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SWEETBREAD BOUCHEES (a la Russe)
Line some little deep dariole moulds with pale yellow aspic, put some tiny stars of truffles at the bottom, and sprinkle over chopped parsley and chervil. Mix together some cooked sweetbread and ham in tiny dice shapes; moisten them with bechamel and mayonnaise in equal parts; fill up the moulds with the sweetbread and ham, and pour more aspic on the top. Turn out when set, and dish each mould in a little bed of MACEDOINE OF VEGETABLES (which see) tossed in mayonnaise. Probable cost, 3s. per dozen.
A cold aspic entrée of the sort that filled Victorian buffet tables. The work is all in the layering and the chilling; nothing here is cooked once the moulds are being filled, so everything must go in cold and stay cold.
- The hinge: set each layer separatelyAspic lining, truffle stars, filling and top layer must each be firm before the next goes on, or the decoration floats and the layers marble together. Allow 15-20 minutes in the refrigerator between stages and keep the working aspic cool but still just liquid, not warm.
- Dariole mouldsSmall straight-sided metal moulds holding roughly 2-3 fl oz (60-90 ml). Dariole tins, timbale moulds or even large muffin cups all work. A dozen of them is what this recipe assumes.
- Lining with aspicSet the mould in crushed ice, pour in a spoonful of cool liquid aspic and roll it around the sides until a thin coat clings. Repeat if the coat looks thin. Chilling the mould first is what makes this possible.
- "Pale yellow aspic"A clarified veal or chicken jelly, lightly coloured, not the amber of a beef stock. A good chicken stock set with gelatine and clarified with egg white gives the same effect; commercial aspic powder is the shortcut.
- Sweetbread preparationCassell's assumes the sweetbreads are already cooked. From raw: soak in several changes of cold water for a few hours, blanch, refresh, peel off the membrane, press under a weight, then poach gently. They should be firm enough to dice cleanly at 1/4 inch.
- TrufflesBlack winter truffle cut into stars with an aspic cutter. A slice of black olive or a small cut-out of blanched leek green stands in for the look at a fraction of the price.
- The binderEqual parts cold bechamel and mayonnaise, used sparingly - just enough to coat the dice. Too much and the filling slumps when the mould is turned out. Season it well; aspic and cold food both mute salt.
- Turning outDip the mould for two or three seconds in hot water, dry the base, and invert onto the plate. Longer than that and the outer aspic goes cloudy and slack.
- Serving and holdingA dozen moulds makes a first course for twelve, one each on its bed of dressed macedoine. They contain cooked meat in mayonnaise and should go from refrigerator to table, not stand out on a buffet for more than an hour.
- "Probable cost, 3s. per dozen"Three shillings for twelve, in the pre-decimal currency of the book - a figure that reflects the truffles and sweetbreads rather than the aspic. Cassell's costed nearly every entry this way for the benefit of housekeepers running to a budget.
Bouchee is French for a mouthful, and by the late nineteenth century it covered any single-serving savoury, whether the classic puff-pastry case or, as here, a moulded aspic. The suffix a la Russe attaches to a great many chilled and decorated dishes of the period; it is generally traced to the fashion for service a la russe, the sequential plated dinner that displaced the old spread-everything-at-once service a la francaise over the middle of the century, and which made small, individually finished cold entrees worth the labour. Sweetbreads were prized rather than economical - a delicate offal fit for company - and pairing them with ham, truffle and clear jelly is the standard grammar of the Victorian cold larder, where the chef's skill was judged on the transparency of his aspic and the neatness of his cut-out garnish.