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Truffles and Pistachios
One hard-boiled Egg.
One pint of Stock.
A little Glaze.
Some chopped Aspic Jelly.
One Fowl. Pepper, Salt, Aromatic Spice. Sausage Meat, about one pound. A little Tongue or Ham. Bone a large fowl, draw the skin of the legs and wings inside, spread out the fowl flat on the table, season with pepper, salt, and a little aromatic spice. Spread a layer of sausage meat an inch thick upon the fowl, add some long stripes of tongue or ham, some good black truffles, a few Pistachio nuts and some stripes of hard-boiled egg; put a thin layer of sausage meat over all this, fold the fowl over both sides, roll it in a clean cloth, fasten the ends very tightly with string, braise it in some good stock for an hour and a half to two hours, according to the size of the fowl. When cooked and nearly cold, remove the cloth, as it always becomes loose, tie it up again tightly at both ends as before, press it between two dishes with weights on the top: when cold remove the cloth, glaze it all over, and garnish with chopped aspic jelly.
This is a galantine — a boned, stuffed, rolled fowl cooked in stock and served cold. The ingredient list at the top is only the finishing items; the fowl, sausage meat, tongue and truffles are named in the method and given no quantities.
- The hinge: tie it tight, twiceThe roll must be bound firmly in the cloth before braising, and then re-tied once it is nearly cold, because the cloth slackens as the meat contracts. A loose roll cooks into a shapeless mass and will not slice cleanly.
- Boning a fowlWork down the back with a small sharp knife, keeping the skin whole, and leave the leg and wing skin attached so it can be drawn inside as directed. A butcher will do this for you if asked for a bird "boned for galantine." The recipe specifies only "a large fowl"; a 4-5 lb chicken is a workable modern equivalent.
- Quantities the recipe omitsFor a 4-5 lb bird, reckon on about 1 1/2 lb sausage meat in total, two thirds beneath the garnish and one third over it, plus 4-6 oz tongue or ham in batons and 2-3 oz shelled pistachios.
- Truffles"Good black truffles" would have meant fresh or preserved French black truffles, a costly item even in the well-supplied kitchens this book addresses. Preserved black truffle or a small quantity of truffle in its own juice is the honest substitute; truffle oil is a poor one, as its aroma fades badly with long cooking.
- Stock and braisingA pint of stock will not cover the roll; use enough well-flavoured chicken or veal stock to come at least halfway up, keep it at a bare simmer, and turn the roll once. Test with a skewer or probe at the centre - 165F/74C through the sausage meat is the point to stop, which may well come before the end of the stated hour and a half to two hours.
- Cooling and pressingPress between two dishes with 3-4 lb of weight, and get it into the refrigerator as soon as it is cool enough to handle. A cooked meat roll of this size sits in the danger zone for hours if left at room temperature to cool, which is how the original assumes it will be done.
- Glaze and aspic"Glaze" here is stock reduced to a syrupy meat glaze, or an aspic mixed with a little of the braising liquid; the chopped aspic garnish is set jelly cut into dice on a wet knife. The recipe assumes a jelly already to hand; modern gelatine sheets or powder will set one.
- Yield and servingA galantine from a 4-5 lb bird gives 10-12 slices as a cold entrée. Slice it cold with a long thin knife so the mosaic of tongue, truffle, egg and pistachio shows.
Galantine is one of the set pieces of nineteenth-century professional cookery: the whole bird boned, reassembled around a forcemeat, poached, pressed and served cold under glaze, so that a single slice displays a deliberate pattern of dark truffle, pale tongue, green pistachio and yellow egg. The name is generally traced to old French terms related to gelatine — the dish depends on the natural setting power of a stock made with feet and bones. The instructions dwell on the cloth, the string and the weights rather than on flavour. The truffles and pistachios in the title were imported luxuries, visible in the cut face of the roll.