Home › The Principles of Cookery › Wild Fowl, Truffled Saute Of
Wild Fowl, Truffled Saute Of
Cut up the raw birds, and put the heads, necks, and giblets into a stewpan with a bit of lean ham, a sheep's melt, four shallots, half a dozen mushrooms chopped fine, the parings of two or three ounces of truffles, a bunch of herbs (consisting of parsley-root, one bay-leaf, and a very small sprig of thyme, a little bit of mace, four grains of allspice), and a small lump of butter. Let these all fry together until the ham is brown; after which pour in half a pint of port wine and half that quantity of broth. Stew and reduce this during two hours; then season and strain it. Now put the limbs of the birds into a stewpan with a pretty large lump of fresh butter; let them fry a short time, and dredge over them half a table-spoonful of flour. When the meat is coloured on all sides, but without being of a deep brown, pour the sauce into it, adding at the same time the truffles cut into slices, the parings of which were put into the sauce. Let the whole simmer very gently during ten minutes, then squeeze in the juice of half a lemon, and serve up on a very hot dish.
A two-stage game sauté: a long-reduced port and giblet sauce, then a brief fry-and-simmer of the jointed birds. The sauce can be made a day ahead, which is how to keep the birds from overcooking.
- The hinge: ten minutes and no moreWild duck, teal and widgeon breast turns dry and livery once past medium-rare. Add the breast pieces for the last three or four minutes only, and give the legs the full simmer, or braise the legs separately for an hour and reunite them with the sauce.
- Which birds"Wild fowl" in Cassell's means wild duck, widgeon, teal and similar. Use only legally taken game or farmed duck; several wildfowl species that were freely shot in the Victorian period are now protected. Two mallard or four teal, jointed, serves four.
- Imperial liquid measuresHalf a pint of port is 10 fl oz, about 1¼ cups; "half that quantity" of broth is 5 fl oz. Two hours' reduction should leave a small quantity of intense, syrupy sauce — watch it toward the end, as it catches once reduced.
- Sheep's meltA melt is the spleen, used here for cheap depth and savour. Butchers rarely stock it now. Leave it out and compensate with an extra ounce of ham and a couple of chicken livers, or a splash of good game or veal stock in place of the broth.
- Truffles and their paringsTwo or three ounces of fresh truffle is a luxury purchase today; the recipe's logic — peelings into the sauce, slices into the finished dish — works with jarred whole black truffle, using the juice from the jar in the reduction. Failing that, brown a handful of chestnut mushrooms hard and finish with a few drops of truffle oil off the heat.
- AromaticsParsley-root means Hamburg parsley, or simply a bundle of parsley stalks. "Four grains of allspice" is four whole berries; "a little bit of mace" is a single blade. Both are meant as a background note, so do not substitute ground spice by the spoonful.
- Frying the ham "until brown"This is where the sauce gets its colour and body. Take the ham, giblets and shallots to a genuine deep brown before the port goes in, and scrape up the fond — an under-browned base gives a thin, sweet sauce that the two-hour reduction cannot rescue.
- ServingThere is no garnish specified beyond the truffle. Fried croutons, soft polenta or plain boiled potatoes carry the sauce; the lemon juice goes in at the last moment and should not be reheated.
Cassell's belongs to the late-Victorian moment when wildfowl was still ordinary market game in Britain — Leadenhall and the provincial poulterers sold mallard, widgeon and teal by the brace through the autumn and winter — and cookery books devoted whole sections to it. The method here is straight out of the French professional tradition that shaped English kitchens after Ude and Soyer: nothing of the bird is wasted, the heads, necks and giblets going into a salmis-style sauce built on port and truffle parings while the prime joints are cooked briefly and separately. The sheep's melt is the giveaway of an older, thriftier kitchen, where offal was used for gelatine and savour rather than served in its own right. Truffles, whatever their source — and the recipe's call for whole truffles to be trimmed suggests fresh ones — were a luxury import, and their appearance in a dish otherwise built from scraps marks this as a recipe for a household with a cook, a game supply, and a wine merchant.