of the mould so that the pattern appears on top when turned out. Everything depends on working cold and setting each aspic layer fully before adding the next.
- The aspicUse a well-clarified, strongly flavoured chicken stock set with gelatine "pale" enough not to muddy the tomato and beetroot. Modern powdered gelatine at roughly 1 oz (about 4 sachets) per quart of stock gives a jelly firm enough to unmould cleanly; a softer set will slump.
- Lining the mouldPour a few spoonfuls of cool but liquid aspic into the chilled mould and swirl it up the sides over a bowl of ice, tipping out the excess. Two thin coats hold better than one thick one, and the decorations should be dipped in aspic before being pressed into place.
- A gill and a halfIn a British book of this date a gill is 5 fl oz, so a gill and a half is about 7.5 fl oz of moistening liquid -- bechamel and cream together, as the wording implies -- to half a pint (10 fl oz) of chicken mixture. That is a rich, mousse-like proportion; the chicken is being measured by volume here, not weight.
- Charlotte mould sizePlain charlotte moulds of the period varied, but many hold in the region of 1.5 to 2 pints. On that assumption the breast meat of a single roasting chicken would fill one, serving perhaps six to eight as a cold first course or light lunch; the recipe itself gives no quantities or yield.
- Pounded chickenThe mortar work is what a food processor now does in a minute. Pulse the cold white meat with the butter and bechamel to a smooth paste, then push it through a sieve before folding in the whipped cream, or the texture will be grainy.
- Blending over iceThe instruction to blend over ice is the hinge. If the chicken base is even slightly warm the whipped cream deflates and the mousse separates as it sets; the base should be cold to the touch before the cream goes in.
- TomatoesSlice, salt lightly and drain the tomatoes on paper for twenty minutes before use. Undrained slices weep into the aspic and leave watery pockets against the mould.
- Turning outDip the mould in warm (not hot) water for five to eight seconds, wipe it, and invert onto a chilled plate. Serve straight from the refrigerator and return leftovers to it promptly, as aspic and a cream-bound poultry mixture both soften and spoil quickly at room temperature.
A chartreuse is a moulded dish lined with a decorative pattern of vegetables, and the name is generally traced to the Carthusian monks, whose meatless diet is said to have encouraged elaborate vegetable cookery; by the nineteenth century the term had drifted to mean any dish built in a lined mould, meat included. This cold version belongs to the late-Victorian and Edwardian buffet, where aspic work was the showpiece of the professional kitchen; the recipe asks only for a refrigerator, and how much cold a given household could command is not something the text tells us. Cassell's gives a probable cost in shillings, as it does throughout, which places the dish among the more ambitious offerings for a middle-class table with a cook rather than an everyday supper.