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Pyramid of Boned Fowls, Decorated

Get the tinner to make three galantine moulds of different sizes flaring or tapering so that piled on each other upside down they will form a pyramid. The largest may hold six quarts, the next four, the smallest two quarts. The long and narrow shape almost like a brick, with the edges sharp looks as well as any, though they may be six or eight-sided if preferred. Prepare three boned and pressed fowls to correspond with the moulds, leaving plenty of room for the jelly.

Prepare six quarts of aspic jelly clarified a second time and very firm. Prepare a large sheet of yellow custard made of sixteen yolks of eggs mixed with over half a cupful of clear broth and steamed in a six--quart milk pan set over a boiler--the pan to be buttered before the custard is poured in, but very slightly.

Also prepare a similar sheet of white custard made of the whites of the eggs in the same way.

These custard when cold are to be loosened round the edges and shaken out onto a slab, to be stamped out in fancy shapes, spear heads, leaves, stars, crescents, etc.

To mix with these there may be also fancy shapes cut from slices of raw beets, carrots and turnips, or some kinds of pickles, such as mangoes and large peppers, all well freed from moisture. The patterns have to be graded in size to correspond with the different sized moulds.

Set each mould in a pan of broken ice, water and salt. Pour in some melted jelly and on the jelly as it coats the sides construct the pattern desired, and when well set pour over another coat of jelly to secure it in its place. Finish perfectly even with the tops of the moulds with a bold pattern of spades or spear heads in close order, cut from some firm material, to add strength to the foundation edge.

When the decoration is completed and well set place the boned fowls inside and fill the moulds around them with clear jelly so nearly cold as not to endanger melting the patterns from the sides.

Observe that the boned fowls must be cut deep enough to rest on the bottom of the mould and reach quite even with the top, as the jelly will not bear any pressure and the blocks of meat must rest upon each other when built up. After building up these decorated galantines on a dish on a raised stand (sur socle) ornament with blocks and mouldings of aspic jelly, and, perhaps, if they be not regarded out of fashion, with ornamental silver skewers passed through wreaths of wax flowers. "It is osmazome which constitutes the real merit of good soups, gives meat its reddish tinge, forms the crisp brown on roasts, and which yields a flavor to venison and game. This explains, by the way, why your real connoisseur has always, in poultry, preferred the inner thigh; his taste had instinctively anticipated science." --Gastronomee "`Our Prior loves exceedingly the white of a capon.' `In that,' said Gymnast, `he doth not resemble the foxes; for of the capons, hens, and pullets which they carry away they never eat the white. The leg of the leveret is good for those that have the gout.'" --French Classic