Mousses de Faisan

This is an ingredient list of the kind trained kitchen staff worked from, with the method taken for granted. What follows is what the proportions imply and where a modern cook has to fill in the blanks.

• A gillIn a British book of this period a gill is 5 fl oz (150 ml), a quarter of an Imperial pint, not the 4 fl oz half-cup of American usage. So the mousse is 6 oz of meat against 10 fl oz of liquid, which is a very loose mixture until the sauce and the cooking set it.
• Stiff white sauceThis means a thick béchamel or velouté cooked down until it holds its shape on the spoon, closer to a panada than a pouring sauce. It is the binder; a thin sauce will leave the mousse watery and it will not hold in the mould.
• The pheasant is rawThe pheasant -- The list does not say, but the butter-and-stiff-sauce proportions point to a forcemeat made from raw breast meat, skinned and free of sinew, pounded with the butter and sauce and then forced through a fine sieve; cooked-game mousses also existed in this period. A processor does the pounding, but the sieving is the step that separates a mousse from a paste and should not be skipped.
• Keep everything coldThe hinge of the dish. The purée, the bowl and the cream all need to be thoroughly chilled, and the cream is folded in last, lightly whipped, over ice. Warm purée will not take the cream and the mixture splits in the mould.
• SeasoningThe list gives none. Salt, white pepper and a little cayenne go in with the butter and sauce, before the cream; taste by poaching a teaspoonful in simmering water rather than tasting it raw.
• CookingThe list gives no method at all. On the usual treatment for a mousse of this kind: butter dariole or small ramekin moulds, fill, cover with buttered paper and poach in a bain-marie in a moderate oven, around 325-350F (160-175C), until just set and springy, roughly 20-25 minutes for small moulds. The water must never boil or the mousses will pit and weep.
• YieldEnough for four to six small moulds as an entrée. Turn them out and serve with a game or Madeira sauce; they collapse quickly, so plate them as they come from the oven.
• The birdFarmed pheasant breast is milder and leaner than the wild bird these recipes assumed. Wild pheasant may carry shot, so run your fingers over the meat before pounding it.