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Volaille, Puree De
Mince very finely the white part of a cold fowl or turkey, then pound it in a mortar, put in two or three spoonfuls of white sauce, and pass it through a sieve, adding a little salt and white pepper, and warm the whole; it may be served up with the legs grilled. It should not be too thin, but can be made the proper consistency by a greater or smaller quantity of white sauce or cream. Garnish with fried bread or paste cut into shapes. It may also be served up in a casserole or wall of rice and mashed potatoes, or with poached eggs.
A French-styled way of using up cold roast poultry: the breast is reduced to a smooth paste, loosened with white sauce and reheated. A food processor does in seconds what the mortar was for.
- The hinge: never let it boilOnce the pounded breast meat and sauce are combined, warm the purée gently over low heat or in a bain-marie. Boiling squeezes the already-cooked protein and the purée turns grainy and separates.
- "Casserole" here is a rice wallIn this book a casserole can mean a moulded border of rice or potato built up on the dish, into which the purée is spooned. It is not a covered baking dish.
- QuantitiesThe original gives none. As a rough guide, the breast meat of one 3-4 lb chicken (roughly 10-12 oz picked meat), with the recipe's two or three spoonfuls of white sauce to begin with and more sauce or cream added afterwards to reach the consistency you want; serves two to three as a light dish.
- Spoonfuls"Two or three spoonfuls" of sauce most likely means tablespoons, though the book does not say; add it a little at a time while pounding. Add more sauce or cream at the end to reach the consistency of thick mashed potato — it should hold a shape on the spoon.
- White sauceA plain béchamel or a velouté made with poultry stock, cooked out so it does not taste of raw flour. Season the purée after the sauce goes in, since the sauce is already salted.
- Passing through a sieveSieving after processing is still worth doing if you want the texture the recipe intends; a drum sieve or a fine mesh with a rubber spatula catches the sinew and tendon at the base of the breast.
- The grilled legsScore the cold legs, brush with butter, season, and grill until the skin blisters and the meat is heated through — around 8-10 minutes under a hot broiler, turning once.
- Reheating cold poultryBring the finished purée and the legs to steaming hot throughout rather than merely warm, and do not hold the dish tepid on the stove while you build the rice border.
Purées of this kind belong to the nineteenth-century kitchen's systematic use of leftovers, a French technique taken up by English cookery books: cold roast fowl too dry to serve sliced was pounded, bound with sauce, and sent up as something new. The entry appears under its French name because that was the professional vocabulary of the period; here purée means not a soup but a smooth forcemeat-like paste, and the dish belongs with croquettes, quenelles and rissoles, all solutions to the same problem. The mortar and the drum sieve did the work now done by a processor, and the labour involved is a reminder that these dishes assumed a kitchen with staff. A moulded border of rice or potato was a familiar way of holding a soft mixture in shape.