Forcemeat, French
It will be FORCEMEAT. recipe, that French forcemeat, or quenelles, consist of the blending of three separate processes; namely, panada, udder and whatever meat you intend using. Panada. INGREDIENTS. - The crumb of 2 penny rolls, 4 tablespoonfuls of white stock, 1 oz. of butter, 1 slice of ham, 1 bay-leaf, a little minced parsley, 2 shalots, 1 clove, 2 blades of mace, a few mushrooms, butter, the yolk of 2 eggs.
Soak the crumb of the rolls in milk for about 1/2 hour, then take it out, and squeeze so as to press the milk from it; put the soaked breadinto a stewpan with the above quantity of white stock, and set it on one side; then put into a separate stewpan 1 oz. of butter, a slice of lean ham cut small, with a bay-leaf, herbs, mushrooms, spices, &c., in the above proportions, and fry them gently over a slow fire. When done, moisten with 2 teacupfuls of white stock, boil for 20 minutes, and strain the whole through a sieve over the panada in the other stewpan. Place it over the fire, keep constantly stirring to prevent it burning, and, when quite dry, put in a small piece of butter, Let this again dry up by stirring over the fire; then add the yolks of 2 eggs, mix well, put the panada to cool on a clean plate, plate, and use it when required. Panada should always be well flavoured, as the forcemeat receives no taste from any of the other ingredients used in its preparation.
This is only the first of the three components of a French forcemeat — the panada, a bread-and-stock paste that binds the pounded meat and the fat. Read it as a base preparation rather than a finished dish.
- What a panada is forIt is a stiff, dry, well-seasoned bread paste that gives quenelles their light texture and holds them together when poached. The instruction that matters most is drying: keep stirring over the heat until the mass leaves the sides of the pan cleanly, or the finished quenelles will slacken and break up in the poaching liquid.
- The crumb of 2 penny rollsA penny roll was a small individual bread roll, though sizes varied and the recipe gives no weight; the crumb of two is probably somewhere around 4 to 5 oz of soft white crumb. Use a plain white loaf with the crusts cut away, not dried breadcrumbs.
- UdderThe full forcemeat calls for udder, pounded as the fat element; classical French practice used calf's udder. It is effectively unobtainable outside a specialist butcher, and butter, cream or pork back fat are the usual substitutes today.
- Stock quantitiesThe ingredient list gives 4 tablespoonfuls of white stock, while the method later calls for 2 teacupfuls (a teacupful is usually reckoned at about a gill, so roughly 1/2 pint in all) to moisten the ham and aromatics. The two are separate additions: the small amount goes onto the soaked crumb, the larger amount makes the flavoured liquid that is strained over it.
- Shalots and blades of maceShalots are shallots. A blade of mace is one piece of the dried lacy covering of nutmeg; two blades are roughly the equivalent of somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 teaspoon of ground mace, though estimates vary. Here the whole blades are simmered and then strained out; if substituting ground mace, add it late, as it loses aroma over a 20-minute simmer.
- Soaking liquidThe crumb is soaked in milk and then squeezed dry, so the milk is discarded and contributes only moisture. Half an hour is ample for fresh crumb; ten minutes will do.
- Yolks and coolingThe recipe does not say to draw the pan off the fire before the yolks go in, but doing so avoids scrambling them in the hot paste. Spread the panada thin on a plate so it cools quickly; the original says to use it when required, but as a bread-and-egg mixture it is best used the same day and not left standing at room temperature.
Quenelles and the panada that binds them belong to the classical French kitchen that English cookery books of the nineteenth century drew on freely, and forcemeat balls and quenelles served as a garnish for soups, entrées. Forcemeat is connected with the older sense of farce, a stuffing, and panada goes back to the Latin for bread. What separates this French method from an English stuffing is the pounding: meat, fat and panada were worked in a mortar and then pressed through a sieve until perfectly smooth, a labour that a food processor now does in a minute. The note that the panada must carry all the seasoning is the practical heart of it: the heavy pounded meat and the udder contribute texture and richness but very little flavour of their own.