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Lenox Chicken
1 tablespoon granulated gelatine ¾ cup hot chicken stock ¾ cup heavy cream ½ cups cold cooked chicken, cut in dice 1½ tablespoon granulated gelatine 2 tablespoons cold water Yolks 2 eggs 1 teaspoon salt 1½ teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon mustard ¼ teaspoon pepper 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 tablespoon vinegar 1/2 cup hot cream 1½ tablespoons butter Whites 2 eggs 1/2 cup heavy cream 2 cups finely chopped celery Dissolve one tablespoon gelatine in chicken stock and strain. When mixture begins to thicken beat until frothy, and add three-fourths cup heavy cream, beaten until stiff, and chicken dice. Season with salt and pepper, turn into individual moulds, and chill. Soak remaining gelatine in cold water, dissolve by standing over hot water, then strain. Beat yolks of eggs slightly and add salt, sugar, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar, and hot cream. Cook over hot water until mixture thickens, add butter and strained gelatine. Add mixture, gradually, to whites of eggs beaten stiff, and when cold, fold in heavy cream beaten until stiff, and celery. Remove chicken from mould, surround with sauce, and garnish with celery tips.
Two separate cold preparations: a set chicken mousse in individual moulds, and a cooked lemon-mustard dressing lightened with whipped cream and celery that is poured around it. Read the ingredient list as two columns before starting, since gelatine appears in both.
- The gelatine, dividedOne tablespoon of granulated gelatine (a little more than one modern 7 g envelope) sets the chicken mousse; a further 1 1/2 tablespoons sets the sauce. Sheet gelatine can be substituted at roughly 4 sheets per envelope, softened in cold water first.
- Dissolving it properlyFor the mousse the gelatine goes straight into hot stock; for the sauce it is soaked in cold water and then melted over hot water. Never boil either, and strain both, as the original directs, to catch undissolved grains.
- The hinge: catch the mousse at the right momentChill the stock-gelatine until it is the consistency of raw egg white, then beat it frothy and fold in the whipped cream and chicken. Fold too early and the cream sinks; too late and you get rubbery lumps you cannot smooth out.
- Mustard means dry mustardA teaspoon of mustard here is English or Colman's-style powder, not prepared jarred mustard. Prepared mustard adds vinegar and water and will loosen the dressing.
- The sauce is a cooked dressingYolks, seasonings, acid and hot cream are thickened in a double boiler, essentially a boiled salad dressing. Take it off as soon as it coats a spoon, around 170-175F; past that the yolks curdle and the gelatine cannot rescue it.
- Raw egg whitesThe stiff whites are never heated above the temperature of the warm custard poured into them, so they stay effectively raw. Use pasteurized whites if serving anyone elderly, pregnant, very young or immune-compromised.
- Chilling and unmouldingGive the moulds at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Dip each briefly in warm water and run a thin knife round the edge; a wet plate lets you slide the mousse into place.
- Celery, cut lateChop the celery just before folding it into the sauce so it stays crisp, and keep the pale inner tips whole for the garnish.
- Yield and serviceAbout six individual moulds, served cold as a luncheon entrée. Assemble on chilled plates at the last minute, since the sauce slackens in a warm room.
"Lenox" is a place name pressed into service as a dish name: Lenox, in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, was one of the fashionable summer resorts of the Gilded Age, and the association is generally taken to be with that cottage-and-hotel society rather than with any single documented cook. The dish itself is pure turn-of-the-century entr/u00e9e cookery, when granulated gelatine had become cheap and reliable enough that a household cook could turn leftover boiled fowl into something moulded, pale and architectural. Fannie Farmer's entr/u00e9e chapter is full of such things, and the pairing of a cold chicken cream with a boiled dressing full of chopped celery shows how thoroughly the celery-and-mayonnaise idiom of the American chicken salad had worked its way into more formal service.