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Poulet Blanc
Pluck and draw carefully a tender young fowl of good size, and truss it firmly for boiling. Put it into a stewpan with four ounces of butter melted, and turn it over two or three times. Lift it out, and mix smoothly with the butter two table-spoonfuls of flour and as much weak veal stock as will nearly cover the bird. Put in the fowl, and with it half a dozen small onions, a dozen fresh mushrooms, a bunch of parsley, a sprig of thyme, a bay-leaf, a tea-spoonful of lemon-juice, and a little pepper and salt. Let it simmer gently until it is done enough. Lift it out, and keep it hot for a few minutes. As quickly as possible strain the gravy, mix with it the well-beaten yolk of an egg, and stir over a gentle fire until it begins to thicken, but it must not boil, or it will curdle. Serve it poured over the fowl, and garnish with slices of lemon and parsley. Time to boil the fowl, one hour and three-quarters, or two hours, according to size. Probable cost, 2s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. Sufficient for four persons.
A white fricassee of whole chicken, thickened first with a butter-and-flour roux and finished with an egg yolk liaison. The finish is where it succeeds or fails.
- The hinge: the yolk must not boilOnce the beaten yolk goes into the strained gravy, keep the pan below a simmer and stir constantly; above roughly 180F the yolk sets into grains and the sauce breaks. Temper it first by whisking a ladle of hot gravy into the yolk, then return the mixture to the pan off the direct heat.
- The birdA "tender young fowl of good size" is a young roasting bird, not a stewing hen. A 3 1/2 to 4 lb chicken is the equivalent; trussing keeps the legs from splaying and the breast from drying as it poaches.
- TimingOne and three-quarter to two hours is longer than a modern bird needs. A modern 4 lb chicken poached at a bare simmer is done in 55 to 70 minutes, when the thigh joint reaches 165F. Cooked to the original time the breast will be dry and stringy.
- Weak veal stockA light, unreduced, unsalted veal stock. Unsalted chicken stock diluted by about a third with water gives the same pale, mild base. Do not substitute a dark or heavily reduced stock, or the sauce will not be blanc.
- Butter and flour quantitiesFour ounces is a half cup of butter, and two tablespoons of flour is a light hand for that much fat. Expect a thin, gravy-like sauce rather than a coating one; add a third tablespoon of flour if you want it to nap the bird.
- Onions and mushrooms"Small onions" means peeled pearl or button onions, left whole. Fresh cultivated white or cremini mushrooms are fine; add them in the last 20 minutes so they keep some texture rather than collapsing over an hour.
- Straining and holdingStrain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve and reserve the onions and mushrooms separately to return to the finished sauce. Keep the bird loosely covered in a warm place, not in a hot oven, while you make the liaison.
- Cost and yieldTwo shillings sixpence to four shillings sixpence is late Victorian household pricing and has no modern meaning. Four servings is accurate for a 4 lb bird if there is a substantial vegetable or rice alongside.
Poulet blanc belongs to the family of white fricassees that dominated French and Anglo-French cookery from the eighteenth century onward, in which meat is deliberately kept pale: no browning, a light stock, and a finish of egg yolk, sometimes with cream, in place of a dark reduction. The distinction between brun and blanc preparations organised a great deal of the classical repertoire, and Cassell's Dictionary, compiled for middle-class English households in the 1870s and reissued for decades, is full of such French names given with plain English instructions. The recipe also records a kitchen that began with an unplucked bird, which is why it opens with plucking and drawing, and a pricing convention that let a housekeeper check her butcher against the book. The egg yolk liaison here belongs to the same family of technique as the finish for sauce allemande.